Francois Kevorkian Interview: New York State Of Mind

Photo: Francois K

When ambitious drummer Francois Kevorkian left his native France in the mid 1970s he couldn't have predicted what life had in store for him in his new home of New York City. After failing to break through on his chosen instrument he turned his attentions to DJing where success proved quicker and easier to attain.

Scoring a job with what, in hindsight, is one of the greatest disco labels of the era, Prelude Records, Francois taught himself tape editing and began his studio career doing re-edits of tracks for DJs.

Before too long he had the access and ability to remix some of Prelude's finest material including tracks by disco legend Patrick Adams, evergreen D Train hits like 'You're The One For Me' and 'Keep On', Unlimited Touch's brilliant 'I Hear Music In The Streets' (below) plus others. 

His DJing career similarly progressed in an upward direction and he regularly appeared at some of NYC's best dance clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54.

His remixing career started to extend beyond the confines of Prelude's catalogue and in the 1980s he would establish himself as one of the best dance music remixers in the business, providing work to many tracks that remain dancefloor classics today such as Dinosaur L's 'Go Bang' and the Snakecharmer EP. This lead to him remixing major label artists like U2, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk.

This studio work took him away from DJing for a time and he built his own studio, Axis, but by 1990 he had returned to the role and was in demand internationally. 

In the mid 1990s he started his own label, Wave Music, which issued a variety of house music sounds from both himself and others such as Abstract Truth, Matthias Heilbronn, Rob Rives, Mood II Swing, Eric Kupper and others.

It also released the compilations of the highly influential Body & Soul club night which Francois founded alongside fellow residents Danny Krivit, Joe Claussell and promoter John Davis. Body & Soul would start in the afternoon on Sundays and for its superb music and DJs and its expressive, impassioned dancers it became known as one of the best club nights of the time.

After 2000 Francois started to concentrate more on solo DJ appearances where he concentrated on a more personal dub, futuristic and psychedelic dance music sound, this eventually becoming distilled into a new New York City residency called Deep Space. Over recent years he has concentrated on DJing, taking his varied sounds to festivals and clubs across the globe for solo gigs or as part of the frequently reconvening trio of Body & Soul residents. 

Mark Dale caught up with Francois a couple of days after the sad passing of pop star Prince. They talked about the man's legacy, a little politics and New York city as well as Francois's ongoing concerns, prior to Francois's appearance at Camp and Furnace in Liverpool on April 30 which launches the city's new Disco Festival.

Hi Francois! So, massive bummer about Prince. What tracks of his have been regular plays of yours over the years?

Yeah. There's so many, he was so prolific. I've sometimes played things that I didn't really know about, that other people turned me onto. I wrote something on Facebook which is more of a composed statement. It might give more of an idea where I'm coming from.

Do you have a particular favourite album of his?

Like I say, because he's such a prolific creator, I don't think there's a way for anyone to be familiar with his entire recorded output. It seems to be daunting. Sometimes I've gone from friends recommendations. Some of his more recent albums were not so widely distributed as the earlier work was. Sometimes, I'll be honest in admitting, it was a little more difficult to get into, but with an artist of that stature there's so much to choose from.

As an example, around the time he released that album you could get for free with one of the Sunday papers he released a track called 'When The Lights Go Down'. It wasn't like one of the big hit records, but what I'm trying to illustrate is that there's so much of this stuff and so much of it was tastefully made, you could pretty much pick any portion of it and find something that fit the mood you're in.

Certainly in my case I don't just associate Prince with the five predictable tracks that everyone plays in the clubs like 'Controversy' or 'I Wanna Be Your Lover'. There are a lot of other moods like 'I Wish You Heaven' (above), stuff that's more of a pop feel and then others that are completely outside of that.

Yesterday I was listening to a B side of a UK only 12” of 'Sexy Dancer', this track called 'Bambi' and it's really a throwback to a raunchy Hendrix type rock song, very unapologetic, takes no prisoners. That's the kind of artist he was, he was really chameleon like, able to express his vision, his passion in so many different ways. So, it's kinda hard to do the usual 'Can you give us a list of ten things....' No, I can't.

When I heard of his passing I felt kinda guilty because, after he stopped recording for a major label I didn't check his stuff so much. Maybe it was because songs didn't appear so often in the top ten anymore? There wasn't so much marketing like he had when he was on a major and he would release double albums at a time and I just got lost, he was so prolific. But I thought what a great opportunity I have now, because of the great legacy he left, to discover some of his great music that I've not yet heard.

Yeah, that none of us have heard. Allegedly there's so much more in the vaults.

Let's hope some of that sees the light of day in a way he would have been happy with.

