[Bio+Interview+Info] John Creamer & Stephane K

Para calmar mi ansiedad (?) al enterarme de que va a estar tocando en Ku este verano, dejo una recopilación de datos sobre este muchacho y Stephane K.




John Creamer



John Creamer es junto a su compañero Stephane K uno de los baluartes del house inglés y americano -la pareja es de New Jersey pero han hecho mejores migas con el progressive británico que con los ritmos puros americanos- después de un buen ramillete de producciones propias y de varias remezclas míticas como ese remix para el "Love in traffic" de Satoshi Tommie o el "Crystal" de New Order así como algunas remezclas más para el sello Perfecto de Paul Oakenfold. Creamer ha pinchado en cabinas que tienen que hacer mover a muchos miles de personas como Pachá Portugal, el ateniense Soda o el Zouk de Singapur, por poner algunos ejemplos. Aunque seguramente donde más ilusión le hace pinchar es en New York donde recientemente se ha convertido en profeta en su tierra gracias a varias actuaciones exitosas. Hace poco han fichado por el sello de John Digweed para producir mixes bajo la etiqueta de la colección "Compiled and mixed" donde dan rienda suelta a los breaks y el house de corte inglés con producciones de Danny Tenaglia o Peace Division.



John Creamer & Stephane K



You know the John Creamer and Stephane K sound - very deep, often dark and always sexy as hell - straight from the grooviest alleys of New York City and into the world's best clubs. Superstar DJs John Digweed, Danny Howells, Danny Tenaglia and Pete Tong were among the first to champion the John Creamer and Stephane K sound and made it an international sensation. What was "the new sound of New York" has gone well beyond the banks of this metropolis and is now a global craze.

There is a certain texture and mood to every track Creamer & K touches. The duo has an affinity for good, quality vocals (but not the over-the-top diva kind), steamy percussion and twisted, tribal efx. This formula has been used time and again in the construction of some of the most popular remixes of the last decade. Their stellar remix portfolio includes reworkings of Kosheen's "Hide U," Satoshi Tomiie's "Love In Traffic" New Order's "Crystal" Nat Monday's "Waiting," Hybrid's "True To Form," Moony's "Doves," Puretone's "Addicted To Bass," The Crystal Method's "You Know It's Hard," Sinead O' Connor's "Troy" and Iio's classic anthem, "Rapture." Although this list features artists representing many different musical styles, they have one thing in common - these tracks have all been made into dance floor hits. Most notable are the remixes of Kosheen's "Hide U" (which won them remix of the year at the 2001 Muzik Awards, entered the UK Top 10 at .. 6 and topped Billboard's Hot Dance Music / Club Play chart), Sinead O' Connor's "Troy" (topped Billboard's Hot Dance Music / Club Play chart) and Iio's "Rapture" (hit ..2 on both the U.K. singles chart and on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.) Beyond remixing, their acclaimed original productions including "I Love You" and "Wish You Were Here" continue to earn them respect worldwide.

John Creamer grew up in Philadelphia and from an early age was influenced by classic rock; eventually leading to his role as a Trombone player in a garage-ska band. However, like so many others, John's life was changed instantly by his first encounter with the original Sound Factory. Drawn in by the no holds barred approach to music that the Sound Factory DJs instituted, John knew that house music was where he needed to be. Following his instincts, he soon moved to New York and landed a record store gig at the influential Eightball Records. In time, Creamer rse up the ranks to become A&R man for Eightball's growing label (and later A&R for Satellite Records). Constantly surrounded by records, Creamer did quite a bit of DJing around New York City, while also dabbling into the production realm with the release of some well-respected acid jazz under the name Butter Foundation.

Like Creamer, Stephane K also got his start in rock music. The New York resident - by way of Paris and Tokyo - first started out as a bass player in the progressive rock band E Trance and performed with the group at legendary digs like CBGB's and the Knitting Factory. In the early 90's Stephane was also converted by the original Sound Factory and quickly made the shift over to house music production. His first house productions came via a collaborative effort with DJ Katsu under the name Madam. Stephane later went on to record tracks with Satoshi Tomiie under the name Bipath and continues to dabble into the production of his own tracks, most notably "Numb"and "Insane Poem," co-produced with PQM.

