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House legend Todd Terry talks Ibiza seasons, old school vs new school and Scooby Doo
House | Wednesday 10th June 2015 | Christina
Todd Terry is quite simply a house legend. He has been releasing seminal house tracks and remixes for decades, managing that rare feat of bridging the gap between club cool and commercial hit. Running Inhouse Records since 1999, Todd releases some of the biggest names in the scene, collaborates with the hottest artists and plays all over the world. We caught him before he flew out on his European tour to talk about Ibiza seasons, old school versus new school and Scooby Doo.
How are you doing? What have you been up to recently?
I’m just taking care of the label and touring, stuff like that, and doing collaborations, getting that all set up. I did one with Man Without A Clue, working with Low Steppa, Junior Sanchez, Alexander Technique, just doing a lot of collaborations.
Your track ‘It’s Alright’ with Abigail Bailey, has that come out yet?
Yeah it came out, we’re working on some new stuff as well as that, so you know, really cool stuff coming out.
You’ve had such a fantastic career, so many great tunes, so many great remixes, you’ve played all over the world, could you pick out any highlights?
I mean there’s always a highlight here and there, I think what makes it a highlight is when other DJs show up and hang out with you. You could be anywhere, Amsterdam is really hot right now, Holland, Italy, it’s who you run into and hang out with.
How do you find the balance between referencing all the classic house tracks you’re known for and staying at the cutting edge of the genre? People obviously expect certain things from you when they come and see you play, how do you find keeping up to date with everything?
Basically I kind of do an hour of old school, an hour of new school, I think that’s the best way to mix it up. Play a lot of things that they know and they get it, then you go into a bunch of different acid records and tech records that the kids may know from the charts.
I have to ask about your remix of ‘Missing’ from Everything But The Girl. I used to listen to that when I was a kid when I didn’t even know what house music was, and it is one of my all-time favourite tracks. Why did you choose that track to remix?
I always just look for a song, something simple, to add a bassline and a beat to. I always feel though that it’s all about the song. I always like alternative, kind of rock songs, that was kinda alternative, and I knew if you put a house beat to that, it would fall into a different area for house, it would go pop.
And the Ministry of Sound Our House Is Your House series, you did the first one for that. How did that project come about? Did they approach you?
Yeah they approached me, it was an idea they came up with, they wanted to do some old school and new school, so it was perfect for me, that’s what I’m doing anyway. So we put it together, I did a couple of mixtapes until we found the right one that we liked. It was definitely fun, it was definitely different now than it was back in the day.
Yeah I was gonna ask you obviously house music has come back in a big way over in the States, have you noticed a change in how the genre’s received and appreciated from how it used to be to now?
Yeah you know every five to ten years you get a new age of kids, so it was bound to have its hype moment, it’s hyped now, everybody’s into house. There might be a little too much house out there to be recognised but it’s a genre that I don’t think is going away because I think keeping it very dancey is gonna last forever.
What do you mean by too much house?
Well you know you got a lot of house records out there so it’s really hard to decipher what’s good and bad. There’s like 4000 records coming out a month.
What do you think of the EDM bubble that’s blown up?
That’s just their own music. I don’t take away from nobody’s music, whether it’s salsa or hip-hop, that’s their genre and people like it. Have fun with it you know.
Do you find a difference between the crowds in the US and the crowds in Europe?
I think the gap is closing a little bit due to the house assurgency, it’s a lot better than it used to be, it’s not so “fashion” now. I think kids really get it now so that helps the dance floors from both sides.
You said you were going on tour, you’ve got a lot going on in Ibiza this summer – Colors present The Redlight at Sankeys Ibiza, that’s a big one, have you got anything special planned for that?
I’m kind of sticking to my guns. I just think give people what they want, and at the end of the set give them a bunch of different things coming out. I always mix it up and try to keep it interesting.
Do you have any memories of the original Colors parties at The Hacienda or the original Redlight parties at Sankeys?
I can’t remember shit! [laughs]. I barely can remember people. I remember playing The Hacienda, I remember playing Sankeys, I remember playing all these clubs but I don’t really know what the nights were called. I just kind of went with it whatever it was.
Fair enough! You’ve got Glitterbox at Space and Hard Times, anywhere else in Ibiza or is that it for you?
I’m doing the Vista club, yeah doing Sankeys, Glitterbox, I think those are the three parties that I’m doubling up on. I’m doing Ocean Beach, I guess the Mambo club, I’ll sneak by there, so yeah a bunch of things going on. Yeah I’ll be everywhere.
Do you still like doing such a packed season? You must have been doing it for so many years, is it still fun for you?
