DAILYSESSION

François Kevorkian Audio Interview 20.08.09 by djmixes

Paul Morley speaks to Francois Kevorkian, legendary DJ at New York’s Paradise Garage and Studio 54, about the emergence of disco, it’s continuing influence, and how he remixed the Smiths…

François Kevorkian, alias François K, (born January 10, 1954) is a French DJ, remixer, producer and record label owner of Armenian descent living in the US. Having started his career in renowned clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54, the NYC-resident is widely considered as one of the forefathers of house music.

Born and raised in France, Kevorkian’s passion for music led to playing the drums during his teen years. He moved to the United States in 1975, where he hoped to find more challenging situations than those back home. Due to the heavy competition for any gig as a drummer in those days, he instead tried his hand at becoming a DJ in underground New York City clubs, around 1976. His career then skyrocketed, and he quickly made this his full-time occupation, although some work was at more commercial venues such as the club New York, New York in 1977. He taught himself tape editing and started making disco medleys, some of which are still popular to this day, such as Rare Earth’s “Happy Song”. He was offered a position doing A&R for a nascent dance indie record label, Prelude Records, which allowed to him to go into the studio and do remixes. His first remix, of a Patrick Adams production, “In The Bush” by Musique became a wild success both in clubs and on the radio. It was the first of many remixes that helped Prelude define the sound of New York’s dance music, including many memorable songs, including “You’re The One For Me’ and “Keep On” by D-Train, and “Beat The Street” by Sharon Redd. His stint at Prelude ended in 1982, the same year where he had the most number one singles in Billboard’s Dance Music Chart, which included his remixes of now-classic songs such as “Situation” by Yazoo, and “Go Bang” by Dinosaur L. [Read More]

By Albert Freeman – halcyonline.com

Timo Maas is a consummate professional DJ. After getting his start in the ’80s DJing records in top 40 clubs, Maas made the transition to Techno sometime in early ’90s and hasn’t looked back since. After quickly becoming a fixture on the European club scene, it was just a short time before his fame obliged him to enter the studio to put his own name on things. Never one to work alone, Maas enlisted the help of a series of collaborators to steer him on his path towards DJ super-stardom, peaking in the mid-2000s with Martin Buttrich who soon after launched on his own path to stardom. Changes were in the works however. Following the music industry’s near-total breakdown at the beginning of the decade and also changing fortunes in Maas’ own releases, not to mention Maas’ own desires to start a family and change his lifestyle, he took some time off between 2006 and 2007 to reconstruct his life, both professionally and personally, breaking his longtime relationship with Buttrich and moving to a country house to raise his new daughter while releasing only a few remixes to keep his name current. [Read More]

Timo Maas on dailysession.com SESSION 673: GUEST SESSION 11.12.10