After a mini hiatus Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon’s Classic Music Company is back. The label's vast and hugely influential back catalogue has now been fully re-mastered and will be made available in digital format for the very first time across all download platforms.
The catalogue will be released in 3 large batches – each consisting of over 30 original vinyl EPs and will include tracks and remixes from the likes of Freeform Five, Chris Nazuka, Blaze, Isolee, Rob Mello, Freaks, Nail, JT Donaldson, Metro Area, Brett Johnson, Iduceve, Iz & Diz, Ewan Pearson, SWAG, Honey Dijon, Roy Davis Jnr, Style of Eye, Henrik Schwarz, Trevor Jackson, Mark Farina and many more plus lots of previously unreleased tracks.
With the re-release imminent - the first batch drops on the 4th of April - we caught up with Derrick and Luke to set the record straight about life, music and everything in between.
Please introduce one another…
Derrick Carter: Luke Solomon; Barnet resident, hair enthusiast, all round lovely bloke. People don’t know Luke like I know Luke, he’s a good friend. I know that I could trust Luke, were like brothers. It’s a nice way to go. It’s not like; ‘oh did you play this dope party last night?’ ‘Yeah man and I rocked it’. We don’t do that, if he sends something and I play something I would say yeah you know it went down well, and then it’s off. Our relationship is not based in the DJ world or music industry apart from this thing we do together which is Classic and a shared love of music. But Luke’s ace in general.
Luke Solomon: This is my friend Derrick Carter. He once rescued me from a toilet; I was asleep on the floor after being put there by Derrick in the first place. We both share a fondness for alcohol, not to advertise it, but it I kind of am because it was maybe the foundation of our relationship. From that point on we discovered that we liked different kinds of music, unusual music, things that not everyone liked and our relationship grew from that and we became good buddies. I think I’m one of the few people that can tell Derrick how it is. I think I get a bit of respect from Derrick because of that, because people can be a little scared of Derrick sometimes. That’s all I need to say about Derrick.
You were talking earlier about how you liked records not everybody else liked. Was this the catalyst for you two guys to get together and start the label?
Derrick: Na, I think we were drunk and came up with some brilliant ideas which we do. Then the ideas got legs in the form of an old friend who decided to put together a distribution company exclusively to distribute our drunken ideas and that’s were it started. It wasn’t like we had this crazy plan for domination or anything like that, we just came up with some stuff and found somebody who was gullible enough to believe it and it turned into something by sheer force of our personalities and our will to see something happen, also the good will and kindness of strangers and then some of our friends who got on board and brought us really good music.
Luke: I remember in like 1995 before we had the record label, we went and toured it. We were trying to come up with a name for the label; we were driving past a sign and they were advertising those McVities Classic Chocolates and thought ‘that’s a good name for the label’. Born out of what Derrick was saying, being hung-over after parties and being idiots. I remember going and breaking the news to our gullible friends who had a distribution company. I remember getting a phone call from Ralph Lawson saying ‘are you sure you want to call your label Classic...that’s a lot to live up to??’ Everyone was voicing concerns saying ’it’s a big name to live up to’.
Derrick: I do remember sitting in the upstairs room in a house, mine after a while, sharing with Luke at the time in Barnet. I even had a Barnet library club along with late fees of about 800 quid for an Earth Wind & Fire CD. The downstairs was the office/music room, I was sitting there trying to write the first statement of what we were trying to do or be. For me it took shape as I started thinking about it and thinking that this could be really cool. Luke had worked at labels and we had both had our own. We kind of brought our collective knowledge in and decided and lucked into a situation that allowed us to be as personable as we are in our real lives but into a music context because I think a lot of times in a music context people want to force you into something that fits into a convenient or easily marketed or nice tidy package, whereas neither one of us are anything like that. I am not convenient, not easily marketed, none of that.
Luke: That was a common bond between us. To be so contradictory to anything that any one ever tells us or wants us to do, we just do the opposite.
It sounds like you two have got some punk rock in you?
Derrick: I guess but I think I’m more a brat. I’m more of a spoilt brat that is just kind of NO!..ok maybe
Luke: Not being told what to do, I’ve never liked being told what to do ever. Even now.
Derrick: Neither have I. And that’s the thing, music; it was kind of getting stale. Music as a business is stale anyway so us being able to do what we wanted to do was a good thing.
What is the philosophy for Classic?
