Michael Serafini Interview
Boom Boom Room Resident + the New Owner of Gramaphone
by Jeremiah Seraphine | Published January 2008 | Features Archives

FOR THE HOUSE MUSIC faithful there are few places on the planet more sacred than Gramaphone Records. For decades it has been the source from which Chicago's House sound has flowed. Luminaries such as Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak, Ralphie Rosario, DJ Heather, and Colette began their careers behind the counter at "G-phone." Globetrotting out-of-towners typically demand that their handlers bring them to the hallowed ground on Clark Street before food, rest, or the much needed Buddha session.

Last month the announcement was made that Joe and Carl, Gramaphone's owners, would pass the business to one of the store's managers: Michael Serafini. Michael Serafini, a top notch DJ and beloved figure in Chicago's House Music community is now the new high priest of the record bins, and is in a position to drop knowledge about the state of Chicago House Music because he is also in a place where he can help determine its future.

Between his residency at one of Chicago's most revered House nights, the Boom Boom Room; an 11 year old residency Tuesday nights at Cocktail; frequent guest spots around the city; and his new responsibilities as the owner of Gramaphone, Michael Serafini is difficult to pin down. In order to have a word with him, I had to meet him in the back room at Gramaphone. With the workings of a record store swirling around us we eeked out the following interview.

MICHAEL SERAFINI: Joe and Carl wanted somebody to take over the business to keep Gramaphone alive. The needed someone to do the things that need to be done, which means you have to be a social person. You have to be nice to customers and interact with them. You have to be knowledgeable about many types of music. You need to have some stability and foresight. I guess I am that person.

5: Were you surprised?

MICHAEL: It was surprising to me. I mean my reason for working at Gramaphone were like everybody else's: we love House or electronic music and we want to use it. Gramaphone is an icon in this city and in the industry. And it is a place to network. One of the good things about it is that it is a business but it has always fostered people to be creative and use it as a platform to further their career.

5: Where are you from?

MICHAEL: I'm from Chicago, from the Southside. I grew up in Bridgeport and by Midway Airport.

5: How did you get into DJing?

MICHAEL: I dabbled in it starting in the '80s, back in '88 or '87 but I didn't start DJing in a club until '93. I started by playing music videos well before I started playing records. You used to be able to mix videos. You'd play different styles but match BPMs.

5: When did you do that?

MICHAEL: Back in '91.

5: What got you into video mixing?

MICHAEL: It was the music scene. I mean I liked music a lot but I wasn't necessarily trying to be a House DJ at the time even though I loved House music. I used to go out and dance to it. I actually got hooked up at this bar up on Halsted Street called Christopher Street playing videos at their video bar. I then networked with a couple people who worked at Berlin.

At that time at Berlin we used to play comedy videos along with music videos. That was kind of what was going on at the time. We'd sometimes mix records for things that didn't have videos. Then after a while the music video business started sucking. It was in the late '90s - at least for dance music. There just weren't a lot of cool cutting edge videos for dance songs so we got more and more into playing records. I got to practice more and more and do my thing. I got a following there. They really liked me and I was able to have them suffer through all my bad mixes for years until I got good. It kind of went from there and after a few years Berlin really blew up, especially when Ralphie [Rosario] started playing there with me. We had a couple really big nights there. Thursday night was called Foundation and went from '94 until they let me go in 2002.

5: When did you start at Gramaphone?

MICHAEL: In 1993 and '94ish. I was only working a couple nights a week. I was working at Best Buy as the supervisor in the music department. I worked there full time while working here [Gramaphone]. Best Buy at that time was like Tower and Virgin where the music buyers bought the music for the store. They weren't centralized like Walmart. They changed their policy a few years down the line to where the music was bought at first by a regional person and then the corporate offices. Soon they didn't stock imports or anything that pertained to the local area. We just got the generic major label crap. That's when I decided I didn't want to be there anymore. At that time I was working here part-time too and started to ease my way in.

At first I was pretty much just a person who worked at the counter. Back in those days you worked at the counter all day, your entire shift. After being there a few years, Keith Ware, who was the "club" buyer, which pertained to the more gay-oriented dance music, quit. They needed somebody to take over that small section of buying and I took it over. Because I was a manager at Best Buy I tried to be a manager of receiving product at the store. I was taking care of returns and receiving product. But Gramaphone is Gramaphone so there wasn't a lot of structure. Everybody kind of did everything. So they would just joke and call me the backroom manager for years, making fun of me.

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