Gene Hunt Interview
GENE: Something I learned back in the day is that if you play a record and clear a dancefloor, don't worry - the chances are that you're just familiarizing your audience with something new. Don't just give them everything, because you won't be teaching them anything - you'll be a jukebox, not a DJ. A DJ is a person that's going to experiment. He's going to take a record and play it two or three times in a night and next month it'll a hit. Now everybody's playing it because we made the record hot.
"It's not about playing for your DJ buddies. You're trying to impress the audience that's coming out, and you're trying to get that therapeutic rhythm in their mind to let them forget about their problems."
I'm playin' 21 years in the game now. I can't only play the stuff that I was playing when I was 15 years old. I have to move with the times. Here's the thing, though. I have the old audience that's familiar with what I used to play but also a whole new crowd of people that's never heard the stuff I used to play. Now I can take all of that and make myself a nice vegetable stew of music. I can play some songs from back in the '70s. "Hey Gene, what's that track?" Dude, this is older than you! But I'm glad that you like it because it's fresh and new to your ears like it was to mine when you were a child. But I'm still around and now that you're old enough to get into a club, let me teach you and give you a little more than what you're used to.
That's what educating is all about. That's what all of life is about - educating one another, cultivating one another as a people, regardless of race, gender or creed. If we work together musically, we can generate a creative rhythm that's always evolving. This is bigger than all of us and we have to approach it without politics or ego - just for the love of the game.
And it's not about playing for your DJ buddies - you're not trying to impress them. You're trying to impress the audience that's coming out, and you're trying to get that therapeutic rhythm in their mind to let them forget about their problems with their job or their relationship or their finances. "Last night a DJ saved my life." That's true! I've had people say, "Gene, I was really having a bad day man, but thank you for playing my song. Now I can get a good night's rest. I'm thinking clearly now." I had people that were on the verge of committing suicide at certain times when we played back in the day. "I'm thinking about ending my life." C'mon, man - let's hang out, let me get you a drink. I'll play the music for you and give you a reason to live.
5: Wow. How does that make you feel?
GENE: It's a blessing from God and something that I don't take for granted. Remember, I'm a single parent father, I have a 13 year old son and an 11 year old daughter, so I'm both the dad and the mom. Add being a DJ, trying to help some of the young brothers, being a good parent, helping them with their homework... Obviously it's a big responsibility but this keeps me going every day. My job is to inspire and to teach.
People come up to me and say, "Gene, you really inspired me tonight" - that's a blessing from God. I'm humble and I appreciate that and give thanks. If you're true to House Music, House Music will be true to you.
5: Last year you won the Global Mixx Award as the best House Music DJ. It was actually called the Ron Hardy Award.
GENE: Yes, I was nominated with Louie Vega, Marques Wyatt, DJ Heather and Andre Hatchett. It was at the Park West and the awards were given away by Method Man and Ludacris. I got a call that I was nominated and I was absolutely honored, but for some strange reason I counted myself out. At the actual ceremony, I was sitting down eating, and they had screens where they were broadcasting. I was eating some chicken, and they announce, "And the winner is..." And they called my name! I'm sitting next to Terry Hunter, Mike Dunn and K-Alexi. They're like "He won! He won!" I had to quickly swallow what I was eating. [laughs] I gave my little speech and took my award, but I was honored. I didn't expect it, it was an absolute blessing, especially as it's named after someone that I hold in such high regard.
5: I wanted to ask you about a release you did on Rucksack a few months back, as it's one of my favorite obscure record labels. Where did the track with Ron Hardy come from? Did you save it all these years?
GENE: "Throwback 87" - that was a track that Ron and I made in my bedroom in 1987. We put the drum machine and a Juno-106 on top of the bed. I stumbled across the reels one day. I sent Rucksack something new that I made, and included "Throwback" and said, "Check this out, this is something that me and Ron did back in the day."
It was very basic, but it was a killer on the dancefloor. Ron would drink his Coca-Cola and turn the knobs while I programmed the drums. We played it at the Music Box one night and they went bananas.
5: What do you have coming up for the future?
GENE: I'm trying to finish up all the stuff for this year. I'm working with Kenny Dope and other guys that I've had goals to work with for some time. That's a part of reinventing Gene Hunt, not just as a DJ but on a recording artist level. I'm trying to put Gene Hunt in another category, because there's still more space left in my career to grow.
Another aspiration I have is to open up a club here, but with a different focus. I want to make it a House artist museum, with live painting and sculptures. You'll be able to learn about House Music in the day and during the night you'll get a total education of where it came from and an idea of where it's going to go. I see House Music going to another level. This is the best time to be involved.
Back on the production side, I just finished working with Robert Owens when he came to town. I'm officially on Kenny Dope's label Dope Wax now. Louie Vega included a song of mine on his mix CD for Defected - the song is coming out later on Dope Wax. I'm on Jojo Flores' GotSoul label. I'm also doing some stuff on a label called Little Angel, a division of the Club Star label from Germany. I just did an album for them called In Sound.
I'm also starting my own label, Jestin Records - my daughter's name is Jessica, my son's name is Justin, so I put their names together, and their handprints are the logo. It's going to be a Chicago-based label. It's the first label I've started in my life and I've lined up some pretty good distribution. My first project is called "Tribute". I'm working with guys like Derrick Carter, Farley, Chip E., Kenny Dope, Theo Parrish, Roy Davis, Paul Johnson... I'm dedicating a track to them as they influenced me, then I'm sending them the track to remix. Altogether there will be about 15 tracks on it. It'll be a double CD, and then I'm going to do 12 inch releases of each for the DJs. I'll give you the scoop on that when it drops.
I have some tracks out on a label called Philosophy, and I did an album for Unified Records here in Chicago called Seasoned and it has some bangin' beats and vocals. That project will be coming out close to March and the Winter Music Conference too.
Gene Hunt appears at more guest spots and residencies than you can think of. Get the latest on his schedule and upcoming releases at myspace.com/genehuntmusicianorg.
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