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Interview with Chuck Love by Ollie Brooke

As a long time active member of the dance scene you'll have seen a lot of styles and fads come and go, do you think there's a central theme to the ones that hang around for longer or do you think it's down to the work of the individuals responsible?

I t seems like a trend that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon is our old friend "four on the floor" (oonchoonchoonchoonch) Get that goin' about 126 bpm +or- 4 or so and you can strap just about any musical perversion to it. It's very useable for the producer and for the end user dj to find a diversity of tracks that roughly match, and work well together. Individual efforts can impact a sound palate or beat style but fundamental changes seem to move pretty slowly.

The music you produce has a fairly wide range of style, which is uncommon for a lot of producers, why do you think you vary so much with what you do, is it because you get bored or is it just down to what inspires you at the time?

I really do like a wide variety of styles, and I probably vary my sound more than some because I don't know any better.
I don't try to fit anything to tightly into what I'm crafting as "my sound", instead I'm trying to make whatever sound I pursue quality on it's own level. Nothing is really off limits.

So the future, as always, holds lots of new ideas and movements. The electronic music scene is one thing that heralds the cultural future more than many other scenes. The current state of this scene though holds a lot of retro influences. The soulful house and electro genres in particular draw heavily upon past movements. What do you think will be the next major change in our culture, specifically as regards music?

I think the new technology in music production both raises and lowers the bar in that it's relatively easy to make a track that's sonically punchy and sounds great but may have no real musical content, I think that good song craft will always find it's way thru the clutter. As far as retro flavours, I think Bach, Donna Summer, Kraftwerk, and the Beatles will always crop up in the fabric of what we listen to.

Compared to 15 or 20 years ago DJs are now a dime a dozen. With the advent of new technologies such as auto beat matching, mp3 record stores it is making what were defining aspects of great DJs more and more easily reproducible to the degree where it is a fine line between greatness and mediocrity, do you agree with this statement and why?

I agree with the statement - producers will cut thru.

As an Irish DJ now based in Australia I had heard, before moving here, that the Aussie scene was about 3 years behind the UK one in terms of styles and evolution. Now that I'm here I
would say that this is not the case, it seems to have developed it's own sense of style and diversity. Why do you think this is and what are the aspects of the Aussie scene that may come to be major influences on the global scene?

I'm not that familiar with specific Aussie artists, but I certainly do hope that the enthusiasm for house music that I found in OZ spreads worldwide.

Straying away from musical questions for a moment what are your thoughts on the idea that the west is turning (or already is) an Empirical force acting under the thin veil of democracy and the "free" market. If this is the case then are we as citizens equally guilty for this perpetration or are we innocent underlings?

I think our western culture offers the best and worst of what humanity has to offer, the best being freedom of ideas, and the worst being a very materialistic and greedy society. I certainly wish that we as a culture could export our "good Ideas" by inspiration as opposed to by force.

With the continued growth of the electronic scene and it's comparison to the punk scene in the 70s and 80s do you think we should be more politically active and wield our unity and power to change the status quo or has this status quo taken past mistakes on board and is giving us enough of a free reign so that we don't feel the need to rebel against it?

I feel we should be able to wield our collective power to bring a big-ass hi-fi set to the park and turn it up real loud on a Sunday afternoon. I don't know if that's rebellion exactly, but it's something I wish we could do in Minneapolis without "The Man" shutting us down.

Back to the music side of things, your productions seem to sit nicely in the middle ground between soulful, funky, jackin and deep house, do you think this is as a result of your musical adventures over the course of your career or is it because this is where you want to be, I.e. is it an organic thing or are you targeting a specific market?

I would say that is a good description of my sound, and I feel it represents an organic evolution.
The fact that my music finds it's way into a diversity of bags is definitely a bonus. I don't think I would be musically satisfied if I did one of those flavours all night. Don't be afraid to dislike the tracks that don't fit into your bag.

You've worked with quite a few of music's giants, who, in your mind, are the producers you work with in the present that have a lot to offer the scene and why?

Migs:  you can recognize the way the party feels when he's playing and his tracks come on, it's a vibe thing.
Kaskade: has really been able to reach out to the "Big Room" with very musical material that doesn't just sound like "boots in the dryer".
Youngman: has really branded a recognizable sound that he sticks to and nails every time.
Fred Everything: his tracks are sonically excellent and both musical and funky.
Farina: for his track selection and the love, and loyalty his fans bring with him. His DJ sets are the balls.

Over the years you've knocked out a few tracks, some hit and some miss, do you know which ones are going to be hits and which are miss before they're published or do you just wait and see? Have you put out tracks you though were sure fire winners only to be disappointed or vice versa?

No idea, although my tracks have largely hit the spot for someone. It's strange when I phase out a track from my set that I'm not feelin' as much any more, someone will come up and request it as their favourite of all time ...of course I bust it out, and love it again.
The tracks I do with FourFeet on vocals have a catchy vibe that we're pretty confident that people will be singin' along with.

Old people generally have a lot of disdain for the music of today, what music do you think (we) old people will have this disdain for when our grand-kids are out clubbing?
 
I am old people.
I hate everything.
Damn kids and their freekin' mash-ups

Electro, love it or hate it?

Love it.
Use in moderation ...wait it's electro. Abuse in moderation.
I feel so "dirty"

The 20th century brought us some significant musical revolutions, Jazz, Rock'n'Roll, Electronica, Boy Bands, what do you think will be the next big wave, or is it all out in the open now?

I'm down for minimal-Jackabilly-accoustafarrian-intellapunk

What DJs do you listen to at home or in the car?

Farina Mushroom Jazz, whatever I'm workin' on, the "house of OM " stuff, but mainly Liberal talk radio.

Digital DJing, where do you stand on the subject?

I turn the decks into rotary CD dispensers. The fuzzy slipmats don't scuff my CDs. I love vinyl but it doesn't fit with my lifestyle at the moment.

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Click here to buy Om Summer Sessions mixed by Chuck Love, Groove Junkies & DJ Fluid

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