The coolest cat in clubland
Felix is regarded as a member of the second wave of Chicago house. He entered the dance music elite not only via his recordings under a number of aliases, including Thee Maddkatt Courtship, Aphrohead and Sharkimaxx, but also for his ownership of Radikal Fear Records, one of the premiere Chicago labels of the 1990s.
I was the promoter who first took him out to DJ in Ibiza and as always, he blew the roof off. His sets are so unpredictable but at the same time will always give you goosebumps as a smile spreads across your face and your hands reach skywards…
Well here we are again young man. The first time we met you wobbled off a plane in Ibiza in 1998 to play at my own club night at Pacha…
“Dan Prince, you changed my world with that trip – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, why it took me so long to get there I will never know. What a place.”
Do you remember what happened in your hotel room that week?
“How could I forget, we had an after party in my room after you took us to Amnesia and some after-hours bar in the middle of nowhere and the next thing I knew some lunatic of a girl was coming at me with a knife and threatening to jump off my balcony to try to kill someone walking down below. Welcome to Ibiza, but the gig was off the wall, I had never seen a crowd like it.”
So where are you now?
“I’m sitting with Mixmag’s Ralph Moore in Bloomsbury, London, looks like your interview is gonna hit the market first dude. We were just discussing the whole Michael Jackson story, everyone knows I am a huge Prince fan and although I had never seen Michael live, he was big in my life before Prince. Such a tragedy, when the news was confirmed 100% I just sat there and cried.”
Why are you in London, promoting the new album?
“No, I’ve been gigging in Europe and I was planning to fly back to the States, but Dan, I am just exhausted so I just decided to take some time out and chill in my favourite city in the world.”
Okay cool. The new album ‘He Was King’ is out at the end of August, the first release ‘Elvis’ out this week – what can we expect from the album?
“Well this isn’t a concept album at all. Basically after ‘Virgo Blaktro and the Movie Disco’ album in 2007 I was just so unhappy. It wasn’t me. With ‘He Was King’ I’m going back to my roots, making it sexy again, good noises coming out, just a great album. Hey, I tried something different with the last album, it didn’t work. I am now back in hungry mode and this album is back where I was at. Kick drums, melodic stuff, angelic voices…real spooky music. People thought I’d lost the plot after my last artist album ‘Virgo Blaktro and The Movie Disco’ which was a concept album centred on the revival of the 70s and 80s black music. I was just experimenting you know. It was the first record I’d done with black folks, but to me it wasn’t about a colour thing, it was more like a roots thing. With that album I wanted to go Parliament, I wanted to go Prince, and at the same time I wanted to go like George Michael and Pet Shop Boys, only them being black. So I suppose the new album is a sort of comeback for me, I am very excited about it.”
So a Chicago man through and through, you began your musical adventure as a graffiti artist. Ever get arrested?
“Nope, I was more of a suburban graffiti kid, low key stuff, nothing hardcore.”
What music were you buying / listening to in the mid 80s that influenced the musical direction you took?
“Well everyone knows I adore Prince & The Revolution, Duran Duran, The Pet Shop Boys, Nitzer Ebb, Jamie Principle, Marshall Jefferson, DJ Pierre, Ron Hardy – I was in musical heaven back then.”
So a chance introduction to DJ Pierre in your early teens gave you your first break, what’s the story here and how important in your career has he been?
“Ha, Dan, funnily enough he just texted me to ask me if I knew we were on the same bill at ‘We Love…Space on Sundays’ next week. He has obviously been pivotal to where I am now. I cannot wait for next Sunday, the ‘We Love’ guys are like family to me. It really is the best club in the world. When everyone sort of banned me from their clubs a few years ago, Darren Hughes and his team stuck by me and let me do what I do, they knew I was going through an experiment stage, but let me get on with it.”
Why is it so good?
“It really doesn’t get better for a DJ. When I started to play the club, ‘We Love’ said ‘Felix you are going to finish the night off. You have the 4am-6am slot.’ I nicknamed it The Zombie Room before I started it because I was unsure what was coming my way. But oh my god! Packed every time, fabulous crowd who let me do my thing, I was vibing with the crowd on the mic when they let me because the cheering was so loud- the people on the dancefloor and promoting the night really look after me.”
You now live in Atlanta – do you miss anything about Chicago?
“I miss the whole spirit of 1983 – 1989 in Chicago. Not going to lie. Hanging with my friends, family and stuff, but you know, if you would have asked me a different question, do I miss anything about London well there would have been a completely different answer. London made Felix Da Housecat. As for Atlanta, well I was travelling around Europe so much so I needed to be as far East as possible. Also, where I live everyone looks after each other, we check each other’s back’s. I have a ten year old daughter living in Chicago so I couldn’t relocate completely. Atlanta isn’t like Chicago where it’s every man for himself.”
