ONE OF THE MOST accomplished DJs and producers of House Music's "second wave" of the 1990s, Gene Farris picked up himself and his Farris Wheel Recordings imprint last October and returned to Chicago, the city of his birth and the the city that propels his distinctive sound. Personal preferences may have compelled the return, but to hear it, it's like he never really left. Farris Wheel always billed itself as a "Chicago house music label in Amsterdam", and Gene is more eager than ever to take his label - and the distinctive sound of Chicago House - to the next level.

You lived in Holland for the last four years. Why did you move there, and what made you decide to return?

I moved overseas because I just needed change at the moment, and to put my foot in the game. I'd been DJing over there since the early 1990s - '93 or '94 - so I already had a lot of connections. I also had a management company over there called Elite Music Management that handles me in Europe, Australia, Asia, places like that.

I learned a lot there. Dance music and what we do is on a much bigger scale - most people who don't have the opportunity to travel overseas to DJ on a regular basis can't see that perspective. It's definitely more of a business over there. It's much more mainstream. You see a lot of Hip-Hop videos there too, obviously, but it's a lot more regional - UK, Holland and Germany all have their own regional artists. And you see a lot more dance music than anything. It's overloaded on all of the networks over there.

Why did I move back? Well, my mom's getting a little bit older, and I decided I wanted to be a little closer to family. And Chicago's not that bad! With the four years in Europe, I look at it as a college term. It was time to come home and bring a little bit of what I've learned back to Chicago.

You were born here in Chicago? What was your family like life?

I was born here on the Southside of Chicago, on the South Shore. My dad passed away when I was nine years old, but my mom's like my best friend. I'm the youngest of three. I have an older sister who's a cop, my brother's a doctor and I'm a DJ. It's a tough act to follow around here, that's for sure, but my mom was always really supportive of my music.

I went to Catholic schools for most of my life. I met some interesting people in high school, I'll tell you that. I met Ron Trent in high school in Hyde Park. DJ Boris is also a good friend of mine - he did some stuff on Relief - and we went to high school together. Mike Dearborn and I went to high school together - De La Salle. I was a triple letterman - basketball, football and bowling. I had to get that third letter for the chicks! It's an all boys school, so you had to try to stand out!

I met Boo Williams when he used to DJ at parties for my high school. Gene Hunt - all of these guys. I was DJing toward the end of high school at the Powerhouse. I was always the youngest so I was going to class in the daytime and was hanging around with these legends at the Powerhouse later. It's funny looking at it now.

After that, I went away to college for a couple of years in North Carolina and majored in business. I just realized I wanted to come back and be a DJ.

Do you remember the first time DJing?

The first time I ever put two records together, I was 11 years old. The first time I ever played out at a club, I was 18. The first place I had a full-blown residency was the Powerhouse with me and Ron Carroll and DJ Rush in... well, the first poster I see in my room here is 1990. I'd say that sounds about right. Boo Williams played there, Terry Hunter... I lot of people I'm still friends with. I don't have any problems with any DJ in the city - I can definitely say that. All of the Chicago DJs are like family. It's one of the things I'm proud of about Chicago. There's so much senseless bickering in other cities, other countries. It's not really like that here. We have small little things, but for the most part, the more well-known DJs all get along very well and have a lot of respect for each other.

Chicago is a city with people who have mad, mad talent, mad skills. The melting pot of talent we have here is bigger than any other city in the world. Any other DJ that I can think of in Chicago could move to any other country in the world and become a star. It's a fact. From the first generation - Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy (RIP) and Andre Hatchett and Pharris Thomas and Armando (RIP) and Pierre. Then the second generation which is like myself, Sneak, Paul Johnson, Boo Williams, Glenn Underground, Mark Farina, Derrick Carter, Spencer Kinsey, Green Velvet leading the charge. And now we have the third generation, with Greenskeepers, Gant-Man, Sound Republic, Bryan Jones - it just keeps going on and on and on. Talentwise? We have one of the biggest talent pools in the world.

You may not agree with this, but your name was usually cited with Mark Farina, Sneak - even back to Frankie - of Chicago House Music artists that left Chicago and then blew up. Why do you think that is?

It goes back to what I said - there's so much talent here that some really good guys get overlooked. Any one of us could go overseas and become a rockstar. I went over to Europe and blew my name up just from living there for four years, but that wasn't half as challenging as closing after Derrick Carter at my Zentra party. I mean, I'm closing after Derrick - I was way more afraid of that than any party I ever played in Europe!

There are so many folks that had to leave to get the recognition because the pool is so deep here. I wouldn't put myself in that category, though - I felt that I left with my name on a high note. I was just searching for the next level - that was my main motivation for moving overseas. I was like, "Okay, I've done my thing in Chicago, and by playing all of these gigs, everyone and their momma knows who I am, from 15 year olds to 40 year olds. Now I need to challenge myself, move outside of the country and see what I've got and roll with the big dogs while representing Chicago at the same time."

Did you start Farris Wheel Recordings over there or over here?

Farris Wheel's been going on since 1998, so that was when I was still in Chicago. We're still around, and that longevity is something I'm proud of. We're still doing vinyl, too. Obviously we've gone digital along with everyone else, but we still offer vinyl to our customers and consumers. Staying in the game was tough but I plan on being around for awhile.

We have a lot of awesome stuff coming out right now. Bryan Jones did a record for us that came out a little while ago, Dutchmasters EP, Funky Transport's "Shake It" with the Derrick Carter remixes. We just dropped The Soul Sessions EP which is three guys from Holland that do really deep, warm and soulful House Music. The EP's gotten a lot of good reviews and licensing offers from Spain, Germany and from France as well. Now we have the Visions of the Future record - I don't know if you remember that one from back in the day. It did really well and we did some remixes with Roy Davis, Jr. and Fabio Bacchini [see review in this issue -Ed.] We have another Funky Transport record coming out after that with a Brett Johnson remix, and something from Greenskeepers with a Derrick Carter remix.

Is House Music any different as you hear it in Chicago as it was four years earlier? What do you think of some of the general trends?

For Chicago House Music artists - myself included - I strongly believe that we have to innovate. Chicago's always been known for its innovation in music. Everybody right now is on the West Coast tip. I love it - I've released things on OM and labels like that and I love them. But at the same time, I think Chicago has to find its own sound again and stop attempting to copy that West Coast sound. Derrick Carter's been making that sound on his own for years, way before OM even existed - but a lot of the newer guys are kind of mimicking it. I feel we need to refine our sound.

Stacy Kidd - I take my hat off to him. He's always stuck to his guns and kept that Chicago sound going. Also people like Paul Johnson. Then there's Glenn Underground and Boo Williams - that's the deep sound of Chicago, the deep soulful sound. And Green Velvet of course. I take my hat off to Caj and all of these guys because those are the true "Chicago sound" people. Not to take anything away from new producers - I love every single one of our artists. I just think that some of the newer guys are moving in a West Coast direction and I really would like them to see the city that they're in and the innovation they have right in their own backyard.

What about the business of music? When Farris Wheel began, it must have been entirely based on vinyl.

With the way the industry is going, we're going to have to step up. Vinyl's going to be gone soon - that's the reality of the way things go. Within the next 10 to 15 years, there won't be vinyl, but God willing I hope there's still House Music! We're a small industry - much smaller than Hip-Hop, meaning we don't have two billion consumers. We have to be an industry that steps up and supports our artists, buys tracks online to the artists and labels that deserve the money.