Levon Vincent is the latest artist to join Fabric esteemed mix series. Here, Defected's Ben Lovett gets up close an personal with a man whose entire life has been dedicated to the pursuit of electronic musical perfection...
An interview with DJ and producer Levon Vincent is as involved as it gets. Vincent, who has risen impressively through the ranks over the past decade, is not simply about making music, and the undeniable adrenaline rush it brings; he’s also acutely interested in the bigger picture – in music’s place within history, culture and human development. Electronic music is, according to Vincent, so much more than rocking beats. That conclusion, you might think, is nothing new. We all know this about the dancefloor, but Vincent really knows it and is about to explain why.
He comes across as helpful and knowledgeable rather than condescending. Vincent wants to share his viewpoint but is hesitant, if anything, about giving too much information. “I don’t want to confuse anyone but electronic music is about the evolution of human beings” he opens. “I could explain in specific physiological detail why it is important for producers to attend to every single sound frequency of their recordings but it’s easier to say that music has the power to advance human beings. Our development wouldn’t have been so rapid without music. Look back at the civilising influence of Mozart and classical music, for example.”
What about electronic music?: “It’s not just about drugs and partying, even if that’s what your audience is thinking. That’s all good but something else is going on. Electronic music affects the synapses of the brain on a highly significant level. After 20 years of listening to it, people fundamentally change. One thing that always stuck with me as a kid living in New York was the phenomenon of birds starting to sing like car alarms; they’d been exposed to the sounds of the city over and over again, for many years, and so elements of their song and behaviour started to change. That fascinated me. So what does that mean for someone like Francois K, who has been around electronic music for nearly 50 years? On every imaginable level dance music has changed him; it defines him more completely than you even realise.”
Vincent, 37, feels no different himself. He grew up in the States, moving to Manhattan’s Lower East side at the tender age of eight before gaining teenage employment in various local bars, clothing stores and record shops. Early Nineties New York - pre-restrictive Mayor Rudy Giuliani - was a boon for dance music and Vincent quickly connected to it. He’d work by day and learn house by night, eventually progressing to gigs at influential clubs like the Limelite and Shelter.
When Vincent felt New York’s musical momentum sliding at the tail-end of the Nineties he cut DJ commitments back and concentrated on learning more about his own craft and house’s rich heritage. Vincent effectively resurfaced in 2001, joining the team at cult Brooklyn record store Halcyon to throw killer parties alongside titans Frankie Knuckles, Nicky Siano and Danny Krivit. At about the same time, he established his own label More Music NY and dropped debut cut No More Heroes; a slice of raw but melodic deep house.
“Jaymz Nylon [local DJ/producer] gave me some vital feedback on No More Heroes. I don’t see him all that much; he’s not a mentor or anything but his advice has always stuck with me” Vincent confides. “He urged me to record more ‘on the fly’. It’s a Nineties thing, all the older guys produce that way... live, effectively, and with room for improvisation. It allows for all these nuances and beautiful mistakes depending on how you feel at the time. Right now, with digital audio, everything is heavily sequenced and arranged and there’s no room to breathe. The feelings are stifled.”
Vincent’s latest project, the project we’re directly here to talk about, is a new mix compilation for Fabric – their 63rd CD. The album, a slick, resonating blend of deep tech and atmospheric house (courtesy of cuts by Joey Anderson, Black Jazz Consortium and Vincent’s close allies Jus-Ed and Anthony Parasole), also nods to lessons of old. “DJing has changed in recent years” he says. “Today it’s so rapid, guys playing shorter sets with a tighter blend of shorter tracks. In the Nineties, guys were all about longer blends of tracks being played for at least three to five minutes. I was aiming for that kind of elegance with Fabric. I paid a lot of attention to style, using only the pitch control to sync and blend tracks; something that guys like Siano and [The Loft’s David] Mancuso first started doing in the Seventies.”
