CHRIS ANDERSON
SHORT VERSION:
Houston’s Chris Anderson has been an ongoing force in dance music for over 10 years. Known as the “Godfather” in town, Chris has left a mark with his love of the underground sound and his determination to stay true to his dream.
LONG VERSION:
Houston’s Chris Anderson has been an ongoing force in dance music for over 10 years. Known as the “Godfather” in town, Chris has left a mark with his love of the underground sound and his determination to stay true to his dream.
After experiencing the heyday of the Houston club scene in the late 80s, the seed was planted that would mature into a lifelong passion. At Houston’s peak, there were several massive nightclubs with thousands of clubbers going crazy to cutting edge music, including New Wave and Acid House. In the early 90s, Chris met Andrei Morant and Claudia Suarez of MegaZone Records. At MegaZone he discovered Techno, and was instantly hooked. Soon after, during a summer break in college, Chris traveled to London to live, work and buy music for a few months. To his surprise, he found an entirely new type of music, UK Hardcore, which would later evolve into Drum and Bass. After slapping down several hundred pounds for a couple hundred records, he packed up to bring the sound back to Houston. Upon his return, he found the beginning of the early rave scene starting. Together with Andrei and Claudia, they formed the Matrix Crew, which would go on to be one of the most influential rave promotion crews in Texas. The events grew from humble beginnings of 500 people to upwards of 3,000. In between events, Chris and Andrei started working on music together. Their first two EPs were picked up by Labworks Germany, and sold out. After their initial releases, they began releasing records on their own. The first two being a white label, Phreak 3, and The Syndicate – Thud, which was a tech-y acid house track on 10” clear and green swirled vinyl. Chris took test pressings of Thud to Amsterdam, where they were warmly received. Back home, he found a magazine with Thud listed in Billy Nasty’s playlist on BBC Radio.
With the success of Thud, Chris and Andrei decided to start their own record label. After a lot of tossing around of ideas for a name, they settled on the humorous nickname of Chris’ decrepit house at the time, which was called “The Crackhouse”. Thinking they’d found the perfect “shocking” but funny name, they each released a solo EP on the newly formed CrackHouse Records. The song More, from Chris’ EP, did quite well, and was well received enough by Scott Henry, that he contacted Chris to let him know how much he liked it.
After the first two records, Chris took over CrackHouse Records, and released his “Put This In Your Pipe EP”, which got hammered by DJ Dan, Carl Cox, and a number of other DJs. At his first Winter Music Conference in Miami, armed with two new CrackHouse white labels, Phreak-E and Overdose, Chris made quite a stir, including selling Overdose to Terry Mullan for release on Catalyst and meeting the Dose/Lifeforce Industries promoters from Toronto. While Overdose was getting mastered and pressed, Chris set up a pressing and distribution deal with Dutch dance music giant, United Recordings (with labels like Touche and Pssst, and artists like Chocolate Puma, Jark Prongo, and Trancesetters). A dream come true at the time, since Chris had always respected and admired the work of the Dutch artists on United, and the Dutch sound in general. Two releases and a lot of headaches later, Chris cut the deal off and ended CrackHouse Records completely.
In July 1998, Chris started Chemistry Records, a new dance music shop that took Houston by storm. The party scene was growing, and Chemistry was there to provide the best underground dance music for all the new and established DJs. Chemistry recently celebrated its six-year anniversary.
Always in the studio, Chris got a chance to remix a song that Caffeine Records was licensing called 50,000 Watts by Blubba Boy. Once finished, he knew it would be a big hit. Being outside of what the label was used to, they weren’t excited about it. Almost two years after originally being released the remix got licensed to E-Traxx in the UK for an additional remix of Chris’ mix. Billy Nasty played it in heavy rotation on BBC Radio, and once Carl Cox got his hands on it, it became an integral part of his sets. For his latest Moonshine CD, Mixed Live Vol 2, Carl licensed 50,000 Watts, as well as one of Chris’ original tracks, Rolling Bass. Apparently others agreed with Carl on those two tracks, since a French website, ClubXtreme.net, listed Rolling Bass and 50,000 Watts as the #6 and #15 respectively, in their Top 40 Techno of 2002 list.
Recently, Chris has been releasing tracks on labels like Free Records and Bug Eyed out of Toronto. Grains, on Free Records, was charted #3 by Carl Cox on his website. Releases on Bug Eyed include Fragments, a new concept in lock groove tools which was licensed for a Technasia CD, and Chris’ most recent record, U Can’t Stop It, which John Acquaviva charted #7 on BeatPort.com.
The most important and satisfying aspect of Chris’ music career is DJing. He’s traveled a lot in the US, Canada and Mexico. After meeting Steve and Wayne (Stretch & Hooker) from Dose/Lifeforce Industries at WMC, they brought Chris to play in Toronto at System Soundbar. The club went crazy for his dirty funky house and techno, and he quickly became a regular in Canada. Chris headlined the World Electronic Music Festival (WEMF) in Ontario two years in a row, and also did a tour from coast to coast. He’s played at the Tunnel in NYC, for FreeBass in New Orleans, twice in Cancun Mexico and many more places.
His style is hard to define, ranging from house to techno, with a dark, aggressive edge but always funky. Not satisfied with the way a lot of tracks were structured, Chris started editing various songs to his liking and putting them on dubplates. Now utilizing Final Scratch, he’s able to edit as many songs as he wants, and play them straight away. You can expect to hear a lot of surprises and unavailable material during his sets. He prefers playing on three turntables, and is versatile enough to satisfy different types of crowds.
- 50,000 Watts re-issue was #1 top seller in House AND Techno on DanceRecords.com!