Kerri Chandler

Gerd Janson

The gentleman to my left goes by the name of Kerri Chandler. And if you want to you talk about house music Chicago and New York spring to mind, but there's this little thing called The Garden State, too.

Kerri Chandler

[laughs] New Jersey.

Gerd Janson

New Jersey, where Mr. Kerri Chandler is from.

Kerri Chandler

Hello everybody, you're good?

[applause]

Cool. [to participants] I've got to say something. I see that this is the last day here. Congratulations. I don't know what you guys have been through since you got here. I've just been walking in, it looks amazing here. I mean, did you guys pick up everything you wanted to learn here? I guess that's the question. I know this is a one-sided thing normally, but I told myself it's horrible 'cause everyone goes like this: [mimes sleeping] “OK, this is the last day, Kerri's here,” [snores] you know? I always think that if you have a conversation, it doesn't need to be one-sided. This is always an awkward thing 'cause I never speak in the public. I've done a couple of colleges and things like that before, but this is such a creative atmosphere and I know there's a lot of creative people, so I do what I normally don't do: I'm going to start pointing and scaring people. [smiles] Like this guy. [points in the audience] You right there. You, looking behind with the white shirt on, what's your name?

Audience Member

Daniele.

Kerri Chandler

Where do you come from?

Audience Member

Italy.

Kerri Chandler

What did you pick up here, what did you learn or were you just visiting? I mean, does everybody here know this guy? [laughs] OK, he's shy.

Gerd Janson

Yeah, he's shy.

Audience Member

I'm really shy.

Kerri Chandler

It's okay, so am I, but you'd never guess though. [laughs] Here we go, pass the microphone. Anybody else want to tell me what they been up to while they were here? OK, I got one other question: Is anybody perform out here? 'Cause you can't be shy being a performer, you have to have actually know how to do a little conviction here. Does anybody do that here? There we go, what's your name?

Steve Spacek

Steve.

Kerri Chandler:

Steve, I met you downstairs, Steve. What do you do exactly?

Steve Spacek

I sing and I write, I make music.

Kerri Chandler

What did you learn while you were here?

Gerd Janson

He was a lecturer here.

Kerri Chandler

Was he? What the hell do I say then?

Steve Spacek

It's been amazing, seriously. I'm a bit strung out 'cause I've been flying a lot, but it's definitely a good look.

Kerri Chandler

I remember meeting you before. I think it was London or something?

Steve Spacek

Maybe. Well, we followed your work all through the years so don't worry, man. Everybody's here for you, mate. And you're doing a good job so far. Seriously.

Kerri Chandler

It's good to know, I'm wide open, there's no difference to you guys out there. Actually, I could sit on that [points to audience] side of the room and lecture myself over here. I could be third person if I had to.

Steve Spacek

I tell you what, I'll kick it off then. When did you start first doing music?

Kerri Chandler

I started in East Orange when my dad used to DJ everywhere. Before that, what I hated the most, I had to learn piano. My grandparents made me go take piano lessons. It was the worst thing in the world because I had this piano teacher, she was so old and really decrepit. My first piano teacher was beautiful 'cause I never wanted to learn classical piano, it was the worst thing in the world for me. I wanted to learn jazz organ with a [Hammond] B-3 or something. But she made this deal with me, anytime that I would ever finish the lesson fast enough - she actually had an organ in the other room, I don't remember what the heck it was, it was one that had this weird little beats in it [beatboxes bossa nova drum machine], it did what it did. So I'd run through the lesson as quick as I could and still would have like a half hour left, run to the other room and [it was] just pedals and [mimes wild organ playing], you know, let's go for it. I loved that, but when she left, she moved to Florida and she introduced me to her teacher. Complete polar opposite. I never wanted even to know what a piano was. Has anyone ever seen a piano that you have just to learn the tension without playing? There was this piano, I have never seen it before and I have never seen it again. There's two knobs on it, it makes no sound. You turn the knobs on it and you have to go like this: playing and it's so tough, it's just finger exercise. And I'm sitting there with this old dog that she has, this woman must have been maybe about 78 or something, and the dog is barely walking in like this [sways from side to side], hair is falling off, terrible. It was just a terrible experience, but what I did learn from that is patience. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

Talking about your dad, he is/was a DJ, too, right?

Kerri Chandler

Yeah, actually it's a funny thing. My dad's still a DJ and every once in a while we go out and actually do parties together. I'm more like his dad, kind of have to watch out for him because God only knows where he is hiding off to. He's got a girlfriend younger than I am right now. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

What kind of music does he play?

Kerri Chandler

Same thing, he actually comes in and steals my records. He comes in, “What have you got there? Where are they coming from? What's this, is that a new promo right there?” You know, he is that kind of thing.

Gerd Janson

So he got you into that whole DJ/club culture thing?

Kerri Chandler

Yeah, it's just such an amazing thing to have with my father doing that kind of thing. To actually bring him on gigs that I have done is just amazing. To see how proud he is: “That's my son. What do you want to talk about?” l still feel about that big [spreads his fingers about four inches] 'cause he is still my dad. You know, it feels like I'm going to be embarrassed, like when your mom talks about you to your girlfriend or something, I get that every time my dad's around. “Let me tell you about when he was this big, like when he used to stand up on a chair and... [mimes playing piano]” But it 's fun, though. He always says: “I'm living vicariously through what you've done.” I'm really happy that I make him proud.

Gerd Janson

And what are your first musical memories apart from playing the piano? When it comes to records, people that influenced you or records that influenced you.

Kerri Chandler

Oh, man. My first memory of really going through records, my dad had this really serious collection, and I sat in his room one day - 'cause him and my mom were separated at that time - and he moved back in with his mom in this huge house and there was just turntables literally in every room. My uncle had a pair, he had a pair, my aunt downstairs had a pair. It was just weird, it was just like a house of music and I'd hear stuff from every room. But his room, it was a little bit strange because it was always dark, there was always a red light bulb in the room. That's where I got A Basement, A Red Light And A Feelin' from. He just let me go through and do what I wanted to do in his room and one day I said: “I got to sit here and go through every record in here.”

And it took me two or three days and I literally went through every record in that room. It must have been about maybe 6/7000 records and I wouldn't stop until I listened to every record. I was going through like this [does fast needle drops on the turntable] “This is cool, I like this break. This is nice, this is cool...” And I kind of mademental notes of everything and everything that I liked I put to the side, likea stack. But I kept finding myself after the stack, there was another stack,there was another stack. So I was just shifting records around the room andthat's what it really was. But I learned a lot, he just let me go for it. Just stayed up in that room and that's the best memory I could ever have, just learning music and listening to everything. I have an instant recall of every song that's been in that room. Later on, I found out he thought that he was going deaf and I had the best present in the world, he gave me all of his records. So I was just like, “I remember all of these.” Put 'em in my stack and I go through them every once in a while, “Yeah, I remember this.”