You released your first record ‘Phantasy Girl’ then gave up House music for a while whilst at Alabama State University where you studied media and communication – what were you aiming to do with your diploma?
“Well it’s fair to say my parents were quite religious and disapproved of my growing interest in the club scene. I had to choose a subject to study and media and communication was the closest I could get to music, well it satisfied my parents. If it wasn’t for my parents, I would have been on a plane a lot sooner to London. They never knew what I was getting up to, skipping school, making music, flying to the UK so young. When I returned home at the age of 17, I just buried myself in the studio for a month making music and then thought, shit this is the time – and I said to my mom and pa, “I’m outee”. To this day, my family don’t have a clue what I really do and how much love there is out there and how many millions of records I’ve sold. My father has heard ‘Phantasy Girl’ but that’s it – but I like it that way, I do what I do and they do what they do.”
What are the big tunes you are playing at the moment?
“Obviously I’m gonna mention my track ‘Elvis’ which is going off the radar. Also, I’m loving the Armand Van Helden and A-Trak Duck Sauce collaboration, ‘Anyway’/’You’re Nasty’ is one of the records of the summer. ‘Jence’ from Digitilism also gave me this brilliant White Label last weekend which I can’t get enough of.”
Your DJing style is very eclectic, you never know what you’re going to throw into the ring – do you put that down to the across the board music you threw yourself into in your teenager years, listening to anything from Prince to Gang Starr to A Tribe Called Quest?
“I used to listen to anything back then. I totally immersed myself into music. But you know Dan, I was spinning R&B and Hip Hop for ages and it wasn’t until I was 19 when DJ Pierre introduced me to House music that things began to change. He took me back in the studio and along to some of his gigs and I couldn’t believe how big House music was out there. But what got me converted was how easy it was to mix, I thought ‘I can do this, it’s so much easier than R&B and Hip Hop’. So I rolled with it and put my own influences into my sets – it was fun and my production went wild. I was making a track every hour some days and putting out a record every single week.”
What are the best clubs and festivals you have played at this year?
“Well the festival season for me is just starting. ‘T In The Park’ up in Scotland was really good though. The best club, as always, is ‘We Love…Sundays at Space in Ibiza – they are like a second family to me, they really look after me. Promoter Darren Hughes asked me what slot I wanted as one of their island exclusive residents – I said ‘give me 4am-6am finishing things off’. I’ve nicknamed my room The Zombie Room, but you know, that room is still heaving at that time of the morning. I really vibe up the crowd, get on the microphone, I feel like I am at home when I get into that DJ booth.”
What is the best record you’ve received in the last 7 days?
“Gotta go back to the Armand/A-Trak Duck Sauce thing, I don’t think they know how crossover the stuff they are doing actually is, it’s gonna blow up.”
How would you describe the way your musical sound has changed or evolved in the last 20 years?
“Oh it’s changed, it’s changed! I continue to grow all the time spreading the message. I started off with Filtered House, then I did my Bleepy Techno afro head stint, the mid 90s saw me bringing in the 80s influences that I was the only DJ doing at the time, I went through the whole commercial Electroclash phase and now I just play what I feel, it’s all good.”
A few years ago you collaborated with P Diddy, did some parties with him – is he as bling as the press makes out?
“He’s a good guy y’know Dan. A good guy to work with. The whole bling thing is just part of his persona acting up. When you get to know him he’s cool, what you see is what you get, he really is down to earth. And also, if there’s something he can’t do for you, he’ll tell you as it is being totally honest. He’s a great friend.”
Some great gigs coming up around the world – Portugal, Dresden, Barcelona, Atlanta, Amsterdam, Montreal, Los Angeles, Las Vegas – which city has the greatest, craziest clubbers?
“Geez, have you swallowed my diary, you know more than me! Honestly, everywhere I go is crazy, there are insane people on the dancefloor all over the world following me about. I could be in some small town in Dallas or a huge superclub in Las Vegas and it’s all the same, chaos out there…”
You have remixed the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, Gwen Stefani and Britney Spears – what has been your finest remix to date?
“Well I’m not sure if finest remix, but proudest moment was without doubt the moment Giorgio Moroder got on the phone to me and asked me to do some remix work with him. I am such a fan, it can’t get any better than that.”
Next from Felix?
“My next album coming out soon is the Lectro Black album ‘Last Train To Paris’ that I made with Diddy, that’ll be out real soon. Other than that, just trying to get my head together and get some sort of sanity back in my life!”
And finally, what is the best ever record to come out of Chicago?
“Wow, what a beautiful question. I can’t just choose one. Take your pick from ‘Can You Feel It’ by Larry Heard, ‘Promised Land’ Joe Smooth, ‘Devotion’ Ten City and ‘Your Love’ Frankie Knuckles.”
