John Ferris: DJ, club promoter, radio DJ, occasional producer, remixer and writer, holder of the 2000 Outstanding Contribution to Dance Music DMA award and nice guy shoots the shit with Bing.

Bing (B): Your opening track on NRG4, Dee Dee -The One, is an absolute monster. Do you feel it is important to grab an audience’s attention right from the very start of a set?

John Ferris (JF): The start is when you have everybody’s attention, so it has to be ear catching. Often in a club or guest spot I’ll start with something that makes them stand up. I have been known to start with everything from LL Cool J, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and well as some very tough acid! I also put the Dee Dee track in at that point because it builds very quickly into something that it doesn’t sound like it will. Green Martins mix transforms this track into a true trance monster. Glad you liked it!

B: Wayne G & Stuart Who’s anthem Twisted was one of the first truly huge tracks I can remember affecting me to the point of simply having to have it when I first started clubbing a dozen years ago. What made you choose the new mixes of that as the all-important closing track for your disc?

JF: Cause being twisted is something I adhere to. Being twisted in life, in clubs in ideas. It excites me. I felt like revisiting that sentiment. I enjoyed the original so much I just had to put it in. There is still yet to be a track that does what it did.

B: The Hard NRG sound seems to be expanding out of its hard house and trance roots to incorporate elements of other styles like breaks and techno. Is this fundamental to the genre’s popularity?

JF: Interesting question. I came to the Hard Trance thing through techno, acid and tough house music mutated by electro and breaks. I came back from Miami a couple of years ago playing breaks along side electro that I picked up over there. The hard trance thing seemed to evolve from a lot of different places into something simpler. I think it’s currently popular cause its simplifies other feels into one thing. So in some ways you’re right, it uses lots of different genres but adds the punch of the faster genres.

B: The NRG sound is seen by a lot of people as relentless party music aimed at young audiences, is this a fact or fallacy? And what is the attraction for you as a DJ?

JF: It most certainly is ‘relentless party music’ but its appeal is not limited to any young audience. I play to all ages across the country and there seems to be a universal appeal to the diversity of the style. Sometimes I play more trancey, others more techno, other times more acidy. I don’t go and play just NRG music, I go where the music goes and where the crowd is on that night as well as wanting to play something they’ll love but have no idea that they will yet!

B: You can here lots personal touches on the tracks on NRG4 such as use of effects like the flange or spin-backs. How much of your own personality/individual style do you put into a set?

JF: Well, the Hard NRG mix is completely live using only two decks. I buggered it up a number of times and had to start all over again. I still don’t feel completely comfortable using computer generated mixing (which can make it sound perfect) or using too many other effects than what I would normally do ‘live’ DJing. Live, there is also the physical aspect, which is very important in this type of music. I always try to be different from everybody else – whether the difference is in tracks selection or how I play or how I perform. Perhaps next time I’ll take a new approach and add more effects, edits and computer work. We’ll see…

B: I’ve noticed on the NRG albums that there is always a note in the credits saying, “this CD was mixed on 3 decks and a Pioneer djm600,” or something to that effect. What is the purpose of that message to the fans?

JF: The message is that we are dj’s and this is a dj set. It’s not a computer or a corporate mix. This is what we do. It also tells people that the sound will be that of vinyl with all its inherent qualities like warmth, pops, hiss, crackles and general hum.

B: Is there a possibility that in the future the MOS might ask for a fully live album in the future, with a mic on the audience as well as the records and perhaps even yourself MCing (or not!), like what Moonshine have done recently with Carl Cox?

JF: I like that idea a lot as long as they record a number of sets to choose the best one. Live is so exciting. Being in my studio can be hard to work up the NRG needed to make this music ‘rock’!! I’ll not be MC’ing, Jason will!

B: What do you look for when buying new tracks?

JF: A number of things. Some tracks are just great movers, while others there’s something different that needs nurturing in the right way. I also look for acid bass lines and techno trance.

B: What are your absolute favourite, floor destroying, monster tracks at the minute?

JF: The Paragod – Fever
banging in yer face hard trance

Chapter and Page – They Are Somewhere Out There In Space
Acid!!

A*S*Y*S* - from past to phuture
Funky Acid!

Mad Creatures – Circle Of Darkness
Hard Trance Acid!

B: Alternatively what do you listen to at home when chilling out?

JF: I’m listening to some QUANGO Dub, Lou Reed’s ‘Transformer’, Afterlife album, Channel V.

B: The NRG3 tour is highly regarded as one of the best nights out on the 2002 calendar by local clubbers. What are your thoughts about returning to Hobart with expectations obviously very high?

JF: I’m very fucking excited cause I thought it was the best gig of that tour. This time I want to stay longer and party harder! The great thing about that gig was that everybody got into all styles of music from Psy trance to acid. It was great.


B: You’ve been in the DJing game as long as, if not longer than anyone in Australia. Who impresses you locally/internationally and what does it take to win you over?

JF: Steven Allkins has been in it longer!! I love listening to deep house, psy trance and deep tribal funky techno. So I have loved Deep Dish, Freak Nasty, Carl Cox, Luke Harland (Syd) and recently Luke Slater at BDO.

B: Winning the Outstanding Contribution to Dance Music at the 2000 Dance Music Awards must have been quite an honour. What does it mean to you and how important are awards ceremonies like the DMA’s to the Australian dance scene?

JF: It was and still is a great honour to be recognized like that by a lot of people that I also admire. It made it all the more worth it. To continue to be passionate about something that can sometimes break your heart as well as something that is your passion is fantastic. Sounds cheesy but true. I believe that we badly need a system of recognizing people’s talent. It should be as flexible as possible to be able to include a wide variety of people’s skills in this business. Doing that would mean that people who feel that no one knows what they do could get recognition. Programmers, promoters, venues, compilation compilers, A&R people, media... there are a lot of unrecognised people that could get the ‘groups’ thank you. The DMA can do that. It’s important to keep going in a tough environment.