House music is a labour of love. You only have to listen to it for a very short time to realise that at its best, house music can be an uplifting, all-encompassing, life-affirming experience. For some, the relationship they have goes beyond simply loving it to being an essential part of their existence. Once such man is DJ Spen, an artist who has spend his entire career creating music that stays as true to the roots of house as is humanly possible.

As such, he was the ideal candidate to select and mix the latest For The Love of House compilation - a retrospective series picking house gems from an exhaustive potential catalogue. We caught up with the man himself to get his views on love, life and most importantly...house music.

So Spen…just how much do you love house?

Very much. House music is one of the only genres that encompasses so many different styles of music. People of all races, creeds and ages are into it in one form or another. I am always amazed when I go to Japan and they know every word to every vocal track that I play.
 

Why is it such an important part of your life?

I started out as a Hip Hop DJ back in the eighties. Back then you had to play a bit of everything (disco, hip hop, electronic, etc) so you had to be pretty versatile. When the first Chicago House tracks came out I was like “wow!” It was the new thang, but the basis of House was and still is Disco, so it was fresh and familiar. As I matured musically, Hip Hop seemed to become very negative. From the early 90s so much of the subject matter seemed to be about sex, money, and drugs. House music at the time continued to grow, encompassing things like Gospel, Jazz, Be Bop, R+B, Electronic, Tribal, and many other styles and sounds.

As a producer, House Music allows me in many ways to create music that both inspires and motivate people in a positive way. I feel like it’s my way to give back to the music what the music has given to me.

Complete the following sentence... ‘A world without house music would be...’

A sad place! People can't dance to Rap or R+B the way that you can to House. The world would just be standing on dance floors doing whatever.

DJ Spen

You had a vast catalogue from which to put together the track list...how did you decide which tracks were worthy of being on a house music retrospective?

To be honest, with my first volume of FTLOH I just wanted to highlight some of my favourites, tracks that said something to me immediately rather than digging deep for tracks that peeps may not know too well. Thing is that the catalogue is massive and to this day I am going through it saying.. “Wow, I know I used to kill that track...and I may not remember which mix of the track...so I have to do some serious listening to remember what the track was”. There are some serious gems within the
Defected/Strictly/Suburban/Yoruba camps and in the next few volumes I am gonna bring forth some stuff that's gonna make peeps go.. “Oh my goodness!”

On the digital version there is a bonus mix from yours truly...how did you put this together? (equipment etc...)

A computer with Ableton Live. That's the only way I can see doing a comp these days. I'll try to do it all CDJ 1000, but if I make a little mistake, I can't go back. Ableton has been a life saver.

Personally, when do you think was the most exciting time for house music?

The late 80's to 2arly 90's. Killer time for music in general.

Which of your own tracks are you most proud of?

Marc Evans ‘The Way You Love Me’, DJ Technics ‘Gabryelle’, Muthafunkaz ‘Galaxy’, Jasper Street ‘Company Smile’ and ‘Another Day’.

Do you think house music will last forever?

Well, knowing that nothing last forever, I sure hope for as long as I live at least!

How would you like to be remembered?

As a DJ Producer that pushed boundaries and went way beyond the norm to bring them good music. Anybody can be a good DJ, but I'd like to be thought of as one of the best.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about..?

Just to be on the lookout for the next FTLOH instalments. They are gonna be a blast.

DJ Spen presents For The Love of House is out 9th August - click to listen & pre-order