Derrick Carter - Resident Advisor Podcast 124 - Oct 2008

Biography of Derrick Carter

Born and raised in the western suburbs, Carter was into music from a young age, but during his teens Chicago's house scene sucked him in for good.Before long Carter became a strong presence in the city's underground dancescene. 'When I got my driver's license at 16 my sneak ability was validated,' he laughs. 'I was a fierce bedroom jock for a long time. Afteryou mix for the love of it for six or seven years, you get it pretty tight and you can take it on the road.' He got by working at dance-music specialty stores like Gramaphone and gigging at parties. Later he landed regular DJ stints at Shelter, Foxy's, and Smart Bar.

Though he doesn't spin much locally anymore, when he does, he attracts large crowds. His sets are rooted in house, but he freely travels outside club tastes, seamlessly incorporating old-school disco, soul, jazz, and whatever else catches his fancy. Most of the time he works in Europe, where he's become a major celebrity among dance-music aficionados. And the money's a hell of a lot better there. 'It's hard not to laugh on the occasions when you'll make 20 times what you make in Chicago on a Saturday night, but there are also times when you do it just for the fun, like at home. So many people come up to me and say, 'Man, I had the worst day. My girlfriend left me, I locked my keys in my car, but you turned me for two hours, and that made me able to get up in the morning.' That's the best thing going.' In 1988 Carter, fellow DJ Mark Farina, and friend Chris Nazuka released an EP as the group Symbols and Instruments. The record had a strong influence on the burgeoning ambient techno movement in England. While it wasn't a commercial success, it established Carter as an international figure in the dance-music underground. Since then he's been involved with a number of recording projects, firstly his solo project Sound Patrol under whom he released his first album 'Sweetened -No Lemon' which exuded a soulfulness and low-key grittiness that resonated beyond the infectious grooves and made a departure from the machine-like quality of the dance music fare of the time.

Since then the pioneering, innovative tracks and consequent critical acclaim have marked Derrick out as one of the most important players in dance music. Most notably through his more recent releases on Classic. As co-owner and close friend of the company his musical and conceptual input has resulted in Classic becoming one of the leaders in the world of deep house. His first release was as Rednail with 'I Think of You', followed by 'Nu Pschidt' and 'Hope' under his own name. Nü Pschidt combined woven scatting with sleepy minimal beats on 'Dreaming Again' and skilfully cast his own low, sexy drawl over his trademark Carter grooves to form 'Boompty Boomp Theme', described by acid house legend Andy Weatherall as 'the greatest house record of the year, if not the next two years.'

Over the last couple of years Derrick has been releasing some of his greatest work to date. From the timeless sounding release 'A Hope (Over U)', to the dancefloor smash 'Untershrift EP', through the unique 'Mo' Pschidt EP' Derrick and Classic are most definitely on a roll. His eagerly awaited artist album 'Square-dancing In A Roundhouse' is due for release on Classic in the Autumn of 2002, accompanied by a new single 'Where U At?'. Derrick has also recently remixed the top ten smash Superman Lovers 'Starlight', Angry Mexican DJ 'I Like It Funky' and Greens Keepers 'Should I Sing Like This?'.

Besides his Subliminal residency at Centrofly, New York, with Eric Morillo, and his Chicago Madbar residency, he has just started a new bi-monthly Classic residency at London's The End alongside Luke Solomon and Rob Mello. Derrick spends most of his life continually touring regularly playing in Europe, America, the Far East and Australia. If you get a chance try and catch one of the greatest DJ's of all time.