Antonio:
First off, let everyone here know whom you are and what it is you do!
Chris Finke:
Ok I’m Chris Finke (real name by the way, I do get asked…who would change their name to that!). I’m a DJ, promoter and producer from the UK, resident DJ at ATOMIC JAM, and co-promote the SPLIT parties and radio show with Ben Sims.
Antonio:
Quite the resume, Lets start from the beginning, how did you first venture into this genre or business?
Chris Finke:
I used to be a "rave" DJ when I was 16/17 in 1992/93. I started playing techno which was creeping into the scene with people like Dave Angel and Derrick May playing at big parties, but unless you were a big name it was difficult to get anywhere so when I changed my sound it was tough. I gave up (in true British style!) and didn’t do a great deal till 2000 when I realized I gave up the possibility of making a career of it, so I started a night called FLUX in Birmingham, before moving it to London, and the rest is even less interesting…
Antonio:
Who have you booked for these nights?
Chris Finke:
Well between FLUX and SPLIT I think we have just about covered everyone. Here’s who I can remember off the top of my head (and in no order): UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE (live), STACEY PULLEN, CLAUDE YOUNG, SLAM, OCTAVE ONE, SUBURBAN KNIGHT, DJ BONE, BEN SIMS, GARY MARTIN, RED PLANET, SPACE DJz, RADIOACTIVE MAN, PURE SCIENCE, DERRICK MAY, SURGEON, KENNY LARKIN, BLAKE BAXTER & TYREE COOPER, CHICKEN LIPS, T1000, MEMORY FOUNDATION, BRITISH MURDER BOYS, DAVE CLARKE, DJ RUSH, JAMES RUSKIN, MARK BROOM, PAUL MAC, ADE FENTON, MARSHALL JEFFERSON and loads of others I cant remember at the moment (sorry if I left you out!).
Antonio:
No doubt, if you will what were some of the highlights and downsides of promoting a party of this stature?
Chris Finke:
The downsides were the lack of decent venues, punters who wouldn’t (and still wont!) try out new venues, long hours and losing X amount of cash, and the upside was that I was able to push my name about and kick start my DJ career which was the reason I started the parties in the first place. So on one hand I was getting DJ work off the back of the FLUX nights (with some clever self promotion) and on the other I had no money. About as much fun as getting swimming lessons from Michael Barrymore. At the time I still had a full time job and all the money I made I was putting into the parties (along with my business partner Andi)
Antonio:
What style of techno were you playing at the time?
Chris Finke:
At that time I wasn’t playing much hard stuff, but a lot of Detroit and Chicago stuff mixed with stuff like sound stream, DJ Sneak, and tribal stuff so all sorts really
Antonio:
Would you say house music played a big influence on what you play now? You are affiliated with the Tribal heavyweights
Chris Finke:
I’m a huge fan of house music and it definitely has a big effect on what I do. Yeah I’m associated with the tribal heavyweights but to be honest I play very little tribal stuff at all now. I’ve really tried to distance myself from that sound a lot in the last 8 months and I think the sound I play now is pretty unique. I play everything from housey stuff, thru dark moody stuff, percussive techno, to banging shit, plus loads of old stuff as well as a lot of people wouldn’t have heard them the first time round and they are better more often than not than the stuff about at the minute!
Antonio:
What producers are out now that you are taking a liking to from a dj perspective?
Chris Finke:
I always have a real problem answering this one as I’m all over the place, but the guys I’m into at the moment in the techno scene are people like Bam Bam, Speedy J, god knows really I cant think (professional, eh!?). UK guys like Sims, Broom and Mac always do the business (but I have to say that!). There is lots of really good new talent coming through the ranks as well, like Invexis, Scott Gray, yourself, a guy called Baffa from Venezuela that Paul Mac picked up on, all sorts really. I really do play a real cross section of music in my sets so it’s so hard to pin down specifics and labels.
Antonio:
Tell me about Split?
Chris Finke:
Well SPLIT all came about when Ben contacted me about doing some parties together. Id booked him at FLUX and he'd agreed to do a remix for the label, but that was the only contact I had with him to that point. To be honest we didn’t exactly hit it off when we first had contact with each other when I approached him to book him but that’s another story...anyway we did a few parties that went well and then we took it to Turnmills where it now is. Basically the idea is to get techno back into the public eye again and get new clubbers into the scene, which is really working well so far. The radio show came about because we both were really into radio and wanted to get back into it, plus we felt there wasn’t a show that was playing the stuff we wanted to play. Ben used to DJ on pirate stations and I used to be a commercial radio DJ (hence the appalling gags that occasionally crop up on the SPLIT show).
