Just as the April 2014 edition of Tilllate Magazine was being released we heard the very sad news that Frankie Knuckles, the iconic Chicago-based house DJ, has passed away aged just 59. We paid tribute to this legend by featuring an interview he gave for the cover feature of DMR (Dance Music Report) in NYC back in April 1991. The feature was written by Andy Reynolds, who contacted Tilllate Magazine shortly after the sad news broke and offered us the chance to exclusively re-produce this feature…
DMR (Dance Music Report) cover story, April 17 – 30, 1991, NYC…
This is most definitely not Frankie Knuckles’ first interview. He is the most popular DJ in the world. He DJs at one of the best nightclubs in the world: Sound Factory. “The Whistle Song” – the first single off his Beyond the Mix album – has hit No.1 positions on radio and club charts across Europe and is getting pop airplay on the top station in New York – Hot97. Frankie’s a popular boy. Especially with me. I’m at Sound Factory at 3:30 every Saturday night – other clubs simply don’t enter the picture. Sound Factory is about dancing, sweating, and working out whatever needs to be worked out right there on the dancefloor – Sound Factory is therapy. Frankie and I talked about Sound Factory, his music, and his album.
So how do you choose what you play at Sound Factory?
Vocals are really important to me – good voices, good vocals, good lyrics – as well as the music and rhythms that go underneath them. Sometimes it can be a song that just has a good rhythm to it. I try to stay away from a lot of nonsensical music – songs with samples that have been used, used, and overused. To me, there’s nothing that’s that exciting about playing a bunch of records like that throughout the evening. There are a couple that I will play – that (I) know automatically will work well – but I generally try to break up the evening.
When you get your crowd up to a peak, what’s that like for your up in the booth?
It’s crazy. I never really get a chance to focus in on it because when I do get the room going like that there’s a ton of people that try to rush the booth at the same time. It breaks my concentration up.
People have to realize that you have to concentrate!
Well, on the average, people don’t. And I’m not just talking about people that are hanging out. I mean industry people. They have to be in that booth and they always have something they got to say while I’m trying really hard to feed off the energy that’s coming back from everybody on the dancefloor. When the room starts taking off, I don’t know, I guess a lot of people feel that they need to be right there…
They need to be on that dancefloor. They don’t need to be in the booth!
I agree with you there, but I think they feel the need to be in that booth where all that energy is coming from.
How do you decide where to go from a peak?
That’s generally instinct. That depends – I have to pace myself considering that the fact that I’m playing eleven to twelve hours. I try not to wear everybody out early. I build it up to a certain peak and then I try to change directions a little bit here and there without dragging everybody’s energy level down. When I change directions it’s to give people a chance to catch up with themselves so they don’t wear themselves out too early and say, “well, I can’t take it anymore,” and then before you know it they’re all out of there and the room would be empty by six o’clock. It’s like teasing them, you know, but I just like to keep the relationship lasting between the audience and me.
Is that a long night for you?
It’s definitely a long night that actually starts going by pretty quickly – especially between the hours of three and eight in the morning – those hours generally fly by.
How do you feel out the crowd when it’s around 9:00?
I can tell the audience that’s there is generally feeling a lot more physical – people hanging on one another, dancing in one another’s arms, playing with each other like that – it’s kind of a romantic kind of thing and I’ll try and play on that for a while. Sort of sleazy rhythms, but not sleazy songs.
We asked him a bit about his album, Beyond The Mix. The project was produced by Frankie, John Poppa, Eric Kupper and Danny Maden. Appearing are the notable talents of David Morales, Peter “Ski” Schwartz, Shelton Becton, Lisa Michaelis, Roberta Gillian and Paul Shapiro.
How do you feel about your first single, The Whistle Song, a very underground record, being added first at Hot97, New York’s No.1 pop station?
I’m really shocked, I’m going to tell you. Everybody knows that the music on the underground club scene is for the most part instrumental. My whole perception of “The Whistle Song,” when me and Eric (Kupper) were working on it, was to make it very underground – (something) afterhours and underground clubs could really relate to. On a commercial level they said it’s a nice instrumental, but that’s all it is. [Laughs] Well, I mean [laughs], they’ve definitely blown my mind – being number fourteen on the pop charts in England, and it’s number two or number one on most of the radio stations over there. It’s really kind of scary. It’s great, but I never looked at it as being a pop record! Not at all, not in the least – and for it to be the first single off the album and for it to go pop, that’s an amazing thing.
On the album I really like The Right Thing – now that’s a pop song!
[Laughs] I get tickled from everybody that has gotten copies of the album and that have listened to it, you know… The thing that I was scared about the most about this album was being able to develop something that Virgin wouldn’t be afraid to get behind. I figured if I gave them three songs on that album that could work well for radio, then the rest of the album could be pretty much a piece of cake, because I can do enough club stuff that will work really well for the clubs, and they’ll have three songs on the album that they can pull for radio. As it stands they can’t make up their minds, you know [laughs], they can pull almost any track off the album, you know, according to them (and work it) for radio, which is really a nice feeling – that they feel that strongly about it.
What do you look for in a mix of your own work? And how do you feel about other people mixing your work?
I don’t know, I’ve never had anything of my own mixed by somebody before – other than David (Morales). I know David’s work and I know his approach, I never preconceive anything where he’s concerned, I’m always surprised by anything he does. With this album I’m going to have an opportunity to have some other people come in and mix things. There’s a number of people I want to have mix different songs off the album – Bobby Konders, Pal Joey, Tee Scott, David Todd – people that I have a lot of respect for. I want them to be able to play around with some of this stuff. I never thought that this album would warrant this much importance – that people would be calling way in advance to try and get mixes on the album. It’s one thing to be a producer and a remixer, but it’s another thing to be a producer slash artist, and then the responsibility of deciding who’s going to mix your stuff is resting in your lap – a bit different.
And lastly, what is your favorite remix that you’ve done?
Favorite record remixed to date would probably be The Pressure by Sounds of Blackness. I’d like to think that of all the records that I’ve ever mixed, that’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done.
Frankie can be heard every Saturday at Sound Factory (New York) – 1 am until 12pm. Some advice on your first visit to Sound Factory from Frankie: “If I have friends who are coming from out of town, I tell them, look, go out Saturday, have a good time running around the city taking things in, then lay down and take a nap and don’t get up until about 2 or 3 in the morning. I tell people to get there around anytime between 2:30 and 3:30, from that point on.
About the author:
At the time this interview of Frankie Knuckles was published, author Andy Reynolds was the Creative Director/Editor of US dance trade, DMR (Dance Music Report), co-owned by Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Entertainment and Vince Pellegrino of Pellegrino Promotions. Subsequently, Reynolds worked for several dance labels including West End Records (owned by Paradise Garage financial backer, Mel Cheren), where he served as general manager from 1999 – 2002. He is now a book and music publicist and can be reached at .
https://readymag.com/57226
