Craig Loftis
Finally Getting His Due

by Czarina Mirani | Published October 2006 | Features Archives

CRAIG LOFTIS IS ONE of the unsung heroes of House Music. A jack-of-all-trades in the truest sense, his musical career spans three decades since he first got involved as a kid back in 1979. He began as a party promoter with the well-known social club Vertigo (known to older heads for their phenomenal parties). While mastering the turntables and doing his part to shape the new sound lighting up Chicago's club scene, he was in collaboration with Frankie Knuckles, redesigning the sound system for the Power Plant (he later redesigned the lighting and sound systems for The Baton Show Lounge and Re Doubt) as well as becoming Frankie's sound engineer and opening DJ for four years.

In 1988 Craig became chief engineer of DJ International Records, and in the eight years he worked there he engineered, mixed and produced songs for artists such as Fast Eddie, Tyree Cooper, Julian "Jumpin" Perez, Bad Boy Bill, Frankie Hollywood Rodriguez, Joe Smooth and Mike Dunn, to name a few. In 2000 he created Loftwerk Productions, throwing some of the hottest parties in Chicago. The Loftwerk Records label was spawned shortly after with releases such as "Dreamin" and "You Are All I Need."

It was the smash hit "Mary Mary" however that finally garnered him the recognition he so justly deserves. After all these years, he's finally getting his due from this one amazing track - a unique mix of gospel House and hard, percussive beats that's made a twenty-seven year career in House Music appear to be an "overnight success". I remember hearing Craig play "Mary Mary" last year at the Prophouse and the crowd would go nuts. It became a smash hit at this year's Miami Winter Music Conference, and what began as an underground song played mostly in gay clubs has become a favorite of DJs everywhere.

CRAIG LOFTIS: I was born here in Chicago. The way I became a DJ was that I used to go to the Warehouse all the time, and this was back when Frankie was in his major heyday and House Music was at an unbelievable peak. It wasn't called House Music then yet. It was disco but a lot of the stuff that was coming out new was not disco. Like "Let's Go Dancing" and Martin Circus. I was in The Warehouse the day Martin Circus was first played and it was like everybody in the whole entire club looked like they were in a trance. Even the people coming down the steps stopped and people were just dancing everywhere. We had never heard that song before.

5 MAGAZINE: When were you frequenting the Warehouse?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I didn't get to the Warehouse until 1979, 1980 and that was when it was almost on its way out.

5 MAGAZINE: Aside from House, what other music are you partial to?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I like everything. It's just that it's gotta be good. Even hip-hop. I'm not a big hip-hop fan, but if I hear a track and it's good music, then I'll listen to it. My only problem that I have with the hip-hop market right now is how people have become millionaires and major successes with just a simple track that's just so simple that a baby could do it. You have musicians who have been struggling for years just to get a single break, and these kids are coming out with tracks that are so stupid and the rest of the market is jumping on top of it and the industry is pushing it. It's like they're saying, "Your brains can't handle too much. Let's give you this garbage."

5 MAGAZINE: Now why do you think hip-hop has the marketability that House doesn't?

CRAIG LOFTIS: The money. Because one, the ghetto aspect of it. I really think that the powers that be focused on the "Let's push this black urban thing that's going to make millions, and we're going to make all this money off of them. And then once we're finished with them we'll kick them to the curb." In one sense, a lot of the black guys that were young entrepreneurs were drug dealers and a lot of them already had business sense. Once they got a little money in their pocket, they took over. They knew how to do business. They had their own record labels, they knew how to start their own clothing lines, all of this stuff. And they've become billionaires.

5 MAGAZINE: Back in the day, was there anyone who taught you how to DJ?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Well, I used to be part of a group called Vertigo. We threw very hot parties, and the reason our parties were so hot was because we were trying to imitate what was going on at the Warehouse for our age group. We were like 15, 16 years old and weren't supposed to be getting into the Warehouse. We wanted to bring the kids who didn't know about the Warehouse and couldn't sneak off and go - we wanted them see what kind of parties were going on. So we would bring the party to that market.

