RS: Let's talk about some of your recent remixes. How did you
get involved with the Shiny Toy Guns project?
Chris Fortier:: I've known Jeremy Dawson for twelve years, well
before he probably had the idea to start the band as he was a raver
kid from Oklahoma City. He was a musician, had these ideas, moved out
to LA and two years later he's got this band that he started. We had
always been in contact over the years and when he started the band he
sent me the first demos of the album, and that was probably like three
years go. I really thought it was really good and ahead of its time
so we just stayed in touch. When he finally got the album officially
released and his label was getting really behind it and they were
doing mixes, it was just natural for me to say, let's do something.
It was one of the songs that I really liked on the album all along, so
it was good for me.
RS: Let's go a little old school. I am from Orlando and if I
remember correctly back in the day, weren't you involved with Kimball
Collins, Remark, Robbie Clark, and the whole Underground Record
Source crew?
Chris Fortier:: Robbie Clark owned the store and I started working
there in 1990.Kimball never worked there but he always shopped there.
RS: Orlando was really known as one of the preeminent scenes of
the after hours and progressive dance music culture and you had a big
effect on that. Why do you think Orlando developed that amazing
scene?
Chris Fortier:: It's hard to really say it's one thing or another.
At the very forefront, there was a handful of forward-thinking guys
who were into music and followed the music. When you look back at
influential or legendary scenes, there were a lot of other magical
ingredients that sort of just happened to be there and work. A lot of
people used to say that Orlando was a service industry city and all
the service people had to work all day and so they would party all
night. Then there were all the tourists coming from all around the
world so we had a world thing but I don't remember loads of tourists
being at Aahz. It really comes down to that era, that time in history
and having some guys in the late 80s who really were into music and
kind of followed what was happening and were good at presenting
something fresh.
We had a couple of clubs with owners who were very patient to let
things develop and that is very rare. A couple of those good
ingredients mixed in with maybe other things and led to something
special and I think that's really it. There were other things, maybe
the environment led to people being open-minded with the music. The
crowd at Aahz trusted the DJs and were dancing to new music every
weekend. The DJs had a strong passion for pushing music every week
and that really was engrained in the crowd. They didn't need to hear
the same music two weeks in a row and you could play completely
different music from week-in and week-out and they were always with
you all the way. That's incredibly rare now as people want to hear
their songs they know and I just think that was a special thing.
There was just a complete trust of DJs and smart DJs as well that
really hunted music and were really into it and it was still a pretty
innocent time as well. We didn't really have rules to follow, we were
making it up as we went along, and I guess we just got lucky. I
remember when Rolling Stone came and did an article about how Orlando
was to electronic music what Seattle was to grunge. That might not
necessarily be true but it was pretty close because we had so much
stuff happening there and it was just sort of a little, tiny place –
it wasn't New York or LA.
RS: That was a magical time and I am so happy to be one of
people who dance to your music for those years. There is one record
that I still play which always brings me back – A;; Boxed In "These
Things Happen." So what would you like to say to all your fans out
there?
Chris Fortier:: Thank you. I appreciate everybody that's taken the
time to follow what I've been doing and the music that I've been
making and playing. I just hope to keep getting better and improving
every step of the way. Thanks for listening really and keep the faith
in the music, that's the most important part.