Still In Session: Carl Craig

Carl Craig doesn’t do days off. The Detroit techno legend, fresh from his NYE gig at Canvas, is back in the UK promoting his latest release, ‘Sessions’ – a collection of old and new remixes that looks suspiciously like a best of. And as retirement so often follows such a release, Gigwise got Craig on the blower pronto to ask him whether he was considering hanging up his headphones? "No, no," he assures us. "Not my monitor speakers, not my console, not my computer, none of that, I’m not giving up any time soon."

Phew. Now that we’ve calmed down again and stopped sinking into depression, Craig is quick to set the record straight on his new release. "It is not a best of, more a collection. The first collection of many to come I’m sure. I wouldn’t say that all of my favourite material is on this because I love so much of what I’ve had a chance to do." This is Carl Craig all over. He just fucking loves it. DJ, producer, remixer, and label boss, Craig is equally happy in any of his roles. "Of course being a label manager there is all the legality bullshit," he quips, "but I like picking the music and telling people what to do." And there is more on the way he promises, "I’ve been working towards another collection of new music so we’ll see when that comes."

It is the DJ in him, that shines through on this latest release, as he tells us it was always his intention to mix ‘Sessions.’ "I’m so used to controlling how music comes from the studio and making sure everything is in time." 'Sessions' is hence a melting pot of old and new. As Craig blends together alternative mixes of classics authored under his many aliases (Innerzone Orchestra, Paperclip People, 69, & Tres Demented) with several recent remixes of other artists’ songs such as Xpress2 and his Grammy-nominated take Junior Boys’ ‘Like A Child’.

Craig has watched the Grammys’ since he was a kid and as ‘Like A Child’ is up for the Best Remixed Recording Non-classical award, he is understandably made-up. "It’s an honour to be nominated cause it’s a recognition that there is some sort of excellence that comes from what I do. It’s been more than enough to be acknowledged by the dance community," Craig adds modestly, "and to know of fellow DJs that play the music and experience the people dancing but to be nominated is the icing on the cake."

Born May 22, 1969 in Detroit, Carl Craig became a key player in Detroit techno's second wave, following the futuristic lead of originators Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Craig was brought up on a rich diet of musical influences that included everyone from The Smiths to Prince and despite learning to play the guitar at an early age, it was whilst studying electronic music at college that he met a mutual friend of May’s who passed on a tape for him. A tour of Britain with May’s ‘Rhythm is Rhythm’ project quickly followed along with extended stint in the studio in England.