Not many Australian DJs can boast a career that spans fourteen years. And those that do are often washed up or depleted of their spinning powers. However old skool rocker, Chris Fraser (formerly known as Chris Fresh) is still standing strong and evidently making waves across the country and overseas with his forward thinking production work and versatile sets. ITM’s palu chats with the Fresh Prince of Canberra as he is set to cause a ruckus this New Year’s Eve with Timo Maas.
Rewind back to the days where rock was rolling and Roxette posters were the new wallpaper, and there you’ll find Chris Fraser deeply immersed in his own world of Coldcut and Bomb the Bass. Chris reminisces back to how he got into this mess “We started a radio station at my high school, and when I noticed the turntables had this weird ‘pitch’ control thing everything started falling into place.” Now mastering the skills of the decks and no doubt the pitch control, Chris can honestly list Sasha, Plump DJs, Prodigy, Adam Freeland and BT as acts he has supported over the years.
Even a quick glance at Chris’ DJ resume will show his musical diversity. While others jump on board the trend band wagon, Chris keeps himself musically open minded. “Restricting or labelling yourself as a ‘something DJ’ is a bit silly. Over the years I’ve had a bit of everything in my box, I guess what ties it all together though is that most of what I play has a “progressive” attitude, whether it be breaks, house or on the more techy side, I mostly look for tunes with a forward thinking groove, very tight production and a lot of funk to them. That’s probably been a big part of my progression in the last few years, I’m getting funkier in my old age & also leaning towards more fucked up dirty sounds.”
He’s dirty behind the decks by night and superior in the studio by day. Production wise Chris is doing some amazingly cutting edge work. With tracks on Vicious Vinyl and EQ recordings as well as radio play by dance music’s biggest names, Chris is staking his claim on the global dance floor. Earlier this year, he was rather pleased to hear the news that German big wig Timo Maas played one of his tunes (Possession) on the essential mix. However to take things even further, Chris was also chosen to support the main man this New Years Eve at Home. How does Chris feel? “Bloody brilliant!” he says. “It was a real surprise to see Timo support the track and to get to return the favour by warming things up for him on New Years Eve is a bit of a head fuck. I’d have to say that he remains one of the most inspirational producers around, I mean he single handedly brought funk back into progressive dance music and changed the way I look at what I do, so hopefully I can come up with the goods and set things up for him.” And what can we expect from a Chris Fraser performance this New Years Eve? “I usually start quite funky and techy and can end up on a more up tempo progressive tip, so I guess I’ll just do things back to front this time! Being new years, expect some of the large ones from the last 12 months, but generally speaking funky techy breaks and electro tinged prog seems to be where I’m at these days.”
Being in the industry for so long, Chris has seen just about everything. From promoters failing to starry eyed kids making it behind the decks, Chris has seen people come and go. But no matter how many clubbing recessions we go through or how our tastes change, Chris Fraser will always be there, dishing out the funk and keeping things fresh. So what is the secret to his success? Chris shares a very simple but honest philosophy “A lot of people seem to just fall in love with the whole concept of being a DJ/producer and that’s understandable, because at its best it’s a pretty damn appealing lifestyle. So you see a lot of them get into it in a big way for a short period then move on when it doesn’t work out. If you just fall for the bright lights and the notion of being a superstar DJ I don’t think it’ll ever happen, but if you come into it from a) a love of music and b) a love of sharing it with people, then you can’t really go wrong.”
Catch Chris Fraser sharing his love of music this New Years Eve at Sublime Home with Timo Maas
