New York City – Not since the very early days of the “Disco 2000” parties has an average Limelight crowd been considered particularly music-savvy. Generally, Manhattan’s Limelight – an ex-church long ago converted into a den of disco sin – stands as the quintessential bridge-and-tunnel venue, a club that often attracts desperate hipsters lining Sixth Avenue waiting for approval from sassy drag queens working the door. When they enter, these somewhat hormonal groups sporting New Jersey and Connecticut driver’s licenses quickly become more interested in each other than the music pumping through Limelight’s labyrinthine halls.

So with this backdrop, why in the world would an envelope-pushing, underground hero-DJ like Mr. C assume the decks in this former Cathedral of the Mediocre? Is it an indication of just how far along dance music has come? Or is it just another subversion authored by clubland’s king of pranks? Chances are best that it’s all part of the plot.

From 1:30 a.m. until 5, he turned a dancefloor of indifference into a tech-house fantasia. By the time he dropped the dub version of Simon’s storming “Free At Last,” genre-sharing DJ and New York party promoter Peter Wohelski sidled up along a balcony overlooking the warming dancefloor and excitedly offered, “The tech-house national anthem!” Just then, Simon’s elastic bassline stretched the groove to the endpoint and his thunderclapping breakdown rained from the speakers, causing a crowd of trance fans, WKTU listeners and unaffiliated partiers to collectively pulse, raise hands, whoop, jump and shout.

In the booth, Mr. C didn’t react or so much as flinch as he wound up his next mix. But for one glorious moment, this collection of club civilians was shown the entrance to a place boasting scads of possibilities both musical and psychic. Of course, as is his wont, Mr. C was both the barker and the doorman.

Long a large figure on the U.K.’s seismic dance scene, the London-based Mr. C (aka 34-year-old Richard West) has been to the pop mountaintop, but surely prefers the underground. As a member of The Shamen (now disbanded), he helped crank out 10 consecutive Top-10 U.K. pop hits, including “Move Any Mountain,” “L.S.I.” and the giddily subversive “Ebeneezer Goode,” which found Mr. C the rapper shouting “E’s are good, E’s are good” on BBC tele and radio. Perhaps that was his ultimate youthful prank, but Mr. C has since moved onto more useful subversions.

Don’t Run Unless God Says (Ellipsis Arts) – his scintillatingly deep 1999 Animus Amour project with Jerry Jones – explored the range of electronic shapes and colors, plus the possibility of platonic love between men. Of course, its not-so-veil- ed title hinted at even more subversive agendas. “I genuinely believe it’s my best original work to date,” says Mr. C. “I feel that it will wear well with time.”

His latest, Subterrain 100% Unreleased (Engine/End), isn’t as tricky, but it’s certainly worthy. A unique CD featuring many tracks specially produced for Mr. C by some of the electronic under- ground’s most innovative DJ/producers – Stacy Pullen, Derrick Carter, Charles Webster and Layo & Bushwacka among others – the album stands as a pure, unadulterated DJ-mix compilation. House people will love the warmth, techno fans the toughness, breaks devotees the funkiness – there’s something for everyone, including Mr. C, who obviously loves spreading his tech-house gospel in a most forceful way.

The other way to spread the word, of course, is through live DJing. When he’s not doing his monthly Subterrain residency at London’s The End – a spectacular underground-oriented club with a 7 a.m. license he co-owns with Layo Paskin of Layo & Bushwacka – Mr. C hits the ripe global circuit. This year, however, he’s played more than ever in the U.S., a market that suddenly excites him. Performing sets at Release at San Francisco’s Folsom 1015, Sleaze Factor at New York’s Sapphire or other forward-thinking domestic parties, Mr. C displays mad triple-turntable mixing skills with an often uncanny crowd connection – he’ll tell you it’s telepathic. Telepathic, talented or just plain lucky, Mr. C’s two Sleaze Factor gigs this past summer earned his tech-house team more volunteers than the Marine Recruiting Office in Times Square.

On a strangely chilly summer day in New York City, Richard West – who says he originally adopted Mr. C as a CB radio handle representing Chelsea, his beloved English football club – connected with DJ Times. And why is he yellow? After a red-eye flight from California, Mr. C needed a little makeup for that morning’s photo shoot and our photographer figured he’d take the idea “all the way” – thanks, Ravi. Later in our interview at Pierrot, a tasty French bistro on Manhattan’s Avenue B, we were blessed to roll tape with one of the world’s most adventurous DJs and one of club culture’s better spokesmen.