Gerd Janson

And what kind of stuff was in there?

Kerri Chandler

Everything. Everything from every disco record I could ever even imagine. He had stuff that I never even could imagine trying to find again. He had “Let No Man Put Asunder” with no bassline on it and stuff like that. And “Touch And Go” with different vocals, things that you just don't find, that I could never find again.

Gerd Janson

You mentioned A Basement, A Red Light And A Feelin', maybe you could explain to the people who don't know about it 'cause it's like a topic in your work, right?

Kerri Chandler

A Basement, A Red Light was when I just trying to find myself and I just started a label in London. I got really lucky earlier on, something snapped inside of me and said: “You know what? I'm doing all these mixes for all these people,” and I was starting working at that time for Atlantic, and I just got my first record out with those guys, it was “Superlover” and “Get It Off” and something inside me said: “Something's going on here. They keep having me back here, they are paying all this money to do that stuff, I must be making them a lot of money 'cause they just keep on paying me. I have to start my own label.” It made sense to me at that time. And then I met the A&R of Movin' Records right after I did “My My Lover” and he licensed it and we became very close and we were talking and I told him what my idea was that I wanted to start my own label. And he said: “It's a good idea when you're starting really young.” I was about 17/18 when it started, and he said: “Yes, it's a good idea. I'll teach you everything I know.” He did and it's just been an interesting rollercoaster ride since. I don't regret a thing.

Gerd Janson

The first records you did coming out of Jersey, I think you still call this thing to this day club music, right? Maybe you could explain what club music to people in New Jersey is.

Kerri Chandler

It depends on what generation you talk to. The younger generation at that time was my generation, I'm 37 now. We were coming up on “Like This” by Chip-E and all that kind of stuff, like “Donnie.” Does anyone of you guys know that stuff, The It “Burn It” and that kind of thing? Early Blaze stuff? He is like [points in the audience, nods his head]. Well, hold on, why talk about it when I can actually play it? [looks in his laptop] The fun part about having this kind of thing... [to audience] Who knows Final Scratch? This is a tool I use when I go out so I don't leave any records at home 'cause I hate leaving records at home, that's the worst thing in the world for me. Somebody will always come up, “Do you have bla, bla, bla?” And I think I got it at home and wish I brought it. “Next time I bring it.” This is a thing I don't have to worry about next time.

(music: Chip-E — “Like This”)

The main thing that blew up and which really did good for Jersey was “Reachin'” which is The same thing again, it Phase II but it was actually a thing with Blaze. I don't know if anyone knows “Reachin',” it was such a big radio track back homefor us. I know it crossed over when it got to London. See whether you guys know what this is at all.

(music: Phase II – “Reachin’”)

That kind of gives you the feeling of what the hell we were going through.

Gerd Janson

It's from '87 or '88 and it came out on Movin' Records, which was a record store in Jersey.

Kerri Chandler

The funny thing was - and this was always the best and I don't know where else they used to do this, it was a perfect set-up - anytime that Tony [Humphries] would play something at Zanzibar you'd run over to Abigail's, which was Movin' Records, the next day and just go like, “Where is that song the he was playing?” And it was “Reachin'”-something, it was always over there [points to the wall] on the top shelf. I had this special deal 'cause I could always go behind the desk and mess around.

Gerd Janson

Maybe you can talk a little bit about the relationship between Abigail Adams, which you've just mentioned with Movin' Records and her record store and this guy named Tony Humphries, who was the boss DJ at Zanzibar and the importance Zanzibar for Jersey?

Kerri Chandler

I'm going to tell you something about the dirty side of Zanzibar 'cause you probably heard all the stories before. There's a creepy side to the Zanzibar, and I was telling him [points to interviewer, Gerd Janson]a little bit about it downstairs and he said: “Save it till you get here.” Zanzibar started off as a club called Abe's Disco, which was really funny because it's right next to a hotel called the Lincoln Hotel and there was these guys called the Burger brothers and they decided to open up these hotels next to the clubs. He owned three clubs, this Club 88, Club America and Zanzibar. Before Tony was resident at Zanzibar, Hippie Torrales was actually the first resident. It wasn't Tony first, he actually came in right after Hippie. When Tony came in that's when things kind of started shaking and moving. The club was so strange when they first opened because it was so different. They had like Grace Jones coming in, they had cages with lions and tigers downstairs, it was just more of a scary place. [laughs] But it was a good thing because no matter who played there, it was always different. It was a Richard Long system there, which was incredible. No matter where that man put a system up, he knew the space and you could hear things in records that you could never hear in your life until you walked in and heard 'em on a system like that.

Gerd Janson

Richard Long also built the system at Paradise Garage.

Kerri Chandler

Yes, he did there, he did every main system there was. I think he did Shelter in the beginning, right before he passed away. That's where we got all of these Bertha bass bins and all these other things from, that's from his imagination to make what it did.

Gerd Janson

Are clubs in Jersey these days still like that?

Kerri Chandler

I hate to say that I'd like to go back to these days 'cause there's a lot of good things that are happening now, especially with the new generation. There's a lot of clubs coming, but as soon as one opens, one closes. One opens, one closes. But I think a lot of the people that go there for the atmosphere, they don't understand that the are the atmosphere, so they have to make it themselves. You can't just go to a party and expect it to be like it's cool. People might be cool, but you still have to participate pretty much.

Gerd Janson

Maybe we could talk a little bit about the dynamics Zanzibar had with Tony Humphries, like putting people out of Jersey on the map for a wider audience.

Kerri Chandler

The other thing that I think would hurt a lot of clubs - and I really believe this is a really big factor - you can hear a song and maybe a couple of weeks later you see the artist on the stage. He would break the records, he would play them until the crowd knew what they were and then maybe two weeks later the artist would show up. “Oh, that's what this person looks like. Oh, they can sing like that, that's pretty cool. Oh, this group is pretty cool.” And you'd see like the Burrell's or Blaze on the stage just having fun with their keyboards and it was just really cool. I think a lot of the clubs, only few people would do that anymore because it seems a scary thing to do to put some of these artists on some of these stages. And everything moved from artist to DJ/producer-based kind of system, which is sad because there's no more groups, there is no Ten City or Michael Watford's, there isn't anything like that. I think where some of the business went down the tube because it just turned into: “Oh, let's go see the DJ,” or: “Let's go this artist while hearing the DJ.” And it's a lot easier to mix tracks into each other and mix them smooth and blend everything than it is to take a vocal and ride it with something else. It makes life a lot easier for any DJ, but I always thought it's taking the easy way out and it gets boring after a while.

