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François Kevorkian stands astride the music scene like a colossus, one foot planted in late-70s/early-80s New York disco, the other in Body & Soul, the club of legend where he, along with Joe Claussell and Danny Krivit, keeps the sequinned dream alive. His unparalleled résumé includes time DJing at The Loft, a prolific stint A&Ring at Prelude (the label on which disco classics like D-Train’s ‘Keep On’ were released), numerous remixes for big names like Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths, ownership of the Wave label and a close friendship with one Larry Levan.
Given his immense musical stature he's, somewhat predictably, smaller than you expect. Nor is he as fierce as his reputation suggests. In fact, far from being truculent, he is urbane, a rapier-like raconteur, and, all in all, great company. He's also in touch with his feminine side. His favourite word? Sweet.
In his hotel room – he's in the country to play a couple of rare gigs at London’s Plastic People – he breaks off from emailing friends on his Titanium iMac to answer your questions and in the process prove that though he may have remixed Dinosaur L’s ‘Go Bang’, he sure ain't no fossil.
What's it like in Kraftwerk's Kling Klang studio?
James Scott, London
“Many people have tried many angles with this question previously. And they've all met with the same wall of silence that you're gonna meet today.”
You remixed a lot of people. Who was the most fun to work with and who was the least?
Emanuel Lloyd, Washington
“The least fun was definitely George Michael and Wham!. They stuck me in the studio with their advisor or whatever they called him, and the guy always had something to say about whatever we did. After it was done they didn't like it and they said: “Well, you're the guy who mixed D-Train. How could you not make our record sound like D-Train?” George Michael went on to slag me in the press and I didn't think it was called for. He's gone on to subsequently show he has a great talent both on mic and for lawsuits. One of the best was the time I went in the studio with this tape by this very eccentric avant-garde composer called Arthur Russell. He had this project called Dinosaur L. It was really low budget, so I went in the studio with the assistant engineer, and I did everything all by myself. It was a song called 'Go Bang'. I was really proud of the way it turned out.”
How did you come to remix ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths?
Richard Corrigan, Manchester
“Let me set the record straight (sighs, visibly deflates and pauses for what seems like a very long time). I got called to do the mix. I did the mix in eight hours. Then I went on to the rest of my life.”
How have the events in New York affected you personally?
Karen Loughton, London
“Club Vinyl, where we do Body & Soul, is 600 yards from the World Trade Center and we weren't able to get to it for a couple of weeks, but now we’re re-opened. It's just weird to me when we're playing music to be so close to something like this.”
You don't DJ that much in the UK. Do you find the British scene lacking?
James Matthews, Chester
“I've been fairly successfully playing in a lot of the big major venues in London through the 90s. But I'm evolving and it's been more difficult for me to connect with the audience in a big club because they seem to be already trained, or be accustomed to, a certain style of music that is quite – whatever way you want to call it – banging, slamming. And I'm not sure I always equate music and hammers. I know there's plenty of people that seem to be enjoying the kind of music I play, but they don't seem to be the big club crowds. The large venues seem to me almost, like, utilitarian. The music becomes a backdrop, the wallpaper to which you're having your drug experience. I don't want to be an accessory to drug use.”
What do you think of the French music scene at the moment?
Adam Mitchell, Windermere
“I've got to be honest with you – I'm not really in touch with the specifics of the French scene just because I'm French. But I like up-and-coming producers like Julien Jabre and DJ Gregory, who did that ‘Africanism' record.”
You don't drink, don't smoke. What do you do?
Victoria Jones, Bangor
“I was addicted to nicotine but gave up 12 years ago. It's the most difficult thing I've done in life. I'll drink a glass of wine, whatever. It's not like I'm some kind of puritan.”
Sometimes you’re FK and sometimes you’re François Kevorkian. Who do you prefer?
José Martinez, Madrid
“From the early days, I kinda liked to be referred to as François K. From time to time, when I've done something like the Depeche Mode album or Kraftwerk, they wanted to use my full name.”
