Interview: Graeme Park talks musical revolution, evolution, and retrospection

When you talk about the birth of Chicago house during Britain’s 1980s, the name of one DJ and producer will undoubtedly come into play.

Graeme Park experienced the glory days, the time of Manchester’s The Hacienda – a time when vinyl was king. And although the sound of Chicago house was born in the US of A, Park made sure it didn’t stay there, and eventually, others tuned in. Though honing your skills during such a revolution and then developing through an evolution how it is consumed and created is nothing short of amazing.

Graeme Park takes Jasmine Phull on walk through a period when creating a record took months not days, or dare I say hours. “If you wanted to make a record you had to find a studio, book it, pay for an engineer, hire equipment, pay a singer and then find a record label to put it out,” laments Park, who reminisces to a time when Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder created ‘Ebony and Ivory’. Being on other sides of the world would have been easily facilitated by a little thing called Skype. But does the accessibility of technology mean a degeneration of musical output? Graeme Park enlightens us.

Your career in music started in the early 1980s, at Nottingham record shop Selectadisc. Did working there have a great impact on the path and the perceptions and beliefs that led you there?

Not so much to start with because Selectadisc was more of an indie rock record store, but I was put in charge of the second hand section. Back in the early 80s a lot of people would come in and sell their records. I’ve always had eclectic taste so when people came in with old disco and old funk and soul 12 inches, I would always have them for myself. Not long after I started, the guy who owned the record shop bought a nightclub and I eventually started DJing there. I managed to use my connections in the record store to order 12 inches that the shop wouldn’t have necessarily stocked.

You used to play in quite a few bands. Do you still incorporate live instrumental into your work?

As we speak I’m sat here with a singer and we’re about to record some vocals. I do a lot of writing and production with other people; however, having twins about seven years ago took up a lot of my time. Now that I’ve got time I’ve started producing music with a friend call Paul Burchill under the guise Yellow and Black.

You first began DJ at Manchester’s The Haçienda in 1988. How did it define you then? How does it define you more than 20 years later?

Hacienda was such an inspirational and influential place. The majority of people that went there found it a life changing experience. You’ve got to realise that in the 80s clubbing was a completely different landscape to what it is now. You didn’t have the choice that you have today – certainly not in the UK where the one or two places you could go would shut at 2am. The Hacienda held 2000 people and it shut at 2am, but people used to queue from 8pm and it was the only place in the whole of the north, and at one point in the whole of the UK, that you could hear Chicago house music. People would travel far and wide. Now you have so much choice, people kind of take stuff for granted. There is a whole generation of people who are now in their late 30s and 40s, who still hold so much affection for The Hacienda. So when I play around the country you always get a whole bunch of people, who are old enough to know better, that wanna hear the old tunes.

Your audience is quite varied in age. Do you plan the music you play at your gigs?

No because half the time 50 per cent are under 30 and 50 per cent are over. If it’s the older crowd I’ll play the more familiar, classic stuff but if it’s the younger crowd I’ll play more current contemporary stuff. Most of the time it’s split down the middle and I get to play a bit of old and new.

The evolution of technology means DJs no longer have to lug around heavy cases of vinyl wherever they go. You obviously evolved as an artist during a time when vinyl was very important. What are your thoughts on working solely digital when performing?

This year I’ve started playing vinyl again, for two reasons. One: I’ve been paying a fortune to put it in storage and now it’s all at home. I’m surrounded by it and now I can just open a box and find records I’ve forgotten about. Yesterday I found this brilliant jazz funk album by Mad House and so I’ve put some tracks on my radio show. It takes an absolute age to digitise everything because you’ve got to do it in real time. Sometimes you think, I wanna play these records this weekend, so I’ll take them to the club. I use Serato, which is software on my laptop, when I DJ but I hook it up to vinyl decks. You can hook it up to a Midi controller but that’s boring. Sometimes I have to hook it up to CDs because a lot of clubs have gotten rid of their turn-tables, but fortunately most weekends I make sure the clubs have vinyl decks. So if I do take vinyl it is easy enough to set up, so I can switch between the two. The punters usually don’t even realise whether I’m using the laptop or vinyl!