Gerd Janson

The vocals were always important to the so-called New Jersey sound, right? Did people respond to the lyrical content?

Kerri Chandler

Always. The thing is a lot of DJs, if they know this or not, this is more of a New Jersey trick and me and Tony always laugh about this when I talk to him, the key is - and I don't know if anyone ever thought about it in this room, if you're a DJ especially, and I don't know if you want to be a trainspotter DJ and you go ahead and play everything new there is - the key is, if you play for the girls, the guys are going to be happy. That's all there is to it. And girls like vocals, they like to sing along to things. It's cool to throw them in every once in a while, but if you play a bunch of tracks all night, you're going to have a room full of guys and the girls will just want to leave. That's how it normally is, they want to have fun. A bunch of guys having fun you might as well be at some other kind of club.

Gerd Janson

Do you have an example for us?

Kerri Chandler

Funny thing is, there was this one song, and I said: “When I run into Tony, this is the first song I'm going to play is this one.” Which is this gospel song that he used to play. It's almost a Zanzibar anthem in a way. “Stand On Our Word” was the song, it's one of these strange gospel songs that he just picked out of the blue, but it just made so much sense at the time. No one else knew what it was and he actually went back in and did re-edits. This is actually one of them. And I said: “One of these days when I run into him I'm going to scare him and play it.” He'd probably run from the room, though.

(music: Celestial Choir - “Stand On The Word”)

It was always uplifting thinking about it. It was more like a 'project' area, it was really ghetto down in that area. It was like you were lucky when you were going outside and you didn't get robbed, you know? But it was always fun inside.

Gerd Janson

And gospel was a heavy influence?

Kerri Chandler

Oh yeah, in a big way. I mean, from our town is Whitney Houston and all these people. So, yeah, it's a big influence. The fun thing about East Orange and Hoboken and this whole area was, we had nothing, but what we did have was the music and each other. We had this one thing that was so amazing it was a show every 4th of July at Martin Stadium and you would never know who you would see there. You'd see anyone from Earth, Wind & Fire to Brass Construction or somebody. It was just an amazing time. You just wanted to be just like the people that you saw every year. And that's what happened, we all just wanted to go up on stage. All of East Orange would come out, every year to this one spot. And it was funny, there was a building, same building that Tony Humphries lived in, we called the 'music building' because everybody for some reason moved into that one building. And I thought that it was the coolest thing in the world.

Gerd Janson

And this happened every year at 4th of July?

Kerri Chandler

Every year, July 4th.

Gerd Janson

And it was for free?

Kerri Chandler

No, you had to pay though. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

And that's where people like Jomanda and Blaze were being influenced by?

Kerri Chandler

Everybody was influenced, seriously. Even when the house stuff started, they'd perform there and I never forget, I really started to love house when - [jumps to his laptop] let me just play this real quick - and I met her a lot later and she is just a wonderful person, is this girl Chanelle and she did this song called “One Man.” She inspired me for lots of stuff 'cause after I saw that I was just like, “You know, I've got to do some house music,” 'cause this was just like the coolest thing I have ever seen. Fourth of July, same thing again, and I had the idea of working with her and I did this song called “I Love You Yet.”

Gerd Janson

How old were you then?

Kerri Chandler

God, I must have been 16 when I saw her do it. It was this song and you probably notice that this...

(music: Chanelle - “One Man”)

But the story is with her - I thought to let you hear it first, so you get an idea - what happened was when she came up on stage at Martin Stadium, same thing again, that this was coolest thing. Before she performed the major comes up and hands her a key to the city. I was like, “Yup, that's it.” I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I was like, “Damn, you get a key for making house music? Let's go with that.”

Gerd Janson

What was the first track that you did to get that 'key to the city,' the first record you released?

Kerri Chandler

Oh god. The first record I released was “Get It Off,” which was really strange in a way because with “Get It Off” a friend of mine had made a bet with me. I used to play house music, but I was always doing rap stuff at the time. It's really strange 'cause my friend Wash said: “I really think that you could be really making house music and you should try a couple of tracks.” I said: “Nah, there's no way, man. I really don't know what I'm doing with that kind of stuff.” He said: “You should try it, just for the hell of it.” And the funny thing was “Get It Off” was me trying to get something off my mind. Same thing again, this is a really crazy story, my ex-girlfriend, it was her birthday and this is really strange, I don't know how many people know about this law, it was actually in the papers and things, but to talk about my girlfriend is really strange because it is choking me up a bit. It was our anniversary or the coming weekend after, which is kind of creepy 'cause that's September the 11th, she got killed behind Zanzibar and got raped. This guy smashed her head open with a rock and left her dead behind he club.

I was completely devastated. Our anniversary was coming up, it was maybe about two or three years in. We used to take turns and switch off and I had a lot on my head. I literally had to get it off of my mind and the one place that I knew where I could do and get it off my mind was music. That's what I did. To me, my life with her ended so abruptly, that's where I get my signature from that song, from that rip going across the record was someone taking her away from me and changing my whole groove. And that's what this was and this was my first record. Funny enough, right after she died, literally the month, everything started happening for me, which is really sad 'cause she helped me so much and I always think that she's looking down on me, watching over me, making sure everything's okay. My first song was actually one of my biggest songs and everybody started to use the same crazy sound taking that rip sound. I think what really made me laugh was when C&C [Music Factory] used it, I was it like, “Oh shit, we went somewhere with it.” But this is my first one.

(music: Kerri Chandler - “Get It Off”)

You can always tell what kind of day I had if you listen to my music and I'm not joking. I did a song with my grandfather. I needed something for a flipside and my grandfather used to be jazz singer but he used to get ripped. He used to come downstairs with a pint of Jack Daniels going: [drunk voice] “You boys don't know what music is...” And I'm sitting there and we just finished this track and he had this really funny song. I said: “If I don't do anything with this, this is going to be the dumbest thing if I don't use this for something. Let me just make it into a track somehow.” The song goes:

My lady, my lady,

she's cock-eyed, she's crazy,

she's banjo legs, pigeon toes,

the lady wears no underclothes,

they say her breasts smell sweet,

but I'd rather smell her feet...

And he just kept singing. This is one of my grandfather's signature songs that he sings around the house when he gets up. I said: “This is nuts.” So I needed a b-side and I did “She's Crazy” after that and that's the funniest thing in the world to me. Even funnier so - well, I just play the track first. That was a lot of fun working with my grandfather, I still have a lot of multitracks that are unused, so sad to listen to 'cause he passed away a few years ago and I really didn't have the courage to listen to many of them. A wonderful man.

