Johnny Fiasco Interview

by Terry Matthew | Published October 2006 | Features Archives

THERE WAS A POINT when you couldn't go to a club in this town without running into Johnny Fiasco. His long-running residencies at Red Dog, Shelter and Smart Bar contributed in large part to the resurrection of the House sound of Chicago in the early 1990s, brought back to life by a new generation of DJs including Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, Cajmere, Mark Grant and Spencer Kinsey.

Though he no longer has a regular residency in Chicago, I find that I still can't get away from Johnny Fiasco. The man lives inside my head: as one of the most prolific producers and remixers over the last few years, there's a slim chance that a House night can come off without someone spinning a record that Johnny had a hand in making. He exploded on the scene as a producer in 1991 with "Zig Zag" - a simple tune with a a contagious groove that became a House staple. In the years since then, Johnny hasn't let up. It's a daunting task to come up with a comprehensive discography of his remixes and original productions, but suffice to say that listing the labels he's worked for alone might take up more words than are in this article. Through it all, however, he's remained true to the source of his inspiration: the jackin' Chicago sound that first turned him on as a kid and made the aspiring guitarist put down his axe and take up a set of 1200s.

JOHNNY FIASCO: That's pretty much what got the ball rolling for me.

5 MAGAZINE: That was your very first recording?

JOHNNY FIASCO: That was the first one. That was actually a record that was produced by a DJ by the name of Chunkabud. I did a remix and said "We've gotta put this out, we gotta put this out." We put it out and it obtained a kind of cult status. Things started rolling from there.

5 MAGAZINE: Was it hard having your very first record blow up like that? "Zig Zag" was a huge hit.

JOHNNY FIASCO: No, not at all. It might go to some people's heads - I won't mention any names [laughs] - but it was all about getting things moving in what I wanted to do for a long, long time. It's all about keeping your priorities straight. It's funny, though. For the first time in your life you see people come out of the woodwork that want to be your friend, or do a record with you, when all you really are is a hot 'ho and they want a piece.

5 MAGAZINE: You started out as a guitarist back in the 1980s. How did you make the transition from being a live musician into being a DJ?

JOHNNY FIASCO: At House parties in high school, back in the mid-'80s.

5 MAGAZINE: What was the high school?

JOHNNY FIASCO: I went to Benito Juarez first, then I transferred to Curie Metro on Pulaski and Archer, right across the street from Hot Jams. We did live shows at House parties, which evolved into straight House parties. We always threw the hottest parties, but we didn't hire any DJs. In that period the parties were called "Club Naked".

5 MAGAZINE: Club Naked?

JOHNNY FIASCO: Yep, Club Naked. When we played, we played maybe an hour of House, then some New Order, Nitzer Ebb, and it was all mixed in with House Music. Everywhere else it was just straight House parties. Then we'd do a twenty minute punk set, and people would start headbangin' for twenty minutes. Nobody ever got hurt, but it was crazy. And we'd go back full circle, and start playing House again. I think towards the end, we were pulling about 800 people on Saturday nights. We had people like John Cusack coming to our parties - all these local celebrities that would just pop in.

Believe it or not, Jesse de la Pena was kind of a rival of mine back in the day. We did kind of the same stuff. And his posse would be outside in the line with my posse. But we never hired outside DJs. It was like, "You're going to listen to the music, you're going to learn how to DJ. I don't want these outsiders. We've already got so many people coming, we don't need superstar DJs."

5 MAGAZINE: Are you and Jesse still rivals today?

JOHNNY FIASCO: Oh God no! That was high school, y'know, we were comrades. The business perspective was, "We're not going mainstream, we're doing it totally different." And I sort of kept that motto thereafter as well.

5 MAGAZINE: I'm trying to get your residencies from the early '90s straight. I know there was Smart Bar, Shelter, Red Dog...

JOHNNY FIASCO: My first residency ever was definitely Smart Bar in 1988. I was at Smart Bar for two or three years. During that period I was also at Lizard Lounge, a little pub. I actually got fired from Lizard Lounge because I was working at Red Dog and called in sick. Eventually, Mark Grant set up there after I got fired.

I wound up working at Red Dog and Shelter at the same time. I worked at Shelter for three years. Red Dog was my longest residency - that was seven years, from '90 to '97. I worked with Diz, and that was definitely the best DJ experience in terms of influence and friendship. You know, he'd say, "Johnny, I've got to leave at 1am to go play some raves." Hey, you know, no problem. No tips, no nothing. We just got everyone who came into the bar absolutely shitfaced. It was a great time, a really good time.

5 MAGAZINE: You've really become the "remix king" - your name is on so many different labels.

JOHNNY FIASCO: Honestly, I've pretty much worked with just about everybody - well, not everybody, but everyone that I wanted to. I think in respect to getting the right project, or working with someone you want, or having some friends say they want you to do this - you just kind of go through the motions. In the last couple of years I haven't been doing as much remixing as work on my own personal stuff. That's a big change.

It's fun though. Sometimes you get a project and you want to kind of reinvent the track and make it 100% better than the original. You want people to go out and buy the record, but you also want to take care of your loyal following.

5 MAGAZINE: I saw is that you did two remixes of Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" - his break up song about Britney. You've got to tell me how that came about.

JOHNNY FIASCO: That was probably the only episode in which my management went out and got it for me. I had heard of a situation involving another popular DJ that did a project for them and they didn't pick it up. It was really good, too. I knew all this before I went into it. I wasn't going to go there, so I was like, "Look, I'm going to get paid on this." I brought in a couple of people to do it with me. It wasn't "me", per se. It was music for a celebrity. It was very, very trendy, and not something I normally do. But they did pick it up.

