The Retro Sheik
Felix Da Housecat Has Redefined Retro Cool.
With His New Album, He Hopes To Create a Different Buzz

By Brian O'Connor
Photos by Rahav Segev
Published in the May 2004 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 17 - Number 5

     Have Juno 106—will travel. That’s been somewhat of a motto for Felix Da Housecat, the Chicago-based DJ/producer who outpaces all when it comes to reviving the spirit and sound of Devo, or The Cars or The B-52’s. Lots of kudos, of course, to vocalist Miss Kittin, the sultry diva most responsible for the retro-trashiness on 2001’s Kittenz and Thee Glitz.
     Born Felix Stallings, Da Housecat bloomed early. At 17, he worked with DJ Pierre, the admiral of acid, on “Phantasy Girl,” and then went to Alabama State College and dropped from the house scene altogether. He returned a few years later with “Thee Dawn,” on Guerilla Records, which led to him forming Radikal Fear Records, one of the top house music labels in the world (DJ Sneak, Mike Dunn). Although he claims he doesn’t make dance music, Felix’s alter ego, Aphrohead, continues to pump out some of the finest acid house/Detroit records on the planet.
     But it was the retro-synth used to familiar effect on Kittenz and Thee Glitz that thrust Felix into the mainstream public eye. “I just hope I can turn people on to this type of music,” he says. “Because there were some great songs, and some great sounds back then. I just don’t want to seem like I’m being too obvious about it.”
     On its follow-up, Devin Dazzle and The Neon Fever, Felix’s signature synth abounds, as does the cynical worldview (“Everyone Is Someone In L.A.”) and the bouncing basslines that’s got everyone partying like it’s 1989. Again.

Felix Da Housecat: I’m surprised DJ Times would want to talk to me, because the album sounds nothing like dance music.

DJ Times: You’ve done plenty of DJing.
Felix: That’s true. I was a producer before I was a DJ. I think I’m the only guy like that. At first, I didn’t want to DJ, but this guy from England who used to manage me a long time ago, he was like, “Felix, you got to learn how to DJ. If you learn how to DJ, then you can educate the crowd and play a majority of your music. You can also learn from the crowd how to make a good club record at the same time.” I was trying to fight him on it. But I learned as I went. I never owned a pair of turntables; I still don’t own a pair of turntables. As the bottles came flying into the booth, and people were crying, “Get him out of there,” that’s how I learned.

DJ Times: How did that influence the way you make records?
Felix: When I was making house records—I stopped in ’98—I learned when a crowd would react when I kicked the bass out of the mix and slammed it back in, or how they would react to hand claps and hi-hats in records. So I was like, “Wow, if they’re reacting to this and going berserk off of this, I can do this in the studio.” I’d go in and throw some crazy rolling hi-hats, rolling snare drums and it would work. The biggest club records would be the Green Velvets, Armand Van Helden, because they go out and play and they know what works.

DJ Times: You stopped making house records in ’98. Why?
Felix: I started when I was 14. When house first started, I was there—Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy, Farley Jackmaster Funk. When I did “Phantasy Girl” with Pierre, I was 15. I’m 32 now, so from 15 to 19 I was living off one record—“Phantasy Girl.” Then I went to college, came back and got back into house, and Pierre hooked me up with Wild Pitch, I was making one record a week for two years. I’m not exaggerating. I burned myself out. You can only do so much with a 4/4 kick drum. You can only do so much with snares and hi-hats, the bassline. I made every type of house music possible. It wasn’t fun for me anymore. That’s when I hooked up with London Records, and I decided I wanted to make dance albums—in 1991. Deep Distraction was the label. I wanted to make music that was more challenging to me as a producer. You can ask Roy Davis, Jr., it would only take me an hour to make a track. I had an [Akai] MPC4000 and I knew what I wanted. Now, for me to make songs, it takes me a day, or two days.

DJ Times: So you burned out on house music.
Felix: I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to make a house track. I think anyone can do that. It’s like DJing, too. If you have great taste in music, you can do it. It’s all about being a good listener and having a radio sense. The simplest stuff works. Some people have a tendency to do too much. When I make an album, I put a concept together, I’m like making a movie, I get my cast of characters together—musicians, singers—and bring them into a room and say, “Let’s jam,” and pick out of each one of them what will work. When it comes to DJing, it’s sporadic, last-minute. If you plan your whole set, and something goes wrong, you’re gonna panic.

DJ Times: How does a track originate, say “Everyone is Someone in L.A.”?
Felix: We recorded that in New York, funny enough. Before we recorded it, I had just DJed a party in L.A. for Jason Bentley, and when it was over I went to a diner with my label’s president, and I was coming out the wash room, this guy passed me and I said, “Hey, you look just like Anthony Kiedis from the Chili Peppers.” He said, “I get a lot of that, and I’m not Anthony Kiedis, but I do this and I know that person,“ for like 10 minutes. So I sat back down with the president of my label, and said, “Man, everybody’s someone in LA.” And then a light went off in my head. I figured I’d put a song together.

DJ Times: So the idea is first.
Felix: I get the idea first, then I’ll sit down, comb over all my influences in my mind, like Prince is one of my biggest influences, and then I’ll think about critics, and people who support my music. Then I do it. Some songs will be stuck in my head for six months, and I feel like I’ve got to get it out of my head before I go crazy. “Nina” was like that, stuck in my head for a year.

