Interview with Danny Krivit as featured in Keep-On Magazine

Danny Krivit grew up as a streetwise Greenwich Village kid-about-town born to a Jazz singing mother & a bar owning father It seemed he was destined for a life in the music industry. Since the late 70's he has been a permanent fixture at the top of quality dance music & along with Francois K & Joe Claussell he was a founder of one of the greatest parties in history. He boasts a record collection of over 50,000 & with over 200 re-edits/remixes under his belt he knows a fair bit about the scene. The Deepsoul3 boys caught up with him & had a chat about the past, present & future.

The interview

DS3:

When you grew up in Greenwich Village in the 60's you were surrounded by music, who were your main influences and how do you think that shaped your musical tastes?

Danny Krivit:

You know there were so many its not easy to just pinpoint just a couple, certainly my parents who were involved in music, my fathers bar the ninth circle which was definitely a music hang out where I met Janice Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, John Lennon & that influenced me. There seemed to be a lot of other musical people around me growing up, I grew up with Nile Rogers the Mothers Dimension lived down the hall from me, Sid Burnstine the famous promoter lived on the top floor of my building, the vice president of Polydor lived above me & he introduced me to James Brown which was a big influence on me. The beginning of Soul Train & all those things really had a big influence on me too.

DS3:

What inspired you to start Djing & where did it all begin?

Danny Krivit:

I was already a record collector & really into music, my fathers bar the ninth circle turned into a disco in 1971 & he needed music & I was very young I was 14 but he gave me an opportunity to make music for his place because turntables would jump too much so we had to make tapes & programme & mix the tapes back & forth, so a couple of times I played there but more often than not I would be programming the music.

DS3:

You were a key part of the early underground scene in the late 70's along with the likes of Nicky Siano & David Rodriguez and you were all regular visitors of the Loft, what are your earliest memories & how did you become a member of the record pool?

Danny Krivit:

Well The Loft was something that I'd heard about that I really wanted to get involved with & visit & finally I had a friend who was a member & took me, I met David & he was very friendly then I ended up getting my own membership, it was the main place out of all the clubs I would go & hear music the right way & talk with my favourite DJ's & it was kind of where a lot of DJ's met. I never became a member of David's record pool, he introduced me to a lot of record companies & I would go round & get individual service, but by the time I joined a pool Julie Weinstine had broken off & started her pool 'For the Record' & I was one of the 1st members of that.

DS3:

The Loft is also where you started your long term friendship Francois Kevorkian when was the Body & Soul concept born & did you expect the success it had?

Danny Krivit:

We had become very close friends & I think even though I was playing all the time all these years Francois was busy remixing in his studio, but I found whenever he did play places in the 90's he seemed a bit frustrated that he knew what a club should be like & had a vision of something & wanted to create a party like that. He respected me & picked me out in particular as someone that thought like he did as we had talked over the years about our views & for several years we talked about what would be the right situation & what it should have, and finally in July '96 he called me up & said 'you know I'm playing this place this afternoon & it might not be anything but it could be what we were talking about so bring a few records down, this isn't for anything its just for fun' and that's how it started we never had any aspirations of it being a successful thing it was more of an outlet for us. Joe came in a few weeks later, we did a tribute to Larry Levan & we invited Joe as we were very close to Joe at the time and something was very natural when he played with us that we thought, you know it isn't a fixed thing where our name is on the flyer, but Francois made us both very welcome right away & expressed that he would love it if we were both there. So Joe also took to that & ended up being there quite often & we were then all billed as the regular residents.

DS3:

You were a resident at The Roxy a long with the likes of Afrika Bambaata & you were given the nickname Danny Rock, how did that come about?

Danny Krivit:

Well when the Hip Hop party started at Roxy I used to be their main DJ for roller skating, I opened Roxy on the 1st night in '79, I was their main DJ for about 4 years & then during that time they started incorporating dancing on Saturdays with a Hip Hp party which was very underground & new at the time. Lou had brought it there & she brought DST & a group people from the Bronx & I helped to produce the night & I was very into it & very friendly with DST & ended up one of the few people in my group that was scratching at the time & I guess it was a bit of a novelty, so that's why I got the nickname.

DS3:

Was it odd at that time for a white guy to be spinning the way you did?

