Terry Hunter Interview
by Boogie McClarin | Published May 2006 | Features Archives
IT'S HARD TO describe how deeply house music flows in the veins of a Chicago Househead. Many of Chicago's heads were raised on the music, attaching tracks to memories of first kisses or high school dances. Some were born to make the music, hearing a new song in every heartbeat.
Terry Hunter was doubly blessed. His father was a DJ at their West Side tavern, The Family Lounge, spinning mostly disco and soul. By age eleven, when most youth were just discovering House music, Hunter already had equipment, a record collection of dance classics and insight about how music makes people move.
Like so many of Chicago's youth of the '80s, Terry Hunter had an older relative expose him to the Warehouse mix tapes created by Frankie Knuckles. He recalls being amazed that "this guy could take all of these records and put them together to play like one song." Inspired by the mix tape and the WBMX Hot Mix 5, Terry asked for a rotary mixer for his 12th birthday. Together with two turntables and two amplifiers connected to four speakers, he created the illusion of the seamless blend by turning the levels up and down on the rotary mixer or "slamming the records together" because his turntables had no pitch controls.
"I was the guy you would call to spin at your birthday party," he laughs. "I was the DJ at the real House parties - the ones at your house!" The events that he coordinated with his friends attracted the attention of local promoters, leading to the break that would start his career as an international DJ and producer. And all of it happened by the age of 18.
In a career that spans almost two decades, Terry Hunter has worked for Frankie Knuckles and Farley "Jackmaster" Funk. He has spun at the legendary Candy Store and Powerhouse. He has composed innovative remixes for Ten City, Zhane, Joi Cardwell, Crystal Waters, Georgie Porgie and India. He has written for Billboard and is the founder of UBQ Mix Productions. Most recently, he has deepened his musical relationship with Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez of Masters at Work.
I was able to catch Terry on a short visit home between stops on his international schedule. He was engaging and excited to talk with 5 Magazine about his career, his upcoming releases and House music. With a graceful introspection and humility uncharacteristic of many of today's uber-DJs, he confesses that he had "fallen out of love with producing music for about a year and a half. I was really busy with DJing but I didn't like seeing the labels and what was happening to the music I loved. Everybody was trying to go with what the media said: 'Trance is in,' 'No, drum and bass is in...' To me it was always about the feeling of the song."
5 MAGAZINE: I was really excited at the opportunity to interview you because I feel almost like I know you already. You spun at so many of the parties from my youth. In my research I learned that you spun at the Powerhouse, the Candy Store and La Mirage, but didn't you spin a lot of the hotel parties of the late '80s and early '90s?
TERRY HUNTER: Yeah I used to do all those parties - Sauer's, the McCormick Place parties, the Bismark, the Ascot Hotel parties...
5 MAGAZINE: You were in your teens then, spinning regularly. How did you get your start?
TERRY HUNTER: Really I got my break from a big promoter by the name Marvin Terry. He would throw a lot of parties in the '80s and early '90s. You might know him because he threw the McCormick Place parties that had all that trouble in the early '90s. Well, there was a place called the Hummingbird on the southside.
5 MAGAZINE: Yeah, I know the Hummingbird - it was on 87th and Ashland. It was in the basement of this building and packed so tight the mirrors were sweating... It was usually a little different crowd then the southside House crowd, right? More "beat/woogie" - or they might call it "juke" now, right?
TERRY HUNTER: Yeah, that was it. I brought in different crowd because by that time I had my own following. I was doing parties with my friends from Hyde Park High School. There were a couple of groups that would throw parties, the Kudos and the Bros. We would do all these parties, the Jack and Jill parties... So Marvin came to me and said he would put me on at the Hummingbird. I was geeked, right? I mean, everyone knew who Marvin Terry was - he did the McCormick Place parties. So he said, "You're a bad little brother! Here's what I'll do for you. You give me $75 and I'll put your name on the flyer and I'll go promote you."
So I was charged. I went home and I told my old man... [laughs] My old man meant business and he didn't know who Mavin Terry was, but he knew I was already getting money to spin at these other parties. My old man said "Oh no, you have him come over here. You might play for free but there is no way you are going to give him $75." Marvin was going to come over anyway to drop off the flyers so I could give them to my friends. My dad had him sit down and told him, "You might be able to get my son to play for free but there is no way he is going to give you $75 dollars, too." So I got to play the Hummingbird and I didn't pay either. Things just kind of went up from there.
I met John Hunt who ran with these cats called Gucci Productions. He said he was putting on an event, a DJ battle at DeLaSalle High School that he asked me to be in. I won first place and from there they promoted me and I was on every party they did, all the Racketball Club parties and Boat parties, and it just grew from there.
5 MAGAZINE: Do remember who judged the battle?
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