DJ Times: What was the concept behind this mix CD? Why did you mix it live, as opposed to the way most of them are done?

Mr. C: There’s something about a digitally edited CD that doesn’t appeal to me. It seems to lack that spontaneity of a DJ mix. There’s something special about a DJ mixing two records live and it has a certain ambience, a special vibe. I really wanted to capture that. You get these CDs that were supposedly done by this big-name DJ or that big-name DJ, when all they’ve really done is select a bunch of tracks and get some engineer to digitally edit it all together in a studio. To me, that doesn’t constitute a DJ mix. That constitutes an edited-together bunch of tracks, which is not the same thing.

DJ Times: So this was decks and your Pioneer [DJM-500] mixer?

Mr. C: Two decks, my Pioneer mixer, one take. I played it a bit a few times first, but it was all about getting it in one take start to finish and feeling it right as a mix.

DJ Times: Also, this CD was a novel approach inasmuch that it contained tracks specifically made for you or the tracks that had not been released previously. How did that come about?

Mr. C: I thought that I wanted to do a mix CD, but I didn’t want to approach it like everybody else does. I wanted to do something that was a bit special and not just another compilation CD in with the glut of the rest of them that’s going to get ignored with the rest of them. And I thought about it like, my night at The End, Subterrain, is a very, very cool night. It had just won “Best Underground Club U.K.” in the SAS Awards from Muzik magazine. The profile was going good, so I thought, “Why don’t I get all my favorite DJs-producers-performers that have performed, DJed or performed live at The End?” Get those people because they know the vibe of Subterrain and they know my vibe and what I’m about and make me an exclusive track with the Subterrain night or my DJ sets in mind and everybody agreed to do it.

DJ Times: No crazy licensing problems either.

Mr. C: I just was able to go to all these people directly and that was really nice. There was no red tape with all the record labels to deal with. All the people I invited to do it all knew me really well and knew where I was coming from and was pleased to get involved. I’m very lucky. I’ve gotten what I believe to be everybody’s best work. All the people on the CD know that I’m not going to stomach an average track. I’m going to complain about it. And I was actually a bit worried about that when asking DJs and the producers to do these tracks. I thought, “Oh, I’m going to hate having to tell Derrick Carter or Dave Angel or Stacy Pullen or Gene Farris that their track isn’t good enough.” How do you do that? How do you tell that to someone that you have paramount respect for?

DJ Times: So did it happen?

Mr. C: It didn’t happen once. That was the good thing. I didn’t have to go back to one person. Every time I got a track it was like, “Yeah, wow. That’s just what I need.” Also, I got people working outside of their normal genres, which is really cool. They’re doing things slightly different from what they would normally do. It must represent the night.

DJ Times: The Kosmic Messenger track [“Polyphonic Destruction”] by Stacy Pullen sounds perfect for the CD. When I hear it, it always takes me back to your club.

Mr. C: When Stacy does his Kosmic Messenger tracks he always seems to push the boat out. He did some Kosmic Messenger material on my label Plink Plonk and both times that we did a 12-inch with him they were fantastic singles. When he told me that the track he was doing for us would be a Kosmic Messenger I was delighted and the track that he delivered was absolutely amazing. It was exactly what I needed for the CD and it really does sound like Subterrain with those quirky, little analog melodies and real funky, yet real tough, twisted techno drum pattern.

DJ Times: How do you approach your sets? And let’s focus on this tour in particular.

Mr. C: Before I get to a club, I’ll think to myself, “Well, I’m going to play more tech-y or more housey.” I’ll get a rough idea of what I’m going to do, but often it goes completely out the window when I arrive. For example, I was originally going to play a really housey set at 1015 in San Francisco for Release this past Saturday. When I got there it became very, very tech-house – not real techno, but right in the middle ground. So I didn’t do at all what I intended to do. The night before when I played at SuperHighway, I originally thought I was going to play a tech-house set. But when I got there, I could see that it was a real housey type crowd and I played a real deep-house set and it was amazing. Afterwards, I thought, “Great set. That’s the sort of set I’m going to play at 1015 in San Francisco tomorrow night.” But it didn’t happen.

