A word with C12 resident Chris Ferreira

On Saturday our main room colors house music and beyond with Hunee and Call Super, two international masters of the craft. They will be backed up by our resident Chris Ferreira, who is performing an extensive warm-up session to set the room to the perfect temperature. We had a chat with Chris about his dj ethics, vinyl records and long preparation sessions at home.

“On the day of a dj-set, from the moment I wake up until I play my first record, I can’t think of anything else but my record selection. I spend the entire day listening to my records and hand picking them from my collection. I usually start with one or a few records as a starting point after which ideas come to my mind until I assemble the collection of music that I will take with me. This process can take up to 8 or 10 hours.”

“When I’m dj’ing I like to invite people to join me and my world. I propose nothing else but myself through music. Of course I also consider the other dj’s and the vibe while preparing. I like to understand what the crowd may expect in terms of music from the line-up and the venue of a particular party so i can work around those expectations or sometimes against them.”

“I know every record that I play by heart, from start to finish. It’s impossible for me to play a track that I haven’t listened several times before. Since I play 99,9% of my selection on vinyl, I never use any digital editing or looping. I focus a lot on the original melodic and harmonic constructions of a track and its arrangements and my mixing technique is strongly rooted on those aspects.”

“I own about 2500 records, 2 Technics turntables and a Rodec mixer. Maybe in two or three sets at C12 I have played a cd or a digital file, because the track wasn’t released on vinyl or it’s something I worked on myself. It’s all vinyl for me, purchased anywhere I can: online shops, Discogs.com, second hand shops, record stores, … I use every possible source around to dig for records. I also tend to buy a lot from befriended dj’s. I have found a great deal of my favorite records in the collections of Brussels based friends like THF for example. He has been very influential not only to me but to a great deal of djs from my generation.”

“Lately I have shared two mixes with the world. The first one is a techno mix for French blog Input Selector inspired by some of my C12 closings and the Berghain gig I did in December of last year.”

“The second mix is a rather house inspired mix called Painted View part 2 which I made as a follow-up to a seven years old mix (Painted View part1). It shows my particular taste for the more jazzy and deeper side. I will never chose one “side”, simply because there is no such side, for me it’s all connected, techno, electro, house, d&b, new wave, funk, disco,… It’s all rhythmically focused music and it’s all just dance music.”

Words by: Koen Galle