(music: Grampa - “She's Crazy” (Remix))

That gives you an idea of that one. [laughs]

[applause]

Gerd Janson

So, you like bass, right?

Kerri Chandler

Are you kidding? [laughs] The funny thing is when I was doing this, it actually sounded normal to me. Must have been the monitors that I was using or something. A bit boomy is OK. The funny story with this and I had a good laugh, after the song came out my uncle was in a strip club and the song comes on. So now he's like, “Oh my god. What the...? Hey, that's my dad and my nephew, what the hell is going on in here?” He's freaking out: “That's my dad.” And everyone goes: “No, that's a stripper.”

[laughter]

“What are you talking about? You lost your mind?” It's just funny to hear that kind of thing.

Gerd Janson

And he didn't know about that song before?

Kerri Chandler

The funny thing is, my uncle used to pop around from time to time, so he would hear things as they progressed, but I think it never occurred to him that I was actually making records with these things. So when he heard it at the strip club he was like, “What the...?” That had to be one of the funniest laughs I had. I thought that had made my day.

Gerd Janson

But getting back to bass again. I mean, it's pretty obvious that you like it very much. How do you get records to sound like they do in your case?

Kerri Chandler

The thing about me is, before I became a DJ and producer and all that stuff, I wanted to be an engineer. Not just sonically, technically I wanted to build things and machines. I found myself modifying machines because I knew them inside out. I've had 909s, I've had 808s and I've had everything in between and literally, I had to know what makes this thing tick. My signature was, let me just go and change the envelopes and the filters in this thing, add extra knobs and make the decays do things longer, put another thing on here so I can make another subharmonic frequency out for my bass kick. So, instead of one kick there was an octave built in from my 909 and everyone started looking at me: “How the fuck [do you do this]? My 909 doesn't sound like this.” I was like, “Bring it over, I’ll make it sound like that.” I just modified everything and there's this saying from my girlfriend: “You just 'chandler-ise' everything, don't you?” “Yeah, but it needs to be this way.” If I wasn’t a DJ, I’d be an engineer. I'd be a complete geek straight away. That's the only thing that saved my ass from school that I was a DJ. That was it, really.

Gerd Janson

What was the last thing you built?

Kerri Chandler

It's a laser system that you trigger with your hands and it triggers samples and drums and things. I've just used it for the first time with the MIDI triggers in London at Cargo. That was the last thing I built.

Gerd Janson

You've got it with you?

Kerri Chandler

No. I look in here, I didn't knew it was like this, I wish I would have brought it. But if I come to the next Red Bull [Music Academy], I definitely bring all the gadgets and toys and spread 'em out and let everybody play with 'em.

Gerd Janson

I also read that you built your own mixer, right?

Kerri Chandler

Yeah, I built several mixers. I have a pocket-size Bozak that I built that slips under my laptop and I can take the laptop with me and go wireless into the crowd and DJ the same way that I'm sitting here. I have systems where you can go onto a screen. What's the name of that movie where the guy goes like this [gestures switching big buttons]?

Audience Member

Minority Report.

Kerri Chandler

That's it, you see the guy going [repeats gesture] and grabbing stuff. That's how it is, I can use it the same way. I can actually grab records, virtual records, throw them onto the screen and do all this stuff. Modules I built, so I can literally go up to this screen [points to Academy video screen] and go, “Hey, there it is,” find a record, go through my stash and just grab it, throw it on. I know it sounds like, “What the fuck is he talking about?” But I go and take a pair of cordless headphones with me and [points into Academy auditorium] stand right where that camera is. See, the thing with me is I always loved audiences. So I like to be out there, I like to hear myself from the other side of the room. “What the hell is this guy gonna play now?” I always thought that's the best thing to think, what would the crowd like to hear? I like to go to the other side of the room like, “Okay, jackass, what you are going to play? Put some joints on. What's this crap you're dealing with? No, we don't want to hear that.” So I kind of do it that way.

Gerd Janson

When can we buy it?

Kerri Chandler

The funny thing is, I don't do mass production on these things. It's just me playing with things. I've got so many weird things in the works like that.

Gerd Janson

Apple isn't up on that yet?

Kerri Chandler

I work with a couple of companies. I work with Pioneer and I help build the effects units and CDJs and things. The last thing I've actually helped collaborate on was something called the DJR 400, which is a pocket-size mixer, like Urei's with knobs. You can have 'em custom-built, actually. There's a company out of France that makes them called E&S, Electronique Spectacle, they handle that one.

Gerd Janson

Danny Krivit had one of them when he was here during the first term.

Kerri Chandler

That's his brain child.

Gerd Janson

And digital DJing is really your thing right now?

Kerri Chandler

The funny thing is, I've always brought computers with me, even since '88 I was working with a system called Turtle Beach 128 and you actually had to bring a DAT machine and plug it and use the D/A converters out of that. And it's like a card you stick in, so I had this really weird Compaq - I don't know whether you guys have seen one - green monochrome [monitor], super big at that time, 64k memory, big 5-inch floppy disk you stick in. And that one was actually technically a laptop because it wasn't really big, you could bring it with you. I was using a program at that time called Texture Live and you could literally take all the sequencers and things up and then I had another thing, it synched the audio-in. As long as you had the SMPTE going, there was another trigger and you would just run it and mix it to things. So, I'd sit there and actually find the timing for things, put sequencers on as I'm performing and DJ into it. I've always liked the live element, which is nothing new, it just progressed a bit, I guess.

Gerd Janson

Last week we had Theo Parrish here and he was almost preaching not to use digital DJ stuff and still keep on that vinyl culture alive. You have labels yourself, right?

Kerri Chandler

My problem is I'm always obsessive about things. I love vinyl, I love records to the point that I collect turntables. I have every series of Technics there ever was. I have about 36 right now. I could name them right now. There's, SLB-1's, D-1's, I have 1100 A's, 1200's, the originals with the little knobs. I've got 1200 Limited, which are these guys [points to Academy turntables], 1200s I modified, which is really crazy. There's 1500s, 1700s, 1800s, 3200s, M-1s, 5100s... I'm missing something. Oh, the 2000s, my SL2000s. That's it just for the Technics. I just started collecting Denon's and Thorens.

Gerd Janson

Do you have a separate house where you keep all this?

Kerri Chandler

I have a big enough house to keep all this. The one thing I love the most is I love knowing about everything, I think it's very important. Even with the turntables, all of them have a different feel, and I never want to be in a position where I can't play on a turntable 'cause there's so many varieties of things out now. Just like the story I was telling you earlier, and I need to share this with you guys, a really funny story, which is really a sad story in a way, when I left Club America, which was my residency, and Tony left Zanzibar, Zanzibar was the main club. And Tony used to play on these turntables called Thorens. I don't know if you guys know about Thorens at all, they kind of float. You can't go backwards with them at all, they only go forward. You can only play [pitched up to] +6, there was a little knob here that would only go up to -2.

