Writing about Chez Damier is potentially a dangerous game. It was, he claims, editorial that prompted his sudden and lengthy exit from music-making at the tail end of the Nineties; so outraged was he by press coverage following a promotional junket in France that he decided to pack in house.

“Every word I said was taken out of context and ran completely counter to my intent” Damier reflected in one in-depth interview last summer, post comeback of course. “My words were totally manipulated to fit what the writer wanted to say. I just thought, I don’t want to be in this business if it means I have to give up what I believe in order to look good.”

It pays to type carefully. But that’s no easy task. Historically, Damier has aired concerns on more than one occasion about his aggrandisement by media to ‘godfather’ status, and about people’s pre-occupation with his past. But when that past is, to those looking in, so seemingly impactful it’s hard not to hype.

“I think it’s been more than overly elevated” Damier told Resident Advisor in 2010 when describing Chicago and Detroit’s significance to the modern clubbing landscape. “It just amazes me how [people] fight over being a ‘Godfather’, being a ‘Godson’, you know, being a ‘Creator’. I hate it when people make it so final… I was just a patron and, as a patron, I didn’t catch it like that.”

Perhaps it’s simply best to say that he’s been close to some of house and techno’s most crucial moments. Chicago-born Damier – real name Anthony Pearson – evolved an early Eighties passion for clubbing into reputable DJ and production work. He developed connections to Detroit titans Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, to New York and, locally, to Frankie Knuckles and Alton Miller; those Motor City ties encouraged him to relocate and, come 1987, he was launching highly influential Detroit nightclub The Music Institute alongside Miller and owner George Baker.

Damier also took on a role as manager of Saunderson’s weighty KMS estate – both record label and studio complex. The position allowed him to hone his production skills and refine his creative vision; to a point that he was soon writing for Inner City and, in 1992, releasing his own KMS tracks, I Never Knew Love and Can You Feel It - deep, melodic, achingly emotive house tracks which have more than stood the test of discographic time.




Damier returned to Chicago and through mutual musical friend Carl Bias was introduced to Ron Trent. The spark between the two producers was palpable and quickly channelled into new label Prescription. Opening for business in 1993, Prescription comprehensively re-scripted the deep house rule book. Melding Trent’s mellow sensibilities with Damier’s punchier tone, not to mention the unique stylings of Detroit, Chicago and New York, the label dropped classic cuts such as Noni/D’Pac’s (With Terrance FM) Be My, Ani’s Love Is The Message, Romanthony’s The Wanderer, A Man Called Adam’s Qué Tal America? and ‘Chez N Trent’’s own minimal masterpiece Morning Factory.

But despite the steady, international rise in Prescription’s profile, Romanthony would ultimately end it. “Me and Ron had different ideas about what the label should be like” Trent told Resident Advisor. “I personally went to New York to spend some time with Romanthony to get the Wanderer project… It was a way of setting the tone, of saying to people, ‘You know what, we’re not [just] about ourselves’… Ron would probably have preferred it to be more ‘us’. To me, that was a big, big difference. So we split up.”

Trent took Prescription (and took it in a deeper, more musical direction) whilst Damier ran with Balance, a second label that he and Trent had founded in 1995. Balance, under Damier’s direction, pivoted heavily on groove and greater versatility. “It was a painful break-up” he reflects. “Because there were so many dynamics: me and Ron lived together; we were production partners; and we also had a business together. That was a lot of each other. And we became so tight and when you spend so much time together – every day – and you travel together, it was a bit much.”


Less than a year later, a certain group of French journos were to fly out, interview and write on Damier, much to his subsequent dismay. That experience was too much, and so he exited music for over seven years.

Many picture Chez Damier pre rather than post sabbatical. It’s a fairly easy mistake to make, for he achieved so much in those early years. But much has happened since his return in 2004. Sporadic cuts for labels Track Mode and Secretsundaze and a gradual increase in DJ work have built up into something much more significant over the past three years.

“I’ve never worked this month” Damier told one American journalist last July. “I’ve really been embraced. I’m more excited than ever and this time I see a purpose in it, which I think I didn’t see before.”

Today, Damier is resident DJ at Chicago’s long-running house weekly Boom Boom Room – remarkably, his first ever residency. He has also launched the Balance Alliance imprint, keenly focussed on fostering a new wave of electronic talent. Damier made it perfectly clear upon his return that he didn’t want to re-run Balance as a vessel purely for his own beats. Therefore the ‘Alliance’ was formed to motor on the energy of younger talents such as Italy’s Samann, Swiss artist Demetrio Giannice and chic Parisian Brawther.

German label Mojuba, meanwhile, has become exclusive creative outlet for Chez. “With Mojuba, I wanted to find someone who had energy, someone I could feel inspired by. I always looked at myself as finding underdogs of the art and Thomas Wendell, who runs Mojuba from Berlin, is very knowledgeable in music and we've become good friends. It's a perfect match. He can handle ‘Chez Damier’ as an artist, and that frees me to run Balance Alliance as a vehicle for other producers and artists.”

Damier’s most notable Mojuba contributions thus far have been 2009 EPs Time Visions 1 and Time Visions 2 but more is supposedly planned. The strategy has had its detractors, seasoned Chicago peers perplexed by a decision to tie in so closely to Berlin. “There’s a ‘Chicago mentality’ – it’s a proud and unspoken arrogance. I should say it’s mostly among the older producers” he has previously said. “They have a kind of hidden arrogance that it’s done the best way in the world here – and not just the best way but the ONLY way. But this music is a house with many rooms now.”




Proving the point rather emphatically is Defected’s new remix package of Can You Feel It, positioning that classic KMS original (and the original package’s killer MK dub) alongside wide-ranging, powerful new interpretations by Steve Bug (both bouncy and touchingly melancholic) and Supernova (tech-y and totally funky). A slew of high quality, standalone remixes trails in its wake – conscientiously-crafted, kick-ass grooves for everything from Michelle Owen’s Moodmusic bullet Perchance To Dream, released last October, to Geddes & Mic Newman’s Rework, on Murmur, and Simoncino’s Inga’s Crème, on Skylax.

Damier is talking to Trent once again; he remains, for now, a solo agent but the pair has discussed the possibility of future collaboration. His touring has also intensified, last year’s itinerary including high-profile stopovers at Rex (Paris), Eleven (Tokyo) and the Panorama Bar (Berlin). What about the ongoing revival of deep, soulful house too, especially in Europe? It undoubtedly offers a myriad of options as 2012 chaotically unravels. Damier is very much facing, and looking, forward.

“I think it’s [the deep house revival] wonderful” he confides to the Yank hack. “It's just the same as when we were inspired by disco. It showed in our music. People are inspired right now by our music and I've totally embraced it. That doesn't mean I want to go back and make the same things over and over again. We need to do something else and I'm in a different place spiritually.”

Words: Ben Lovett

Chez Damier’s Can You Feel It is out on Defected this week with brand new remixes by Steve Bug and Supernova.