Antonio:
The Split show has gained quite the popularity these days; do you feel because of the amount of exposure or show content itself?
Antonio:
Also elaborate on this commercial radio background of yours
Chris Finke:
Its a tough one really...we work hard at the show-it takes about 2 days to produce it which we do ourselves and we think the finished product is now getting pretty good and we are proud of it. It’s syndicated around the world via different stations and is also downloadable from our site (we get thousands every month and its getting bigger all the time which is great). I think a lot of it is word of mouth to be honest and we really don’t have a clue exactly how many "tune in" overall but as long as the downloads from the site keep increasing we'll be happy.
Chris Finke:
As for the commercial radio DJ thing, I’ve always been interested in broadcasting and performing etc and I got a job reading the news and doing sales at a station near where I live a few years ago. I then started doing voiceovers for adverts and then got the job doing the drive time show on weekdays. I had to play top 30 records, "classic hits of yesteryear" all that, and crack jokes and do the links it was really fun and didn’t seem like a job at all. Unfortunately I was taken off air after a risqué comment too many and that was the end of that. Housewives, office workers and pensioners were up in arms but what could they do…”them upstairs” (as we called them) had spoken.
Antonio:
What are your plans for the future?
Chris Finke:
This year I’m finally moving to London, knuckling down with production (again!), stepping up a gear DJ wise, getting my own TV talk show and making millions and retiring. That’s the plan anyway. Not sure about the last few but the first 2 look on track.
Antonio:
Don't you have labels in the works?
Chris Finke:
Yeah FLUX is back after a few small problems and I’m starting 2 new labels - BODYJACK for jacking Chicago style stuff and THE HOUSEWIVES CHOICE for more "technoey" stuff. FLUX has become a more accessible label for bigger tunes so I wanted a place to put out music and producers that wouldn’t work on FLUX.
Antonio:
When will be the first releases?
Chris Finke:
The long awaited ADVENTURES OF FLUX RECORDINGS vol1 is out in a couple of weeks (Chris McCormack, K Alexi, Mark Williams, Darko Esser), then the Skoog EP, then the DJ URBAN "you work it" remixes from Joey Beltram and Ben Sims, then a double EP from our new finding INVEXIS....
Antonio:
Wow, seems pretty busy to me!
Antonio:
Invexis rules by the way
Chris Finke:
Hahah yeah I got a couple of his early records and heard something in them I liked but it wasn’t quite there, so I mailed him and asked for some tracks and he said "2 weeks". In true German style exactly 14 days later I got the CD with 6 tracks and I was shocked at how good they were. I played them to a few people and got the same reaction. This EP is like old style Mills meets Beltram meets old style Advent (and those are the exact words of Colin McBean who should know!).
Antonio:
Plans for your music and for the future?
Chris Finke:
OK well this year DJ wise im hoping I’ll be busier than ever. Ive got a pretty good start to the year already, playing some high profile gigs at clubs like Tribal Sessions in Manchester, and my first Asian tour coming up in April. Its Atomic Jams 10th year anniversary this year and myself and Ade Fenton (the other other resident) are doing a mix CD and world tour, plus of course the SPLIT radio shows and parties/tour dates etc with Ben. I’m also looking at playing different clubs, some slightly more commercial places than I do at the moment and play some more acid house and house sets as the ones I’ve done recently have gone so well and have been fun.
Production wise, it’s taken so long for me to get my ass in gear but I’m now finally doing it. To be 100% honest I don’t like doing it really and its a means to an end-to get where I need to DJing I need to be producing and remixing, but its reached the point now where I actually have to do it and the more I am finding it much more fun. The stuff I’m doing is fairly sample based and ranges from house to techno. One track I finished recently called "MUD" I sent to Dave Clarke and it was in his top 10 last month which is cool, and it’ll go out as soon as I have finalized the remixes for it. So ill see what happens really but watch this space! There’s so much copy cat/shit music about at the moment (more than I’ve ever heard before as it goes) and I don’t want to add to it!
Antonio:
Parting Words Chief?
Chris Finke:
It's been emotional!