6. Dj DeeonFreak Mode
My partner, Marci, DJs as Aura-T09. She’s been really into ghetto house since I’ve known her. She’s always been really on top of what’s taking place in the underground in Chicago and, at a certain point, was super aware of things as they were first coming out, when they still hadn’t gone worldwide. She introduced me to DJ Rashad’s music when nobody knew who he was outside of Chicago. The origin of acid that developed there into ghetto house, then juke, then footwork is of the most beautiful progressions in music. Some forms of music they just keep getting watered down but that scene in Chicago, it just kept building on what the previous generation had done in a way that I don’t see other forms of music developing. 

Marcie and I had been friends for around twelve years, and she turned me on to a lot of stuff early on. But when we were first together about five-years-ago, she would be listening to ghetto house a lot. At a certain point something clicked with me and I heard the emotion of it. I saw the connection with the likes of DJ Rashad. I realised, my God, this music is as good as any music ever. I like it when music retains an innocence like that. To be able to do that with a minimum amount of machines, and put so much expression into it, is super inspiring to me.
As I’ve developed as an electronic musician, I’m fascinated by people who can say more with less. When I go into rehearsal, a lot of the time our jams will start with a bass line, and I think of a guitar part immediately on the spot. A lot of the time the first thing I start playing it will sound good enough to where we’ll just repeat that for the next ten minutes. I don’t care what instrument you play, studying ghetto house and acid is a great way to get good and be able to come up with something that’s worth hearing over and over and over.
