24..4! "4-5() PEOPLE ISSUE 2015 +0((02 30&1!# .,#*#1(* scholar program, but I didn’t finish because I was going through some redefining moments and I felt like it wasn’t for me. There were a lot of differences in ideology and there was a certain narrative that was being dictated in academia that wasn’t fair and impartial to all cultures. To me it was foolishness, and I walked away. In the house music culture scene, I was primarily a dancer. Now everybody is a DJ or a promoter, but there ain’t nobody dancing, which is ass-backwards. If you were a dancer back then, people needed you because you got the party started. Promoters would see me and my friends and we’d get in for free because we’d get everybody else hyped up. It went from there to them paying me to do flyers and to promote stuff, and after a while I decided to do my own stuff and make money throwing parties. I did stuff at 531 S. Wabash, 2210 S. Michigan, Edge of the Lookingglass, Mars Gallery, 19th and Michigan. It was a mixture of industrial, Italian disco, Euro synth—a mish mosh. I used to work at Columbia College Dance Center, did promotions for them as well. I got caught up in the performance art thing, so I started getting into Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Dead Can Dance, John Cage, Philip Glass. I started opening up some of those events as a DJ, doing experimental sound structures. Over time I got mentors, like Adonis and Steve Poindexter. Adonis gave me some equipment to practice my craft. Everybody had DAT machines, and I’m running around recording my stuff on VHS tape. I asked some people for help, and they were like, “Just do it yourself.” I wondered if that was a dis or the truth, and I decided to go it alone—and that’s when I started my label back in ’96. I walked away from doing parties around 2000. I did a residency at a bar in Lincoln Park called Bar 3 for about four years. If I could go into Lincoln Park and play good-quality deep house and make them like it, it was kind of like me doing market research. It was my own personal focus group. Around 2006—that’s when more stuff started coming out on my own label. I worked out a deal with Groove Distribution, who’s supported me for almost ten years. There were pockets in Europe and the U.S. where my records sold. My adoptive parents were into Sun Ra, but I didn’t get into it until I went to university. Northwestern’s radio station played all kinds of jazz. It made me feel safe and it kept my anxiety down. I do audio texturizing—playing multiple formats, collages of music; I’ll play some jazz, some industrial, some new age, and some ambient stuff, with a house track or an obscure disco record, with all five playing at once. The 01*-3# ",4 '%/'' -( 1001 4544 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG • 773.728.6000 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10 – 13 T U O D L SO Songs of Good Cheer with Mary Schmich and Eric Zorn “ N ow eve r y b o d y i s a DJ o r a p ro m ote r, b u t t h e re a i n’t n o b o d y d a n ci n g , w h ic h i s a s s b a c k wa rd s .” 5 $ CF, " +<>GCF36 F3) @F;3 @F+G $ 5<33 E?03D, =:&=: >?D E0+> >?D -F2DB@ $ CB<)0G E<3F>@ +3;- $ >?D ':@ @+?FF3 FC BF+6 EBD@D,>@% =:&=7 0 >B<-;>D >F <+F,<+ BD+FB)<,A @>;)FF +3F@D >F >F;+? $ /0B<,0 +<>G $ +;E +?D+6 =:&=* >?D C;>;BD 30;BD0>D@% >?D >> @>DF)) ?D/-BFF6 " >?D ?D/<@E?DBD@ Au Pair featuring Gary Louris & Django Haskins #=&:' @0CD>G@;<> SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6 7PM #:&#. +F5-FG /F;>? Erwin Helfer 80th Birthday Celebration • with Barrelhouse .0" $+%!/ >?D +BF/- ,0@>G #7&#= >F, 03<8D @D> <> FCC $ >?D BD0)G @D> $ @0G5D+0,C3G -."( &- #*&'1 ,)"(".&( #7 C<,<@? ><+6D> $ 8<,G3 >?D0>BD #7&7# @?D330+ $ /F,F #4&#' EFB+?D@ $ 03D2 A GF;B CB