One day we gave a party at Sauer's, which was the big House spot. And the Chosen Few didn't show up until late. We had a whole room room waiting for the DJs to arrive - I mean this place was humongous. It was jam packed. The day after that, our partner, Eric Bradshaw, said, "This will never happen to us again." He was always the business mind of the whole thing. He went out and bought two Technics turntables and a mixer, brought it to my house and said, "You and Lori [Branch] are going to learn how to DJ." And that's how it started.

5 MAGAZINE: So there were three of you in Vertigo: Eric, Lori, you...

CRAIG LOFTIS: And another guy named Steve Moore.

5 MAGAZINE: How long did it take you to learn how to spin?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I guess I was a natural, you know, because it didn't take long at all. We already knew the music. We already had the music and learned how to match beats.

5 MAGAZINE: And how many years did the Vertigo parties last?

CRAIG LOFTIS: The Vertigo parties lasted until about 1982.

5 MAGAZINE: Then what did you do after that? Didn't you take a break for a while?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I took a break for a long while. I would call it my dark days. I got really caught up heavy in drugs. That's why I stopped DJing. The nightlife was catching up to me and it just wasn't right. So for about six years I was off the scene.

5 MAGAZINE: When you were away from the scene - is that when you started your furniture business?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Yes. That's when I started CSL Design and I started interior design work for nightclubs and restaurants. Right before that I was designing sound systems and lighting systems for nightclubs.

5 MAGAZINE: And when did you come back?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Early '90s. I left the straight market and started to attack the gay market in doing parties. I started at Fuse actually, which is now Ice Bar. I started doing Sunday night tea dances there. At the time, hip-hop was becoming a force in the gay market and we kinda lost it. Then I started with Club Reunion, which was a focus on House Music and dealing with an older gay crowd which I knew liked House Music. But to survive in this market, I had to incorporate hip-hop to pull the young ones and get the numbers to satisfy the bars.

My main issue - which is a problem with our whole scene here in Chicago - is that instead of people and bars focusing on the music and the event itself, we were forced to deal with bar owners who wanted only one thing: numbers at the bar. That was it. They didn't get the picture - that if your party was off the hook, and the sound system was off the hook and the atmosphere was off the hook, you never have to worry about the numbers at the bar.

5 MAGAZINE: Do you think the House audience is falling off now?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Well as you think that it may be falling off on the one end, you see on the other end that the interest is coming back. With your magazine, there are several people popping up with House parties. That shows you that the interest is booming again, but as far as the masses understanding what's going on, we haven't caught them yet. By playing at the Prophouse on a regular basis, I've learned from having conversations with the people. There's a big interest in House Music even in their market. But the main reason that the back room is so strong is because that's where all the bodies are.

5 MAGAZINE: Well, do you think there's any hope for the newer generation of the black gay community to get back their interest into House?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Yes, by the constant remixes of hip-hop and R&B songs that's coming out. I've proven that at the Prophouse. I studied the crowd and what I realized is that they already know the songs, so when they hear the songs in a House version, it doesn't immediately run them out the room. They know the lyrics. We've been focusing on playing a lot of R&B and hip-hop remixes.

5 MAGAZINE: Don't you feel that they also like harder tracks sometimes?

CRAIG LOFTIS: They do, the black gay market is extremely tracky. They're almost borderline tribal. It's a double-edged sword: you're either playing hip-hop remixes or you're borderline circuit. You can't be in between. The only way we can go to a softer track is it has to be something that they know. They're not open like we used to be. Because the minute we heard a good song, we'd give it a chance just to feel it, because we never heard it before.

It's a really big difference in dealing with straight and gay. At a straight club with the Househeads, you could actually get away with playing new tracks and they'll accept it and embrace it. In the black gay market, you have to be really, really creative in how you sneak it in to them. Two of the biggest tracks that I have out right now are "Mary Mary" and "Mixdown". I wrote those tracks by looking at the response of the crowds at the Prophouse and seeing what instrument progressions made them move. I went back to my house and put them all together.

