RS: That's awesome. Your gig at Avalon is going to be broadcast on Digital Imported. What effect do you think satellite and internet radio is having on the dance community?
Christopher Lawrence: I think it's having an incredible impact because it's allowing people in remote places to participate in this music. Electronic dance music is a global phenomenon because of the internet and you've got live DJ sets, interactive web sites, and you can download songs without having to go to a record store to buy them. So if you live in a rural area or a country that does not even import electronic dance music to the record stores, you can go online and download mp3 copies of a song, burn it to a CD and play it that night at a party. It's leveled the playing field as well because tracks are no longer exclusive to certain DJs and anybody anywhere has access to the same music. It means that a DJ some place in North Dakota with a population of five hundred had access to the same records I do and can put together an amazing set, whereas before I think that held people back. As well as the fact that we live in the iPod generation and everyone's a DJ now, which is a bit much but? You can download the music you want, put together your sets, burn them to your iPod, and there you go. I think it's fantastic. It opens peoples' minds to this music in a way that you could never have done say fifteen years ago.
RS: Speaking about opening minds to your music, your songs are also being used in the MTV show The Real World. Have you noticed any effect from that?
Christopher Lawrence: No, I haven't noticed any characters showing up at the party that looked like they don't belong.
RS: Also I hear you're involved with the show The Club that's on Spike TV.
Christopher Lawrence: Yes, I'm in one of the episodes because I played at Ice and they were filming. They wanted a DJ to play that night so they could get some really good footage of the crowd going off, so that was my job.
RS: How real is it, should I say?
Christopher Lawrence: You know what, I don't know. I've never seen an episode of it, but I do know that they have the cameras going all through the club so they were filming everywhere. It just depends on how they edit it and what they put into it, but potentially they have a lot of stuff to show. Just from my vantage point, they're can be people that would be concerned about the footage that might be shown.
RS: Jumping from small screen to big screen, I read you're involved with A Midsummer's Night Rave. DJ Irene told me about that last time I spoke to her. What's your role in that movie?
Christopher Lawrence: I played a DJ playing at the event, an outdoor party. The movie is based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream so over the course of the night, in the same way that Shakespeare's play takes its course overnight, this one takes place in a rave, and I'm one of the DJs playing there. Irene plays and so does Donald Glaude. I don't have a speaking role, so it's not as if I'm making my acting debut, but I do show up behind the decks.
RS: You're also profiled in several documentaries, Intellect, Put the Needle On The Record, America Massive, World Party on Tour. Does it feel strange having film crews follow you around?
Christopher Lawrence: Yes, yes it does feel very strange when you see the film cameras going. I started doing this back in like '91/'92 and back then it was just parties and nobody even really knew who the DJs were. You kind of knew the production teams that threw the parties, and you went to a specific party because it had the name of previous parties that you went to that you liked. It was only after people going to these parties a lot, that they said oh we actually like this sound of this DJ over another one. It took a long time for people to develop specific tastes in individual DJs, but now it's like the DJs have eclipsed the parties. Now the DJs that are the focal point of the party and not so much the name of the event, and I just find the whole thing kind of bizarre.
RS: Well the other thing which I notice going to parties, in addition to the film crews following you around, what do you think about the fans who are snapping pictures of you the whole time you're spinning? Does it ever get in the way?
Christopher Lawrence: You know, it didn't bother me until the phones came out with the cameras. Now you just look out and there's all these people with their phones in your face, and I'm thinking why don't you go out there and dance?
RS: Cool. Anything you'd like to say to all your fans and the dance music lovers out there?
Christopher Lawrence: Just thanks for all the good times and for your support, I look forward to seeing you again on the dance floor.
