W
hen it comes to dancefloor experience, it doesn’t get more heritable than François Kevorkian (aka François K). Counting DJ sets at Paradise Garage, Studio 54 and an ongoing 10-year-long
residency at Cielo among his many achievements, the man is the walking embodiment of the NYC club scene. Witnessing disco cross over into house first-hand during the ‘80s, he’s since monitored everything the dance game has thrown at him, embracing new sounds as he’s gone on while remaining true to the traditions that formed him. A master in the truest sense of the word, his recent addition to Renaissance ‘The Master Series’ includes everything from Mike Huckaby to Blawan; a culmination of multiple decades dominating dancefloors, put together as a sprawling sonic tapestry that holds up a mirror to his many years manning the booth, delivering marathon DJ sets tracing disco, house, techno and everything in between. After catching his tech heavy main stage performance at DEMF in Detroit, we figured he’s got more than enough wisdom to go around so asked him to share some...
First ever rave experience? “My first proper club experience was when I went to see some guy play in a bar in lower Manhattan sometime in late 1975. He was using headphones to cue up records and it sort of blew my mind that this could be done, how he would keep things going non-stop. But as far as massive clubbing experience, I would say it probably was a place called Infinity on Broadway where Jim Burgess was the resident DJ sometimes in late 1976.”
Most crucial dance record of all time? “‘I Feel Love’ Donna Summer – set electronic music in motion, and is still just as relevant today. The gold standard. It did feel incredibly futuristic back in 1977, when it came out against a backdrop of live groups and lush string arrangements.”
Three tunes that never leave your bag? “‘Strings Of Life’ Soul Central (Defected), ‘(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real’ Sylvester (Fantasy), ‘M4’ Maurizio (Basic Channel) (as an aside, not sure that in some cases the ‘bag’ you refer to is quite relevant anymore, since many of us have been playing out of hard disk drives for a good ten years).”
What’s your lights-up, end-of-the-night tune? “There are quite a few of those, but dropping in ‘Jaguar’ by DJ Rolando aka The Aztec Mystic [UR] always works for just about every crowd.”
If you could meet anyone – alive or dead – who would it be? “Jimi Hendrix… Missed out seeing him by a few years as I was a bit too young. Dude went away much too fast to really have a chance to pass on some of his genius to others.”
Imagine the world is going to end tomorrow. What are you gonna do tonight? “Try to spend it with the ones I really love, reminisce about all of the incredible things we’ve shared and see it all end together while listening to the music that touched our souls. It’s all immaterial actually, since it’s NOT going to end. Why? Because matter itself is pretty indestructible, at most it merely transforms from one state to another. I am fairly sure the molecules of what was formerly known as our bodies will somehow still be having a good time afterwards…”
Three words to describe clubbing in Y3K... “Extreme Consensual Hallucination.”
François K 060
djmag.com
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