Vincent’s Fabric turn is more linear ‘swish’ than narrative detail; it isn’t, it’s fair to say, a reproduction of his recent podcast work (via Boiler Room) or club sets. But he’s comfortable with that: “I purposefully wanted a smooth mix that goes where Fabric goes, which is the whole commercial thing about brands and merchandising. It was a risk in some senses; I don’t usually play that way. I’m rawer in the club and on podcasts because you can sacrifice smooth in those live situations... no-one can tell if blends are really off or not. But, hey, I believe that a good DJ takes his skills and applies them in different ways to suit different situations. I was really happy with the Fabric thing; it’s still my sound, for sure.”
For one seemingly so intellectual, it’s perhaps a surprise to find that Vincent doesn’t think too far ahead about career plans. “There’s no rigid schedule this year” he confirms, “I’m still just following my gut and letting things flow. I like learning about music and understanding its significance in the world but I don’t want to intellectualise everything I’m doing as an artist, because that’s counter-intuitive. I’ll have some new Joey Anderson material out on Deconstruct [Vincent’s label] in May but, to be honest, several new Deconstruct tracks have been as good as released on the Fabric CD now.”
Vincent manages Deconstruct alongside long-time friend Parasole (whom he met as a buyer at Halcyon), a label set-up in 2008 to discover exciting new strands of house and tech. Vincent also runs Novel (‘Levon’ backwards), which he set up in the same year as a vehicle for his own “personal” music. Novel was born, quite literally, from the ashes of More Music NY.
“More was done for pretty early on; it was a steep learning curve,” Vincent reflects. “I launched at a time when vinyl sales were at their very worst and we had some bad, bad sales. In the end I just couldn’t get distribution, so I struck a deal with a manufacturer to grind down the unreleased catalogue there and pour it into Novel, as a new label. I had more of a sense of how to do things at that point, so justified the opportunity to try again.”
Today’s climate, Vincent feels, is a much better one for independent labels. Despite ongoing economic pressures, the electronic scene’s current level of output and creativity, and the more optimistic disposition of its employees have more than helped the cause. “Electronic music is the best it’s been in 20 years” he says, “since the start of the Nineties. I’m real happy for a lot of the guys making music now; there’s so much happening on all levels. People like Skrillex make people like me possible, so that’s all great. Everyone’s a lot nicer too; there’s less distrust and back-stabbing, and more positivity. That’s largely down to younger generations entering our workplace, raised on the right values. It’s a good time to be creating.”
A recent move to Berlin has further boosted Vincent’s general contentment. It follows nearly 30 years in New York, so was there really no shock to the system?
“It has been different but cool. I don’t go out really but Berlin is really refreshing for me” he stresses. “You have to understand, this is the first time in my life I’ve lived on my own. I’m isolated. I have no ties; no families; no big group of friends here. I am able to concentrate fully on my music. I left a lot of baggage behind in America.”
Vincent has faced some significant challenges in recent years. Whilst his profile has rapidly accelerated since the launch of Novel and Deconstruct, and the strengthening of his ties to Jus-Ed’s Underground Quality crew and Berghain’s Ostgut Ton stable, he has also suffered serious immobility at the hands of a spinal injury and, in 2009, was forced to move to Indiana unable to keep more regular work and, in turn, his house and his record collection. His girlfriend of the time also left. It is testament to his talent and determination that he has maintained creative control and released some of the house scene’s biggest underground hits – the These Games EP, The Medium Is The Message, Double Jointed Sex Freak and, last year, Man Or Mistress.
“My music is deep tech, you could say” Vincent concludes. “But it has a level of mysticism and spirituality that is inextricably tied to New York and my upbringing. No other city offers quite the same musical output as New York, and I’ve developed my understanding of that output over many years. My music has so many different layers and feelings; it’s complex.”
We wouldn’t want it any other way....
Words: Ben Lovett
Levon Vincent – Fabric 63 is released by Fabric Records on April 23.