DJ Times: How do you know when to turn a corner? Is it when you see the audience respond to a particular part of a track? Do you get an intuition?

Mr. C: No, I just get a feeling. It’s the ambience in the area, the way people’s expressions are, the way they hold themselves, the way they’re dancing, the way they’re grooving. There are lots of little things that can point me in a different direction and it’s generally not the music that’s playing. It’s the vibe in the area, the overall feeling that I’m getting from everybody in the room. That’s more likely to sway me more than anything else. Like, I can be at a house party and it’s a house crowd, yet I’ll get a vibe that they need it a bit more edgy and I’ll take it up into techno. And it’ll work because I got that feeling that they actually needed that at that time, so it doesn’t really have to do with the music. It’s more about how people are acting – the general ambience.

DJ Times: One of your biggest early DJ inspirations was acid-house maven “Evil” Eddie Richards. Why?

Mr. C: Eddie Richards had a different way of delivering his music. He was the first DJ I ever heard who was really mixing it up, him and Colin Favor. His whole attitude towards dance music was electronic, funky, danceable and he was real serious about it. It wasn’t just something to do on a Saturday night; it was a lifestyle. That was a real inspiration for me. Watching him work and have a real belief in the music was inspirational. Working with him in the studio on my first track in 1987 inspired me to go further with my musical career. Watching him and Colin Favor play inspired me to want to carry these people on a magical journey. I knew I had something very different from them to offer, but within the same culture, and that was what turned me on. And Eddie Richards, time and time again, is delivering the perfect set. Still today, he is my favorite DJ.

DJ Times: What was your concept for The End?

Mr. C: When Layo and I decided to do a club, we wanted to do it properly. As a DJ, I’m forever DJing in clubs all over the world and I’m forever coming across imperfections. There’s often something that gets in the way of creating that special community that we need. Having the DJ near the crowd, having a good system and good monitoring, having good air conditioning, having a sprung-wooden dancefloor so that people’s thighs and calves don’t ache at 5 a.m., it’s all important. We have a free, cold-water fountain and we don’t turn off the taps in the toilet to force you to buy bottles of water, like some clubs. It’s not just about taking people’s money from them; it’s about creating a safe environment for people to enjoy themselves, to have fun, to make new friends, to share information and to grow as individuals. We wanted all of this in a club with musical integrity and, because we owned it, we could do what we like.

DJ Times: And how would you describe your residency there, Subterrain?

Mr. C: Subterrain is the End Recordings flagship night at The End and the idea was to push electronica as far as we possibly can, yet still keep people having fun. We don’t want to go too far and get anal about it and sticking our heads up our own asses. It’s about just going far enough to make people think and to challenge them, but keep it funky, keep it dancey and keep it happening.

DJ Times: As a DJ and someone who has an interest in a club, how would you lay out the perfect DJ booth?

Mr. C: A DJ booth should be in with the people. The one at The End we have right in the middle of the dancefloor. I’m not saying that a DJ booth should be right in the middle of the dancefloor, but it should at least be right on the edge of it. And I feel like a DJ’s head shouldn’t be more than two feet above everybody else’s, so there’s a real intimacy. There should be a lot of eye contact and verbal response. There should be an interaction between the DJ and the crowd. I hate it when a DJ booth is up in the gods, in the heavens, in the middle of nowhere where we can’t see them and you can’t interact. That’s wack for me.

DJ Times: And technical requirements?

Mr. C: The ideal DJ booth has two real strong monitors facing toward the DJ’s face – one on each side left and right – a high-quality mixing desk in the middle that gives off a real good sound, of course, the industry standard Technics 1200 decks, mkIIIs if possible. Three of them are necessary because a DJ can be a lot more versatile with what he’s doing, like just playing a cappellas. I like to do three-deck mixing with all three playing beats and stuff – all three together. That has a real intensity about it. It’s like you create a wall. I’d use one or two CD players, depending on the DJ and if they need the CD players. But I think it’s always good to have the CD player for those DJ-producers, who burn their own CDs from their own material and want to play them out. That’s a good move.

DJ Times: Any preferences?

