Some call him Kerri ‘Kaoz’ Chandler. For sure one of the biggest names in house music worldwide. This fella’ from Jersey surpassed legend status a long time ago. Known for his advanced productions and his hand-built equipment, Kerri is most certainly going to rock the place.
For the fans we have another nice interview by the British Musicology Magazine. It talks all about his love for music and technology and how Kerri, through his father (who also was a DJ), already played in clubs at the age of thirteen. Of course, we also have a musical addition to this post. For a nice soulful start of the weekend this set of Kerri recorded at the Q Bar in Bangkok (2010). At his artistpage you can find a more recent House Music Culture set that is also definitely worth listening to!
“To me the best thing is to make some music on the something I’ve built, to go to a place and play all the stuff I’ve made, to have it come out of a system that I helped develop”
House lovers, bow down and kiss the ring. It’s King Kerri!
The house music scene across Britain is seeing the emergence of a brand new wave of listeners. House music snobs will say their beloved underground club nights, are being invaded by kids who have outgrown the ‘Migraine Skank’ and kids who have outgrown the ‘Migraine Skank’, will say that UK funky isn’t really anything to do with house music anyway. Irrespective of which side of the fence you sit, whether your genre of choice has been derived from house, or you are a real house music lover, there are certain people at the very foundations of the scene that made it possible to even have this kind of hauteur, or see the evolution of these spin off genres.
With the constant UK funky V’s funky house debacle, we thought it only fitting to pay tribute to house music royalty and also introduce some of our readers to one of the founding fathers of deep house. Long before the ‘Swine Flu Skank’ and ‘Who’s That Lighty?’ Kerri Chandler was at the birth of house. A DJ and producer of over 25yrs, the music he made in the 1990s will still tear down a club today and at 41, he is in more demand to DJ than ever before. So house subjects, bow down and kiss the ring… It’s King Kerri.
Words: Trina John – Charles
It all started at a very young age for the New Jersey born, DJ and producer. At just 13, Kerri had his own club residency and by 17, his own record label. Along with that, also came huge interest from Warner Brothers and Atlantic Records. Although financially secure and at top of his game from a very young age. That was by no means a free pass to abandon his education or drop out of school.
I absolutely had to finish school. Are you kidding? (laughs) My father would have killed me if I didn’t! Oh my God… leave school?’ He says, with shock and horror. It really started with my Dad DJing. He used to take me to the club and he busted me on his set one day. It would happen every week. I had my own little crowd. They used to call me ‘little man’ (Laughs). I kind of grew up around that situation and vibe. Then I went to work at a cable television studio as an intern. From there, I went into sound, lighting and engineering. I was DJing on weekends at a place called Club America, but I still had to go to school.
At around 18/19yrs, the music thing just really took off. I didn’t expect it to at all. My hobby became my job and my job became my hobby. It was crazy. I had all these major labels basically telling me to do my bidding. Coming from barely making a living and not even having enough money to buy records to DJ every weekend, to flying all over the place. Atlantic and Warner Brothers basically just told me to write my own cheque! It was so funny to me.
I graduated college, where I took electronic engineering, because that’s what I wanted to do. I always wanted to figure out how things worked, so I went into that branch of things, engineering and designing equipment. Technology has always fascinated me.
It was his solid college background that enabled him to further explore his other passion in electronic engineering. Kerri’s DJ sets have been known to include laser systems and virtual decks, all of which he builds by hand.
I just do everything I love. To me, it’s like, if you can do it and it creates a curiosity, then why not? I do stuff that people never see. I’m crazy that way, I like to experiment.
So unbelievable in concept, some have questioned whether or not the equipment Kerri designs and builds himself are real and /or if they actually work in the way he says they do.
I was DJing at Cargo once, when I first started doing the lasers. A girl came up to me and she was like, ‘that doesn’t really work, you’re lying. It’s a gimmick’, so I told her to come up on stage and break one of the beams. So she broke it and there was like a huge crash like a thunder storm. She was like ‘Oh my God’ and she started screaming, and she jumped off the stage and ran into the crowd like, ‘Oh my God, it’s real!’ then she jumped back on stage and said, ‘can I do it again, can I do it again?’ then she broke the beam, there was the big crash and she ran into the crowd again (laughs), it was so funny.
The equipment I make doesn’t actually make my life any easier. I’d love to walk into a venue with just CDJs, that would be the simplest thing on the planet, but I’d feel like I was cheating. I’d feel like I’d be cheating the people that know my stuff and know me and I’d cheating myself, because I’m taking the easy route out. Why not incorporate everything I know and love into something I do? I’m having fun building what I love to build and doing what I love to do. That’s how I see it.
When you see what Kerri has engineered in action, it makes you wonder why these items are not produced on a larger scale and sold at the Apple Store. However, Kerri has no plans for mass production and intends for his equipment to stay completely exclusive to Kerri.
The only thing I’ve done that is like mass produced is the stuff I did with Pioneer. Like the CDJs, the turn tables and the mixers, the effects units… those kind of things. I helped them developed that stuff. I’ve done a few things like that, but I really just don’t have time. It is really time consuming, one thing can take about a month.
