Theo Parrish
is worshipped in some certain circles like a messiah. His releases on his own Sound Signature label, his productions together with Moodymann, his raw reworks on his Ugly Edits imprint, or his über-legendary DJ gigs, are all expressions of his significance in the history of his homeown and Detroit Techno as a genre. A visionary mind with a traditional conscience.
I don't really ever feel like 1982. But let me think about it. I'm not sure if it was released that year but it sure makes me feel like it: Man Parrish's «Boogie Down Bronx».
Silence. I don't want any noise. Like if it's me coming home from playing I don't wanna hear nothing. If I come home from a club where somebody else was playing it depends if I had a good night out. Sometimes I come home – and if I had a really bad night with somebody playing some bullshit – I make a new track myself!
Well, there's no particular songs but a lot of times if I walk into a club and the DJ is playing records and is really giving it then I'm thinking: «Here's a thing!». But if I can identify more than four songs in his set, the chances are high I'm not having that good of a time. I like going to places where I'm hearing stuff I never heard before. NEVER heard before! Stuff that inspires me to go out and go record shopping. Just a guy coming in playing stuff that is exclusive that doesn't really do anything for me. That's like: «Okay that's great. Cool, you got some shit nobody else got. But is it coming out? When can it be shared?» What's interesting to me: Share that shit! That's when I get excited. For instance when I recently saw DJ Spinna in Amsterdam. He brought a iPod-mixer with him and the thing broke and wouldn't work. He had to play the whole set with his funk 45s. And it was the best set I ever heard him play. Best set I ever heard anybody play actually. He played the whole set of stuff I never heard before! I was loving it! Now, not everybody can handle that. Some people that night were acting funny, but for me it was like it should supposed to be. It even made me start looking for rare funk 45s myself now.
There's no song. Just sound of food and probably me talking to my wife.
Shit, when I run from the cops I gotta turn the sound off. You gotta turn those lights down and got to be careful!
Or something by Notorious B.I.G.
That's for driving fast. For not driving fast I listen to anything, except the radio. I don't listen to the radio that much. I do from time to time just to see what's out there, cuz every once in a while there's something interesting out there. But generally I don't listen to it anymore. Nowadays I'm also not so much interested in new music anymore. I mainly listen to old stuff – discovering old tunes almost every single day.
I might sound like a pedophile, but watching girls walk by is a B.B. King moment. For instance «Sweet Sixteen».
I don't go jogging! I'm a fat slob. The question should be what I listen to when I box. Nothing corny like the theme from Rocky or shit like that. I rather go for anything by Mobb Deep.
A skipping record. When the record goes off and it's just the needle going round...
You know, I don't play ping pong and if I did play ping pong I think the perfect soundtrack for it would be: «Computer Game». A really good ping pong track!
I like Common on planes. And listening to new productions while travelling is always fun.
No music! I like to face the scary stuff straight up.
We don't have a subway in Detroit. But I know what I used to listen when I was in high school when I was sitting on the bus. I used to listen to mixes. Any mix I was working on right at that point.
There's no song. I don't listen to a song when I get up in the morning. What I hear though is the TV my wife turned on... So when I hear her up it's time for me to get up as well.
Just the sound of a lawn mower.
There is no! It's impossible to narrow it down to just one song. There is no such thing as a best Stevie tune! There are plenty that do it for different moods. For me, Stevie Wonder is the most complete artist ever. There are a lot of genius in the history of music but nobody comes close to Stevie in his completeness as an artist. His album «Songs In The Key Of Life» is absolute essential listen to anybody who loves muic. It's everything music is all about!
That track gets me excited. It's the one for me to get fucked up to and wildin' out to.
Well, I was looking for this one record for about 16 years, acrually since I was 18. It's Atmosfear's first 12", called «Motivation». That's just one of them. There are too many I was and still am looking for. I try to go record digging everywhere I am. It's definitely an obsession with me.
I was 5 years old when I first heard it.
I don't like that question. I leave that to my loved ones.
It's so funny. The time I was having my best summer so so far, music was in a very, very distant place. Maybe a bit of Public Enemy?... No! There was another good summer. And there was music! When the first album by the Wu-Tang Clan came out. That whole summer was great!
That's an easy quetion. The song that works over and over and over again: «Can You Feel It». No matter what, you play that at any party anywhere in the world – except Chicago – and people go crazy! But actually I don't bring those type of songs anymore with me. Cuz I'm quite tired of playing them.
That's a crazy question. Because if there ever was a song that I wish I'd made myself I just would've made it. I'd just do a cover. So this is a very strange question to me. There is a song I wish I was in the recording session though: «Ain't It Funky».
