“EVIL” Eddie Richards spinning as part of the NATION HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION with PHANTASM and MYKA at Life Nightclub (240 Richmond West), Saturday (October 27). $15 before 11:30 pm, $20 before 2 am, more after. 416-598-1221. Rating: NNNNN
Veteran UK mixmaster “Evil” Eddie Richards is widely regarded as the man behind tech-house. While some DJs would boast about being responsible for a genre of club music, Richards is reluctant to take the blame for the whole unfortunate fusionary thing.
“I’ve always had a problem describing what I play,” says Richards from his home in Milton Keynes. “Depending on how I feel, I might do hard techno stuff one night and then vocal-heavy house the next.
“When the press came up with the term ‘tech-house,’ it seemed like a good catch-all for what I’d been doing. But I don’t consider it an actual genre of music.”
That’s another thing about Richards. Don’t bother asking him about the changing currents within the club scene — he hasn’t the slightest interest. Yet his decision not to pay attention to trends is likely why he’s still an in-demand DJ after 20 years, despite having virtually no profile as a producer.
“I’m not the trainspotter type. I never take much notice of things like labels. Whenever someone comes up to the booth to ask what I’ve just played, I usually have to show them the record, because I wouldn’t know. I just play whatever sounds good.
“When I ran a DJ agency called dyna-mix, I found that clubs would book people simply because they had a popular track, even though they’d never DJed before. I felt I’d rather get bookings because people like the way I played records.”
