Wayne Williams Interview
WAYNE WILLIAMS: I started DJing in 1974. I was playing way before the Warehouse came about. The first time I went to the Warehouse, Robert Williams was DJing. Frankie [Knuckles] wasn't even in Chicago yet. There weren't a lot of people there, the music wasn't that good and I wasn't really impressed.
But prior to that, I went to this club called Den One. That's the first time I experienced House Music. The DJ was Ron Hardy. That was the first time I was around people who were gay - I didn't even know what it was all about. And I didn't care either because when I heard that music I lost my mind! And to hear it mixed together... You see, back then, straight DJs were just spinning one record after another.
I lived on the South Shore at the time, and there was this place called the Jeffrey Pub. I asked the DJ if he could teach me how to DJ and play that way. His name was Michael Ezebukwu. It was Michael and Gene Wyatt. Michael was really cool, really laid back, and said sure. So I'd go up there when he was spinning. He's the one who taught me how to DJ.
So I started throwing parties on the Southside - Tree of Life, the Loft, places like that. The Loft I think was really popular before the Warehouse even got started. The parties were unbelievable - crazy, amazing parties.
5 MAGAZINE: What was the high point of that "first wave" of House Music? the early '80s?
WAYNE WILLIAMS: I'd say it was more like 1979. The hottest thing was definitely the Loft years, although the Tree of Life was good too, and that was around 1976. We'd do the Loft, we'd do Sauer's, we'd do the Penthouse, but the Loft... I've been to a lot of parties in my life, from the Warehouse on down, but the Loft at its peak? That was the best party I've ever been to. I would be so much into the music DJing that I'd actually leave the table and go dance and then come back and mix. That was how hot that party was. People were going crazy at that place. There's no telling what would happen - people were getting high, having sex on the dancefloor... It was incredible. There was just a hot sexual dance spirit about that place. A lot of pretty girls, a lot of good looking guys, and it was so positive. Mind you, we played 90 to 95% vocals and the lyrics were always uplifting. People came there for one thing, and that was to dance. They didn't come there to meet anybody. You wouldn't see girls in high heels in there. Girls came to dance. It got to the point where it got so crowded that people couldn't get in.
5 MAGAZINE: Weren't you in high school when this was going on?
WAYNE WILLIAMS: In 1974 I was a freshman in high school. At the Loft, we'd get there around midnight and play until ten, eleven, twelve o'clock the next day. I didn't grow up rich or anything - far from it. So even though I was 14 or 15, DJing was bringing some extra money into the house. I think that's how my mom looked at it. I'm sure she was thinking, "You're so young, what are you doing staying out on the streets this late when you're 15 years old?" But when she saw that money, she calmed down a little.
5 MAGAZINE: I've always been curious: did you realize at the time that you were creating a scene and a culture that would go on for not just years but decades?
WAYNE WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Anytime you turn a whole new group of people on to a whole new kind of music, you know something is happening. They weren't used to that kind of music. They were used to Parliament and Earth Wind and Fire. Like I said, at the time I was the only one with this music because I had the records. I knew it was something different and I knew it was something big.
The fact that people would one day make their own House Music records? Now that I didn't see coming. I didn't see that far into the future. But I did know that this was something that was going to be here from now on. I knew from the community and the way people reacted. It's like the first time I heard "Rapper's Delight". I said "Okay, hip-hop - this is going to be a mainstay."
And House Music never goes away. People think "Oh, y'know, it died..." It never died - you just have to find it. I think that's one of my greatest attributes: finding new music and playing it for my crowd. In House Music's longest slumps, I've been able to find that hot record. When I found "Heartbeat," and when I found "Quartz Beyond the Clouds," and when I found "Haunted"... And when I say "found" - I'm sure someone was playing it before me, but I brought it back to the Southside playing it, and then got other people to play it. I've always been able to find those records and through our DJs bring it to the people.
5 MAGAZINE: From talking to people that were around then, it sounds like a new DJ wouldn't spin publicly if he didn't know what he was doing. You wouldn't play out to get better. You'd master DJing at home, and then play out. Is it a change for the worse today?
WAYNE WILLIAMS: It is. Andre for instance wanted to spin long before we let him. We had to feel he was ready, and then we gave him opening gigs to give him a shot. I don't see that done anymore.
You've got to take this music seriously. We took this music seriously. The stuff we did to get that right record and play that right record and have it come out sounding right? We take it as seriously today as we did thirty years ago. I don't think - well, I know the young DJs don't do that, because how can you be so young and beat those old records? That's a lost art. It's a lost art. You've got to find that new music. It's easier today because you have the internet, but it's harder too because it's so fragmented. But I still go to the record store. You know, some DJs tell me they don't do that anymore. I'm always going to find that new hot record before they do because they've stopped looking!
Of all the DJs in the Chosen Few, I'm probably the best at that, and Alan would be next, but then we pass them on to the other people in our crew. The thing we can all do is hear the right record and the right mix to play. You've got to have a good ear to hear to do that, and all of the Chosen Few have a good ear. Terry's good at finding new music too.
5 MAGAZINE: You mentioned earlier that you didn't see people making House Music records. Is that why you never got involved in production?
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