Luke: I don’t think we set out to have one but it kind of grew with us. With Classic the first ten releases were a real defining step, we started to realise what was going on. We had Seasons the first compilation and Derrick had written some notes about it and what it had become. Then the music started happening and the things like the Matthew Herbert record, DJ Sneak record and Chris Nazuka record came in. Then all of a sudden there was something happening that we were excited about. And the philosophy just kind of happened.
Why did you choose those people?
Derrick: It wasn’t like we wanted to put out a DJ Sneak record or like we had a laundry list. It was people we knew and hung out and associated with. Like Mathew used to come down to Bar Rhumba when Luke and Kenny were doing Space parties on a Wednesday. That created this pool of talent and fun and excitement and help to crystallise a lot of relationships just because you’re there and you’re being silly and wild and you could get away with murder, maybe not everybody else could but we could. I would like steal a case of beer, and they would just say put it back with no police or anything. They would just say ‘Derrick put it back’.
Luke: It was wild and I think that was a real melting pot. Everything that we did, we were living together, we hung out, Wednesday was pre empting the excitement of going out. The music was kind of important at Bar Rhumba as it was kind of a big thing. It was a real testing ground for both of us. The first time I heard ‘You Can’t Hide From Your Bud’, first time I heard any single Classic record at any period of time was in that club. Whether it was Derrick, me, or Kenny Hawkes. Before playing we were like check this out or play this or give us an acetate. Then the excitement happened out of that.
Derrick: That was an awesome room to test things in. It was an honest litmus of the time in terms of the people we met there and the ability to work that room around and the things we were trying out. We would get stuff cut at Whitfield Street around the corner. Just have an acetate that evening and try it out and think man this is good.
Luke: I remember ‘You Can’t Hide From Your Bud’ it was one of those, Derrick played it to me when we were at their house and I was like this is mad. It was one of those records quite rare these days were you hear it out and you see what it does to people, just destroys people. That was a really exciting time, which was the time when we thought this could be a proper record label. I think our philosophy for Classic has never been about us trying to hunt down the next cool thing. That’s kind of what exists around music now. Everything is definitive, the sound of a record label or saying that we can’t put something out because it’s not something we would put out. Me and Derrick have such a broad taste in dance music. Even though we’re known for playing what we play or doing what we do. I appreciate what Derrick plays but I can’t play what Derrick plays. I think that’s the point were we met in the middle like there was somewhere were Derrick had his thing I had mine and there was a point in the middle. Like in school where you have two circles and there’s the bit in the middle that overlap.
Is that bit in the middle Classic then?
Derrick: It’s all Classic but when the two parts meet, that’s the magic.
I want you to highlight some of the earlier releases; ones that really stand out...
Luke: It’s hard with favourites with your own label. Some of its changed for me, I’ve had records were I could be at a certain time or place and something will happen or a night that surrounds it and that will become a record special to me and I think that’s the same for a lot of music. I think ‘Chris Nazuka ‘Experience’, I listened to it being made upstairs, I think… Did you start making that upstairs??
Derrick: Yeah yeah I made it upstairs in the weird room that was going to be a bathroom but the landlord didn’t have enough money to finish it. It’s like the hottest room ever and we had like the sweat and stuff. AND dammit!! The girl that watches my dog’s lives there, I gave her a lift home and I was like ‘this is my old place’. I was like ‘this is where my studio is, I used to have a studio in this little room’. I took her home after watching my dogs and I was like this is creepy this is my old place and giving her tips and stuff on living there. But that was awesome you know making it upstairs and I remember that one. I was gunna say that one as well, partially because I love Chris. Also because I remember making it thinking whoa… and Chris was going ‘dude…… I have a cool sample….’ if you knew Chris that’s just him, a real easy going guy.
Luke: Chris Nazuka; we would be sitting downstairs and discussing film noir while he smoked a cigarette. That’s what he did
Derrick: He would be totally dead pan and say ‘you know… dude, I got a cool sample’
Do you think that when you re-release these tracks they will have relevance today again now in today’s contemporary house scene?
Derrick: I don’t think that they sound dated. You listen to some things I don’t know if I can say this, but like old Inner City records, and I call them ‘Kevin Saunderson claps of doom’ and they’ve got so much reverb on them and you can count them and they’ve got like 3 seconds of delay. That is amazing but I think it belongs to a period of time, where as I think a lot of the Classic stuff doesn’t have that attachment. It is rooted within a time but travels freely outside of those time periods, it isn’t just stuck there invoking nostalgia and bringing all these yesteryear feelings in. But the Classic stuff.. it travels well I think, it’s got good legs.
