RS: How is the new radio talk show going?
Chris: It’s going great. The Late Night Lock-In came about because my friend James, another DJ on CMP Radio had a presentation style similar to my own. Within weeks we had a website up at http://www.chrisandjamesonline.co.uk/ where fans of the show can get in touch and interact. Prior to the Lock-In, I had done a 4 times weekly Infect’ive Mix Show on the station but decided to make that a monthly feature because I wanted to focus more on being a “personality” jock. I get a lot of enjoyment out of making people laugh and there’s lots of comedy in our show. Sometimes quite near the knuckle as they say, but I seem to get away with it! James and I work incredibly well together, bouncing ideas back and forth whether it’s a comical or serious situation and we’ve both done FM radio before so it seemed like an opportunity not to miss out on in teaming up together for The Late Night Lock-In. We’re actively looking to syndicate the show around the world, so if anybody fancies the idea of having an extremely upbeat funny entertaining show for their station, they should drop us a line.
RS: How much of it is scripted versus live?
Chris: 95% of each show we do is totally unplanned. I hate the whole idea of pre-planning shows. Even our playlist isn’t planned, that’s done on the fly! I cut out news stories from the tabloids during the week then bring them along to the studio and from there try to twist the story into something comical. The feedback from listeners during phone-ins is extremely positive. Most stories are crazy to begin with like the woman who claims she got pregnant from a fish-finger ? So I just add my own unique twist to the situation. James would fire back with a comment about what I’d said and that would often lead to another funny situation. None of it is planned and I’m not a radio fake at all. This is how I am away from the microphone, just a guy who likes making people chuckle (or should that be sick?) at my cheesy wit. The Late Night Lock-In is live from Manchester, England on CMP Radio every Sunday at 9pm UK time… that’s 4pm Eastern, 3pm CST, 2pm MST, 1pm PST etc..you can listen in at http://www.chrisandjamesonline.co.uk/ for more information.
RS: You are in the US right now working with people all over the place. How comfortable are you working in other people’s studios?
Chris: Yes I am. Right now I am in Stockton, California working on material for the album. I have used pretty much every type of recording equipment on the planet, so I find it easy to adjust to other people’s set-ups easily. It’s interesting seeing just how different we all work actually. Some people prefer having thousands of dollars worth of outboard gear but I just don’t bother with that system because it’s far too time consuming switching it on, setting up the mixing desk with the sound levels from the track you did several weeks ago and then making adjustments to the synth units in order to retrieve the sounds you used. I much prefer the PC approach as you just switch it on, load Reason and everything has been remembered from the last time you saved. Well…that’s my excuse for being lazy anyway?
RS: If you could work with any artist or producer who would it be?
Chris: I would love to work with Moony. I just adore her voice. She’s incredible. I’m seriously thinking of trying to hook up with her, I’d love that. The song “Dove (I’ll Be Loving You)” almost reduced me to tears, the lyrics are phenomenal and those harmonies….oh my god!!! Additionally, I love Rozalla (“Everybody’s Free” / “Are You Ready To Fly” etc). Those tracks got me freaking out during my “rave” days of the early 90’s. Remarkably, they are still getting air-play to this very day! In New York recently, a good friend of mine hooked me up with Rozalla actually, and we are meeting in London soon to discuss the possibility of writing some material together for release as a single and for my album This is Infect’ive.