Who knows? Being that he was so careful, so paranoid about so many things while he was alive, I presume he made provisions, so that he could be just as paranoid when he's not around. I assume. I don't know. He seemed to be really keen on that, so I can't imagine that he just left it to chance. I'm sure there are some people who will be administering his catalogue. They'll be the ones to decide.

Thinking about him, he was such a great singer, such a great songwriter and he was such a talented multi instrumentalist. But he also had amazing stage presence, a brilliant entertainer. The complete package. I was trying to think of who compares to him nowadays and I couldn't think of anyone. Maybe, for me, Erykah Badu or PJ Harvey? Do pop stars like Prince even exist anymore?

I don't think it's fair to compare him to anyone else, he was just singular. It may happen again, but these sorts of people are sadly very uncommon. I would imagine that someone else would come along, who had just as much spunk, creativity and genius, but I don't think we know when that will happen.

Yeah, an all too rare occurrence. You've done some Body and Soul dates recently. How have your shows been with Joe and Danny? I saw some pictures from a great looking gig in Italy. What else have you got coming up?

Yeah, everything's been going fantastic. We just did Amsterdam two weeks ago, we did New York for Martin Luther King's birthday, which was 17 January, we did Miami during the Winter Music Conference and we have lots and lots of dates lined up, some of which are not yet announced but I'm sure I can tell you about Tokyo, Japan because you're going to come there and spend time with us on June 12. You already booked your ticket, right?

Ha! I'd love to have. That residency continues a long running NYC tradition of soul influenced dance music. Does that kind of a night still have a place in NYC right now?

Did it ever? I'm not sure that I can answer that question. We're doing OK whenever we do gigs in New York so I would assume yes, but at the same time I'm not sure I'm able to look at all the connotations or implications of what you're asking as being something that affects everyone the same way. I just think it's up to each individual promoter and group of people who do events to connect with their public.

Well, I ask in light of the changes that have occurred in the city, the loss of some club spaces, the changes that went on under Mayor Guiliani where many places lost their license to have dancing on the premises...

Ach... politicians... as you are seeing right now in the UK, with the people who are preaching Brexit and people like Boris Johnson making comments about the President of the United States, his Kenyan heritage, happening this very moment as we speak, clouding his perception about whether British colonialism is good or bad...

Oh, the guy's an asshole. I feel like I should apologise...

Well, I'm just saying there are people like that everywhere, who are clearly out to further an agenda of some sort and I don't see why New York City would be immune from that. You have them in the UK, everywhere. They're climbers. That's the reason they're into politics, they like to climb. But I think that if the public have a desire or a need for a certain kind of thing you can get around it.

No matter how many obstacles you put in people's way, when they want to do what they want to do, they usually find a way of doing it. That's what I see happening everywhere anyway. In terms of New York City we've seen a big shift of stuff from Manhattan to Brooklyn. That might move again if they start cracking down on Brooklyn.

We've talked a little politics there. Were you disappointed that Bernie didn't take New York?

You know, honestly I'm not a registered voter here in the United States, being that I hold a European passport so, as such, there really isn't anything that matters much about my opinion of US politics. 

Are you not a resident of the United States?

I am a resident but in order to vote you have to be a citizen.

You never wanted to get citizenship?

Obviously not.

Trends in music come in cycles. How do such changing trends affect a long running night like Body and Soul whose ethos and style remains kind of constant?

You just answered the question. In general, I guess, not speaking about Body and Soul in particular, I would imagine that people come to a party... we're getting into an area here where we have to define what the role of the DJ is. Is it necessary that you call yourself an artist? Are you going to perform? In reality you're just a person with a few records who's come to play them for people.

In my own personal case I just vibe off what people seem to want. I don't have an infinity of records, I only have a certain amount, so the trick is to use the records I have to try and get people in the state of mind I feel they need to be in. Usually it works out.

It could be in a variety of ways, when I play on my own. There are times when people seem to want to hear more retro things, recently there seems to be a trend in places like Berlin where people think mid nineties house music was the coolest thing ever. I go to some places and a bunch of people will think late seventies disco was the best thing ever. I could go some place where they go, no, clearly mid eighties Chicago and Detroit techno are the only things that ever mattered. And I think they all have a good point actually.

For me, personally? All of the above. There was a ton of rubbish in every time period, but there were also a lot of gems. Certain times when I play I feel the audience is open enough to accept me playing different things that I'm trying contextually to put together. Other times I just do something specific because that's what I'm being asked to do.

As such I always seem to be able to adapt. As we were discussing Prince earlier, it seems people were aware that he was able to delve into a lot of different styles and I think it's very much an inspiration to see people of that sort, who can do that. It very much inspires me and I try to do the same as a DJ. 

I don't really see myself as someone who performs. I'd much rather people just look at themselves on the dancefloor and have a great time, close their eyes and let themselves go into the music instead of looking at me as though I'm some kind of messiah, because clearly I don't think I am or that any other DJ is. It's just a person standing there pressing play on two CD players most times.