Gerd Janson

We talked about this earlier, your biggest record to date is probably Atmosphere, right? Although, it's like a timeless classic of house music nowadays.

Kerri Chandler

Oh, “Track 1” [looks in his computer]. If I go into a club and someone asks: “Do you got 'Track 1'?,” it's like, “OK, they know who I am here.” But if someone comes up to me, the funniest thing I heard, “You have some Oasis?” That's always the fun one. “How about Britney Spears?”

(music: Kerri Chandler - “Track 1”)

(music ends / applause)

Gerd Janson

But you also worked with a lot of vocalists, right?

Kerri Chandler

All the time. I love working with vocalists that just nobody knows. Sometimes I go in and actually sing a few things myself. Somebody said I could sing, so I thought, “Why not? I don't think I can, I'm not a vocalists.” I think there's a big difference between a singer and a vocalist. A singer just can go in and belt them out and go for it, but a vocalist really can get the point across, I think.

Gerd Janson

How do you approach them producing music when you do a track on your own or you're actually working with a singer or a vocalist?

Kerri Chandler

It takes a minute to vibe with somebody. I love going in and vibing with people, I want to see what their take is on a song. I give you an example, “Inspiration” with Arnold Jarvis, that track took less than an hour. I always said: “I need to wait until I hear the record in a club to see what it sounds like.” And I got tired of it. I rented my space out and it was maybe twice the size of this room, and I built a club, so I could actually make house music in a place. I put the lights up and everything, and the studio was in the middle of the room. Arnold came down, and it was the first time he saw it, and I had the system going, it was going 'bang, bang', and you really could feel it all through the place. I started playing the keyboard and he just said: “That's cool, man. Can you play while I'm singing?” And I said: “I never did that before. Is that possible? I got to mic you and put this in somehow. Yeah, I guess it's possible. Do you want to try it?” “Yeah, let's take a nice long tape and let's do it.” He was just running around, wrote like three or four words down. He was thinking about his friend, same thing, everything is true to life, and this is very important for writing a song or even thinking about a song, his friend was in a hospital, and he was dying of cancer. He said the guy was in such good spirits, he was such an inspiration to him, and that's what happened. He just came from the hospital, started singing. I put down the basics, a bassline and there was a simple organunderneath, and I just started playing along with him. He started singing, I striped the whole tape. I was maybe using a 16-track tape machine, striped the whole tape all the way down, vibing, just having fun in the place. We had a couple of drinks, rewinded the whole thing back, it was about maybe 15 minutes or something, and started playing. It took maybe two takes, went back and just edited the thing. It was maybe an hour at the most.

Gerd Janson

Do you have it with you?

Kerri Chandler

[looks in his computer] Here we go. This is actually one of my favourite songs to play out. I wish there was a keyboard here 'cause I love playing live on that one. That has got to be one of all-time favorite things to play.

(music: Kerri Chandler feat. Arnold Jarvis - “Inspiration”)

That kind of gives you an idea of that song.

[applause]

It just goes to show us, if you have a vibe, I mean, he made all of this stuff up off the top of his head. He was just feeling that way. The funny thing is, we didn't even know what the title of the song was. We listened back to the whole thing and it was just a piece that actually did that: “Inspiration, inspiration to me, your life has just begun.” I said: “That's it, that's the hook right there.” I thought that was it, so I went back and took the same piece again, and I cut it, sampled it back, and put them as a double, and made that up.

Gerd Janson

What kind of gear do you use nowadays to produce? Have you gone all digital yet?

Kerri Chandler

No, I could never do that. I have two kinds of rooms. I have a digital room, I have an analog room and a room with just a piano and a fireplace, literally. I think that I need all three of those rooms equally. The digital room looks like something out of Star Trek. It's like a screen about that size [points to the big screen in the auditorium] and I sit in the middle of the room. I call the room 'zen' 'cause there's a Japanese zen garden in front of the room and waterfalls and stuff. You sit there and it's the peacefullest place on the planet for me. I go in there and it's all digital, the room is surround sound, so it's like 7.1, just crazy stuff. I have these drivers that were custom-built, you can't really hear it, but definitely the harmonics, the frequencies in the room start at like 10 and go up all the way to 50.000 KHz. It's just amazing, I hear so many crazy things in this room I would never ever hear. The same thing goes again in the analog room, which is downstairs. I'm using an AMR-24, and I don't know how I got so lucky, I bought that thing off Tony Bennett somehow. It was at his studio, and when I moved, I said: “Give it to me.”

Gerd Janson

From who?

Kerri Chandler

Tony Bennett. He is like an old jazz singer, a classic guy. When I found out, I was like 'wait' 'cause he kept moaning, “You got to come and get this thing.” And I was just buying my house and I just got set up and said to him: “Can you just give me a minute? Can you store it for a little longer?” “No, man. It's just sitting in Tony's house in the hall or something.” “Well, tell Tony to wait. Wait, Tony Bennett? OK, let me get this thing.”

Gerd Janson

And in the third room is just a piano? You said for songwriting.

Kerri Chandler

Exactly. I always dreamt to have a room like that one and now I finally got it. I came to a point where I found peace finally. I always thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to have a room with just a piano, just kind of risen up a bit. That's one part I didn't do with it yet. I have a Chickering piano, it's so warm, it's amazing. The first thing I bought when I moved into my house was this piano, and where it's sitting it overlooks the backyard and the fireplace is right there. So right now is my favourite time to go in that room and make things because I can watch it snow and I get the best inspiration when I go into that room and play. There's skylights in the window, so I can actually look up when the sun's coming through. It's the most inspirational place I've ever found to write. And it's just so basic.

Gerd Janson:

Sounds nice. And as a DJ you play all over the place, all over the world, right? Do you find, apart from maybe America and the United Kingdom, people respond different to vocals when you play them?

Kerri Chandler

I really think it depends on the crowd that comes in. I think the funniest thing and the coolest thing in the world is when I play in Japan. Somehow they know all the words to everything, and I'm not sure whether they understand them all, but they'll sing every word to the song. I can turn it way down, so that it's just almost only the hi-hat going, and you could hear them sing. If you play something like Inner City or something, it's amazing. They almost need like a translator sometimes to understand some of these things. It's amazing to see how music can bring so many people together, especially house music. And it's creeping up in places I thought I'd never play, ever. I went to Tel Aviv to play house music, you know, what the hell is there? Or Texas, who knew house was in Texas? I thought I'd go out and have a hoedown or something.