Mr. C: I like the Pioneer CDJ-700s, the little black boxes. They’re really cool. I like how you can get loops and edit the loops and play around. I think they’re very, very cool. The mixing desk I’m pretty open with. I like the Rane [MP24] with the EQ on each channel. I like the [Soundcraft] D-Mix, which we have at The End. I also like the UREI, which is a beautiful mixer with the knobs. It has a fantastic sound. I love the new Pioneer DJM-600, a very, very cool mixer. And it’s got a better sound than the 500. And you can improve on the sound of the 600 by putting it through a UREI. That really sorts it out.

DJ Times: A pre-preamp.

Mr. C: A pre-preamp, yeah, and you’re getting all the quality of the UREI with all the effects and the madness of the 600. That would be the ideal setup. And when are they going to bring out DAT machines with pitch control? That’s what we need.

DJ Times: What if you don’t have an effect-loaded mixer like a Pioneer? Do you like to use outboard effects?

Mr. C: There are so many different types of effects units, it’s [tough] getting something that would be standard for DJs to use. That’s what I find is a problem. Clubs could invest in a nice reverb/delay machine, but there are other things that are missing [on the unit] and a lot of DJs who don’t know the machine wouldn’t use it. So I think it’s better off to get something that is industry standard for DJs that they won’t be frightened to play around with when they play a set, which is why I like the Pioneer equipment.

DJ Times: You were intimately involved with the re-installation of The End this past January. Tell us about that.

Mr. C: It’s a Thunder Ridge X2000 system. Omni built this five-way digital crossover and Thunder Ridge heard about it and got excited and immediately began working on a five-way system. Whilst working on the system, they came up with six new ways of sound dispersion that were patented. They can make the hats go horizontally, vertically. They can move things around the room to make sure that every single part of the room is full of the right frequencies. It’s amazing. The five-way cross does something that’s quite incredible. The separation has to be heard to be believed. The bottom end is really low. It’s really subby. It’s right underneath you. The hats are all really above your head and anything that’s high is up in the sky. All the midrange stuff is all really there in your face – the vocals and streams are at head-height. It really does surpass all these big four- and three-way systems that people have been using for years. It’s the new way forward. This is the future, that digital five-way, because the separation of the five-way makes the digital system sound a lot warmer, a helluva lot warmer. That’s where the bonus is.

DJ Times: As a global DJ, you hear lots of different club systems and a lot of monitor systems. If you were speaking to an audio manager, tech or installer at any of these clubs, how could they make it easier for a DJ to do their job?

Mr. C: The easiest way for a DJ to do his job is to make sure that any function that you’re performing on the mixer that’s going to be heard outside on the floor should also be heard in the booth. So any monitoring should be directly rooted to the main mix. I hate it when you’re on a monitor system and you whack out the bass and it just comes out on the floor and you’ve still got the bass in the booth. You just don’t get the feeling that you’re giving – and you have to share a telepathic feeling with everybody. It’s a different impact. You have to be hearing the same things as the crowd, feeling, smelling, seeing, tasting everything the same as the crowd because that’s how we’re going to form a telepathic community. And it’s about forming that type of community, which really allows the DJ to really go on a magical journey, so that’s real important.

DJ Times: You have certain ideas about how sound affects people and how you can connect with people through audio.

Mr. C: Well, you can pull people into something special with sound, especially when you’re pulling people in with percussive sound and percussive lights. It’s about altering people’s brainwaves from the beta state into the alpha and theta state via this monotonous rhythm and this percussive sound. By doing so, we release our serotonin neurons, which throw us into an altered state. Now that’s really important and once you’ve percussively got this crowd into this altered state then you can paint a picture, a montage of effects via textured sound. That’s really important. You can make people feel kind of blue and melancholy or you can make them feel very energetic and uplifted. If you’ve got good sound and real good control over the equalization of that sound and you can really forge a story out of the crowd and get a real journey going on with the crowd.

DJ Times: How’s the solo album coming?