I'm sorry if I take all the glamour out of it, but when you see Prince on stage with his guitar, jamming with his band, making a song, live, in front of you and compare that with a guy pressing play on a CD player, well, if you can't tell the difference, I don't know.

I wanted to ask you about Deep Space. Where are you up to with that?

Well, funny you should mention it, we just celebrated our 13th anniversary, which is quite a lot longer than I expected it to last when we started it. If you count back that means we've had over 675 parties. Every week. That's quite a lot. We've just decided to move it from a Monday to a Sunday slot and the reason for that is we feel that it's more friendly for people who work being able to come.

We kept getting complaints from some people that they want to come but that the Monday night thing is just too harsh. Being awake at 3.30 on a Monday night doesn't help when it comes to getting to work the next day. So, we're just in the process of moving. We started two weeks ago.

We're trying to be as eclectic as ever. This week we're having Kool Herc as a guest, some weeks later we're having a well regarded dubstep producer, a few weeks later we're having some people who might be regarded as disco legends. As I was saying before, in my case I try to pick the best of what's out there and feature it in the aesthetic of what Deep Space is all about, which is a sort of dubby, trippy feeling (listen to Francois' dub mix at Dommune below).

I guess being around that long, with people having supported us, that people get it, that there's a different aesthetic at work there where, instead of just featuring party tracks there's a definite attempt at capturing something more psychedelic and out there. I think it's resonated with people and when we ask guests to come we do ask them to play a Deep Space set, which I think slowly we've been able to define. So it still has that musical freedom, that desire to explore that made me want to do it in the first place. 

We've been blessed it's had support and with this new Sunday slot we think it's going to give more opportunities for local people to come and create a scene. The last few years we were getting more visiting customers but we're trying to get it back more on the local foot.

Would I be right in saying it's been a few years since you've had a release on Wave Music?

Yeah, I've not really been very active on that front. It's been exclusively gigs. It's not on any particular label that I've been inactive, it's altogether I've taken a break. I think the last release I had was a Nina Simone remix that I did in around 2005 (below), but that's about to change. I've taken a good break and sometime later this year I think I'm going to start being prolific again. I've got lots and lots of stuff saved up, I just didn't bother putting it out.

Does that mean Wave Music might come back?

Well, we obviously have a sizeable catalogue. All of it is available online at iTunes, Juno, Beatport, Traxsource and so forth, so we're covered for the existing catalogue. The question still remains, as far as the motivation I have, will it be for putting out a lot of new music by different artists, whether it's just going to be my own stuff, I can't really answer that question. I'm in the middle of debating it. It's really about economics. 

One of the names that wave Music first brought to my attention was Matthias Heilbronn. What's he up to now? Are you still in contact with him?

Yeah, a bit. I don't want to speak for him because I don't know exactly what he's doing nowadays. Some people have to stick to the core of what is producing. Being the head of a family, having a child to support, as he does really cuts down your options as to what you need to be doing. In my case that's been just doing gigs because that's clearly where I'm able to get a ton of work.

In Matthias's case he might have some activities that I don't know about. There are other people I know who have switched to different jobs within the music industry, like someone I know makes sample packs. I think that's very telling in that instead of it being an era where the music makers are few, we're getting to a place where there are so many that the business of enabling people to make music might be more significant than the actual business of making music.

In my case I have a notoriety and a huge portfolio so I can rely on the name, on the value of the things I have done in the past to ensure that someone like you will want to interview me. For someone starting today, although there are a lot of incredible social media outlets they can use to get their stuff out there and showcase what they do, but it's still incredibly difficult for someone to break through in the way that some of us did in earlier generations. 

My last question is a little more light hearted. Kevorkian is not a common name here in the UK. Have you ever been mistaken for Dr Jack Kevorkian?

Well, it used to be that whenever I would pass through the border, as I'm not a US citizen, I'm a resident, they would have to look at my passport a bit more because I have a green card. So every time I would pass immigration coming back into the US people would see it and Dr Jack Kevorkian always used to be in the news at one point that whenever people saw my passport they would wonder, are you related?

So, those questions used to come up very regularly, but that's kind of gone off the radar. Part of that is that what this guy stood for, which is the right for people to die with dignity, assisted suicide, used to be a hot topic with evangelicals, the God crew, people that believe in an imaginary being and since they do they have the right to boss people around and tell them how to live their lives.

But now that seems to have gotten more mainstream as an idea and as a result people don't ask me that question quite as much as before hahaha!

Catch Francois K at the Liverpool Disco Festival Launch Party on April 30th. Get your tickets below.

More like this? Read our Cream Classics Review here.

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