Gerd Janson

So you would say the state of house music these days is a healthy one?

Kerri Chandler

I think it's a new generation coming up learning and growing. I mean, look at this forum, it's amazing to me. We never had anything like this. This is a beautiful thing, this is a blessing.

Gerd Janson

But they're not all into house.

Kerri Chandler

Well, it doesn't matter, it's music. That's the key, that's the beautiful thing. Good music is good music, bad music is bad music. You can tell off the top of your head what it is or if someone is being honest with it. There's a big difference between Bob Marley and a group like UB40 or something. You can hear the difference.

Gerd Janson

Getting back again to [Tony] Humphries, the high times of Jersey, I mean it's not like that anymore, right? It's not as thriving as it used to be.

Kerri Chandler

The funny thing is I don't think you can tell where music is coming from anymore. It's to the point where everyone hears music from different places. I'm sure there's stuff coming out of here that's amazing. Anywhere, everywhere. I never know. I have so many friends that make so much amazing music, everywhere.

Gerd Janson

So you wouldn't break it down to local scenes anymore?

Kerri Chandler

I think it could be where it started, but I don't think it's where it is now. Even back then it was like we had no idea of what we were doing. We were just making up music as we needed. It was just a big family and we were all creative putting stuff together. We just had fun and it was just like our version of church.

Gerd Janson

So gospel again. What about the middle name you used for a long time?

Kerri Chandler

Oh, Kaoz 623. I am not superstitious too much, but I've noticed every time of the year I used to have a bad time, which was always June 23rd. It was always very chaotic around that time period and I'd had horrible things happen. People would pass away when I stayed at the house, I got into fights, or my girlfriends' house caught on fire, all around the same time, and I kept noticing. One year my grandmother, uncle and cousin died day after each other, 6/23, 6/24, 6/25. And I just kept noticing, every year around the same time it would reoccur.

Gerd Janson

What happened this year?

Kerri Chandler

I found a few friends of mine passed actually away from AIDS.

Gerd Janson

So it's really like every year?

Kerri Chandler

Every year I can count on something horrible happen. One year I had a terrible tax problem, so watch your taxes when you do music, and my first phone bill that I got from Madhouse Records - I knew there was something to it - it was $623. I still have the receipt in my scrapbook. It was unbelievable, but it was the first phone bill from my record label.

Gerd Janson

So what are you doing on these days? Are you locking yourself in a room?

Kerri Chandler

Does it matter? I mean, I could lock myself in, but then somebody passes away or something. It's just one of these things. Everybody has a bad time a year. I mean, I could pick anybody. [addresses audience] What's your favorite time of the year? Summer? OK, what's a bad time for you? What's the worst time you can remember?

Audience Member

That happens to you every year?

Audience Member

I think it's the end of summer because of school.

Kerri Chandler

I just kept noticing the reoccurrence, but if you really pay attention, and that's what I did, every June I had this problem, something horrible always happens at the same time. The more I asked around, the more I found out that weird things keep happening to certain people around the other way. So if you look into it, you'll see. It's weird. It's like a cycle.

Gerd Janson

And there's nothing you can do about it to break out of that cycle?

Kerri Chandler

I kind of make a joke out of it and put it into my name. I kind of made a good laugh about it. I don't fly on that day, ever.

Gerd Janson

You don't fly on that day?

Kerri Chandler

Ever. I never fly on June 23rd.

Gerd Janson

You are singing yourself sometimes, right?

Kerri Chandler

Sometimes. Does anybody know “Rain” in this room? I think the first record I tried to attempt to sing it had to be “Stay.” I will play a piece of that so you can see what I sound like.

Gerd Janson

But you never made a song about June 23rd, right?

Kerri Chandler

Actually, yeah, but it was more of a track. It was called “What Is 6:23?” it's just really simple. This is the first vocal track that I actually attempted to sing. No, it was “Love Will Find A Way,” but this is the first one I actually did.

(music: Creative Violence - “Stay” / applause)

That was my first attempt at singing, but I got it now, I think.

Gerd Janson

Do you got any hints and tips on how to do it?

Kerri Chandler

I would say you just go in and trial and error. You sound so different when you go in and do it yourself. You might sound different in the shower, but when you actually go and do it, it's like, “What the hell is that? Is that me?” But I think it has to be heartfelt. I think the most the most heartfeltsong I've ever done is when my daughter was born. I've never been a father before, so when she was born I was so struck. I was just in awe of this little person, so much so that I named her after myself 'cause I didn't know if I was to have any more kids or if I was going to have a son or not. I named her Kerri and she got about three years old and I thought to myself, “She's a maniac running through the house.” She's talking and doing all these things and I wrote a song for her, it's actually called “For Kerri” and I think my favourite part was the end. I think I have it here too. It was more like a nursery rhyme, but I think it's the meaning behind it. My life is my songs and I write about anything that happens to me. Like, even sitting in this room today, everything is an influence, I go back and I make something.

(music: Kerri Chandler - “For Kerri”)

So it's like every sound to me should make a story.

Gerd Janson:

So everything is related directly to your life.

Kerri Chandler

Definitely. Like, even with “Bar A Thym,” everybody was like, “Where is the cowbell thing coming from?” Same thing, that has a story. There's a place in Toulon called Bar A Thym, it's actually a bar. There was a festival called Sunslice Festival, and after the festival we all went to the bar. Me, Josh from Blaze, god knows who else, Jovonn or somebody, and Dennis. The one thing they have in this place, it's like two turntables, simple bar, it's maybe half the size of this room, but the vibe in this bar was nuts. And they have this cowbell - “...needs more cowbell,” that kind of thing - Dennis, me and this guy were having a cowbell battle. We were fucking drunk or whatever, and he's like 'bang, bang, bang', passing it back and forth. We had a stick and a microphone and we were trying to outdo each other with this cowbell. It was the funniest thing, so there stuff in the background playing. So he gets bold, he jumps on a chair like this one [points into the auditorium], and there's a little glass lamp, making this weird sound. And I'm like, “He's gonna break that damn thing.” And I'm turning around, still playing records, and I'm looking at him and the whole bar is going like, “Yeah, yeah, hit that fucking thing.” Dennis is still banging away, and all of a sudden, it explodes all over the whole bar. I'm like, “Oh, my god! We're in trouble now. We fucked up.” And everyone's like, “Yeah!” Everything's still okay. There was another bell behind the bar and the bartender spins this bell around. So it's like flinging around and goes like, [fast] 'Ding, ding, ding'. So all these things come into play when I made the song up: the building of the crowd, it's going up and down. Even when he breaks the cowbell, all these elements, this is what I actually added to “Bar A Thyme.”