But, you know.

Exactly. It’s a skill that’s dying out. The next generation of DJs probably won’t even care. Nobody is even making vinyl anymore! But if you’re in a great club with a great sound system you know if you’re listening to vinyl because it sounds warmer and chunkier – it sounds amazing.

Soon enough every DJ will be using two iPads.

Yea I’ve seen a DJ use two iPads – I didn’t think it was that great. Though practicality always takes precedence, if I’ve got three different gigs and I have to catch three different planes I’ll just take my laptop but if I’m driving through the UK then I’ll definitely take the decks.

You’ve said discovering house music from the US was quite influential to the artist that you are today. How did it differ from that of the UK, in style and attitude?

You’ve gotta remember that house music originated in the US. From 85’ - 86’ we started to get the raw tracks from Chicago and Detroit - they were like nothing you’d heard before. Some of them had great male vocals and others were really raw versions of soul tunes, but it was the equipment. It was cheap drum machines, cheap synthesisers, and the people who made them were very influenced by European electronic music, like Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget and Human League. Ten years earlier, I felt a similar thing about punk rock which had a very raw, DIY attitude, but it was just rock ‘n’ roll done in a different way and that’s what house music is. It’s disco music done with cheap synthesisers… but look at house music now… It’s just so easy to make music these days.

Which isn’t always a good thing.

It’s a good thing in the way that it democratises everything. I also lecture at a university and I talk a lot about how traditionally if you wanted to make a record you had to find a studio, book it, pay for an engineer, hire equipment, pay a singer and then find a record label to put it out. So now what you can do in hours used to take months! What you can do now for practically no upfront costs you had to once pay a fortune for. That’s good but what it also means is that there are so many people making absolutely, shockingly awful music that a record company would never ever release, but you can simply set up your own online digital label and release it yourself. As a result I get a hundred emails a day saying: ‘check out this’, and it is tedious but I do it.

Is there someone from your youth that was particularly influential musically?

My grandfather had his own orchestra and gave me his clarinet when I was eleven. That led me to playing saxophone. Also a friend of mine moved to New York when he was 18 and he said: ‘you’ve got to listen to the radio stations WBLS and Kiss’. He’d tape the Marley Marl show, which was just hip hop and scratching, and Tony Humphries show, which was  mixing disco and house, and then send them to me. There was no talking and I thought it was amazing - they had a massive influence on me.

The Internet has dramatically changed the way we create and share music, can you imagine something equally as influential following in the future?

The singer/songwriter I’m currently collaborating with, is travelling overseas next week and the Internet means she can record her ideas, upload them to the Internet and then we can check them out and work our magic. I mean when Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder did ‘Ebony and Ivory’ one of them was in LA and one of them was in London. They had to send the two-inch tape via plane, now they could just do it together via Skype. In the old days if you wanted to remix a track you’d have to ask the record company if they could lend you the two-inch, which would be copied and sent to you but you’d have to buy a two-inch machine in order to play it. Times have changed remarkably.

Lastly, list three songs you’ve played to death.

The Patrick Cowley 15 minute remix of Donna Summers’ ‘I Feel Love’, usually when I need to go to the toilet (laughs). Another, not through choice though, is my new remix of The Brand New Heavies’ ‘Back to Love’. People often threaten to lynch me if I don’t play it. One of my most played tracks ever is a track called ‘Surrender You’ by the Daou. It’s an epic club hit that is often overlooked when people talk about the classic hits from the 80s and 90s.

Listen to Graeme Park's weekly radio show.

Interview by: Jasmine Phull

Graeme Park headlines the Hacienda Xmas Party at Sankeys on December 28th. Tickets are available through Skiddle below.

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