Page 44 - DemoZone Magazine Summer Issue 2020

Hey there Harrison, how’s it going? What’s your day been like so far?
The day has been hectic. Back and forth in the studio working on new projects, writing new songs, revisiting old good ones for remixes...
Tell us about this new label, what’s the idea behind it? Can you tell us about some of the artists you have lined up? Any tours/gigs?
Sure, the artists I got lined up include DJ Shellz, Ron Carrol and Colombo with Ron Davis Jr. and some new music with legendary house vocalist Daejay. We’re also planing a tour in June in the UK.
Okay, let’s go back to your roots. Can you talk about your life in Chicago in the 80s? You lived in what realtors might call a ‘vibrant area’!
Yes I grew up on the south side of Chicago in the early 80s when House first started. My area was called ‘The Low End’, lots of drugs and gangs, so I fell in love with House and went to the first house parties in my area when I was only 15 years old.
I started listening to House in 1983; Hot Mix 5 on WBMX. I use to stay up all night! Then I started hearing about house parties in 7th grade and me and a friend, Roscoe Townsend, would dress in our parachute pants and penny loafer shoes and go to these parties where we heard the first of House. We stayed out long... We partied in the basements of houses all the time. I was listening to Lil’ Louis and Frankie Knuckles.
Then the big parties started to happen more and more, new House records were coming out. There were dance house groups and we use to cut our hair like upward to say we were ‘House’! I started to want to DJ then once I saw the DJ rocking the party. There wasn't a lot of original House songs out so DJs used to mix it up with disco. It was great growing up to the birth of house!
Art was prominent in your youth too. Who inspired you?
Yeah, I was interested in film and music, so Spike Lee inspired me with film but music was my first love.
Let’s move on, you met up with Felix at Art school and worked together. Were you aware of who he was at the time? How did your relationship develop?
I met Felix going to the same college, Columbia. He and I were singing in an RnB group but I wanted to do more so I posted a sign on the school board saying I was looking for people to collab with and Felix answered. We meet and he says “Hey man, I got some music, let’s work together!”
The 1990s were a time of great expansion for House music, tell us about some of your highlights travelling the world.
House music was booming! I started getting booked in the early ‘90s all over Europe: Germany, UK, Spain... it was a great experience and I wanted to put more records out to get more exposure. Playing in Ibiza for the summer was a great highlight of mine.
In the early 00’s Subliminal knocks on your door. The music you were making was so musically rich then, do you think we’ve lost some of the soul today?
Well, I don’t think we have lost soul, I think there need to be better written songs! Production on songs was quite across the board back in the day as it was done in your basement. At the studio, it was high quality. New producers now should focus on more songwriting and collaboration, as sometimes 3 heads are better than one. Everyone is a producer but not a songwriter now. We need more songwriters.
Talking of songwriters, tell us about working with Puffy. How did he contact you and what was the experience like?
I met Puffy through Felix actually. Felix called me up and said he was in New York working with this famous rapper and asked me to come down from Chicago to help him with production and mostly writing. Puffy was great to work with. He’s a hard worker.
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