Kerri Chandler Interview

11th Nov 2002

The Kerri Chandler Interview†
with†Pheasant

More so than any other Producer/DJ who has come before him Kerri Chandler has managed to win the hearts of many club goers in the last few years not only with his epic visits to Sir Henrys but also in his willingness to get out and about among Cork’s nightlife while he’s here. Pheasant went to talk to him before his gig and in new club ‘One’ over the jazz weekend to find out more about the man behind the music….†

Welcome to Cork once again Kerri!
Thank you glad to be here!

Is this your fourth time here ?
A bit more than fourth time in Ireland but about fourth or fifth in Cork.

What’s been your impression of Cork ?
Its my home, second home. Ah yeah big time!

You’ve played in Sir Henrys, what have you thought of the house music scene here…relatively strong?
Oh God yeah, its very soulful I can just be myself here. That’s what I love about it the most. Its always great to come back and see my friends again, hang out and do my my thing.

House music in America is a relatively underground thing, a minority music, did the recognition strike you as a bit odd when you came to somewhere like† Sir Henrys and play something like ‘Faded’…were you a bit surprised ?
Honestly ? Yeah. I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t know what my first impression of Ireland was going to be but that was amazing to me and every time I came back I always brought somebody back just to say thank you like Arnold (Jarvis) or somebody else Anthony(???). I’d always bring something else into the equation. I’ve never played in the booth after the first time in Henrys because I wanted to be closer to the floor and closer to the people because I like to see everyone, have fun!

What did you think of Sir Henrys?
Oh I loved it. Its still my favourite. I don’t know its doing now because I heard they changed the policy and the venue and everything else. Shane and Greg aren’t there anymore. It changed a bit. I haven’t been there since New Years but even then it was fantastic. I just wish it would go back to how it was, honestly.

I was watching you earlier setting up your keyboard and checking the sound system what do you think of the sound system and the club [‘One’ on Phoenix St.]?
It feels good, it feels comfortable. I like that its lower to the floor.

How you got involved in the music business is interesting. I understand your father was a DJ.
He still is. My uncle is and we still all do parties together. My dad is in Arizona now but he comes back once in a while and does one. He does these things on the west coast called First Fridays on the first Friday of every month we throw these really big parties.

So were you DJing from an early age?
Yeah, thirteen or fourteen playing at parties. I’m thirty three now. He came in one day and caught me mixing on his set-up at home. He told me I’m either going to be mixing or he was going to crucify me if I don’t know what I’m doing up there. I started playing and he was standing there going “Oh wow you can actually mix!”

What was he playing?
Kano ‘I’m ready’ Surface stuff. Old school salsoul Disco Circus

Was he a big name in New York?
Oh God yeah all, the heads they knew my dad. He was legendary around my area. A thing called Rally Record around the area and just everybody played there and went there So there, Paradisio, 2001.

It must have been a bit off the beaten track to be playing there, for somebody to be growing up. Was he playing with a lot of big names ..francois
He was doing his own thing. But he had Pick Connolly, Sharon Red and all these other people…he used to have all these people coming in playing instruments over things live, Cool & The Gang used to come through and play.

So when did you start playing in clubs yourself.
When I was thirteen. Originally in Tinateen. Then it was Red Zone I was there for a while. Then Club America, Nells with Jerome Sydenham

Your production. When did you suddenly progress from playing in a club...did your father produce music?
Slightly. He did a few things. Pick Connolly, Richard Davis. Pick is the main one who really went on and did some things.

When you started playing yourself was it a gradual thing
It all sort of fell in together. I always wanted to be an engineer. When I was eight I
I was always curious about how things work. I’d take things apart like the t.v.s in the house when nobody was watching and put ‘em back together again.† I always had that sort of curiosity.
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What happened was my Grandparents actually sent me to school to learn classical piano and I hated it. I always wanted to learn jazz organ. I was fighting the whole time! I was like No! No! I hated it, I didn’t want to learn it. I had a really good piano teacher named Ms. Carter and every time I finished a classical set, like read the music and play something, she had a B3 (Hammond organ) in the other room. So every time I finished, cos I loved the tears and the foot pedals, I’d hurry through a lesson really quick that was my reward she’d say. So everyday it was like: ‘let’s get this over with!’. I’d run into the other room and play that and have a field day.
The thing about classical is that its something numerical its not really improv, you can but its always formulae. And jazz to me was always: ‘you can let it run’. You can do what you feel like, if you make something up fine..that’s how it is.†

Since the days of be-bop New York was the centre of development for Afro-American music, it must have been a massive help to have been living there.
Oh it was insane. My Grandfather was a jazz singer, I used to always catch him singing stuff around and he did stuff with,…what was that woman’s name? She came by before she died….she was in a wheelchair…Ella Fitzgerald!! So yeah he’s been around, he done the circuit. So it came together in the strangest way.
Then I took up upright bass when I was in Junior high school so that’s where I get my basslines from. Then I Djed out a lot. I was really curious about instruments and synthesizers and things and I started building some. I became an engineer at this place called Express who had a label too. That was first sense of things: Superlover and Get It Off. I was actually an engineer, every time someone would come in off the street and pay time I would just engineer the session and I had to make the production because they never knew who to do it. They come in off the street, they wanna sing, they need a track okay…I’m sitting here making tracks like!

I know you have opinions on club ‘politics’ in Ireland. Do you think people get bogged down in that too much and is there a difference in atmosphere in America that breeds?
There needs to be a bit more unity over here. You’ve got some people saying Limerick’s better than Cork, back and forth. At the end of the day you can’t be a big fish in a little pond anyway. It’s a matter of loving the music to begin with.

What’s been the most satisfying record you’ve done so far?
Honestly I think….I have a lot of favourites but the most recent one was the one I did for my daughter Kerri. It’s called ‘My Daughter Kerri’ !! HA! So far its one of my favourites…. its just so heartfelt.

Finally its been said that ‘decks have become the new guitar’ and there’ll be a lot of people here tonight who will look at you and think that they’d like to do what you’re doing. Would you have any advice for people thinking of getting into this….

Well the truth of it is…and this will make it much better…learn to play something…learn to play an instrument. Just focus on really good music, don’t concentrate on blending tracks together cos that’s very easy. Go all over the place, listen to every sort of music don’t just stay into house or deep house or whatever. Get eclectic and open your mind up listen to a lot of different things. Don’t copy someone’s styles just be who you are…



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