Danny Krivit:

I was never really straight forward with my style & was always a little off centre, I remember when the disco boom happened I was still a little funky & wasn't getting the instant work that a lot of the guys were getting who were on the disco wagon & even though I play a lot of disco, I was always into my own thing & very funky & soulful & when the hip hop thing happened it was also that way & it wasn't a popular thing for the 1st year or so, & when it jumped off I felt I was a little more in the main stream with it. But I always had jobs that were a little left of centre.

DS3:

The Paradise Garage was a favourite hang out for you & you were often seen roller-skating round in there! How does the scene back then compare to the scene today & how much of an influence was Larry Levan on you?

Danny Krivit:

There are a lot of factors that are quite different today, 1st of all in my whole history of going to clubs, there were very few situations like the Garage & Larry & you can count them on one hand, they are all completely different but they hold one thing in common that's somebody has the influence & direction & is actually in charge of it & controls the music, the club & the whole setting like The Loft & The Gallery, even Junior had his parties in the 90's & there was David Depino at Trax & Body & Soul, there were very few parties like that that offered a very distinct direction & stay clear. The thing about the Garage was Larry himself he had a very intense personality & that came through in his music & if it had been someone else in the Garage I don't think it would have been as bigger deal, as it had a lot to do with his personality coming out. We were very close & he was a good friend & it was like my home away from home.

DS3:

You've been behind many successful compilations over the years, all of which have shown your different musical styles and interpretations. Has there been a favourite or is that yet to come?

Danny Krivit:

I would have to say so far my favourite is Grass Roots because it covers 5 decades & it is closest to my diversity.

DS3:

You've DJ'ed all over the world but Japan seems a home-from-home environment not only for yourself, but for the whole body and soul vibe. Why do you think this is and have you been surprised by how popular that particular soulful sound has become?

Danny Krivit:

Well there are still a lot of people who appreciate it, but unfortunately soulful music is not the trendy thing of today although it did have a trend for a while. But right now its more of an underground thing, & a very tasteful, specific thing. I think that people are well rooted in it. When you have a party now, you feel like people came just for that. I've been very fortunate and travelled places where people already know my reputation, so they're already there for that music& it makes for a good party.

DS3:

Are you planning any more Body & Soul style parties in the future (maybe the three of you in England??) Or do you have any new ventures you'd like to chat about?

Danny Krivit:

Yeah, actually we are talking about trying to do a few body & soul things. Certainly we have one planned in Japan next month. We are also trying to do a couple more in NYC this year & we're going to try & do one in Montréal & if we can get it together in the right location maybe the UK too. Other than that my main focus right now is the 718 sessions & I've said for the last couple of years that I want to start doing a few more remixes & I've already started a couple this year & I'd like to do more of my own productions & work on some of my own music.

DS3:

Along with your Djing you are famed for remixing/editing tracks, can you remember your 1st & do you have favourite?

Danny Krivit:

My 1st edit came about because of the 1st remix, & it was the 1st release on sleeping bag records called chill pill, it was an early Rap record 82' I think & it was OK, but the engineer didn't know what he was doing & I was a novice, so I listened to him & he was like 'oh we can just fix that problem in editing' & when later came along it was tough because it was a very tight budget. I only got the mix because I was a childhood friend of the owner of sleeping bag, and he was trying to save money & do me a favour. So when the editing time came, I didn't know how to edit, but I knew what a bad edit was & this guy spent the whole time on a bad edit & I left frustrated 1st thinking that this was going to make me & now its worse than not doing an edit at all! Then I went to a friend's house who was an editor (John Sparing who unfortunately is no longer with us) who worked for WBLS & he showed me how to edit & was like 'its easy as ABC you've got a real to real at home so can do this' So then the next time I did a remix déjà vu the exact same thing happened & when we got to editing again at the end the guy was messing up & I still didn't feel comfortable enough to just jump in & do it for him even though I knew how, so I went home REALLY frustrated & I tried it myself & did my 1st edit which was of Funky drummer (later became known as 'Feeling James'). I would have to say my favourite is MFSB - Love is the Message.

DS3:

Describe Danny Krivit in 3 Words?

Danny Krivit:

Very Easy Going

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