Did you participate in the hedonism of the disco era?
Chris Cottingham, London
“Not really. I dabbled and experimented with stuff in the early-70s, but by the time of the disco era I had made a decision. I was working in the studio and doing all these things where I felt that being precise and having all my brain cells working was kinda mandatory. I had pretty much decided I was not going to be doing coke or smoking a lot of pot. I was also married and had had my promiscuous years before that. That time in the early 80s is where most people started getting AIDS. I was maybe not the most interesting person in terms of my sexual exploits, but I'm still alive to talk about it.”
Could you get into Studio 54?
Lawrence Levy, Hexham
“Not by myself but with my friends who were regulars. It was like this insane pecking order. I saw the editor of Billboard magazine who was throwing his own party at Studio 54 being refused admission. He was paying for the party.”
Do you get pissed off with the cult of the Paradise Garage?
Amanda Bowyer, St. Austell
“It's a fact that this was truly a club that was unlike any other. I mean, it's not for nothing that when they put Ministry of Sound together they tried to make an exact copy of it. In some ways it's very beautiful that there are people who are touched, who understand why that place was different. The reason was that the people who were involved with it from the top down really loved music. The owner was on the dancefloor dancing. If those kind of things are remembered I think it's very positive because it's a good antidote against your average superclub brand who are really not in it for anything of that sort.”
What do you think of Daft Punk doing The Gap adverts? Would you ever endorse anything, or do you agree with Bill Hicks that anyone involved in advertising is sucking Satan's cock?
Peter Page, Canterbury
“You know what? I don't really think it's Daft Punk doing The Gap; it's The Gap doing Daft Punk. If you say advertising is an evil thing, I think you're a very hypocritical person. I could suggest a couple of islands where you could go and live.”
You're reputed to have unreleased mixes by Walter Gibbons. Are there any plans to release them?
Bill Brewster, London
“When Walter passed away, I went to the apartment where he was living and the executors of his estate were going to trash everything and throw it in the garbage. I looked through and what I thought was unique and needed to be preserved I put into this big bag and the bag’s been closed ever since. It's not my property.”
You toured Japan with Larry Levan just before he passed away. What are your memories from that time?
Jim Costello, Coventry
“It was incredible. The parties were just magical. You know, we were friends for a long time and we had kind of fallen out after he went into all that heavy drug use. But then, in the last part of all that I understood that it wasn't gonna get better so I might as well make the best of it. We started doing some work together in the studio and I thought it was a step towards keeping him motivated to stay away from all that. But it didn't work.”
Do you still meditate before DJing?
Ravi Begun, Birmingham
“Huh? Still, meaning I used to? Erm, I've never had the habit of meditating before DJing. That's an hilarious one.”
Is there anything to be learned from the pioneering DJs of the 70s? And if so, what?
Jean-Pierre Gaston, Lyons
“Well, there were no rules. A lot of people today are very conformist. They play for the mix not the song. You've got to be a creator not an imitator. Like Joe Claussell and his cross-over thing, or Richie Hawtin integrating new technology into DJing.”
Do you see Danny Tenaglia as one of your peers and have you ever been tempted to go down that prog house route?
Kay Daniels, Glasgow
“It's really simplistic to think of Danny as a one-dimensional person because he's a very, very sophisticated DJ. I've been a few times to his Friday night, Be Yourself, at Club Vinyl where we do Body & Soul and there's some stuff that he's playing where I think sometimes we meet.”
You're in an arm wrestling competition with Danny Tenaglia. Who would win?
Abby Oliver, Hull
(Very long pause) “Erm, I think both of us are probably not that well exercised [sic]. I'm a little bigger so I might be stronger. I don't know.”
Is it true you were expelled from college for starting a general strike?
Uwe Nussberger, Frankfurt
“That was one of my major accomplishments in 1972. I was able to single-handedly convince 5000 people that they should go on strike. Why? I wanted a holiday. And it was a laugh.”
