“This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but before I started DJing I wanted to join the French Foreign Legion. I was one hundred per cent convinced. It may sounds bizarre now, but that was something that appealed to me after high school, to spend maybe 5 years there, that’s what I think the minimum term was, just to see the world and do something a little crazy. I started working as a bus boy to save up money for a trip to France, and here I am. But I really had no desire to become a DJ back then.”
7 years after he took a job collecting glasses in a Canadian nightclub, 23 year old Luke Fair has established himself as one of the biggest next generation DJs, touring the world to spin alongside Sasha and releasing records and now a compilation on John Digweed’s label Bedrock. However, as he’s the first to admit, his journey to DJ stardom was started by accident rather than design, courtesy of a generous spirited colleague he befriended at the club he started working at.
“I had a friend who was a sound and lighting technician there, and we used to stay behind after closing, and we’d open up a case of beer and mix for four or five hours, and he would show me how to do it, he was a resident as well, so he was the one I learned from,” Luke recalls. “That was my first taste of DJing, I mixed my very first record around five or six months after I started as a busboy.”
Seven years on, he’s just released his first proper mix CD compilation form Bedrock’s Original Series and chatted to Skrufff this week about both the CD and his unconventional route to becoming a name DJ.
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): How long did you spend working on the compilation?
Luke Fair: “I first heard about the project maybe six months before I had to have it finished, so I was taking my time in the early part, looking for tracks but I didn’t buckle down and work hard on it until the last month. I mixed it all live, so it really only took a couple of hours to get it right when I was actually recording it.”
Skrufff: So you literally had two or three goes, and second or third time got the whole thing perfect?
Luke Fair: “Basically I did a few passes before where I wasn’t too worried about the mixing, just so I could hear the sequences and see which one I liked best. When I decided on the track listing it took me three or four goes, then I got one that I was happy with.”
Skrufff: Did you do it all on CD or vinyl?
Luke Fair: “All on Cd, I play strictly CD’s now. I haven’t mixed a record in a club for probably two years. I still get 90% of the stuff I play on vinyl, but I prefer CDs for ease of carrying when I’m traveling. That way I can carry all the music on the plane on my back, also I tend to throw every track I play into my computer to rearrange and re-edit.”
Skrufff: Do you find crowds bothered at all?
Luke Fair: “At first, I found that I would go to places and people would ask me where the vinyl was, they think you are maybe taking a shortcut by playing CDs but that’s not the case at all, you still have to beat match it. Nowadays it’s becoming more and more the norm, so people are getting used to the idea. It all really comes down to personal preference. Though I still like the feel of actually mixing a record better than mixing a CD, with a CD you can take advantage of the technology and give your tracks a little something extra, add your own touches through production, rather than just playing the regular mix that everyone else is playing.”
Skrufff: Your mix CD is being released by Bedrock, a British company, are you focusing more on Europe than Canada?
Luke Fair: “Well, to be honest I don’t play in Canada that much anymore. There are only a few cities that have a pretty large dance music scene, like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. So most of the time, just over half, I’m playing in the US and Latin America and the other half I ‘ll be playing in Europe. A little more in North America than South America, and the rest in Europe, then once every few months I’ll play a gig in Canada.”
Skrufff: Why do you think the scene in Canada hasn’t matched the European scene?
Luke Fair: “It’s not necessarily a question of matching the European scene, for example, I find Toronto and Montreal have the best clubbing scenes in North America, but it’s just that the population of Canada is only 27 million, stretched out across thousands of miles so there are only three major city centers that have had a scene for over ten/fifteen years.”
Skrufff: I keep reading stories about Canada decriminalising cannabis….
Luke Fair: “I think it’s decriminalised now, it’s not fully legal, but one can basically walk down the street smoking a joint and past a police officer unnoticed. He might actually stop you to see if you have a huge bag on you, but it’s very lenient.”
Skrufff: Do you find Canada noticeably more tolerant than America?
Luke Fair: “Oh, fifty times more. Just in terms of weed and in terms of nightclubs, in a lot of the US cities clubs all close at 2am, whereas in Toronto and Montreal then can stay open as long as they want, be it 6 or 7 in the morning, to 10 am.”
Skrufff: How do you find being Canadian affects the way people treat you in the US?
Luke Fair: “I guess since I’m from Canada they still see me as someone foreign, and generally foreign DJ’s get a little bit more crowd pull, just for the mystique of someone coming in from a different country. In the last year or two I’ve increasingly received more recognition and crowd reception, so I’ve really had no problems.”
Skrufff: I understand you got your break into DJing from taking a job as a bus boy (glass collector) at a club, did you initially take the job thinking: I’m going to use this as a foot in the door?
