Dennis Ferrer’s music, whether it be DJing, remixing or producing, has consistently been an antecedent in an ever-altering genre. From soulful to deep house over the years, the eclectic styling’s of Ferrer has been self-classified as simple but true, “underground dance music.” All this, whilst nurturing and loosely guiding the hand picked artists on his own label ‘Objektivity,’ all of whom (including himself) have releases on the way out in the coming months. In this interview with Pulse, Ferrer announces a Steve Lawler release to premier on Objektivity’s newly announced OBJ-Analogue series and an Ane Brun remix consistent of Andre Hommen and himself.
You recently participated in your first ever Boiler Room NYC session with Nasser Baker, Andre Hommen and Kim Ann Foxman. Nasser and Andre are both on your label – Objektivity, but how did Kim get involved? Kim played with me at another venue and I just loved the way she played. She got really down and dirty, it was great. So when the offer came in to play Boiler Room, I just thought about her right away, it was like boom - I wanted Kim to play with us.
Are you looking to sign her? I don’t know. I think she is doing her own thing, but honestly you never know because the way this business is, one day you say, “No,” and the next you say, “Lets do an album together.” You never know. We did talk about collaborating in the near future, so hopefully that will come to formation because I really like her. She has an amazing talent.
What kind of equipment were you using for your set? The same thing I’ve always used in the past for the last ten years. I was originally on vinyl and I switched over to Traktor (Pro).
Is this what you usually record with? Straight out of the mixer, pretty much so.
Where do you read about new products you’d like to try out, magazines? I’m a techie and I’m a nerd. I read every nerdy audio recording magazine you can possible list from ‘Sound on Sound’ to ‘Keyboard Magazine’ to ‘Music Tech’ to ‘Future Music’ to ‘Computer Music.’ I’ve always loved my gear and my studio gear – it’s all about studio kit for me, too. Whatever new products come out, I’m always checking them out. I can’t help myself. It’s like I’m a crack-head or something [laughs]. I’m endorsed to a couple of manufacturers, and some of them I’m looking to be endorsed to, so I’m always on the look out for new products.
Deep house – is that just a faded dream or do you think there’s some truth behind the youngsters who pride themselves on being deep house DJs today? Deep house has changed. Music changes in general. Originally it was just dance music. We went from disco to house to some kind of mid-punk freestyle thing. It’s always evolving, constantly changing. What’s classified as deep house today might not have been classified as deep house in 1992-1994. That’s just the way life is. Sometimes people mistakenly name soulful house as deep house. Back when I was doing soulful house, that was classified as deep house but now it isn’t, the kids want to call it something else.
What do you think about the little sub genres popping up that infuse elements of emo, indie, hip hop, and so forth, in them? I can’t get into naming genres because you just drive yourself crazy. That’s why I just tell people, “I make house” [laughs]. I can’t delve into “is it deep house, is it soulful house, is it Latin house,” there’s just so many sub-classifications of this genre, it’s just ridiculous and it’s liable to change any day. I don’t even know what deep house is sometimes [laughs]. I prefer to call it underground dance music.
A great outcome of hipsters picking up vintage and making it trendy again is that there has been an increase in vinyl sales. There is a slight ‘war’ if you may, between the ‘purists’ and ‘laptop DJ’s’, where does your opinion stand? At Objektivity that’s what we do, and actually we have a very interesting series that we’re about to do called Objektivity Analogue – OBJ Analogue. The concept behind this is that in order to make the record, it has to be totally hardware based. You can’t use any plug-ins; you can’t even be on this label if you use plug-ins. It’s just not going to happen and you need to provide the proof that you did this whole record with analogue gear. We love our vinyl, I’m originally from vinyl and I originally come from hardware. I get the purists side of it, but I also get the convenience side of the laptop thing. It’s a double-edged sword and I can see both sides of it, I support both.
The OBJ Analogue is a special project for me and is dear to my heart because I love analogue gear, vinyl, and hardware, so I keep that side of me happy. And with Objektivity, a regular imprint, we can provide stuff that’s available via convenience.
When will you be launching OBJ Analogue? It’s being launched next week, and Steve Lawler is doing the first one, believe it or not.