These toys are like my babies, I would never just give them away. I really don’t need that side of things to make money. I only do that for my friends. Like, if they really want something that bad, then I’ll sit and I’ll make something up.
To me the best thing is to make some music on the something I’ve built, to go to a place and play all the stuff I’ve made, to have it come out of a system that I helped develop, for people to dance to it. It’s like… I helped develop the whole process from start to finish. To me that’s amazing. To see all that stuff actually come into fruition and to see people having a good time with it. Or if somebody used something I’ve done better than I did, or if I never thought of using it that way… That stuff is so amazing to me.
For someone that has owned a record company for over twenty years and was at the very beginning of house music, what does Kerri think of the current state of the music business and the effect of the digital age?
I always say this… the music business is wonderful. The record business is in the tank. The music business is flourishing. It is the best thing that could ever happen. However, the record business is in the toilet, it really is. You have never in your life had as much choice as you have today. Before, all we ever did was complain about stations…
When I came over to London, everybody was listening to the pirate stations and no one was really diggin’ the commercial stuff. Then the pirate stations became commercial stations. Kiss was my favourite all those years ago. I was around when it was a pirate station and I knew all the DJs, Bobby and Steve… the whole crew and we would hang out every time I came to London. The station got picked up and they started firing people. But the problem was still there, people want good music and a choice of music. Not being spoon-fed a commercialised monopoly. You will hear the same thing all day long – Brittany Spears, who no one gives a rats a** about, it’s not music that makes you think at all. It’s easy listening. It’s very easy to digest that music. You know where the hook is, you know when the chorus is coming, there is no pain and suffering, its all auto tuned… everything is there. Then you are bombarded with commercials… ‘you gotta go get your Coke. You gotta get your Kit-Kat bar’. That’s all it is, just one big a** commercial.
In terms of the music… when we started out it was a lot more localised. Now music comes out of everywhere, you don’t even know where it’s coming from anymore. In one way it’s a good thing because house music has really grown and I get to DJ all over the place. I was DJing before, but not like I’m doing now and not getting paid what I and getting paid either. I guess I am lucky in that, if I release a song, people will still buy it, I am very blessed that way, but now music is everywhere and it’s free, so it’s hard to make a living off that.
Mr. Chandler comes from a very musical family. His father, being a DJ himself, influenced Kerri’s career immensely. His uncle and cousins are also DJs and his grandfather was a jazz singer. One of Kerri’s biggest hits, ‘She’s Crazy’, features his grandfather’s vocals. Originally put together as a B side, ‘She’s Crazy’ completely took over and is seen as one of Kerri’s many classic records.
I have a ton of stuff with my grandfather on. He used to come down to the studio and he would always sit around and watch the other singers, because he thought it was interesting. But he would get so toasted – he used to really get ripped (laughs). He would have a gin and tonic and just start laughing at people. He would be like, ‘you boys don’t know how to sing!’, ‘That’s not singing, in my day…’ and everybody just loved him. So I used to do stuff with him all the time, just to sing with him and mess around.
‘I had to do a bonus track once for Movement Records and I couldn’t decide on what to do for a single. My grandfather came down one day and he said, ‘put me in the booth, I want to sing something’, so I said, ‘ok, why not?’ Every time he would get really drunk, he would sing this song called ‘My Lady’, it’s a song he made up. It goes, ‘My lady, my lady, she’s cockeyed, she’s crazy, has bandy legs, pigeon toes, my lady don’t wear no underclothes, they say her breath smells sweet, but I’d rather smell her feet…’ It was that kind of song, one of those old, weird, ‘Dad songs’. So I was working on this track and I said, ‘ok, sing it and let’s see what happens’. It was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. I couldn’t stop laughing. I thought ‘I have got to put this together because it’s just too funny’ and I made the song ‘She’s Crazy’. It just worked so well, every one loved it and it just took off. I never expected anything like that. Everybody started playing it on the radio over here, it was the funniest thing.’
Life as a superstar DJ isn’t all champagne and cocktails. Kerri takes his live sets very seriously and is the most meticulous DJ I have ever come across. He has become infamous in club land, for his attention to detail and when speaking to him, you realise that he really does prepare for all eventualities. (So much so, that I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t have the common quote, ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail’ actually tattooed somewhere). Not what you would expect from a guy so well revered and pandered to.
‘I have to do my sound checks. That is one thing I am a stickler for. There is always one thing that goes horribly wrong. Like when there is a drum & bass party the night before and someone just blows out all the speakers. Or the mixer has beer in it or something like that. Crazy stuff like that happens all the time. There is always something.’
‘Even though we send through a technical write up before hand, I always bring like a bag of connections and wires. Two laptops, soundcards and some diagnostic equipment. If the club doesn’t have something, I usually try and improvise. I’ll easily do a whole room over. Sometimes it takes much longer for me to do a sound check and fix the room to how I want it, than it does for me to actually do the set. That is me being an engineer I guess! (Laughs).’
Source: Musicology Magazine
