Tweet
In depth: Derrick Carter
"When I make a track or create a mix I am trying to get to something, trying to communicate that something and hope that it doesn't get lost in translation"
Words by Josh Baines
Interviews are strange things. A voracious reader of music writing, be it print or online, can notice an artist or band going through the motions when it comes to promoting a new release. The same questions and the resulting same answers keep coming up. This is understandable. After all, there’s only so much you can say about your own record. So you go into a discussion with Derrick Carter, the legendary Chicago house DJ, with some trepidation.
The discussion with Carter was, nominally at least, meant to be centered around his addition to the London club Fabric’s vast series of mixes. I wanted to know why he’d presented the label with a selection of primetime, heads-down-fists-up, big room house more suited to say, Defected. I wanted to know how he felt about steering the series back to its explicit club roots after the more experimental offerings by the likes of Ricardo Villalobos and Shackleton. I wanted to know if he felt that his involvement with the seminal Classic label had shaped the mid-00s minimal boom.
But reader, things don’t always work out like we plan. Narratives unfurl and crumple in front of us. The things we want to say, and the responses we want from them, don’t come easy. Those hoping for a standard Q&A might want to quit while they’re ahead. This interview, as such, is more discursive than many. Derrick Carter didn’t stick to the script. The following is a judiciously edited selection from what was a broad and engaging dialogue on art, fiction, food, and just a little bit of house music.
How’s Chicago doing today?
“Medium… a little snowy, but ok. So what should we discuss? Poetry? Art? Fashion? Jewellery design?”
I’d like to talk about art to begin with. I see that you’re a big fan of Warhol and Keith Haring. Both those artists have very distinct aesthetics. Is that the appeal? The immediacy of their images?
“That is part of it. Though you have to consider Warhol’s body of work as a whole rather than just his images and in particular the ones that are most famous. I like more than just Campbell’s soup cans. His films were interesting, as was his portraiture, if you extend the definition a bit. And even his print and copy work early in his career have worth. As for Haring, the thing that I must admit I find the most interesting is his ability to distil thought and situations into cartoonish images which allowed for a conversation about serious things in a non-threatening way. He used his art to open dialogue. But yes, the images are pretty sweet. My interests don’t start and end there though. Alexander Calder is a huge interest, as is Alexander Girard. I like a lot of other artists though, too.”
Derrick Carter – DEMF Vitamin Water Stage, 30 May by Elite Music Management
I’m very interested in the comment you made about Haring being able to communicate the serious in a non-threatening way. When I think about it I can form a link between his work and the music of Arthur Russell. There’s this sort of knowing innocence about them. Does art have any immediate influence on, say, house music?
“Hmmm… I wouldn’t want to go on record and start spouting my grand pontifications about connections between artists’ communiqués and the like. Like really, I can only speak for me. But I will say that the art I collect and the art I enjoy doesn’t have a lot to do with the music I like or create. In reality, not a lot does. It’s ‘hanging’ in its own specially curated space. Basically, I do what I do from a real point of feeling things. So when I make a track or create a mix I am trying to get to something, trying to communicate that something and hope that it doesn’t get lost in translation. Whereas, I think for me, the art I like presents on a different level. Not the same thing or even in the same ballpark. Different. Wholly. Maybe it helps to expand my emotional conscience, maybe it helps to allow me access to a different muse. Maybe…”
To somewhat tenuously connect this to your Fabric offering, what are you trying to communicate with the mix?
“I just could not be fucked to answer another ‘what was your first record?’ and ‘what’s your favourite club’ and ‘where do you like to play most’ interview question. Seriously. I can make up some stuff if it helps?
No, I’d rather we carried on talking about something that interests you.
“I like loads of things: furniture, design, cheese, love, dogs, people.”
Is fiction about music always slightly embarrassing? I find myself turned off by it but, conversely, I am, for the purpose of my degree, writing a series of stories loosely based on the lives of R&B stars.
“Hmmm… I don’t know.Truthfully, I’ve only ever read music based non-fiction, except for Trip City by Trevor Miller.”
Cajmere – Percolator (Derrick Carter Remix)
Or rather, is fictionalising something as vital and life-affirming as music slightly pointless?
“That’s hard to say, though a good story is always compelling in its own right. I think that something done well becomes its own unit of measure, so to speak. Though personally, I’m not sure I’d want to read about the life of an R&B star. Maybe it’s the subject matter that polarises? Maybe it’s the pre-conceived notions that exclude interest? But I’m sure that there is enough of a built-in audience and enough people that are ‘available’ to that subject matter.”
I was wondering about your views on Europe’s take on house and techno. The genres always have, and always will be, inextricably linked with the cities they were born in. I remember first coming across your name through hearing Dixon’s Body Language mix for Get Physical. Do you think there’s a definite European sonic aesthetic that would help you differentiate between a track from a Berlin-based producer and a Chicago one?
“Yes. I find that the Euro tracks often come from a sonic place and the US tracks often come from a place of feeling.”
The notion of ‘feeling’ in relation to this music has always intrigued me.
“To those that have been converted…it is a real thing. If you don’t understand it, it can be a bit alienating.”
I was thinking about it earlier, sometimes tracks like Mr Fingers’ ‘Can You Feel It’, or even your own ‘Where You At?’ feel like proclamations of identity. Would you agree with that?
“Not really. I don’t think that identity is the primary. Maybe the secondary or something.”
Derrick Carter – Where You At?
I think my identity thesis comes from studying American literature and focusing almost exclusively on the search for a definable American identity
“You won’t be able to find it until you get out and live amongst its peoples; the ‘can-do’ spirit, the ‘you ain’t the boss of me’ way of thinking, the ‘freedom is our birthright’ point of view. It’s something you won’t get reading about it in grey London. Just like I had to live there to really get a feeling for what passes. Standing on the outside, trying to figure out what going on, on the inside is never going to work.”
Unrelated, but I wanted to end with a bit of a fanboy-ish question in regards to Classic if that’s okay?
“Bring it!”
You put out Isolée’s ‘Beau Mot Plage’ way back in 1999. It’s regarded as one of the great microhouse tracks of all time. What did you think of the rise of Kompakt et al in 2003ish?
“I didn’t. Honestly, we were on our own trajectory. Just doing things we liked without concentrating on any real genres other than ‘shit we liked’. I thought it was a little underwhelming to listen to a whole night of it without any vocals or intensity. I will say this about the Fabric mix; any artist in any discipline always wants to do good work. And doing good work involves distilling a concept and summing it up for digestion by the world at large. Trying to make a statement and being radical are components of that. I want to blow your mind but I will settle for making your butt wiggle.”
Fabric56: Derrick Carter is out on March 7.
Derrick Carter plays the Stiff Kitten, Belfast on February 26.
www.derrickcarter.com
Comment