Kerri Chandler talks his Beatport Twitch Residency, which sees Louie Vega, DJ Deep, Leighton Moody, Lea Lisa and more join this month.
As an originator of deep house, Kerri Chandler is someone who needs little introduction. Which is why we’re so excited the New Jersey native is hosting his own month-long Residency on Beatport’s Twitch channel. Ahead of his Residency, which begins on Monday, December 14th, we caught up with Kerri to find out what’s in store. See the full dates and time tables below his interview.
How has your year been?
My year has been productive. I have been working on a brand new album and a lot of new video projects leading up to the Roundhouse show in London in November. I’m also learning a lot more about augmented reality for upcoming shows. I did a few remixes — one coming very soon is for Bonobo and TEED’s “Heartbreak.”
What made you want to take part in Beatport’s Residency program?
I saw a very great opportunity to introduce a lot of DJs and producers I call family and to have them share this format with uninterrupted music, and also experiment with new visual ideas. I have had to expand how artists look at making these types of presentations.
Can you tell us a bit more about what’s in store?
A lot of it is very personal for me. The basement is the studio in which I keep a very, very private collection of different gear. For other sets, I went out and found various locations that almost seemed unimaginable to do. I also worked on a project with my son Max that has been formatted in all 8-bit graphics.
Along with some very big names, like Disclosure, DJ Deep and Louie Vega, there are also some lesser-known artists billed, like Baby Rollén, Mona Lee and Lea Lisa. What can you tell us about them?
As I said previously, these are people I consider family and we have a long ongoing relationship. Baby Rollén is one half of the group Voyeur. Lea Lisa and I have DJed for about 26 years together. The same with DJ Deep — he has been one of my closest friends and I consider him my brother. Leighton Moody, as many of you know, is my younger brother that lives out in South Africa — I’m very proud of him.
Many artists have used their time away from DJ gigs to make new music this year. Does that include you? And can we expect to hear any unreleased material during the Residency?
I have a very special project coming very soon called Spaces And Places. Also there is a lot of unreleased material and some edits I’ve done that are peppered throughout the sets.
Where do you see the future of streaming once DJ gigs finally do return in-full?
I think it’s a very wonderful format as long as the content is great to look at, and here I think there will be a place for them to work side-by-side. As I said, I’m working on augmented reality and virtual reality projects at the moment.
And finally, what can you tell us about your very special upcoming Spaces And Places performance? Will this be socially distanced etc?
Hopefully the COVID-19 pandemic will be under control before November, and we’ll follow all local and national rules. It is going to be a combination of various aspects of reel to reels, holographic projection mapping, and other features that are experimental.
14th December
1 – DJ Deep [Paris]
2 – Arcade [London]
3 – Baby Rollén [London]
4 – Disclosure [London]
5 – Kerri Chandler [New Jersey]
21st December
1 – Louie Vega [New Jersey]
2 – Lea Lisa [Lausanne]
3 – Leighton Moody [Cape Town]
4 – Kerri Chandler [New Jersey]
28th December
1 – Davide Squillace [Barcelona]
2 – Mona Lee [Belgium]
3 – DJ Spen [Baltimore]
4 – David Morales [Bologna]
5 – Kerri Chandler [New Jersey]
1st January
ALL – Kerri Chandler [New Jersey]
