House music pioneer Kerri Chandler mixes Nightclubber 207
Kerri 'Kaoz' Chandler one of deep house music's originators, has been injecting soul into music since the early nineties.No one unites a club like Kerri Chandler. No one’s kick kicks harder. No one’s keys carry more emotion. No crowd reacts with more energy than when the New Jersey great is behind the decks.. His life-long obsession with sound makes him famously meticulous about the setups of the clubs he plays, and that always results in electrifying sets of soulful, authentic, positive house music. Chandler has unquestionably helped shape the house landscape, not only from the booth and the studio, but also as an A&R.
His Kaoz Theory label has worked with contemporary talents like Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler and The Martinez Brothers, while his influential MadHouse Records has just celebrated 25 years of agenda setting releases with a storytelling anniversary album. Proving he is at the vanguard of the scene are his critically acclaimed back-to-back sets with French protégé Jeremy Underground as Underground Kaoz at flagship festivals. His residency at the world famous DC10 and an ever full DJ diary that takes him on endless trips around the world are also testament to his on going vitality as an artist. We're overly excited to have him on with an exclusive mix to celebrate his last release on Kaoz Theory which you can listen here...
Hi Kerri, thanks for taking the time to talk to Nightclubber and deliver us this very special mix alongside your new release Lost & Found Vol.3. The record features a new interpretation of Let It (Give Me Back My Love) from your most recent ‘Spaces & Places’ album, this time with vocalist Abbie Lee. Could you tell us a little about how this new version came to be, how you ended up working with Abbie and how you reshaped the original composition?
I was browsing through Instagram, and I ran across Abbie’s page. She had used Let It, the instrumental, and was just singing over it, practicing and she started singing that song. I was like, whoa, did you actually do that song for real? Like, is that a real version you made up, or is it just something you’ve been messing around with? I told her that we need to really do a version like this. I'd love to actually have it, for the label. She said that she was going over to her friend's house, Stevie, to do some recording so she could try it. And I said, well, Stevie who? And she said, Stevie G. I said, you're kidding me, that's one of my closest friends. I had no idea she even knew him. So that did it. That actually worked out really well. When I went to Ireland, I met her and I hung out with Stevie and she performed it live at the club that night. The rest is history.
For those people who may be unfamiliar with the Lost & Found series on your Kaoz Theory label which is now onto its third volume with this release, could you explain what the concept is and where these tracks are coming from?
The concept comes from me digging back through my archives and I just saw and found a lot of DAT’s that had been missing for years or just some things that my friends had sent to me that I had forgotten that I’d made. Especially one that I’d made with my grandfather that made me really laugh, I hadn’t heard that song since I did it, I didn’t even realise there was still a recording of it. My friend Will pulled that one out and I talked out about so another friend of mine, Charisse, she told me she had a few more songs of mine like that that I gave her years ago to test out and that’s what started the entire series because there are things that I completely forgot or I just never finished or I just never thought about putting out until I heard them again and though wow these are pretty cool, and that’s where the series comes from.
The B2 cut ‘The Breeze’ sounds like a classic slice of 808 electro straight out of the late 80’s or early 80’s, was this produced on the classic Roland drum machine by yourself and do you know when this track was made exactly?
The Song The Breeze, I did back in 1998/1999 and it was the raw version, a version I came up with for Dee Dee Brave’s album. That song is called Feel The Breeze so the final one is actually on her album, but that was the rough draft I made up before it went to the album.
If you had to pick four pieces of equipment to continue to make music with for the rest of your eternity, what would they be?
Oh wow, four pieces, four instruments. Definitely my 909 is sitting on top that’s the one I can’t live without my 909, I can say the same thing for the 808 so those two definitely. My bass, my electric bass and my grand piano, thats all I need to make music.
Listen Nightclubber Podcast 207 by Kerri Chandler below