DJ Times: Do you write on a keyboard?
Felix: Sometimes I’ll lay down the beats, and then I’ll play the music in my head with a guitarists or bassist, and sing them a melody and they’ll improvise it into their style. That’s why I like working with a lot of different people. My weakness is lyrics, so I have other people write words, and then I fit them into my melodies. My attention span is so little. I can’t write. I have no patience. I’m more with concepts, ideas and bringing people together.

DJ Times: There’s a great bass line in “What She Wants.”
Felix: I hummed the bass line to the bass player. And I said, “I want to capture a B-52’s, Devo type vibe.” That bass player was Jason Pellegrino, and he had a funk feel behind it, a real crazy-looking cat, too. I can’t work with egotistical knuckleheads or know-it-alls. I don’t like know-it-alls. I humble myself in the studio. If someone has a better idea than mine, I’ll go with the best idea and they’ll get credited for it.

DJ Times: The song “She’s So Damn Cool” is like a rotation song in a DJ set.
Felix: When the album starts, every track is like boom-boom-boom. I wanted to bring it down a bit, and I wanted to write a song about a cool female that you could tell anything to. Every time it comes to females, I get ideas super fast. It’s crazy. It’s either about spirituality, females or vanity.

DJ Times: Who is Devin Dazzle?
Felix: Devin Dazzle is a character, this guy who loves making music, and he’s a very grounded, humble guy who doesn’t want to get caught in the fast life. Neon Fever, his buddy, is the opposite. That’s how I am. I’m laid-back, but when the party starts I want in. Neon is all about vanity and rock-n-roll. The idea was to play them off one another, so I could come up with the ideas for the song. It’s not a concept album. It was something I had to think of with the Visionary, my co-producer, so I could get songs together. They’re opposite, but at the same time it’s the same person. Lust, vanity, sex, spirituality—it’s all there, and that’s why I like it more than Kittenz and Thee Glitz.

DJ Times: In the end, who wins?
Felix: Hopefully, Devin, because if he doesn’t, Neon is going to hell.

DJ Times: Where did you record the album?
Felix: Switzerland, New York, L.A., and Chicago in my home studio. “Let Your Mind Be Your Bed” was recorded in Switzerland, but it sounded too much like “Silver Screen,” so I had to lose the original music and make new music. It was like a clone, and I don’t like repeating myself or going backwards. It’s like cheating.

DJ Times: You’re doing everything in Pro Tools?
Felix: I use Pro Tools, but Dave The Hustler, who mixed the record, uses Logic. What happens is I track everything in Pro Tools, all my ideas, and then I have Dave bring it over to Logic and give his freak out to it. If it’s not done, I’ll be in his ear, which he can’t stand. I love Pro Tools, and I do love the sequencing in Logic.

DJ Times: The Juno 106 pops up again.
Felix: The Juno 106, Kurzweil 2500, an E-Mu sampler, Alesis Andromeda, Nord Lead, Prophet VST by Sequential Circuits, a Yamaha Motif 6, and [Yamaha] CS2X—Kittenz and Thee Glitz was made with that keyboard, but not on the new record. I try to use new gear each time I do a new record. And the Akai MPC3000 and 4000, which I use when I lay my drums, and then I’ll fly it into Pro Tools, and then once I get it on the grid, I’ll copy it across the grid and then I’m done with the MPC. I use it for ideas and sequencing, then I burn it on a CD, go to L.A. and rent a 4000 and load everything in and then fly it into Pro Tools. Then I have the Electron SPS1 machine drum, but you can only buy that in Sweden. I saw it on a vintage synthesizer site.

DJ Times: Where do you get beats?
Felix: I get beats off of rock records, then cut them up, and have the drummer replay on top of them, and sometimes I’ll pull the drums out. Sometimes I’ll leave it. If it sounds too empty, I’ll leave them.

DJ Times: How long have you had the Juno 106?
Felix: That was my first keyboard. What happened was, this dude, I lent him my drum machine, and he never brought it back, so I went to his house and I grabbed his keyboard and told him I was keeping it until he found my drum machine. He never got it back. And then I found out it was a cool keyboard when I plugged it in.

DJ Times: When you take this on the road, will it be live, or will it be DJ?
Felix: I’d rather DJ. I love spinning records. As far as the live thing goes, they have to go through a lot of stuff to set up. Six people living out of a bus, I’d rather take my record box with me, not have to deal with sound checks. My two Pioneer CDJs. No worries about losing keyboards. One day I’ll go live, but not right now. I’m more of a studio-producer guy, and if they want to make a video to sell the record, that’s great. That’s why I have so much respect for Fatboy Slim. He doesn’t go live. He DJs, he makes cool records and he has cool videos. That’s the way I’d rather go. “Rocket Ride” is going to be the first single, and we’re doing a video for it. “Rocket Ride” works with the fashion crowd; it goes down well in a bar atmosphere.

DJ Times: OK, Felix, are you retro?
Felix: Everyone in this generation feels like they’ve heard this music before, but they haven’t. I’m trying to educate people and bring that back, but I don’t want to sound like a throwback, like I’m trying too hard.