Don’t say we didn’t warn you: 2013 is The Return of The Housecat.
Interview : Dan Prince
Mr Stallings Jr, good to speak to you dude. The world is going crazy for you again!
“Hey Dan good to speak to you, it’s been a while. Yes things are all good again, I am finding all this attention really interesting to be honest, it’s a lot of fun after everything I have been through.”
Where in the world are you right now?
“I’m in London which is where I am based now, my wife is British and I feel very at home here.”
London’s club life is booming again, none more so than at Egg where you hold a residency…
“Man I have such a good vibe going on at that club, yeah Egg is amazing. I’m there like every six weeks and I love the room I play in – there’s nowhere to sit down and people just come for the music. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chicago and I love Detroit but I just feel I’m kinda phased out with what’s going over there at the moment. London is on another level right now and it feels like the city I came to for the first time all those years ago. I knew I had to come back here again and reinvent myself.”
Reinvent yourself again?
“For sure. Dan when I am not on this planet anymore I want to have left people something real. Musical books so to speak. I never like to repeat myself and I never like to make something that sounds like one of my other productions, that’s too easy and boring. I like pushing myself, that’s what I find fun. I have no idea how some of the artists out there simply clone their sound over and over, what is the point in that?”
So the EP has been tearing up dancefloors for a few weeks now. What was the idea behind the whole preacher vibe on ‘Sinner Winner’?
“I divide my time between London and Atlanta, a city down in the deep bible district. My mom always used to take me to church when I was kid but I was always confused about the whole religion thing, I felt it was so hypocritical – we all find ourselves sinning so how can anyone judge or preach to another? I was just a kid and I was being told you sin and you’ll go to hell, I was shittin’ it man. So back to the song. I had this idea of a preacher from the south stumbling into a party and encountering all of the music and the sexiness, grabbing the mic and start ranting before suddenly getting caught up in it and consumed in what we all do every weekend. I just thought it would be a whole lot of fun doing a really hyocritical song. My studio engineer thought I was crazy.”
And quite an inspired move getting Green Velvet on board with remix duties…
“Aww man I loved his ‘The Preacher Song’ so it all fitted in. I hit him up and sent the track over and he called me and said, ‘Felix, if I do this for you, you have to remix my new record’. He sent me the track and five hours later I sent him my remix. He couldn’t believe I’d turned it round so quick! And so I said to him, ‘so Curtis, where’s my remix man?’.”
I am loving ‘Give Me Body’, a proper camp workout that has been described as nestling somewhere between Daft Punk and Sylvester – and in your own words, “it’s not rocket science, but certainly rocket fuel.” Tell us about the track…
“I wanted to do something with disco from back in the day but with great production. Big room but not something obvious. I think it turned out pretty well…”
I was talking to a friend of mine over in the US who heard the music apparently before you had finished the EP?
“Yeah that’s true. A friend who I was working with asked me to give him the track to spin, but I told him it wasn’t finished yet but still gave him an edit to play out. He came back to me and told me that people were going crazy for it. I couldn’t figure that out so I took it along to Avalon in LA and people were losing their minds to it. I played it a few more times with the same result, people going mad for the same bits. So we put it out.”
A big year is unravelling for you, what can you tell us about the new album…
“It’s pretty much done, I’ve just gotta mix it. It’s a cross between Devin Dazzle and Maddkatt Courtship, it’s more me, more Felix. You can sit at home and listen to it or you can bang it out at a club.”
This is the first new music you have created in 4 years, a timeline where you basically have got sober and in your own words, ‘got in touch with my spirit’. So was there a low point, a breaking point where you had to lay off the mezcal…?
“It was my family in the end who stepped in and told me maybe I should go back to London and start over. When I looked in the mirror I didn’t recognise myself. Even my wife didn’t recognise me. I saw people taking my spot and I realised I needed some space. “
How bad did it get?
“I didn’t feel like me anymore. I was partying so hard, dancing with the devil, looking him in the eye and it started to scare the shit out of me.”
So how many of your 9 lives have you used up dude?
“Oh my god. I passed the 9 mark a long time ago Dan. Totally. People don’t realise how dangerous mezcal is, it’s like heroin, ecstasy and cocaine all rolled into one. I am not bullshitting here, I have tried everything and nothing comes near to that hallucinating shit. It is so unpredictable. I’d be drinking a bottle during my sets and I was getting more concerned with the party than the music. It was like some form of possession. I always said I wasn’t going to become that sort of guy, I wasn’t going to become a product of the whole clubbing environment. When I came over to the UK for the first time I wasn’t drinking at all, but when the success came everything just flew. I felt like I could walk on water – and then the mezcal came along. I couldn’t care less, my antics were getting out of control and I became a total mezcalateer. My DJing became psychedelic, more daring, more erratic. I didn’t give a fuck. It was like…here I am, take it or leave it.”
