Terry Hunter Interview
TERRY HUNTER: Yeah, it was Steve Poindexter, Pharris Thomas and audience participation. Really, it was all the parties that gave me the name and recognition. People liked my sound.
5 MAGAZINE: So you were doing well for yourself DJing. How and why did the music production start?
TERRY HUNTER: The production basically happened because there were records out and I would say, well, I would have done this or that differently. I was doing a lot of edits with tape decks. This was the late '80s. I went to friend's house and he had a Korg keyboard and a drum machine and I started making these tracks that I would play at my parties. One particular track that I did was called "Madness". That led me to meet Armando. Armando liked the track and he had a record label, Warehouse Records, and he said "This is cold. I want to put it out." You know, we used to say "cold"... [laughs]
He released it and it was a success, which led me to a guy named Georgie Porgie and I hooked up with Mirage Entertainment, L&R Records who made "You Can't Stop the House" and "Work It to the Bone". I started doing records with them and that's what led to all of the historical stuff and eventually to the remixing of the big artists.
5 MAGAZINE: You were successfully DJing, producing with some major players... What made you decide to start your own label?
TERRY HUNTER: The UBQ Project was originally Aaron Smith, Ron Trent and myself. We wanted to do something together. We felt the same way about our music and so we came up with UBQ, which is short for "ubiquitous," meaning "present in all places at all times" or "omnipresent". Ron went off to do his own things but Aaron and I stayed together.
5 MAGAZINE: Was it a big jump when you started you own label?
TERRY HUNTER: Honestly, at first I didn't know and I didn't even care. And I got screwed. I didn't know anything about the business. Armando and all those guys had distribution and manufacturing lined up so all I had to do was make the record. I never really encountered having to put my own record out. I was lucky, but then I got screwed too because I didn't know anything about the business. Now I know, but I had to learn a lot of things the hard way.
5 MAGAZINE: You mentioned earlier that you had fallen out of love with making House music until about a year and a half ago. What happened?
TERRY HUNTER: I had fallen out of love with the production side of things. I always loved to DJ but making a record is so personal. It is giving all your soul, giving your all and then to hear anyone say "it's bullshit" or "people aren't feeling this" or "the club won't play this..." I got discouraged because I didn't get into this for that. A lot of people are out here making mechanical music, spinning mechanical music, and not putting their heart into it. So I continued to DJ because that's my first love and I still had to do what I had to do to eat. Really, it was working with Kenny that helped me to get out of that feeling.
5 MAGAZINE: It's been said that you are Chicago's invisible "Master at Work" in reference to your relationship with Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez and Louie Vega. Is there any truth to the rumor?
TERRY HUNTER: First and foremost, they are both really good friends of mine. I've known Louie and Kenny for a long time and Kenny is like a brother to me. We talk almost everyday and now we have begun to bring that to a new level. Kenny really helped get me inspired to produce again. We have always worked together and we have always done records. Now we have linked up my label, T's Box, with Dope Wax. I've done remixes on Kenny's Dope Wax. He really motivated me out of my slump. He would tell me how he remebered selling my records, so it was like he has always been there for me. So we just tied things together.
The first project that we did was the Kanye West "Addiction" remix. We've done records together for years but this was the first kind of thing whare everything was together, and then we just went from there. Our chemistry was good. We DJ together and personally we're best friends so it's just natural.
5 MAGAZINE: What are some of your goals for this new T's Box/Dope Wax? What should we look for?
TERRY HUNTER: I really want to reach back to a lot of my Chicago people, like K. Alexi. I just put out a single for him called "Don't You Know" that was big anthem in the '90s and we remixed it. We also just picked up Joe Smooth's "Promised Land" and remixed it.
5 MAGAZINE: I'm excited to hear about the return of the House anthems, there's nothing like dancing to a song when everyone knows the words or rhythm and there is a deeper meaning.
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