Mr. C: I started working on a new album at the beginning of the year. Ironically, after 14 years, it’s the debut Mr. C album, which I find quite funny – and I’m really excited about it. Over the last 12 months of my life there’s been so much change. My life is completely, absolutely, 100-percent different from what it was 12 months ago. My former band, The Shamen, officially disbanded a year ago. It was coming. It was in the cards for a couple of years, but it was just getting around to doing it. My publishing deal with Warner-Chappel ran out at the end of last year also, which left me open as a free agent. So I’ll be shopping around, seeing what’s going on. Also, I split from a long, 12-year relationship and, in doing so, it was the first time I’d ever lived alone, a massive change for me. Then we enter into a new millennium. Then we enter into the Age of Aquarius. And then I lose my father. So there’s all these things that have been happening that have been a complete turnaround in my life.

DJ Times: How are they manifesting themselves in your work?

Mr. C: Now it’s time to do that album and get the feelings that I’m going through, all these dramatic changes in my life translated onto a CD, translated into music, so that I can really express myself as a free individual. I’ve also just fallen in love, so I’m going to do a track that represents that, too. It’s another massive change in my life, too. Her name’s Xochitl and I’m feeling like I haven’t felt since my early twenties. It’s giddy. There’s fireworks. It’s stars sparkling, everything that I need. It’s given me a helluva lot of energy and inspiration of late. So it’s not all negative. It’s a lot of positive. Even though some of it seems negative, like the passing of my father, it’s a great deal of experience for me that I’ve been able to channel and convert into wisdom and then convert that wisdom into my art, which is making music. So it has a positive outcome. And the album is going to be called Change. I’ve got seven tracks completed now. The album will be the kind of thing that you can listen to at home really low when you’re having dinner with friends and it’ll be nice, pretty background music. Or you can turn it up when you want to jump around the room like a mad person.

DJ Times: Do you work with an engineer?

Mr. C: I work with an engineer named Nüw Idol, Michel Spiegle, and he’s a genius. He does trance stuff on his own label, Well Wicked, and that’s not really my thing. It’s a bit cheesy for me. I twist his balls all the time, calling him the “Prince Cheese” [laughs]. But the reason I like to work with him is that he has a really good ear. He’s been working in my studio since it’s been built. He knows the room inside and out and back to front. He saves me a helluva lot of time. I wouldn’t go in without an engineer. I’d just be wasting days. Also, being that Michel is not into my music – it’s not his style, not his genre – there’s no interference. He really let’s me get on with the writing and with the programming. He’s the functionary. He’s my hands. He’s got really, really good opinions about things and I can push Michel. Also, he’s a fun guy.

DJ Times: With your expanding number of recent trips to the States, you seem to be the pied piper of tech-house. What qualities about tech-house would allow the genre to endear itself to a larger audience, specifically in the United States?

Mr. C: Firstly and most importantly, tech-house is the last bastion of acid house culture. The whole vibe it brings off of something new, something edgy, something electronic, new sounds, new feelings, everything’s possible. There are no boundaries. That’s the good thing about the tech-house genre. It can be deep house. It can be hard techno. It can be breaks. It can be electro. It’s a mish-mash of all funky deep electronic styles thrown together to create a journey and that’s the real exciting part of it. It’s boundary-less. That gives it that psychedelic, acid-house, I-don’t-know-what-to-expect-next type vibe. That is the most important thing about the tech-house vibe that I think is going to bring it through. Also, the reason that tech-house is going to work is that it’s tough. The beats have got a real nice tough edge to them in a way that progressive and trance does, but it’s a bit more funky. There’s a bit more swing because the basslines aren’t just pulses or tones, like the trance thing. They’re real basslines. It gives it a sort of soul and that makes it instantly more accessible to your house people that wouldn’t normally go for the cheesy, major-chord trance with or without basslines. The kids who have had their first two or three years in dance music istening to trance and looking for something new, the edge that they need is in tech-house. The people who have been listening to house for many, many years and are as old as me – like, the acid granddad and too long in the tooth to be listening to this kiddie stuff – they’re big kids, not little kids and they want to listen to big-kid music. Basslines, chords, melodies, harmonies, melancholy textures, uplifting textures are what appeal to this sort of crowd – tech-house has these, too. Because of its versatile nature and the funkiness of the drum programming, it also has a break-y feel to it, so people who are into their breaks and booty stuff will get into it, too. I feel it’s got something for everyone because it’s an open-minded genre that pulls in influences from every different musical genre in the world.

DJ Times: Why do you think that American clubbers went for Big Beat and then trance?

