For people of a certain age in Chicago - the party people especially - you're going to be identified for a long time with the Warehouse. For anyone who wasn't here at the time, this was the Warehouse on Randolph.

Right, it was on 738 W. Randolph. Frankie opened up the first night which was Halloween. It was supposed to be Joe Smooth and Julian Perez, but they opened up the first night with Frankie so it would solidify their position by calling it the "Warehouse".

I guest DJed one night and Julian was there. Joe was a little abstract and had his moments when he played some disco and then would go into jazzier material. Joe had a following as well, as he used to do SmartBar. Julian went to Rocky and was like, "We need to get Mike Dunn in here." They moved me upstairs and moved Joe downstairs. So I took over the main floor.

Eventually, on all of the black nights - Julian had Fridays which was the B96 night, and that's the only night he wanted to do in that club because he had another club he was doing out in Schaumberg - I took over deciding who would spin at the club. So I hired Armando, I hired Hugo, DJ Cowboy, DJ Emanuel and K-Alexi, but he was playing hip-hop and slo jams. Craig Loftis was my light and sound man. Craig was responsible for the original system.

Originally, there were three partners that owned the Warehouse: Joe Smooth, Julian and Rocky. I got Armando hired there - that was when I started getting on WGCI. I'd do the Riviera on Thursdays and come down to the Warehouse later. I started getting tired of that, so I asked Armando if he wanted to take over Thursdays. So he took over Thursdays, and I took over Saturdays. I would bring Andre and Gene and those guys in as special guests - I tried to give all of my friends a chance to come in and play.

What was the atmosphere there like? It was a crucial place but, maybe because it was so recent, people don't talk about it as much.

The first two, three years, it was like you didn't even have to go overseas. It was that good. It was what the Box and all of those other clubs had been - that's what it was for the next generation of partyheads coming up. We had some old 'heads coming up, too. In fact, before he passed - and this is totally 110% true - Ron came down to the Warehouse and visited me in the booth. I was about to say his name on the mic, but he ask me not to. Think about this: all of the people who say they knew Ronnie and partied with Ron, and he walked through that crowd and I don't think one person knew that Ron Hardy was there. He said, "I just wanted to come down and see the club and somewhat pass the torch..." I was touched. Ron was coming to see me! He only stayed about four minutes but it was the most moving four minutes of my DJ career. That's when he was really sick. He snuck in and snuck right back out. Many of my days, I lived off that moment... you don't even know.

But the club was just incredible to me. Joe had the downstairs and did very well. When everything was at its peak, it was a beautiful, beautiful time for the Chicago House scene.

You stopped doing House Music for a couple of years and the word was you'd gone and done rap. But you were always doing rap, right?

I've been doing rap the same amount of time I've been doing House Music. Go back to "Let it Be House" - it was a rap! And I was producing other rap cats the whole time too. I was DJing rap ever since I can remember.

But this is the truth about why I quit doing House. When the Warehouse went down and it moved to the Prop House, I didn't appreciate where they moved the people. It was in the back of the club, before they remodeled. They called it the Prop House because they used to sell props out of there! You'd be back there with props everywhere and I'm DJing on the stairs. Literally, there was no room or anything. The system would pop a fuse, get it back working, pop a fuse, get working again... So me, Jay-Jay and Big Ed (Big Bro) put seven or eight thousand dollars together and tried to move to the place that used to be called The Convent. But the crowd didn't come with us - they stayed at the Prop House. They would rather stay there and party, so I quit. Now it looks like Mike has giving up on the House crowd, but you can equally say the House crowd gave up on Mike. I was doing parties down the road but they still wanted to go there. And in the end, look at what happened. The club totally dissed the people and the music on Saturday night.

For me as a DJ, my main concern is the crowd first. I learned that from seeing Ron Hardy, Farley and Frankie and being at all of those parties back in the day. People ask why those places were so special. It was because they cared about the people first. It's first and foremost the people, and then the sound system, and then how the place looks, and then the bar. Now the bar is first and the sound system is last on the totem pole. You go to some clubs with a crappy sound system and they're not putting any money back into the club or giving anything back to the people. It's just take, take, take.

I've never stopped loving disco and House Music, but I really stopped loving all of the things happening around the music. Things were heading in a harder, more techno direction. I play hard sometimes, but this was hard. Really, 136 bpms is pushing it for me. Right around 124 to 128 bpms is comfortable - that's House to me. And when you're playing classics and disco, you're talking about 96 bpms on up.

With Darrin and Curt at Reynolds on Tuesdays, I like those guys because they listen to my concerns and ideas. They don't just take from the people - they want to give back. In House Music, every little bit helps the cause. It's about the people, giving them nice music, a nice atmosphere, not playing the same seven records every time they come to the club.

Like I played Nirvana the other day and some girl was like, "That guy's trippin!" But if you call yourself old school, how far back do you go? Because at Medusa's, DJ Rush and Armando would play that and the crowd would go nuts, you know what I'm saying?

I don't want you to come to the club every week and hear the same thing, because eventually people will get tired and the crowd will fall off. I want to keep you on your toes. Every week you're going to hear something different... Trust me!

So this is your first residency in awhile. Where are you playing at?

Right now I'm doing Tuesdays at the New Reynolds (938 E. 75th), and starting in mid-May I'll be doing Thursdays at the Premier in Dolton (300 W. Sibley).

I'll also be playing at the Chosen Few Picnic on July 5th. That's really my big coming back out gig.

And you mentioned releases earlier, with both some re-issues, some new remixes of some old classics and a ton of new music coming out.

Yeah, on the production side, I have an EP on Defected's 4th Floor Records coming out under the name "Mike Dunn presents the MD X-Spress" called The Congregation EP. Tracks on there are "This Here is House Music", a tune called "Na Na Na Na (I Walk with God)" and "The ER Track" co-produced with Gil "Skatta" Carpenter.

There's also Pressure Cooker '08 on RobSoul out of France with "Phreaky MF" on the same label, and something on DJ Deep's label, Deeply Rooted, with Hugo H. I'm also releasing a Gospel House track on Terry Hunter's T's Box Records with Leslie Moore called "Give All Glory to Him", and I'm working on other singles with my artists Michelle Penn and Ladi Lyke.

So you had some pretty incredible success with rap - why come back to House Music again?

Coming back, you know when the time is right. I missed the atmosphere so much. The first party I did in France with DJ Deep, I was like, "Ahh... this is home! Okay, you had your fun with the rap stuff, but this is where you belong!"

Through all of the trials and tribulations of the last three or four years, I've just wanted to come out of it as a better and stronger person, as a man and as a father as a friend. It roots you back to what's important. It's not the glitz and the glamour that will make you happy. It's family and a few real friends. I've met a wonderful woman now and I feel like I'm happy with life again. I'll just continue thanking God for his mercy, grace and blessings.

There's just no way around it - I was born to be House!