Gerd Janson

Who is Dennis?

Kerri Chandler

Dennis Ferrer, my partner. We got lots of stuff to share. So here's a piece of “Bar A Thym,” and it's like I said, every sound has a meaning to it. The cowbell is running all the way through it. Remember what I said about the glass breaking? That's in the song, my interpretation of the sound, the way the crowd builds and goes up and down, it's the same way with a filter on a keyboard.

(music: Kerri Chandler - “Bar A Thym”)

Audience Member

Two questions. First, you told us a lot of stories and some of them were really sad. You said they've influenced you.

Kerri Chandler

Oh, everything does.

Audience Member

But I think that your music is happy, all of it.

Kerri Chandler

Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. The thing is, I got some really sad sounding things too. A lot of them don't come out. There's a lot of things that I never would even think about releasing. I brought with me some of the stuff, I can give you an example [looks through his laptop]. Some of the darker stuff. I mean, maybe I should release some of the stuff, but I just put up my website and I started to put some of the stuff on it. I think the craziest one I did that just recently came out was... Have you heard “Six Pianos” yet?

Audience Member

Which one?

Kerri Chandler

“Six Pianos.”

Audience Member

No, not really.

Kerri Chandler

OK, I play a quick piece of that. This song has been in my head since I was about ten-years old. It's an old Steve Reich song and I found it just at random in my grandmother's stash. This record must be from the '60s or '70s, but this guy was a minimalist person and he literally took six pianos and he had a composition made up so they all fell on top of each other and they were all kind of looped after each other. And I thought that it was such an odd thing that it would stick to me that long and I thought, “That's a hook and a half.” I don't know if you guys have heard of an earworm in this room. An earworm is one of those things that you can't get out of your head until you hear that song again. That song has been stuck in my head until I found that thing, maybe early last year. And I said: “That's it. I have to do something with it 'cause it's such a weird song. It's just too bizarre.” I thought it would make a really good house record.

(music: Kerri Chandler - “Six Pianos”)

Audience Member

So, that pretty much answers my question. [laughs] For the next one, he [points to Gerd Janson, the interviewer] already asked it to you, but I wanted to try and ask you whether you can develop a little bit more on the issue 'cause you have seen it all, you were on it from the beginning, what do you think about today's house music?

Kerri Chandler

Well, it's a very good question. Now, I've seen a lot of things, I could explain a lot of things, the truth of it is, you are already in your own set where you guys are and what you create is what's going to happen next and that's the best thing I can tell you. I mean, I could explain a couple more stories, where we've been and what we've done, but the best thing to say is: somebody sat here [in front of a turntable] and said: “I wonder what happens if we take this [points to turntable] and add another one. I wonder what they sound like together.” You know, somebody sat here with a turntable. Before that, it could have been a reel to reel, it could have been anything. Somebody with a string section: “Let's add a couple of horns.” You have to have some kind of vision of what may happen and then you make it happen yourself. Whatever I do, I always add one weird fucking thing to it and I think that's the key. No matter what you do, you add that one thing that's your personality, something really off, something really different that no one else is doing.

That's what I always try to do when I come out or play someplace 'cause I've noticed no matter what I do, it's going to be talked about. It could be anything bizarre, I could bring a special keyboard that I just built and it has like three keys on it, but for some reason it plays like Mozart or some shit. I can do some virtual hand thing and I can DJ with it this way. You bring your own knowledge of what you know up here [points to his head] to the atmosphere of the place. The worst thing in the world to do is to isolate the crowd or make people feel like they're not involved for jack shit. That's the worst thing in the world you can do. There were two games that we played when we grew up - and that's another story you can take back with you - 'cause it was very hard to come by really good equipment, and this is why this record was one of my favorite records. When I grew up hip-hop and house were very pretty much the same kind of thing, it was really soul music, all of it. What we used to do was, someone had to be the loser and somebody had to be the winner and we used to play a game called 'Out' back home. We all would do one sequence and run it back and somebody else would do the same sequence, and the minute you messed up with the sequence, you got 'out'. And that's how we used to get good with each other and whoever got 'out', two things would happen: either we all get beat down or a turntable would go missing. You didn't want a turntable to go missing and you really didn't want to get beat down, so you practiced till you fucking could no more. [to participants] Are there other DJs out here, hip hop DJs or anything? Come up for a second. Come here, seriously. You're really, really good?

Audience Member

No, I'm really, really tired.

Kerri Chandler:

OK, here. We'll play a game really quick. He probably kicks my ass since I'm such an old man. The thing is I always thought you never ever should let this thing scare you. You have to have control over your records. He's probably one of those killers, DMC world champion. No? OK, what we gonna do is...

[starts beat juggling records / leaves couch]

We used to play that for hours every day. It's a bit awkward here 'cause this crossfader is kind of jacked.

Gerd Janson

And the song is actually by a quote/unquote punk band, The Clash.

Kerri Chandler

Yeah, it's one of those things we used to get down with everything from “Good Times” to “Heartbeat.” But it's one of those songs, it's a crowd thing, it's a fun thing. It didn't matter what size the room was, we always had fun with it. [applauds] Thank you, man, for coming up here and doing your thing.

Gerd Janson

Any other questions or guys who want to try their luck [beatjuggling against Kerri] out here?

Audience Member

Hi, I'm not going to play on the turntable.

[laughter]

You've been doing house music for almost 20 years, that's a very long time. I wonder how do you keep inspiration coming up with new stuff?

Kerri Chandler

The best thing in the world is, and this is so sad, there's two things that keep me going, honest to God. Maybe it sounds corny and shit, but being here is an inspiration to me. Twenty years ago I'd never thought that I'd be sitting here like an old man doing a lecture. Seems kind of strange to me. That's an inspiration in itself. And for me to go home and tell my dad: “This is what I did,” and it's being taped and I can actually show him this, that's an inspiration. That's enough for me to keep saying it was well worth it. If I can pass even something I know, any of it, to the next generation - 'cause I always thought that's very important and the forum you guys have out here is amazing - I was like, “This is only four weeks? What a shame!” What a sad deal that is, it ends today. But I would say definitely, whatever you take from here, take from here and keep going with it. Grab the torch and run like hell with it. That really is the deal. I wish I had something like this when we were growing up, I'd be 20 times farther than with the hell I had 'cause we were working with primitive gear. We had like four-track cassette tapes or you'd take a tape deck and another tape deck and somebody rhymes and somebody will cut something. Everyone had to do it all at once, live. It was nothing like, “We got to go to the studio.” “Studio? You have a couple of grand in your pocket?” No, we had 9-to-5's living at my mom's house at one point. It was that kind of thing, so if you're broke, you were fucking broke. I've done everything from being a travel agent to a welder to buy equipment. It didn't matter to me, it was in my heart, I had to do it. No one ever really gave me anything.