Well it’s fun if you’ve got people there that enjoy it. Several years ago there was a part of it where they just didn’t care about house like that, you had to really bang it into their heads but now it’s more appreciated between kids and the adults, I think you got a better time with it. It makes it more of a party now.
What would be your best Ibiza moment or memory if you can remember one?
Oh wow, I don’t know, we had a lot of good times in Ibiza. Like I said, it’s more who you’re hanging out with, like when a lot of friends are there and a lot of DJs you know are there and it’s like “lets go to this club, let’s go to that club”, that makes it fun. There’s so many different times I couldn’t pinpoint just one.
Did you ever get to experience a time in Ibiza just as someone going to the clubs rather than playing there or did you just go straight into playing there and that’s been all you know?
I went there in the off-season, I was looking at clubs and stuff like that, places to play at and it was kinda fun hanging out there in the off-season. There were some parties out there that were pretty good that I went to check out and it felt good to just walk in there and just chill.
What new projects have you got coming up apart from the Ibiza season and those new tracks you mentioned before? Anything else in the pipeline you can tell us about?
I’m doing a remix for D-Train, a new record with Lenny Fontana, I’m doing a remix for that. I gotta go down this list of fun things to do. I have another Martyna Baker record, I’m doing this edit for Matthew Warren, the Jack Diesel record, that’s a new guy that’s out there, David Anthony, this Frequency Deluxe thing. I’m trying to do this record with Lil Jon called ‘Body Rock’, it’s kinda more of a breakbeat commercial thing, it’s kinda not the same as what I really come out with but we’re trying to figure that out. I’m doing another Freestyle Forever album, Freestyle Forever Part 2, that’s old school freestyle records. I’m doing this House Of Pain remix but nobody knows about that yet.
An exclusive!
Yeah that’s exclusive, me just ripping it apart or whatever.
Are there any new DJs or producers that have caught your eyes or your ears recently that we should be looking out for?
Well definitely DJ Eclipse, ANT LaROCK, Blaqwell, Brett Bakman, there’s so many new cats out there, everybody’s a DJ so you gotta check them out. They get it, I feel as though so long as they are playing interesting house music I think that I can definitely hang with them and check it out.
Do you get sent a lot of stuff or do you actually still have time to go and discover stuff on your own? You must get bombarded with tracks right?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, well we get a lot of tracks for the label and everything like that. We can’t put all of them out but lately we’re trying to do compilations where we can get out a little bit more than usual. We’re doing our Ibiza 2015 compilation, that’s coming out in like a month and a half. There’s so much, at least 75 records a week we get. Yeah we just go through them and try to pick what we really think that can fit, a lot of people send us all types of different music but something that’s an EDM or really trance kind of thing we don’t try to do because we don’t have the audience for it, so we try to keep it as house-y as possible.
What’s the first record you bought?
One of the first records I bought was James Brown, I think it was Hot Butter’s ‘Popcorn’, yeah I think that was it. But yeah it was a James Brown record and it was a 45, and I just went for it. I played it forever and ever and ever, it was a wake up call, it was for after school, it was everything.
Do you still have it?
I may have it somewhere. I got a little bit of everything between rock records, pop and disco. I like corny records sometimes too, I got some soundtracks and stuff like that.
What would be your guilty pleasure in your record collection if you had to admit to something that would be a bit embarrassing?
The theme to Scooby Doo.
I didn’t even know that was a record!
Yeah they got like ten themes to Scooby Doo.
We won’t be hearing that in Ibiza though will we?
No, no, no! They’ve got some good beats to them but probably not in style for Ibiza.
Do you have a go-to track that you know is going to get a crowd going or do you always mix it up?
The Hoxton Whores record ‘Remember Me’. I still play that, I know it’s old but I still play it.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever gotten in trouble for?
I don’t know, can we say that? Can we put that out there? [laughs]. I mean everybody’s had their troubles and times but I don’t know if there’s anything I wanna say. Stay away from trouble now, that’s the key.
Good message to get across! If you were making the rules or the laws, what’s the first thing you’d change? Like if you were the president what’s the first law you’d pass or change?
I mean I guess we could stop the killing somehow, that’d be good if everybody just stopped killing each other [laughs]. It’s crazy, people have gone crazy, killing each other for no reason, there’s police, there’s terrorists. You kinda sit there and hope that you don’t get killed. So yeah, stop the killing! There you go.
Stay away from trouble and stop the killing.
Yeah, yeah, that’s two messages I got today.
Alright is there anything else we should know? Anything else that we should get out there?
Yeah I’m doing the Todd Terry Presents Inhouse Sessions TV show, that’s what I’m working on. We’re just getting footage, we’re doing little skits, they’re more like talk skits, some of it’s comical I guess but it’s not interviews. It’s more like whoever I know, we just walk around and talk shit.
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