>>PREVIEW
CHRIS FORTIER
Sunday, October 8
Tantra
With a DJ career spanning more than 15 years, New York-based Chris Fortier is no stranger to life behind the turntables. As a kid growing up in Melbourne, Florida, he used to ride his bicycle to the local record shop, stretching his spending money across as many records as he could, and racing home to record his booty onto mixtapes he’d share with his high-school friends.
Now that he’s a full-scale DJ superstar – with the international touring, the record deals and the high-profile mix compilations to prove it – you might think Chris Fortier has lost his grassroots passion for hunting rare vinyl, or grown tired of trying to track down that elusive track from his youth. You’d be wrong.
It’s just after breakfast on a Thursday morning when I manage to track Fortier down, yet despite the early hour, he’s more than eager to discuss his recent intercontinental adventures.
"I’ve been taking a bit of a break for the past week, having just finished a tour of South America, Asia, Europe and Mexico," Chris says. "Hong Kong in particular was an amazing, amazing party. It was a very western audience – apparently there was a big modelling event on there, and so the place was filled with the most beautiful women – even Duran Duran was there."
As a long-time resident of New York’s legendary superclub Twilo, where he was called upon to warm-up for such industry figureheads as Sasha, John Digweed and Paul Oakenfold, Chris Fortier has long had his fingers on the pulse of the underground dance music community. In 1999-2000, when trance was the next big thing, Chris Fortier was seen by many as a trance DJ – two years later, when trance had died and progressive house was the style-du-jour, Chris was seen to be a progressive house DJ. But ask any industry insider, and they’ll tell you the same thing – Fortier just plays good music. Actually, make that really, really good music.
"Fresh and interesting underground music – that’s what it’s always been for me," he explains. "I’ve never tried to classify the music that I play, and I don’t want to get into the business of putting musical styles into little boxes. I’ve always played a whole range of different sounds."
To Fortier, part of his broad appeal comes from his having paid his dues as an underground club DJ in Florida and New York for so many years.
"I come from an era of DJs that had all night to play – six, seven, eight hours open to close, with the DJ controlling the whole atmosphere. That means playing music for different times, with different levels of energy across the evening to make the party work," he says. "It means looking outside of the little box that people try to put you in. I’ve always played house, I’ve always played techno. Sometimes people might have this snapshot of what you play and hold you to it – but it’s all underground house music to me."
As is the case with many international DJs, Chris Fortier is a steadfast believer in vinyl as a medium.
"I hate CDs," he proclaims. "I’m not into the whole digital/MP3 thing. It’s just not me. I got into the love of music and DJing from collecting records, going to record shops – that’s something that I love, and it’s something I want to do every day. I’m not interested in collecting music just so I can look at a list of tracks on my computer screen. I want to get the record – to unearth a hidden B-side gem, not just download the top 10 off of Beatport. Collecting vinyl is still part of the love and part of the job. For me, laptops are for checking e-mail." |
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