DJ Spen Interview: From the basements of Baltimore

Image: DJ Spen

DJ Spen is one of the best loved of all the US soulful house DJs and first came to international recognition for his contributions to that music when he joined the likes of Teddy Douglas, Karizma, Maurice Fulton, Thommy Davis and Jay Steinhour as part of The Basement Boys production collective.

Like Spen, the collective hailed from Baltimore in Maryland and, after producing a string of underground classics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, moved into the mainstream with productions such as 'Gypsy Woman' for Crystal Waters and remixes for the likes of Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Erykah Badu, Bob Sinclar and Ultra Naté. They formed their own record label, Basement Boys, in 1994 and recorded under a variety of combinations and aliases, including Those Guys.

Spen's own recording career had begun even earlier than that, as part of Baltimore hip hop crew Numarx (who wrote and recorded 'Girl You Know It’s True', which was later covered and made famous by Milli Vanilli). But during his time in Basement Boys he formed the gospel house outfit Jasper Street Company who have released some of the most recognisable tracks in that sub genre of house music such as 'A Feeling' and a cover of disco classic 'God Helps Those Who Help Themselves'.

Spen went solo in 2004. Not long after he formed another group The MuthaFunkaz and co-ran a new label Code Red Recordings. He has since founded a new imprint, Quantize and still issues the finest quality vocal, soul and gospel house whilst travelling the world - showcasing this music to an adoring international audience. Mark Dale quizzed the man himself ahead of his London gig this month. 

How did you first hook up with the crew that was The Basement Boys?

I was in a hip hop group. I had always bought dance singles, it was part of my background. The Basement Boys were from the disco era. Thommy Davis, who's my partner now in Quantize, used to sell records out of this store in the mall called Metro Stereo. Our relationship developed from that. 

The next thing I knew, in 1988, they started to put out these records and work with people like Ultra Nate. I was like, "whoa, what's going on here?" These guys are doing major label stuff! They remixed one of our records. I was in this group called Numarx. They remixed one of our records called 'Do It Good' (below). That was the first time I had studio experience with them and from that first session is how we developed a working relationship. 

Are there any aspects of being in a production collective that you miss being now out on your own?

The collective thing was really good in a way. Being around all of them guys was a plus because being in a group it's always reassuring to know you have other people there, they got your back, you're not just dependant solely on your own way of thinking or your own way of doing things.

I miss that. We had a building, we all shared the studio space, the amount of money we were bringing in as a collective was pretty good. It came with its plusses and its minuses and I have to say that in many ways I miss it. 

You still seem to turn up on a lot of the same line ups as Karizma, such as at festivals. Do you think you'll do some more studio work with him?

Definitely. The only thing stopping us is our schedules. Trying to get it together so we can both be in the studio at the same time, when we're both back home, is crazy.

Where are things up to with Jasper Street Company (below) right now?

We're just in the planning stage right now, there's nothing set in stone, no studio time organised. We're trying to pull some new material together, but that again is definitely going to happen. And again it's the scheduling of everyone's time that's difficult. Not just professional schedules too, but personal schedules also. 

I'm just about to do an album with one of the group's main guys, Fruity, (Thomas 'Fruity' Roberts Jr), but that will be more of a solo thing.

So what are you currently working on?

The things I seem to spend most of my time on these days are not so much DJing or studio work, but administrative things for Quantize. It's not just one label, we have a bunch of stuff going on. 

I've just started working with John Morales for the first time. We're going to be doing an original production together. I've got quite a few remixes I'm working on at the moment too. There's so much it's quite difficult to sit down and pinpoint all the things I'm involved with. 

I'm working with these girls Hanlei, the duo who were the singers on the recent record Diamond by Neil Pierce and Ziggy Funk. That was a big record. I'll be doing a track with them on the Groove Odyssey label called No Good For You. 

Having said that it's difficult to find time to schedule these collaborative efforts, you've just released some mixes of a great vocal track, 'Why Can't You See' by Sheila Ford, which you did with Louie Vega (below). he's always so busy and in demand I would've imagined he was one of the more difficult people to schedule time with. 

[laughs] And then some. You know it's amazing just to have been able to do that track with his schedule. That was like two years working at it, but thankfully it all worked out in the end. It came from an idea that Sheila had.

She was doing a gig where Louie was playing and she was just scatting all over some record he was playing. Louie was like, I really want to get her into the studio, he was dying to do it. He sent us the first ideas for the track and we ending up doing quite a lot of back and forth.

Sheila wrote this great track with some help from Tommy Davis and myself. Initially Louie had played most of the keyboard parts. We had our keyboard guy Gary Hutchins come in and take those parts and work with them, do solos, that sort of thing. And it just turned out to be a phenomenal track. It really did.

Your own schedule must be quite difficult to fit things in around because you still do a lot of DJing. Are you playing anywhere good at the moment?

LA is starting to look really good. There are whole movements starting here in the States that have never gone on before, places where there wasn't so much of a thing for our scene. Prior to last year I maybe played LA jst twice in my life. Now, all of a sudden, I'm playing LA like 3 or 4 times a year.

LA's happening, San Francisco is happening, we've got some things in the Mid West that are starting to happen, Texas has some really cool things happening. New York seems to have a spark at the moment to, after a few years of it not being quite as good as it once was there. There's quite a few things going on here in the States lately that are pretty good.

How about in your home city, Baltimore? Do you have a residency or play anywhere regularly there?

I don't have a residency here, no. Maybe once a year, Ultra Nate does a party here called Deep Sugar and if I'm in town I play there, or if she has some other kind of special event happening. It's small what's happening here, but it is going on.

With the amount of movies and TV shows we get over here and in the rest of the world, we're used to seeing images of some of the most famous cities in the US, especially New York. But the only thing we've really seen recently about Baltimore is The Wire. Is the portrayal of the city in that series one that you recognise? Is that what it's really like in some parts of that city?

[Laughs] Well, it can be sort of close to what it's like here depending on what part of the city you're in. Every town has it's good and bad districts. The Wire puts a spotlight on some of the things that are not so great about Baltimore, but really it's like any other city. it has its good sides and it has its bad sides.

The bad sides can be pretty bad, but it's not all like that and some of those problems are obviously not unique to Baltimore. The good sides of Baltimore can equally be pretty good.

You've appeared regularly over the years at Southport Weekender (check out his mix for them above) here in the UK, which sadly ended earlier this year. You've also played their Suncebeat festival in Croatia. I've seen you get a really warm reception from their audience many times. How do you personally find those events?

They're really, really good. I've never had a bad experience at a Southport Weekender or any of their events. They have all been really special, especially from a musical perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. It's been a while since I did Suncebeat, maybe 4 years ago, but I still have good memories of my time there, it didn't disappoint me at all.

Where are your favourite places to play?

Japan. Melbourne, Australia is also really good. When London is good it's on fire, seriously it's up there with the best places to play in the world. And of course Italy as well. 

You're coming back to London pretty soon and you're going to play alongside Joe Claussell and Bobby & Steve at Groove Odyssey in Ministry Of Sound. 

Yeah, I've never done a bad Groove Odyssey party and, you're right, this one's going to be at Ministry Of Sound, so what are you gonna say? I'm really looking forward to it. I've played with those guys many times before.

Playing with Joe is always an experience. He's a lot more Afro-rhythmic than I am. I'm more of a classic house 4/4 type guy. Bobby & Steve are more like cross spectrum. Being from England they have this really serious groove to what they're doing, it's really good. It should be a really dynamic party actually, I'm looking forward to it.

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