WMC interview: François K and the art of spontaneity

WMC interview: François K and the art of spontaneity

25 March, 2008 | 12.40PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Miami WMC 2008
• Written by: lizwarner

If you were to have a conversation with your average DJ and hear the following words pronounced confidently, you’d be completely shocked, or perhaps completely unimpressed:

“I have no plans. Nothing prepared — especially no set list. No practice. No nothing.”

But it just so happens that these words are coming out of the mouth of New York City’s legendary DJ and producer François K, a man who often lives by the mantra of doing what’s necessary, as necessary. 

And what’s always been crucially necessary to François K in his several decades of musical engagement is that, when it comes to DJing, one must work with the crowd.

“Part of being a DJ is to react on the instant, and to be a sort of mirror of what people want to hear.

“To be their instrument, the conveyor, the facilitator for the music to come through.”

Which he then sums up nicely with, “How am I supposed to know in advance what they want to hear?”

To put this into perspective, consider the source – the artist himself.

François K started in the art of DJing three decades ago, having made stops at the iconic Paradise Garage and Studio 54, and as a peer to another legend in the field, Larry Levan.

He’s had his long-standing Body&SOUL events with Danny Krivit and Joe Claussell, with whom he takes to the decks collaboratively and simultaneously, and he’s also started Deep Space in recent years, a regular event centered around the concept of dub.

“Deep Space is my personal concept and it has to do with dub.

“It’s completely separate from everything I do when I play the big rooms and festivals.

“It’s about tripping out and playing anything.”

Taking the idea of residency as seriously as a pilot takes the wheel of a cockpit, François remains in full charge of Deep Space, only occasionally inviting guests that somehow conform to the idea of dub — which has included Reggae/dub artists as well as more electronically leaning folks such as Quiet Village (Radio Slave/Matt Edwards along with Joel Martin).

And although it’s a music-lover’s refuge to a large lot of the crowd, the man in charge claims to run into some issues with pushing the boundaries perhaps a bit too far for his audience.

“The problem is that people are not used to someone doing different things in a cultural mindset of defining someone within three quick lines.

“You have to fit into your place, like in neat little post office boxes where everything fits within a certain zip code.

“And unfortunately, I’ve decided to have many zip codes, so it’s confusing to people.”

Confusing, supposedly, if someone from that audience isn’t primed to understand that out of the greatest explorations have emerged the greatest results.

Or by anyone who’s baffled by the adventurousness of forgetting boundaries and staying true only to the almighty groove, or as François K puts it, putting a “Led Zeppelin record next a reggae track, and then an ambient piece with acoustic piano followed by some oddball 1970s Krautrock record next to some reggae dub and then dubstep”.

Which can all sound very mind-jarring at first, until the sweeping realization hits that the bottom line is the reason we’re here right now: music.

“I like to somehow feel that I can share a love for music without the chemicals, where it’s just about the sounds and the beauty of it all being put together under one roof, rather than being segregated, restricted, limited and compartmentalized.”

It’s a task that he takes seriously, fully armed with hard drives that contain several thousand audio files of the highest quality (although digital for the back-saving sake of convenience presently, this is a man who, having much experience with the topic, continues to celebrate the audio virtues of a flat, black and circular piece of plastic).

He takes this armament to Miami each year for his sets, appearing this year first at Pawn Shop on March 25th for his label, Wave Music, and an event celebrating the artists on it, along with Radio Slave, before catching a stint at the Beatport Pool Party two days later on March 27th.

A different beast than his Deep Space or Body&SOUL sets, François K is no stranger to the Miami scene, even if he did take a brief hiatus recently after attending each year since its mid-1980s inception.

Nonetheless, he keeps his options open.

“I can’t tell you what it’s going to be like.

“I can tell you what it’s going to be like after the event, certainly, but not ahead of time.

“I’m going to play a fair amount of new electronic music — I’m pretty sure of that; no Nina Simone or Afrobeat or jazz, I don’t think so.

“But I might end up playing some of that, for all I know?”

It’s then, with hearing François think out loud, that the realization of just how difficult it can be to remain such an open palette, and to be open for just about any scenario that presents itself.

This is not a task for amateurs.

But for someone like François K who’s helped to establish much of the concept of what we refer to as DJing today, the decks are in good hands.

Let’s just hope that you bring your good ears.

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Check back on Beatportal for Part II of our interview with François K, where we highlight his production background and remixing, his latest and upcoming output, why he stopped – and then restarted – DJing, and much more.

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• Check out François K on Beatport