Q&A With Lil Louis (The Founding Father of House Music)

Before EastSide Electronics 2024, Louis will hold a special up close and personal speaking event sponsored by Titanic Distillers, entitled “House 101- The truth about how the House was built in Chicago” as follows:

- A 10 film short with exclusive footage never seen before or released to the public.
Note: The footage is taken from excerpts of exclusive interviews of DJs and
producers featured in Louis’ upcoming film, “The House that Chicago Built.”

- After the viewing, Louis will give a keynote discussion re: the real history of house.

- A full Q&A with audience and media will follow.

• Cameras/Filming: To safeguard the film’s unreleased footage, no cameras or phones will be allowed to be used during this event. 

Pioneer, Icon, Mogul, and Renaissance man are all words that describe Louis Burns a/k/a Lil Louis. An international Artist, Producer, Songwriter, DJ, Author and Director, Lil Louis is credited as being the Founding Father of House Music. 

As the son of the late great Blues artist Bobby Sims, music became essential in Louis’s adolescent life when at age 8 he begin to play the drums and bass. In 1974, while working at a party organized by his mother Mary to unite Chicago gangs, Louis was asked to play after the DJ fell ill. The acclaim from the crowd birthed the 12-year-old’s career as a DJ, and by many accounts, the birth of House music. Shortly after, he began DJing at adult nightclubs. It was during a police raid at the River’s Edge club, that Louis was given his now renowned stage name “Lil Louis” from a riled, witty police officer. 

Louis was the first in Chicago to regularly play Disco. A feat that earned him awe and ire. Subsequently, he was fired from every club he worked at during the first years of his career. At 16, Louis decided to venture into entrepreneurship and opened the first of many of his successful Chicago nightclubs. Over time his uniquely mastered art of DJing in which he told a musical story, grew ‘record’ historic crowds. In 1977, Louis organized the world’s first “Rave.” Being the “lab rat” of the world’s first record pool, Louis is also credited for “breaking” more records than any other Chicago DJ. In the mid 70s, he took mixing another step, by pioneering “Edits,” a tool that planted the seed of House Music. 

Taking his gift for mixing into the studio, Louis began to make his own recordings in 1980. Initially, Louis deemed his tracks merely a marketing tool, reserved strictly for his club goers. His first official release was “How I Feel b/w Frequency,” on Dance Mania, followed by several others. In 1987, he released one of the most important House records of all time, “French Kiss” which topped charts around the world and became, selling 6 million copies, making Louis the Top Selling Dance Artist in history. Later releasing two albums with Sony and Polygram “From The Mind of Lil Louis” (Platinum) which featured “French Kiss,” “I Called You” and “Blackout”, and “Journey with the Lonely” (Gold), which contained the hits “Club Lonely” and “Saved My Life.” 

Throughout his career, Louis has produced and written/co-written for many prominent artists including Jay-Z, Lil Kim, Babyface, Meshell N’degeocello, GrooveTheory/Amel Larieux, Donna Summers, Bassment Jaxx, Louie Vega, as well as produced for soundtracks including “Jason’s Lyrics” and “Woo.”