Kevin Hedge Interview
KEVIN: Not as much as one would think because my goal with a record company was not to make it a production label. I didn't want to turn West End Records into Blaze Records. I really wanted to find new talent and let them break. And some of the new talent is exciting, from Steal Vybe to Ian Friday to Manchild Black to even some of Chicago's finest, like DJ Pierre, have come through here. I'm excited to know that we put out music from those guys that helped their careers get going.
5 MAGAZINE: Do you scout for talent or do you find that they come to you now?
KEVIN: It depends. Sometimes you get solicited or sometimes you'll be in a nightclub, you're a DJ and people want their music exposed and bring it to you, and you hear it and go "Wow!"
5 MAGAZINE: That must be such a headache to have people always coming up to you, harassing you to play their music. How do you deal with that?
KEVIN: Well, I remember when I was them. That's what makes it wonderful. I really don't want the new producers trying to break in to have the same kind of struggle that I had when I would go to the Larry Levans or the big DJs of that time and try to at least speak to them. My goal is to make it easier for them.
5 MAGAZINE: I wanted to touch on a little bit about Blaze. How did you and Josh connect musically and who does what in terms of production?
KEVIN: Well Josh and I were introduced by the other partner in Blaze, Chris Herbert. We started recording in my bedroom. Literally, I would play drumbeat tracks off vinyl and Josh would sit there and play keyboards with the drumbeats. That's how we started. This was in 1984. From there it turned into wanting to emulate my heroes of the time which were Levan, Paul Simpson, Norman Harris, Earth, Wind & Fire. We just wanted to emulate our heroes.
5 MAGAZINE: Did you think you were going to blow up to be as big as you are now?
KEVIN: I don't care about that. I don't consider myself that big.
5 MAGAZINE: You are!
KEVIN: I don't think so! See, it's not my music. What myself and my partner Josh do... we're really just terminals. The music comes from the universe, from the cosmos. This is what we all really believe. And we just happen to be the terminal through which that music is passing. We're tools that the universe is using to present these messages, these lyrics, these melodies to the people. We're just the tools. We're not the creators of it. When we sit down to write, it's not like we're doing anything. We just allow our souls and minds to be open.
5 MAGAZINE: Why do you think people are drawn to remixes of R&B music?
KEVIN: This is going to be controversial but I'll let you have a little controversy! [laughs] I think because House Music is being produced by DJs first. When Josh and I came up, we came up during the "songwriters period". When you listen to the music of West End, Salsoul, Prelude - that's the music my teeth were cut on as far as dance music. All of that music is based on songs. So Josh and I grew up on a songwriters' aesthetic. If we were going to make a track, a song had to go with it.
Moving forward in time to when tracks became really popular - when Roger S., Pal Joey and those guys started to come through around '90, '91 - a lot of today's producers were bred from there. But I'm 40 years old now and bred from the time that songwriters played records.
You guys have it backwards when you guys were doing your thing with Chicago House. But "Promised Land" is a really great song! "You Used To Hold Me" is a really great song! Sin City made incredible songs!
I guess the worldwide exposure of House Music came because of the language barrier. See, if you made just a track, then the beat could move everybody around the world. If you were in Japan you didn't have to worry about understanding the lyrics. I believe that's why instrumental House music transitioned like that.
5 MAGAZINE: Like the tracky, jack music Chicago is so famous for? Do you like that style?
KEVIN: Of course, I played it back in the '80s! However the songwriting aesthetic has been moved out of it. You don't hear a lot of great songs.
So fast forward to now, with major labels - I think they're incredibly smart. They just put the acapella out for whoever wants to snatch it and use it. When you're doing a remix for a major label and you decide to bootleg it, you're really doing the major label the biggest favor. Because it's free promotion for them, for their artist, for their act.
Leela James was out for a long time. When Quentin [Harris] bootlegged the remix that he did (which was a great remix), it just made her more popular.
5 MAGAZINE: What about with Dreamgirls? When you first saw the movie or heard the soundtrack, did you immediately know what to do?
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