The first drum machine I ever owned was a Mattel Synsonic drums, I don't even know if anyone knows what the hell that thing is. It just like this little drum pad, it cost me maybe 70 bucks. I worked all summer to get this thing. The first minute I heard it, I was like, “This is the coolest little programming thing I've ever messed with in my life.” [beatboxes drum sounds] It's so primitive now to think about it, but that's where I learned from. I used to rock all these weird beats up, just to make sure I could do them.

And that's how I learned, I learned just picking up any old thing seeing if I could build stuff. My fascination was Kraftwerk when I grew up and the first thing that I wanted to do: “What the hell are they using? What is this stuff? What's this crazy stuff? Are they building it?” So the first thing I did was I used to break boxes and get aluminum foil, a few resistors, break out things from old TV sets and go for it. “I wonder what this does? How does this make this sound? Why does this do this?” So curious upstairs [points to his head], but I had to have it done. Had to try and figure out what was going on. I've always had that curiosity and that's always been my inspiration to take things to the next level.

The best thing in the world for me is to create music and play it on something I've actually built from scratch, to mix it through a mixer that I have done and play it in a club and show everyone this is what I've been doing. That's the most amazing feeling in the world. To me, that's inspiration. Because I'm not only did this part of what I want to do, I'm actually doing my engineering while I'm out. I don't know if it's the matter with me just playing with toys, but it's amazing the things that I can try and build and I can bring to a club atmosphere. When somebody uses a CDJ or one of the mixers I helped design, it's like, “Damn, they're kicking my ass on the mixer. I love it that they're using it like that.” So amazing. That's the biggest rush I could ever get and to keep that going for me it's like it's in my blood. I got to keep that going, I don't care what it is. If I was living in a cardboard box and I'd had a tin can that I'm banging on, to me that's what I love doing.

And the second thing that really kept me going, I always see things in like how people ended up, and I'm not sure what the situations are, like a really, really, really, really amazing talented piano player on the way here coming in from the airport. I came in and I thought this was such an inspirational story for me, this guy was playing every Christmas jingle known to man. It was such a thankless job but his technique was beautiful. The best piano player I've ever heard, period. I didn't even know what to say to this guy. He was there all alone on a stage on a podium from about here to here [stretches his arms] and I think he had a XP-10 or something, some simple keyboard thing. Amazing, beautiful. And all I could hear in front of me was the guy ordering a sandwich: “Can you say that again? This nut behind me is playing too loud.” And I'm thinking to myself, “I'm so blessed to be in the spot where I am, to do what I can do.”

I'm flying over here to say something. Personally, I could never play the way that man did on that stage. So that's my inspiration, to be an inspiration to someone else, to say something to someone else and bring my thing to the table. I always bring my life into my music and to see that, that's a part of my life, that's a struggle. I don't know what happened, maybe he enjoyed doing that kind of thing, he's bringing Christmas cheer, that's beautiful. But for people who aren't hearing him the same way. There's a lot of jazz musicians that I know who died penniless with nothing at all and they were the best musicians I've ever seen, heard or worked with. It's just such a thankless job and the worst thing in the world is to see a trio in some jazz club in New York, like Zinc Bar, going off, playing riffs I've never heard in my life. Me and Dennis [Ferrer] we were sitting there with our mouth open like, [mimes mouth open] “Did you just hear that? Oh my god, I can't believe it.” There was a blind drummer once, amazing. He just sat down and tapped a few drums, I sat there with Miri Ben-Ari - I don't know if you guys know who she is. A hip-hop violinist, she used to take me around to all these clubs because she used to play jazz violin before she broke into [the hip hop scene] with Kanye West and all these people. And it was such a thankless job because she was nailing the set, going off, playing all these things, this blind drummer whipping ass, nobody's business at Cleopatra's Needle. Everyone's sitting there eating dinner, “Pass the Grey Poupon.” They finished the set, I swear it looked like these guys burnt a hole in the ground where they were playing. You know what I heard out of the whole thing? “Waiter! Can you bring me my check?” That's it, that's as far as that got.

And for me to go out into a crowd that knows my music to begin with and to hear sonically what I've made in the studio and bring it into a club form or somebody emails me, saying: “Kerri, we loved your show in Berlin, bla, bla, bla,” that's an inspiration in itself. If I had never done another record in my life, I feel just very blessed to be sitting here speaking with you guys. It's heartfelt and it's my honor and privilege to be sitting here saying that to you guys and I wish you all the best in whatever you do. Go from here and take what you need because I swear, we never had this kind of forum. I'm not sure where the direction may take you guys, but God bless and I hope all the best, really.

[applause]

Audience Member

Thank you very much.

Kerri Chandler

No, thank you. Anything from anyone else at all?

Audience Member

I have another one. Do you feel like you've been married to house music?

Kerri Chandler

I've always been. The worst thing in the world for me is to try decide between someone you love and doing music. That's got to be the worst thing in the world, especially if they're not used to your traveling. 'Cause it gets to be a very lonely business, especially if you're on tour or something. I'm not a DJ like that, I've got friends who are like that, saying like, “I'm a DJ superstar,” and a room full of groupies. I've never been into that kind of thing 'cause it's always been that kind of thing: I have sisters, I have a mother, you have to respect these people and I wouldn't want anyone to hurt them and I wouldn't want to hurt anyone else. Feelings are very important to me.

I have never been like that, that's not my kind of thing. I've got friends for life. I have friends I've had since I was five years old. I cherish all of my friends. That's another thing, it's a very, very humble business and you got to keep that in mind too.

Audience Member

I meant in a way more that aren't you tempted to try other sounds except house music, like some broken stuff?

Kerri Chandler

Whatever you feel in your heart you want to do. Whatever you feel like you need to do. So the thing is you can take your own take on anything. I've never put myself in a niche where I did just house music. I've done everything I love to do. I've done hip-hop stuff, I've done jazz stuff, I'm actually working on a jazz album right now. I've done classical, I've actually done piano recitals, which is really creepy. Here, I give you an example [turns to laptop]. You take whatever you need from your heart, whatever you feel like you want to do nothing's stopping you from doing it. You are stopping yourself, seriously. It's okay to experiment. You can't say it's not an honest thing unless you want to do it for yourself.

This is a rough mix of a project I've been working on called Deep Blue. I just started on it earlier in the year and it's something I've always wanted to do. I've always had this weird deals come up on Blue Note where people say: “Let's do an album and this and that.” So this is my first attempt in doing a jazz funk album.

(music: Deep Blue - unknown / applause)