"Mary Mary" really became a staple in the gay market. It was being played in Atlanta, DC - all the hot gay clubs. All the key DJs had it. And then it branched out from there. When I finally released it, the week before the Winter Music Conference, it became the dominant song at the WMC.

5 MAGAZINE: How did "Mary Mary" come about?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I have a very strong gospel background. My family is very religious. I was actually going to be a priest. I went to a Catholic grammar school, Catholic high school and Catholic college.

5 MAGAZINE: But your lifestyle is not conducive to being a priest!

CRAIG LOFTIS: Oh c'mon, yes it is now! [laughs]

5 MAGAZINE: Were you still going to church while you were DJing? Isn't that sometimes a conflict?

CRAIG LOFTIS: No, because if you really look at it, House Music is church. A House party is church. The strongest songs that are in House Music are religious based and all about spiritual love. That's what House Music is. And that's why I know House Music is never going to die because it preaches a good message. I believe in the spiritual message of the music.

5 MAGAZINE: So how long did it take you to write "Mary Mary"?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Believe it or not, it took us two years to promote it the right way. That was all part of the promotions strategy. It was all planned.

5 MAGAZINE: But you've written music before...

CRAIG LOFTIS: I've written several things before!

5 MAGAZINE: ...but none have been as big a hit as this.

CRAIG LOFTIS: None. What's ironic is that it took it to come out as "Grand High Priest" and not "Craig Loftis" to get the recognition.

5 MAGAZINE: Why is that you think?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I don't know, but what's really interesting is that I thought it would be a problem, and that everybody who knows "Grand High Priest" wouldn't know who Craig Loftis is. But when I look at my MySpace account, I get hits from all over the world and they all know that Grand HIgh Priest is me.

5 MAGAZINE: Where did you come up with that pseudonym?

CRAIG LOFTIS: It was given to me by Nu Bang Clan. I'm a member of the Nu Bang Clan, the Grand High Priest. The way that came about was the succession. Alan King is the Grand Sensei, who is the head of the Nu Bang Clan. Alan has been spinning longer than I have. When I was inducted, I was the second highest ranking. There are about twenty of us now. We're based all over the US. It actually started off as a joke when all these DJs would be talking on Deep House Page.

5 MAGAZINE: Your album is coming out when?

CRAIG LOFTIS: The Nu Bang Clan album will be dropping the end of November, which is a collective work of half the members of the group. All original music. I have a solo album which is due to come out the first of the year, but we've got a surprise for everybody. We're dropping the remix of "Mary Mary" on the first of November with Dajae on the vocals on Loftwerks Records.

5 MAGAZINE: How long have you been writing music?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I've been writing music since 1979. I was chief engineer for DJ International Records. I graduated from Columbia College with a degree in Sound Engineering and Artist Management.

5 MAGAZINE: So you have a lot of unreleased tracks?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Oh, tons. Everything is coming out on the album.

5 MAGAZINE: Who your influences were growing up?

CRAIG LOFTIS: One of my main influences was Frankie. I started out as Frankie's sound engineer as soon as I graduated out of Columbia. I was his sound engineer at the Power Plant and redesigned his sound system. And from there my career really started to take off as people knew me for sound. Then Frankie and I started working on music. We produced all of Jamie Principle's stuff together.

5 MAGAZINE: Where are your residencies?

CRAIG LOFTIS: Right now I'm doing the Prophouse biweekly. I've been doing a lot of traveling. This year I did my first major circuit party and will do it again next year. It's called "Sizzle" in Miami. Unbelievable party.

5 MAGAZINE: Do you have any advice for up and coming DJs and producers trying to make it?

CRAIG LOFTIS: I would just say keep the faith. If you truly believe that this is something from your heart and it's a true gift from God, then stay focused. And whatever you want to get out of it, you will.

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