Kaoz conversations with Kerri Chandler

Images: Kerri Chandler (Zig Zag Club)

"I was 13 years old when I put my first record on in a club and I remember going 'wow! this feels amazing'," Kerri Chandler tells us prior to a recent set. 

After over three decades behind the decks his enthusiasm for the medium, for nightclubs and for house music is clearly undiminished, as he tirelessly masters the mixer later that evening, spinning a party-minded set that covers techno, contemporary and classic house music and disco.

It's this enthusiasm that has no doubt helped Kerri Chandler sustain a career for so long, decades in which many former peers have fallen by the wayside. It is an enthusiasm that is infectious and inspiring, Chandler being well loved amongst the DJ fraternity and never short of requests to collaborate, with Jerome Sydenham and Chandler's protégé Dennis Ferrer being just two of the most notable to have done so of late.

It is also an enthusiasm that spills out of the DJ booth, not just in the joyous mix he unleashes on his audiences, but in his very standing and demeanour (watch below). An endearingly humble man at heart, Kerri Chandler dances with the crowd, regularly makes eye contact, smiles generously throughout his sets and can often be seen hanging out with sections of his audience post playing.

Of course, just because Kerri Chandler is a nice guy and a brilliant, enthusiastic DJ does not explain the full reason for his longevity. He is also one of the most prolific producers of house music in the business.

He has constantly redefined his music over three decades, refreshing and updating the Kerri Chandler sound. As such, he has kept his productions in demand to a wealth of fans and fellow DJs and has set a high benchmark for the all too recent slew of deep house producers to follow.

"I learned my trade as a sound engineer really," he says. "I started making my first tracks in about 1987. I was playing clubs in New York at that time. I'd never been abroad, but I was playing in New York. My first things started to come out in about 89 and I got really lucky because Atlantic put the first ones, 'Get It Off/SuperLover' out."

Since that time, Chandler has formed or co-formed several of his own record labels firstly Madhouse, then subsequently Sfere and Ibadan. He has also recorded for some of the greatest deep house imprints in house music's history including King Street, Shelter, Freetown Inc, Large, Nervous, Downtown 161, 83 West and Nite Grooves.

Chandler has always been regarded as a New York DJ and producer, indeed many of the labels he has worked for hail from that city. He has helped define the distinct house music sound of his New York home, be it with his exemplary garage vocals and dubs, his more jazzy excursions or with the techno edged fayre he's issued on Ibadan and others alongside the aforementioned Sydenham and Ferrer. 

But in 2015 Chandler himself sees that the journey house music has travelled now extends well beyond being defined by any particular city's sound.

"You might, at first, have been able to say New Jersey - there's a lot of vocals, New York - slightly more sophisticated, a bit more jazzy, Detroit's kinda tough and Chicago is a bit more tracky, but I'm just not sure that's true any more," he says in earnest. "Just look at one of my favourite crews at the moment, Detroit Swindle, they're from Holland. This music, in all its variants, has spread around the world." 

The house music sound has taken Kerri Chandler with it as it has travelled around the world. He regularly crosses the globe fulfilling DJ dates across Europe, including Ibiza where he can be seen playing alongside some of the hottest current names at clubs like DC10 (above), where much of the fresh talent that makes up his fellow DJs are half his age.

"We all have our different backgrounds," he says of his fellow DJs. "My classics aren't necessarily the same as someone else's. The way you've heard things growing up, the way they influence you, the place where you heard them, say, a metropolitan area, instead of hearing them some place like Detroit. It's all about where you want to escape to. We all have an understanding and an appreciation of each other's music . We all know each other because we travel a lot, we all run into each other. So there's a serious rapport we have with each other." 

A religious man with a strong sense of community, Chandler is more accepting than many long-standing US DJs towards new European entrants to house music DJing and production. Though, bar a small number of collaborations, he has remained a lone wolf in the studio from the start.

"There's so many people I'd like to work with," he says. "But the thing is that none of us are ever home or around at the same time. I'm on a laptop now, hoping I can come up with something I can mixdown when I get back home. I can barely get an edit done when I'm on the road, there's no sleep, there's barely time to eat."

The travelling and absence from home are things you hear many DJs moan about from time to time, but it's often true that those tribulations are long forgotten once the DJ feels the adrenaline of facing the audience they've come to entertain.

The increasingly popular Adriatic coast of Croatia is certainly not the easiest destination a New York City boy like Chandler travels to and from, yet it's a journey he's made several times before, initially to play for SuncéBeat. The week long festival of soul, deep house, jazz and soulful house is the seaside, sunshine-filled little sister of the UK's Southport Weekender event and the sixth annual instalment is something Chandler is clearly looking forward to.

"Southport Weekender may have just finished, " he says optimistically, "but SuncéBeat is something completely different. It has such a special vibe. It's like Southport Weekender, but it's held in paradise. Beach parties, an open air nightclub and the boat parties, it's really something special." 

As part of his constantly evolving ethos, Chandler has never been one to dwell to long on one particular sound or project, nor does he seem sentimentally attached to any of the pseudonyms or labels he's created (check out his Kaoz Theory mix below).

"I finally got my new place, so I just got my studio up and running," he tells me regarding his future plans. "And I started a new label called Kaoz Theory. It's pretty much all my friends and people I admire. I just want to push everyone I love to the next level, if I can. It's family. I have stuff coming out from just about everyone you'd hear at DC10, Martinez, Jerome Sydenham, Chez Damier, maybe even Seth Troxler."

But it's back to the decks for the time being for Chandler, as he fulfils a commitment to a busy summer schedule of worldwide festival and holiday time dates. Though the travelling, hotels, lack of food, sleep and studio time may grate somewhat, we expect to see him doing much the same for many seasons to come, although the man himself keeps very much an open mind about the future.

 "If I ever get to a club and it doesn't feel the same way as when I was 13 years old, I'll just stop doing it," he says surprisingly. "It happened once already. I was resident at this club in New York with Johnny Dangerously and we were trying to build it up, but I was torn between giving my energies to that or going to produce records.

"I asked God to give me a sign and tell me what I should do. A friend came up and told me that they'd hired my friend, Eric, to be a resident at the club and that was the sign I needed. I walked out of the club, I left all my records for my friend Eric and I went in the studio. I didn't DJ again for another 2 years. But it was wonderful because I started a label, Madhouse, in that time. And I made some crazy ass records." 

You can catch Kerri Chandler at SuncéBeat 6 in Croatia which takes place Wednesday 22nd and Wednesday 29th July. 

Like this? Try In Conversation with Jerome Sydenham 

Or Croatia Insider's Guide with SuncéBeat's Gavin Kendrick