BnB Interview: Spencer ParkerWritten by Manu Ekanayake
Those of you who know Brit-turned-Berliner Spencer Parker or follow him on Facebook will know that he pulls no punches; whether he’s talking about his latest session at Panorama Bar or his last clothing purchase, his love of Rhianna (yes, you read that right) or his latest production, he’ll never shy away from exploiting his own shortcomings for comic effect, a trait more DJs could do with. So in a scene that’s always been filled with loudmouth merchants hyping themselves with every breath, Spencer is a rare thing – an artist who can laugh at himself but still take making music seriously. After all, King Street Sounds wouldn’t let any old joker remix some of their best tracks, nor would Ian Pooley work with just anybody. Interested? Well, you will be when you hear Spencer's take on both these events, plus more besides.... So Spencer, how did your collaboration with Ian Pooley (which yielded the massive Kinderteller) come about? The follow up to the Cabin Fever release was the 2 tracker on Ovum, and we've also collaborated on a track on my upcoming album and we have another single already done too. Working with Ian is just effortless as he has a phenomenal studio and knows it inside out and, obviously, he is just a fantastic producer. The work process normally starts with me coming up with some ludicrous idea and miming it out to Ian by saying things like, ‘It needs a sound like "tsss tsss, tssss tsss tsss" in this part’, Ian will then come up with some fantastic percussion and say laconically, ‘It's called a hi-hat, Spencer’, and so on and so forth until lunchtime. Then we'll break out some of Ian's old 707's, 909's 808's or the MPC or SP1200 and both hit them until we find a sound we like. By then it's normally time to take Ian's dog, Basil, for a piss. After that we arrange, and then the bell rings and we both go home for dinner… And how the hell do you go about remixing a true classic like Mood II Swing’s Closer in the first place? ME: ‘Hey guys, can you send me over the parts please, I'm gonna start work today, or maybe tomorrow...’ LABEL: ‘Do you have the 12"…?’ ME: ‘Yeah, of course, I love it’ LABEL: ‘Well, they're all on there, we don't have any parts apart from what’s on the 12". Speak to you in 3 weeks when the mix is done. Bye...’ The way the mix came about was that I was in Tokyo to play Womb, but arrived a day early and instead of going to bed early and slowly acclimatising to the change in weather / time zones, I immediately went out to the opening of Club Eleven (the same venue that used to be the legendary Yellow). While I was there I was introduced to Hisa from King Street Sounds, who said he loved the tracks I’d been doing and was I interested in doing any remixes at the moment….? Here was my chance to say, ‘Err, yeah, maybe, if the fee is right. Let's stay in touch.’ But instead I simply blurted out 5 minute soliloquy on how much I LOVED King Street and Nite Grooves and how I would gladly mix ANY track on their label and how I ADORED the Blaze mix of Star Suite and how I ALWAYS would play Closer and REALLY loved the Beat That Bitch track by Johnny Dangerous, or the Mongobonix EP by Harry ‘Choo Choo’ Romero, or the tracks they released by Kerri Chandler, DJ Pierre or Mondo Grosso. Anyway, we stayed in touch and I remixed a track for King Street Sounds (P'taah’s Your Soul On Mine) and a track for Nite Grooves (Bliss’ Planetery Voyage). BUT, I put a clause in the contract that I’d also get to remix Mood II Swing’s Closer as it was one of my favourite-ever records. They agreed to that and I ended up doing 3 mixes. To be honest, I really just wanted to update it and make it playable for now, as it’s such a great record, you don't really need to add that much. Also, I just had WAVs of what was on the record and an accapella, so that did make it kind of tricky. To start with I just handed in the Gun For Hire Remix and Gun For Hire Dub but the label said they were too similar to the originals and asked me for another pass, which is when I did the Sex and Landscapes Dub. I didn't really want to do the final remix as I just wanted to update the original vocal and dub mixes by Mood II Swing and leave it at that, but it didn't come out that bad and a lot of people like it so I guess it's ok…. Berlin VS The UK – why does Berlin get it so right for you? And what do you miss about the UK? I'd played here a few times over the last 10 years or so, always loved the city and had a really good friend already here, who had moved a couple of years previously. I knew the rent and cost of living was pretty cheap and had Paris, Barcelona or Amsterdam been just as cheap, I could have quite easily chosen any of those 3 instead. As it turns out I love the Berlin more than I thought possible and even though it has the best nightlife in the world for house/techno/disco music, I would still happily live here if there wasn't one club at all. I love the pace of the city, the architecture, the people, the parks, the museums and much more. The fact that I can also walk to/from Berghain, Watergate, Arena, Club Der Visionaire, Bar 25 (RIP), Edelweiss, Farbensehr, St. George and more is just a bonus! I don't miss anything at all about London or the UK, every time i come back to England to work on music or DJ, I can't wait to get back to Berlin. I'm not criticising it, but for me, it was time to get the fuck outta Dodge! Now to Panorama Bar – you’re a regular at the infamous home of German house & techno (and The Lab), but do you have anything to say about the infamously strict door