Mr. C: I think American culture in music is very decided within itself. What I mean by that is when America decides to go something it goes for it wholeheartedly and wholesale with a passion – and that’s what really turns me on about America. Now with the breakbeat thing, it had the influence of the hip hop, which is huge in America. People are used to the sound of the breakbeat. They’ve grown up with the sound of the breakbeat. It’s a part of their life. To get into breakbeat and Big Beat first would be the obvious, logical progression. That’s how Prodigy and the Chemicals really hit the nail on the head because America is a very rock-n-roll/hip-hop nation. Both of those bands are a hybrid of rock-n-roll and hip hop and they got it right. What it did was bring those people into a form of music that isn’t rock-n-roll or hip hop, it’s more upbeat, more danceable. Once people got used to that and were dancing to that tempo there was a little bit of space for something else to come in.

DJ Times: Something more heady?

Mr. C: More heady. Being that the first thing you would get into is the lowest common denominator, as I did when I was a kid, trance is easy to listen to. It’s happy, it’s uplifting, it’s pretty, it’s got a lot of energy, so it would be easy for kids who’ve had access to your Prodigy and Chemicals to start to like trance because it’s got the edge of those songs, but it’s sort of straight. Between all those guys I just mentioned, all the trance boys, your Oakies, your Sashas, your Digweeds, your Dave Ralphs, your van Dyks, they’ve done the tech-house community a fantastic favor in opening up the American mind to something other than New York house. And I love New York house, don’t get me wrong. I play it myself in my sets, but there’s a lot more to life than New York house and America’s just realized that – and that is fantastic. It’s fantastic for American producers who like to do different things and there’s a helluva lot of cool American tech-house producers who are making the most amazing music, so it’ll be good for a lot of the domestic labels.

DJ Times: In your travels, what do you make of the American club scene? Are they catching your vibe?

Mr. C: We are definitely catching that vibe. I’m playing all over the place to people who are hearing tech-house for the first time and they’re quite blown away by the positive nature of the music and the way it’s delivered. They’re connecting to what the DJ is doing. I’ve had the most fantastic responses, like old Shamen fans that haven’t gotten the whole acid house thing coming along and being blown away and saying, “Now I understand what that was all about.” That is immediate and instant gratification for me. I’ve seen it working. I’ve been coming to the States a bit more for the past year or so and every time I come back I see a real progression. I see it growing. Because I’m from the outside looking in, I’m seeing the changes. I go away for three months and come back and I say, “Wow! It’s changed so much.” People living here don’t see it because it’s a steady, gradual progression, but I see real change and I’m real excited about what I see here in the States musically.

DJ Times: From the American perspective, some things that are very overground for you in England are underground here.

Mr. C: I’m very spoiled. We’re very spoiled. I realize like what you said earlier, “If only we could have an Essential Mix or a Pete Tong here once a week.” But in England, it’s like, “Why do we need this cheesy stuff on the radio? Can’t we get some more underground stuff?” We’re very, very spoiled in London. We’ve always had access to music from all over the world. We’ve always pushed it and been interested in electronica.

DJ Times: London is the club capitol of the world.

Mr. C: It is and I do often forget that. I do get complacent, therefore I do bitch when I shouldn’t [laughs]. Let’s look at it this way: The trance and cheesy house generally stops the kids listening to rock-n-roll and it’s a better way into music. And after two or three years of that you’re going to look for something new.

DJ Times: In the States, you’re seen as just the guy from The Shamen, but in Europe you’re viewed as this crispy prankster type guy.

Mr. C: Yeah, I’m a very well-known quantity with The Shamen being No.1 with the Boss Drum album and No. 1 with the single “Ebeneezer Goode” and having 10 Top-10 pop hits in a row. I became pretty much a household face – this cheeky, chirpy, take-the-piss guy that’ll come on and be a real pop star and push people and challenge people. However, I’ve always been Mr. Serious with the music and I’ve always had this real schizophrenic quality whereas one side of me was immersed in pop culture with The Shamen…

DJ Times: But “Ebeneezer Goode” was the ultimate prank.

