10/03/08
Text: Nik Mercer
I've yet to hear you DJ... what's the process like for you? Do you try to make everything clean and seamless or are you just laying down cool tunes? (It seems like we're returning to a more "authentic"―or at least "old school"―form of DJ'ing in that regard; no flashiness, just record playing.
I like to do both. Some of my set is beat matched and some of it isn't. Either way, I like to keep mindful of the b.p.m. when transitioning. Sometimes, I just love to do really hard, fast, abrasive cuts to the next track, though... it keeps a rawness to the flow that I enjoy. Being too clean just ain't my style. I usually end up shouting, singing along, and dancing with people while I'm spinning!
Tell me a little about the founding of Disco Demolition Records. I'm assuming it's named after the 1970s disco party...
Actually it's in part a play off an event from 1979 at Cominsky Park in Chicago. Disco Demolition was the quintessential "Disco Sucks Rally." Some local rock radio DJ's organized it, and they had all these people dump disco records in a huge pile and destroyed them. It was all done with thinly-veiled racism and prejudice against gay and minority cultures and ideas that helped establish and popularize the genre. Historically, it's viewed as what marked the beginning of the end for disco-associated music in pop culture.
We thought I would be fun to name a label like ours Disco Demolition, flip it on it's head. Bastardize its context and redefine.
And what's the goal with the label? Small vinyl labels seem to be very in vogue now. Are you sticking with the "normal" style of 12" labels or are you trying to differentiate it in some way?
Right now, we're just concentrating on current 12" vinyl and digital releases. I suspect the recent popularity of small label vinyl is booming because more people desire to have their favorite songs today on something besides an iPod. People don't look back and say to each other, "hey check out this .zip file I got back in 2002."
The D.D.R. brand is classy, but ghetto and on a shoestring budget. Artistically, our vision is to put out tasteful, exciting, modern extrapolations on classic dance genres.
Our next release is a new single we're working on with Nomi from Hercules & Love Affair. Like we did with Kathy Diamond, we're taking Nomi in a somewhat different, unexpected direction than what she's done previously.
And tell me a little about the Kathy Diamond collaboration for "Fire." How did you hook up with her and what was her involvement in the song-writing process?
One of my best friends, Brian from the Beat Electric blog, gave me a promo copy of her debut full-length, Miss Diamond To You, and was like, "I know you. You have to hear this girl!" He was right, because her voice was one of the best thing's I had ever heard. Very few artists today move me like Kathy. I couldn't stop listening to it. I tracked her down immediately and asked if she'd be interested in working together. She took a listen to some Codebreaker stuff and really liked it and that was that. That's what was so beautiful to me about it: you take away all the hype, the names, the who's who... and it just came down to the fact that we're both genuinely fans of each other's work.
So Sage and I worked out a piece of music with her in mind. We really wanted to take Kathy in a raw, funky, commanding direction. I suspected that if we did so, she would own it. Well, when she sent the vocals back to us we were like, "damn, oh my god, it's perfect!" Her writing instincts are so on point.
Kathy is such a class act, such a sweetheart... and it seems to show in everything she touches. It's perfect that she's apart of D.D.R.'s debut release.
Disco Demolition Records MySpace