Luke: I think there are things we put out where we kind of started subgeneres of what we did. Certain things that have been mimicked even to the point were people have been trying to recreate Derrick’s sound or trying to recreate Greenskeepers sound and that kind of thing. I just think there are certain things within the Classic label that will always be as they are and sound as they are, no matter where you put and what you do. It’s like the Inner City thing; there are certain production styles that you hear that belongs to a time. It was exciting when you have Jarvis Cocker ringing up the company asking for a copy of the new Greenskeeper record, you realise you’re branching out. I had David Bowie’s son freaking out about Greenskeepers ‘Fillipino Phil’, these were really touching people, when you have people asking like that you think oh that’s really cool.
Derrick: You realise it gets outside you’re group of friends, all our friends know about it but when you hear other people talking about it your like ‘what?’
Luke: It makes you feel like something you’ve done in your life has been worthwhile you know.
Derrick: Well people appreciate it, because you do this stuff and you kind of operate in a vacuum in our case we kind of did what we do and there was no like preset path. We just did what felt good and natural and it’s a good validation of that and having that positive reinforcement allowed us to do it again and again so you keep producing records.
Luke: We’ve always done that, there’s never been a time where we’ve put a record out for the sake of thinking it can sell. We will always do something and chances are it will sell about 400 copies but we will both be happy.
How do you feel about the label relaunch?
Derrick: I care enough to care. I think that we’re doing it mostly because we put out some great records, we’ve had a great catalogue that was kind of languishing, sitting somewhere non descript on a download site, pieces not able to do justice to the wonderful awesomeness of these pieces. A piece here or there doesn’t really accurately represent or speak of Classic. As a body of work I believe that the Classic catalogue is excellent, I would say that fuck what you heard, pardon my French. It’s excellent, it covers a lot of spectrum, it goes across; there’s latitude, there’s emotions, there’s dance floor destruction, quiet introspective moments, there’s a lot lot lot that’s there for people to grab a hold to. To only get the odd snippet here or there is not doing it justice; people would always ask us ‘what’s going on with Classic man?’
So now that the game has changed a lot from our record label days of warehousing, fax machines and Leon. It became hard, you know, Lukes got a family, I’ve got a family of sorts, and we needed to work a way out to make it available so that people could understand this music again. I think part of it, as we were winding Classic down as a record label, the music industry started to shift, I think it’s our fault that house music got lost because we weren’t there to soldier on and keep it moving.
Luke: I think it’s interesting speaking to people recently there are so many friends of ours part of the label. Classic was a family thing, we communicate with our artists, and they’re our friends we hang out. Their music is very personal to us and we want to treat it right. There are so many people who feel that they are in the wilderness because they’ve not had somewhere or something to make a record for. Classic was always a place where you can go in a studio and even if you didn’t end there and be like I want this to end up at Classic. Even Me and Derrick would think there’s somewhere that will get it and what were doing, it doesn’t have to sound like this or that, lets just do what we want to do
Who are the artists you’re hoping to work with?
Luke: I think with Classic I’ve got my ears on again. There was a time where I had to step away for one reason or another from being A&R and doing those things and just think about being an artist. I feel that I am in a good place right now and I would like to have a record on Classic under my own name, something that I haven’t done before and would be nice to have. So that’s me, I’ll be on the label. I hope there will be new things; people like Rob Mello, Brett Johnson and Freeform Five have expressed interest in wanting to make records for us again. They have all been in the wilderness and suffered for one reason or another, and I’m already hearing things that are being thrown at me and ideas I think could be really good. I don’t think me and Derrick are going to sit there and find a really big hot house record and announce that house music is back. I think it could be anything.
Derrick: I get demos. People still have a love for Classic. When I go out and play at places, people hand me a CD and ask me to check it out. For a while I was getting decent stuff, as A&R you listen not just for finished product but for potential. For instance this person has; a great ear, I like the rhythm, melody, the way they do things and just saying ‘keep it coming, shoot me back after developing learning etc’. There are a couple of things that have sounded good.
Luke: We’ve always liked the characters attached to records.
Derrick: That’s as amazing a part as anything, particularly at Classic, everybody at Classic is a character. Everybody is a stone cold bonafide true died in the wool character, which is the best way. It’s awesome and that’s why it’s good to be a family....because family keep secrets.