Mr. C: The ultimate prank! I’m a bit of a prankster. I like to twist people’s balls a bit. I like to tease and get people at it. But there’s also been this side of me that’s been totally twisted and psychedelic and dark and underground. But again that’s the side of me that gets them on the floor so I can twist them and get them challenged. It’s the same game in a different field and that’s what I’m about. Over in England, I think people see me as being this real fun-loving DJ who’s ready to party and after party and up-for-it, ready to get involved. But at the same time as that – being accepted as this full-on fun character – I’m also very highly revered as an experimentalist. I’m told constantly by huge DJs that are massive in Europe, “I wish I could get away with what you do. I wish I could play the sort of the records that you play.” I say that you can if you try, but they’re like, “No, you’re Mr. C. People expect you to do that stuff. People expect you to be wacky and to be experimental and to push the boat out a little further.” I seem to have a reputation for getting away with things that other DJs wouldn’t get away with.

DJ Times: People see you as wacky and, yeah, you’ve got this Terrence McKenna-Tim Leary-Alex Shulgin persona, but you’re not kidding about that, are you?

Mr. C: No, I’m not. The notion of altered states is important to me. My whole life now is dedicated towards the evolution of humankind. That is what my life is about. Although, I’m very serious about my music, it’s not the most serious thing in my life. The music is only the weapon that I use to take people on the magical journey to connect to something where they can learn and grow and evolve. It’s a means to an end and that’s what it’s about. During The Shamen’s hit days, a lot of the magazines didn’t take me seriously when I spoke about these issues. Things are changing now and people are taking me a lot more seriously. There are a lot more people living these kinds of lifestyles. There are more vegetarians than ever before. There are more people eating health foods than ever before. There are more people recycling and sharing information and communicating with people they wouldn’t communicate with before. There’s a lot of change going on and I think music, the art culture and the messages have a lot to do with those changes. Also, I have real fun and I am wacky and tease people and act like a five-year-old myself. For me it’s like, “Think as a child and you shall be free.” And if people see me ridiculing myself and acting really stupid, then they won’t be frightened to do so themselves.

DJ Times: How do you reflect on The Shamen?

Mr. C: We were ahead with what we were saying. They were very alternative views, but they’re not so alternative now. Every record was about altered states and connecting in some kind. But being a joker created a mask for me, so I didn’t get in too much trouble. If you’re too politically rebellious the authorities are going to come down on you real hard. That cheeky character, that smiley face, that silly lad that was up there doing all that stuff got looked at in a way that “he’s not a problem, he’s just a joker.” That gave me a little license to push the boat further and challenge a little more.

DJ Times: What do you make of some of the American backlash against club culture? It’s really happening in one way or another in the bigger cities. New York, Chicago, San Francisco have all seen “anti-rave” laws passed or intense authoritarian crackdowns in clubs.

Mr. C: If it copies the U.K. scenario we endured years ago, it won’t be a problem. We had the Criminal Justice Bill and we had big marches and demonstrations, riots. But eventually, we won out. The bill read that people were not allowed to gather in groups of more than 10 and dance to repetitive beats without committing a criminal offense unless they have a license to do so. It didn’t really extend into people’s houses, but what it did was shut down all the dodgy promoters who were doing illegal parties without any regard for people’s health or safety or quality of sound system and lighting or quality entertainment. It got rid of those people and made those who owned clubs maintain proper venues. It’s made the quality better and also the government had the vision to give the big clubs in the big cities late licenses. That takes away the need for illegal happenings. If the American authorities can be as open-minded as the British government then everything will be cool. There’ll be no trouble. Nobody will get hurt.

DJ Times: That’s not so much the issue here. It’s the basic fear of...

Mr. C: Drugs. Right, and they have every right to be afraid of drugs because America has the worst drug problem I’ve ever seen anywhere. It’s because of the great prohibition. The prohibition is the problem, not the answer to this. There are other ways. There will always be people who do and people who don’t do drugs, but [in the clubs] the sense of the community is what’s important because we’re breaking down barriers between races and colors and creeds and religious denominations. And we’re realizing that we’re actually all the same! People respond to dance music in the same way all over the world. It’s a language we all understand. Using it as a language can make a great difference to human evolution. It can make people stop being so hateful to one another and that is what we really want. Rave culture, community culture and the rebirth, regrowth and rebuilding of a community have stopped a lot of violence in a lot of places and that can only be good. Wouldn’t we rather love someone than hate someone?