I have to admit I have never tried the stuff, what’s it like?
“Imagine jumping out of a plane with no parachute and not giving a fuck where you landed. If you landed in the bushes great, if you didn’t then that would be great too. You just don’t care.”
Didn’t anyone take you to one side and try and get you off it?
“Nobody ever came up to me no. I’m not naming names here Dan, but people were feeding the fire. I was on a roll on tour all the time which was winding me up both physically and mentally and combined with the drinking, well I was just off the rails. As I said, it was coming back to the UK that saved me. “
So you didn’t book into The Priory or anything?
“No I didn’t, I did it all on my own. I just drew a line under everything and got on with a clean life.”
Wowzer. I have DJ friends who can’t take to the decks without doing a line of coke before a gig, were nerves anything to do with drinking so much whilst DJing?
“Of course the mezcal eased my nerves, most of the time I wished I was somewhere else rather than in a club. But I am sober now and my DJing is so much better and I am finding it fun making music again. Nowadays promoters still offer me drinks and shit when I get to the club, but I’m like no way! My manager moves them away if he can see that scared look in my eye heh heh!”
Did you ever feel like packing in the music industry?
“Not ever. I am too focussed on my music. I’m too hungry now and if I did stop…the cheese machine wins.”
Ah I was going to ask you about that, the ol’ EDM movement taking over your home country…
“Well here’s the thing. I have no problem with EDM at all. That is their thing, just don’t try and get me involved. I see it as the circus that it is, it’s a whole money making business. People are marketing it very well, getting records to No. 1 and you cannot fault that. And there are a few credible people over there doing well, but there is also a movement starting with people trying to get out of that shit. There will always be a backlash to anything that is successful but I have always said if you stay true to your art you won’t sell out. I have never sold out and I don’t plan on doing so. I was just like, ok, see you later, I am getting out of here before you start to try and manipulate me.”
Were you surprised at the sudden success of dance music in America – I have just been over in deepest Florida on holiday and dude, it is everywhere! Even the crinklies have it on in their cars!
“Ha ha. Well look, dance music had a brief moment in the States in the early 90s but then it disappeared and places like Ibiza and Berlin were in vogue. What I do find sad about the EDM invasion is that it is being used and abused – unlike the movement which happened in Detroit, Chicago and New York. I just wish the music could be a bit more interesting.”
What are your plans for Ibiza this summer, you love it there…
“Yes I do. And before you ask me, yes Dan I do remember who was the first person who booked me for a gig in Ibiza – it was you at Pacha. A trip I will never forget for the good and the bad reasons.”
I booked you into a shit hotel if I remember rightly…
“Dan, it was in San Antonio in the middle of June and the room had a single bed, no air conditioning, no TV, no mini bar, no nothing. But the show at Pacha was incredible. In my opinion, the UK is two years ahead of the rest of the world – except for Ibiza which is seven years ahead of the rest of the world. America has still so much to learn – don’t even get me started on the VIP bottle service over there. Madness. As for Ibiza this summer, I’m just finalising the dates as we speak…”
We all enjoyed you on Radio One last month, it was the first ever live stream of the Radio 1 Essential Mix…how was that?
“Man that was a trip. I just had to get it out of my head that this was live to the world, which was kinda difficult with a camera in my face. I just had to jump in there and pump myself up, I tried to imagine I was back in Chicago and just do my own dirty thing. The first ten minutes were nerve wracking but then it was cool. Looking back I didn’t realize the magnitude of it all at first, I just thought it was an on line thing until my manger told me it was live and direct visually too.”
And finally, have you ever gone back to that pizza place you used to work at? I would have gone back and bought the shop!
“Ha ha ha ha! No way! But now that you have said that, you’ve given me an idea for a new song…”
FELIX DA HOUSECAT – ‘SINNER WINNER’ EP.
Sinner Winner/Give Me Body/Sinner Winner (Green Velvet Remix)
Sinner Winner – Green Velvet Remix – Beatport Exclusive – http://www.beatport.com/release/sinner-winner/1056489
http://www.beatport.com/release/sinner-winner/1056490
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/sinner-winner-single/id614403221
Out now via No Shame/Rude Photo
Felix Forthcoming Tour Dates – More TBC
April 12th – Bar Rouge, Shanghai, China
April 13th – Galas, Hong Kong
April 19th – Magazini Generali, Milan, Italy
April 20th – Belgrade Arena, Belgrade, Serbia
April 27th – Music Conf Asia, Sepang, Malaysia
May 17th – Rude Photo, EGG, London, UK
May 18th – Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh, Scotland
June 16th – Spring Awakening, Chicago, USA
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