policy? Ever had any trouble? How does a pro do it? One of the main reasons Berghain/Panorama Bar is such a great club is because of the crowd, because there are no DC10-type idiots wearing wigs and funny glasses, because there are not huge groups of lairy tourists, because there aren't silly girls complaining to the DJ that the music is too hard/slow/fast and because you can dance and hear some of the best dj's around without being jostled off the dancefloor by a crew of people constantly trying to take photos of themselves or their friends. The door policy and "no photographs" policy alone makes the environment inside something completely different to most clubs around now, and that's BEFORE you throw in a great soundsystem and great music. I'm astounded more clubs around the world don't follow this lead to be honest, at least on the cameras. Luckily I've never had any trouble getting in - I've not been lairy in the queue, I’ve not turned up in a group of 8 lads (or with a hen party) and I go there purely for the music. If anyone else did the same, I'm sure they'd be fine. You makes no bones about your love of pop music and commercial R&B, so who are the artists you listen to and why do you love them? (And do they influence your music at all?) I think I'm just completely honest about what I listen to, and a lot of people aren't. I don't see any reason why I can't wake up and listen to the latest Ben Klock or Sandwell District record and then later throw on some Rihanna? I like pop music when it's done well and you see ‘superstars’ coming through, or you hear an amazing one-hit-wonder that you know you'll always dig. I don't think they influence my music that much, but so much pop music is really well-crafted and built around great hooks, so I'm always keeping my ears open in that respect… You also have a quite an interest in fashion – stemming from your Facebook comments re: your Dior jeans, Head Porter bags etc, love of The September Issue, including the mighty Andre Leon Talley – so who are your favourite designers? And why do they get your cash? But to answer your question, I definitely have a soft spot for the work of designers like Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, Lucas Ossendrijver at Lanvin, Raf Simmons at Jil Sander, Kris Van Assche at Dior and the mysterious Martin Margiela. I just really like simple, classy, well-made clothes and I think these guys are making the best at the moment - I can't afford to buy tooooooo much of it on a monthly basis, but i definitely keep my eyes peeled to get the odd classic piece here and there each year. Faithfanzine.com – why is it so addictive? Ever think it gets too nasty? Do you use messageboards in general, apart from Faith? I think it's a great site and I think it's really cool that the people that run it have such a passion for, and knowledge of, credible underground house, techno and disco. I like sites like Faith because the majority of people on there really care about this music and it's great to talk about music and discover music through like-minded souls. Obviously people disagree and people snap at each other, but in the main, that’s all part of the fun. I think sometimes it can turn a bit nasty when people disagree, but I tend to just bow out at that point; I've always sworn to not become one of those people that argue back and forth on internet message boards, life's too short. I pop into Faith when I can - and RA too - but I don't really look at too many messageboards to be honest, as I think they can be a little misleading. Everyone on RA or Faith loving or hating a record doesn't really mean that much to me and I always have the thought that, although people big up or diss certain tracks, messageboards are fundamentally the same 40/50 people speaking to each other week in, week out... Now to Facebook itself – that’s where we first fell in love with the Parker wit, but have you ever put up something you’ve regretted? I use Facebook mainly as a blog, I don't have a fan page (I couldn't bear to ask people to ‘become a fan’ of me and I didn't want to update TWO sites everyday) and I guess (hope) that if people have bought my records or heard me play they may find it interesting to see what I'm into at the moment. In an ideal world I'd like to just have one huge page that everyone can join - but I can’t work out how to easily transfer my current ‘friends’ to a new artist page. So I guess I’ll just stick with the 4923 close buddies I have at the mo…hehe. Horse Meat Disco – what makes a disco club so H.O.U.S.E? Be it house or disco, the HMD boys all have great taste and can play an upfront new CDR, a stone cold classic or an undiscovered gem and make them all fit together with consummate ease. They also make sure the party is ALWAYS fun, which I think a lot of the more trainspotter-y disco nights all seem to forget about. Their Vauxhall Is Gurning Vogue Ball at The Eagle was, without doubt, one of my best nights out in 2010! What are your thoughts on Top 100 DJ polls (RA, DJ Mag etc)? Even in the RA Poll, Lee Foss was around 40 places ahead of Radio Slave and Josh Wink… I'm not criticising anyone, but that's just not correct in terms of each of the artist’s stature. But, hey, these sorts of polls are fun and they encourage debate and make people buy magazines, check websites etc so why not? And finally, what else have you got coming out production-wise at the moment? We would like to thank Spencer for answering so fully – check out his Sex And Landscapes Dub of Mood II Swing’s Closer below:
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