Being an A&R man with Eightball, Creamer was quite familiar with Madam's production ability and hired them to remix an Eightball project. A close relationship soon developed between Creamer and K, and they soon began collaborating together with a mutual desire to create vocal-driven tracks. This was quite a bold move when you consider that at the time, long, drawn-out instrumentals were the name of the game in dance music. Well, the rest as they say, is history.

When you are responsible for a number of huge remixes, good things start to happen in all facets of your career. Upon hearing the duo's remix of Trancesetters' "Roaches," Bedrock honcho John Digweed asked them to mix the fourth installment of the label's Compiled And Mixed series. Previously known more for their remixing, this CD provided a forum to showcase their abilities as DJs. The two-disc set was well received around the world and featured Creamer & PQM's naughty "Fucksonnet," described by Muzik magazine as "a fucking brilliant prog-swearathon that would make John Lydon blush."

Drawing from his production and remixing skills, Creamer has launched a budding DJ career. Internationally, he has already played the world's most respected clubs including Cream, Renaissance and Bedrock in the U.K.; Pacha in Portugal, Soda in Athens and Zouk in Singapore. In the U.S., he has played Spundae in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas; Axis in Boston and Just about every cool (and not so cool) venue in New York City.



Entrevista

'The Darkness Is Calling Me'...

Twisted, tribal, dark, deep and narcotic are all words that have been sometimes (over) used to describe the music of production partnership Creamer & K. Spearheading a forward thinking select new style John Creamer and Stephane K were catapulted into the limelight and have made an incredible dent in house music's cosy construct. In 2001 alone John and Stephane remixed at least two of the greatest house tracks of that year; Satoshi Tomiie's 'Love In Traffic' & Kosheen's 'Hide U'. Then there were other remixes like Dove's 'Mooney', Sinead O'Connor's 'Troy', New Order's 'Crystal', Nat Monday's 'Waiting', IIO's huge 'Rapture' and the Crystal Method's 'You Like It Hard'. They can also be proud of their own original productions like 'I Love You', the heartfelt 'Wish You Were Here' and more recent 'Fuck Sonnet'.

In addition 2002 saw the duo develop a new imprint dedicated to their self styled sound titled 'Pipeline Records', under the trusted wing of 'Satellite'. All top jocks around within this genre rate this dynamic duo, from Howells to Digweed and Tenaglia. Deep Dish have even recently suggested that John and Stephane are 'The most underrated remix/producers out there!' And with a collapsing of many musical barriers and the commercial implications now well recognised by the industry this creative couple are soon going to be at home and in their musical element. Outspoken yank John is often portrayed through the media as the rocking and rolling, hell raiser of them, while Japanese Stephane is the quiet, brooding one. Indeed sometimes it does seem like Creamer gets all the worldly DJ gigs whilst K gets the long, applied studio time. This perception however belittles the prolific partnership they share, it's like a balancing or Ying Yang energy thing. Together fusing their individual formidable forces to create the most blessed of musical artistry - great tunes from the darker side of town!

Despite running the remix circuit in 2001 Creamer and K never sold out and always retained a unique creative control. In 2002 the guys wanted to be more selective with remix projects and concentrate back on original productions. As a result they have of late been in the studio working on the very latest Bedrock CD, their first ever mix album from the 'Best Label of 2002' (Dancestar Awards), which should is out in September in the UK. John has also been on a global DJ tour this summer covering the four corners in between serious studio stints with Stephane back in NYC. So capturing a brief glimpse into their hectic affairs as they come up for air from the Bedrock studio project, Lisa Loco asks Creamer and K about what's going on with the CK ones...

John: We just want to keep it quality all the way with our projects and make some dope records you know...

John: Yeah it's been great I've been doing that alone until now but on the next one Stephane is going to accompany me, as we're gonna do a Bedrock follow up tour later in the year. Then we're gonna be together playing and I'm sure Mr K is looking forward to travelling around the world too!
John: Sure if you want to direct those more to Stephane if it's technical stuff and I'll answer where's good..."

Stephane: Everything! There's nothing specific or particular - I love it all!

John: Some more than other though, the new Nord Lead is good, The Virus is good... Emu stuff is good and of course Novation and Macintosh! It's all good, it's just how you use it really I guess

John: Oh my god, out of all of them, ehh... (Long pause), I really liked the Sinead O' Connor one.

Stephane: The Pure Tone one was good for me.

Stephane: Of course everyone does, but it's not a big problem though, obviously we get it done or we wouldn't be in this business!