Luke Fair: “Not at all. I actually started working in a nightclub right after high school. This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but initially I wanted to join the French Foreign Legion. I was one hundred per cent convinced. It may sounds bizarre now, but that was something that appealed to me after high school, to spend maybe 5 years there, that’s what I think the minimum term was, just to see the world and do something a little crazy. I started working as a bus boy to save up money for a trip to France, and here I am, but I really had no desire to become a DJ back then.”
Skrufff: Where you DJing before you started working at the club?
Luke Fair: “No, no, that was my first taste of DJing. I maybe mixed my first record five or six months after I started that. I used to mess around on the turntables after the club closed.”
Skrufff: Did you teach yourself?
Luke Fair: “I had a friend who was a sound and lighting technician there, who would stay after closing and we would open a case of beer and mix for four or five hours, and he would show me how to do it. He was a resident as well, so he was the one I learned from.”
Skrufff: It sounds like just messing around sounds a million miles away from where you are now, did you suddenly at one point start taking it really seriously?
Luke Fair: “The more I did it, the more I liked it. I started buying my own records, then maybe within a year, I think it was in ‘98, I started filling in if one of the residents wouldn’t show up, then I eventually became a resident myself, playing the opening slot. That’s really how it all started. It was a really slow process. I never took it seriously until I started playing regularly and I thought I could have a go at it. The French Foreign Legion was far from my mind at that point.”
Skrufff: When you were at school thinking about joining the Foreign Legion, I guess you were thinking about going off to war and the rest of it. What kind of school kid were you, sporty?
Luke Fair: “Going to war didn’t really appeal to me. I was more interested in seeing the world and I was very athletically active at that point too. I played soccer, basketball, stuff like that.”
Skrufff: Was university not something you thought about doing?
Luke Fair: “I thought about it, but I always saw it as something I could go back to. I find too many people are pressured into going to university straight after high school, but I wanted to do something a little different while I was still young, knowing I could always go to university five or six years down the line, instead of immediately.”
Skrufff: Going from being a warm up resident DJ to suddenly playing with Sasha and Digweed and people like this. Is also a pretty big jump, how did that whole jump happen?
Luke Fair: “That all happened after the club, which was called Industry In 2000, and where I was a resident at, closed down. I got a residency in another club and started producing at that point too and started messing around on cracked software, making tunes. I made a U2 track, which you’ve probably read about, and that was my foot in the door. Originally I made that for myself, I never saw it as a shot to get in to labels or anything like that. Then all my friends encouraged me to send it out. So I did send it to John Digweed and Deep Dish, just to see what happened, two weeks later I got an email from John asking me to sign with his label and that’s how I’ve built the whole relationship with the Sasha/Digweed crew.”
Skrufff: Are you driven to reach the same level they are at as DJs?
Luke Fair: “Not necessarily because I don’t think it is possible for anybody at this moment in time. They were there when it all started. Personally I don’t have a specific goal to reach a certain height, I’m just really happy with being able to live off it and right now that’s all I’m concerned with.”
Skrufff: You’e from a different generation from most big name DJs, does that pose any issues, for example, have you had any hostilities from older jealous DJs seeing you as a new kid on the block?
Luke Fair: “Not really. Luckily I’ve had no real animosity or jealousy at all, which I’ve encountered or heard of anyway. Maybe there are people talking, but I don’t really know about it.”
Skrufff: Do you find dj’s generally non- competitive?
Luke Fair: “They are generally competitive, but all the DJ’s I’ve met I tend to get along with. There’s always going to be jealousy, it’s a natural reaction, but I don’t know…it’s a tough one to answer.”
Skrufff: Are you going to stay based in Canada or thinking about relocating at all?
Luke Fair: “For now I’m happy staying based in Canada, but I’ve been speaking with my girlfriend and we’re thinking of moving over to Europe, for a year or so, just to increase my profile over there.”
Skrufff: Where would you base yourself in Europe do you think?
Luke Fair: “Right now we are leaning strongly towards Barcelona, which is where I am right now. It’s a city that really appeals to us but like I said, it’s just an idea right now. We were thinking London but it’s way too expensive just to move over for a year.”
Skrufff: Is Berlin a place you would consider? Have you spent much time over there?
Luke Fair: “I’ve actually never been to Germany before. I’ve passed through the airports but I’ve never actually stayed in any German cities, partly because there’s not a very big funky house scene there, it’s all very techno.”
Skrufff: Is funky house where you see yourself centered?
Luke Fair: “A cross between funky and progressive house, I guess. I was a funky house DJ at first, Chicago house that kind of thing, then I started listening to more and more music so now I’m incorporating bits of both.”
Luke Fair’s compilation ‘Bedrock Original Series 0.3’ is out now on Bedrock/Stomp. He tours Australia for the first time this October, don’t miss out!
Sat Oct 1st – Perth, Ambar (BUY TICKETS)
Sun Oct 2nd – Sydney, Godskitchen (BUY TICKETS)
Sat Oct 8th – Melbourne, Godskitchen (BUY TICKETS)