Do you run your own social media? It’s a 50/50 thing with management. I’m usually on Twitter or Facebook writing something crazy, but they keep me on a tight leash [laughs].
How important do you think sites like Twitter and Facebook are to artists? I think they are amazingly important. The more you are on social media, the more you get noticed and the more you communicate with your target audience. Not doing so is shooting yourself in the foot slightly. You have to be on the tip of everybody’s tongue if you want to be popular and be noticed. If you are not visible, then you’re not going to get noticed.
What do you think about public Twitter beefs between artists? Sometimes I think we forget that Twitter is not a personal thing; it’s not personal texts between each other. It’s easy to forget that because when you are on something so frequently, you get comfortable and complacent. You forget it’s a public forum and anybody can see what you’re writing. Most artists are highly charged and are very emotional people – we say what’s on our mind and things can get out of hand. Publicly. You’ve just got to learn and mind your manners; you need to have Twitter etiquette.
With that in mind, do you believe that all publicity is good publicity? [Laughs] Even bad publicity is good publicity. It actually works. I thought that wasn’t true, but better someone calling you an asshole than not calling you at all.
Starting a label isn’t for everyone. Why did you start Objektivity, and where did the name come from? It started in 2006 or something like that (the years have flown by). I had another imprint named Sfere for many years, and when I thought I needed a musical change, I decided to start another label. The first release I did was with Charisma, and the name was called ‘Q’ but the artist’s name was Objectivity. The longer I thought about it, the more I thought it was what the label should be called. I want everyone to have an open mind and be objective about whatever release we put out. Anything goes with our label, its just needs to sound good and needs to be hot.
What did you know about running a label and signing new artists when you started Objektivity? I used to own Sphere, and before that I used to run Synewave when I was much younger, which was an electronic techno label. I was much more involved back in those days, especially because I wasn’t really DJing back then, I was much more a producer.
How much influence do you have on the artists signed to Objektivity? I try to stay out of it. I think you have to let some people be, but one thing I tell them is that I’m not going to sign something that we all wouldn’t, as a team. If we are going to diss somebody else’s record when it comes out, we have to be prepared to do the same to our own record. That’s the criteria; take your head out of your ass for a minute and objectively judge your own work and record. If you can honestly say, and we can all say that we can play this, then we will put it out. But, if one of us says no, then we won’t.
I’ve noticed all the artists on Objektivity are talented, of course, but young. Coincidence, or are you scouting the young and talented? That’s exactly what it is. I’ve never been really known to work with well-known vocalists or more than twice. I like using new, upcoming talent. That’s my thing. I was the same way – someone ‘up and coming’ at some point. Everyone needs a break. Even when you’re older, weathered, and experienced, sometimes you need a break, and people tend to forget that, they get all high and mighty. I like finding new talent, developing new talent and sending them off into the world like they are my children. I won’t hold their hand, but I like helping people who are hungry.
Between your gigs, the studio, and your label, how do you continue to find time to work with and help give young artists the guidance they need? Is it a labour of love? It’s life. You’ve got to be doing something. You wake up in the morning, you’ve got to do interviews, work on a record, other artists calling you up wanting to show you something, it’s just life. You make time for the things that you love to do in life. Time keeps going on and it doesn’t stop for anyone, so you’ve got to find a way. It doesn’t always work out the way you want it to, but what does?
What do you have in store for Objectivity for 2014? Any big surprises? And can you tell us what you and the label have coming up in the next few months? We have the OBJ Analogue series coming out in a week, and then we have another Ane Brun remix coming out in a couple of weeks and is called “Let Myself Go.” The remix consists of Andre Hommen and I. I’ve also just done a remix for No. 19 Music, which I think is also coming out in the next couple of weeks, possibly before WMC. We are working on another release for Objektivity, we’ve got Nasser Baker releases, an Andre Hommen release coming out in May, Yousef’s release coming out in June…we’re busy, it’s going to be crazy. I think it’s going to be a very fun time for us this year.
Catch Dennis live in London at Oval Space this Saturday: http://www.ovalspace.co.uk/events/view/oval-space-music-01-03-14/