John: It really depends on what we get from the parts if you know what I mean, the original song. Then we start by listening to the vocals.

Stephane: At this point we look at original samples too and getting together a good loop...

John: Then we kind of just take it from the there, figure out the key and start looking for those sounds!

Stephane: Yeah the vocals are so important.

John: I don't think it's at all incredibly pre-meditated though but we go in with a formula. We may or may not stick to this formula it depends. It's not like I hear a vocal and say 'I know exactly how to treat this one to an end point every time. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't - It's totally a random thing for me. Sometimes you can vibe with it, work with it emotionally and understand the record essentially - that is how stuff happens. Understanding is what remixing is really about, plus arranging and choosing sounds to fill the space. Finally when the tracks is just how we want it Stephane mixes it down!

John: I think at the time we were doing so many vocals no one else really was, and I think we definitely didn't follow that verse, chorus, blah, blah, blah, bullsh*t. We wanted to build the song into the vocal, so the song and vocals build together. I don't think Steph or me ever think about a dance floor when we make a record, I personally don't! The thing with vocals is you've got to get the emotion right, if you have the emotion and the vocal working within the music together then the rest is easier. If you can't vibe with the vocal and figure out what the f*ck the vocalist is trying to do, then the song you make is not gonna work with the vocals, because if you slap a track to a vocal it may not make sense, it may be a dance floor hit but emotionally it may not be what the song is about.

Stephane: The making music part we do together but with my equipment I do more of the engineering you know...

John: It's pretty 50/50 neither one out weighs the other at all but he's more into the equipment if you know what I mean? The first time I went in a studio I was with Arthur Baker, ages and ages ago, when I was about 19 years old I think...

John: Daft punk? Huh oh, dark princes? Well I think that's bullsh*t cos we don't just make dark records you know we made a few. But no one can tell me 'Hide U' was dark or 'Rapture' or 'Wish You Were Here' was dark - 'I Love You' was a dark record and that's been about it! I think they're all a bit 'heady', perhaps geared into people who smoke a lot of 'erb or something!

John: I think it's slightly over saturated. There are a lot of bad records out there right now. Many things are too long without any right to be so, but it's good for those who are successful. There are people who pioneer sh*t and there's people who just jump on the bandwagon and you can tell who is who from their sound. I think that with the technology a lot of people are making records but they haven't developed a personality in the studio, they haven't got studio ethics and knowledge. Many records coming out are not technically mature, but most are not as aggressive as I am when they talk about other people's sh*t you know?
John: I dunno really, just all the success in general I guess. I don't love any of my records specifically a records a record - I love every one of my tracks. I love some more at times than others I suppose and I'm sure Stephane feels the same, but it's more about this form of house music being accepted than anything else. I kinda like being a part of the fact that we were part of a certain type of music becoming a respected type of music. That's a really good feeling. Whereas there's a few people that really pioneered this stuff and I can't say we pioneered this sound but we definitely helped this big room, vocal deep sh*t get where it is along with Danny Tenaglia and some other people. So it's a good feeling when you've worked really hard for something to get the respect of your peers and success economically and then the freedom to do whatever you want in the scene and even kinda dictate it - that's nice!

John: Well, there's Pipeline and Magnetic and they've both got very some good stuff coming out Stephane & PQM for Magnetic and several other things are going on there. On Pipeline we've got this big vocal thing we've been working on, which is a really nice big record.

John: Yeah, I've launched a new night. Every Thursday at this little lounge over here I throw parties, and play with DJ's like Sander Kleinenberg, Sean Cusick, Luke Brancaccio and Stephane K of course.

John: I've never been before last year you know, I just wanted to work, make records and focus but now we got a little thing or two going on over there. I am gonna be there from mid July and Steph will come over later in August when I play again. So that's wicked!

John: Just to make dope records!

John: Nothing really crazy is said about us. I mean some people slag it off because it got big, but I think they're crazy because it's still quality. You get big and then the train spotters want to f*ck you off, but whatever

John: Actually we were going to, but no, we did something else. I would rather not say what we did but I didn't hire anybody, I'll tell you that! (Laughs) With Stephane something devious did happen but we didn't hire anyone in.
John: I fuck my girl, drink beer and think about business, I love business and Stephane plays with his cats and hangs out with his wife!

Enough said for now let their music talk... The well heavy Bedrock album is due out on the UK market in September and includes the massive 'Fuck Sonnet' anthem.




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