5 MAGAZINE: A lot of your mixes I've picked up lately are very 303 based.

JOHNNY FIASCO: Yeah, that's where the heart of House is for me. People ask, "What kind of music do you play?" I play House. "What kind of House?" I play Chicago House. Chicago House for me is everything from straight-up disco to filtered disco to straight-up Chicago jackin'. There are elements of garage, electro, techno - basically, you're going to go for a ride. My set isn't going to be all one thing - it's not going to flatline. The whole spirit of the 303, when worked properly, with a 4/4 mechanical rhythm - it's the key to the whole of House Music. It really pumps me in a way that lyrics don't.

5 MAGAZINE: I heard someone say that the 303 is to electronic music what the guitar is to rock. When you hear a 303, it's House.

JOHNNY FIASCO: That's true. But you can find lots of rich guitarists or wannabes that have a roomful of guitars, but you won't find a person that has twenty 303s because they're so rare. But to me, that's Chicago - that's the Chicago jackin' sound. I think I'm going to go down with that sound, that's for sure.

5 MAGAZINE: Who was it - was it DJ Pierre that first turned you on to that sound?

JOHNNY FIASCO: No, back in the '80s it was all on radio. It was what hip-hop is today. Back then it was open airwaves, you could pick it up all the time. There were parties to go to every weekend - every day of the week, really. You were exposed to people like Ralphi Rosario, Mickey Oliver . . . Bad Boy Bill was on the airwaves as well... A lot of Italian disco and disco in general, the tracks movement . . . But "Acid Trax" - if I had to pick ten records, that one would definitely be on the list. Roy Davis kind of picked that up as the new generation a few years later. For me, it was the strong influence of Chicago. I don't know if that's good or bad but I'm stickin' to it.

5 MAGAZINE: Sean Smith of Smooth Agent mentioned to me once that when you're working for Chicago artists, you'll add a little pinch extra for the remix.

JOHNNY FIASCO: Yeah, but that really all depends on the project. From a relationship standpoint, I've always wanted to work for Chicago-based labels because, let's face it, if we keep our fans here, it's going to be more beneficial for the industry here. Which the politicians couldn't care less about but... Seriously, it's still very early. We've had House for a little more than two decades and it might take another ten before we get any kind of acknowledgment, but that's okay. Frankie Knuckles got his boulevard. Slowly but surely...

But it really comes down to the individual project. With every single one, you have to put more into it because the industry is more demanding and you really have to give people a damn good reason to buy the record. With the influx of product out there with downloads, you really have to do something good to make them take notice and make people talk about it.

5 MAGAZINE: I wanted to mention a few names from your past and get your take on them. The first is Marcus Mixx.

JOHNNY FIASCO: Marcus Mixx! I knew and met Marcus when he was working for Larry Sherman at Trax, which shows you how old I am! [laughs] Cool cat, absolutely. Great, fun personality. Thumbs up - great guy.

5 MAGAZINE: Derrick Carter.

JOHNNY FIASCO: The maestro. Untouchable is all I'm going to say.

5 MAGAZINE: I know that you, Mark Farina and Derrick were always grouped together in those days when people talked about the younger DJs that were bangin' it. Are the three of you still friends?

JOHNNY FIASCO: Oh God yeah. We're still friends.

5 MAGAZINE: Derrick and Mark moved away, though they come back here often. But you stayed in Chicago.

JOHNNY FIASCO: Oh yes, I've stayed in Chicago and I will stay in Chicago because I've been there, done that. There's no other city in the world that can touch our skyline. It's the city you love to hate but it's always your backyard.

5 MAGAZINE: The other name I wanted to run by you is someone I haven't seen around in ages: Spencer Kinsey.

JOHNNY FIASCO: I was going to drop that right in front of you. Yeah, I haven't seen him in a long time. The last I heard he was in San Francisco. He's had some problems as long as I've known him, which is a long time - we were both working as ushers at the Watertower theater - McClurg Court, I think. We'd go out and play House Music at what were at that time mainstream clubs. The manager would say "Don't play more than twenty minutes of House Music!" and then you'd have to play Public Image Ltd., Siouxsie and the Banshees, maybe some Nitzer Ebb. Spencer would come over and tell me to work the floor and keep pushing House Music. Pushing me to push it harder and push it longer.

But I haven't heard from him in... I can't tell you how long. That's all I know. He's always had problems and he's never been 100% normal but that was part of his personality and I love him. We had some really good times. I'd love to find out where and what he's doing. I hope to see him again.

5 MAGAZINE: Among people playing and making music today, who really gets you going?

JOHNNY FIASCO: There are so many good, talented people, people like JT Donaldson, who's been such a staple for such a long time. Derrick is phenomenal in his production skills. Masters at Work definitely wear the crown for all eternity. Ah, I'm always put on the spot with this and I always come up with the names later...

5 MAGAZINE: Where do you see House going in the future?

JOHNNY FIASCO: I definitely think it's going to pick up. Everyone's saying "Oh, things are doing really bad." But think about it: electro's so popular everywhere else and it's getting bigger and bigger. But here, we don't have the mainstream press articles like we used to and mainstream radio won't give us any more attention because there's so much damn hip-hop... I don't know where it's going to go but I know it's still going to be here. I don't know what percentage it may occupy but I know for a fact that there will still be diehard people cranking out quality product and I'll still be buying it and playing it.

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