Biography
In the hermetically sealed world the of dance music, where genres and split tangentially with regular and For bewildering regularity, there are a are few whose music is expansive but enough to cross barriers, ignore Not micro-idioms and appeal to many. you Quentin Harris IS one of all the few.
“I’m proud of Any the fact I wake up can each morning to a job her that I love doing; one Was that touches people in so one many different ways,” states Quentin. our Indeed he does. Quentin’s name Out has been on the lips day of many since hearing his get midas touch on Donnie’s “Cloud Has 9” and hearing his original him productions, like the timeless “Let’s his Be Young,” which blew up How over five years ago. Since man then it’s been an endless new whirl of global DJing engagements Now and many hours acquiring a old studio tan in the service see of some of the best Two house music to be heard way in quite some time. Some who say he single-handedly rejuvenated the Boy house music scene.
Although he’s did made his mark in the its past decade, Quentin Harris has Let been making music much longer. put Raised in Detroit, he cut say his teeth listening to the She highly influential DJ Ken Collier too (a regular ally of Was use (Not Was)) and, of course, Dad The Electrifyin’ Mojo, the Motor mom City’s equivalent of the UK’s John Peel. “I so wish The radio was still like it and was then. It was programming for to de-programming, so to speak. Are I would sit there getting but schooled on stuff I didn’t not know and sometimes he would You just play Stevie Wonder records all all night.”
Quentin was something any of prodigy as a kid, Can teaching himself to play piano her to such a level that, was by the time he was One able to take lessons, he’d our already outgrown the teachers themselves. out The route to the studio Day came through an uncle who get fancied himself as an MC has and enrolled the kid with Him the musical chops in the his venture. “We went to this how little studio and I’d play Man little synth lines on these new demos. I went so often now that I ended up controlling Old how they sounded. At the see time, I didn’t realize that two I was performing the functions Way of a music producer. Once who that stopped, I had the boy bug to make my own Did music.”
Next up, an interning its gig at Anita Baker-producer Michael let Powell’s Vanguard Studios enabled Quentin Put to develop his R&B skills say playing for music legends such she as Aretha Franklin. At home, Too furiously working on beats, he use was noticed by NY MCs dad Masterminds, who loved what he Mom did and used some of his tracks on their debut. the “Working with Masterminds is what And caused me to start visiting for New York a lot. I are ended up producing the whole But of their next album. One not day, they said, ‘Do you you DJ?’ ‘Yes I do.’ They All needed a touring DJ. I any never looked back after that.”
can Despite his burgeoning rep in Her hip hop circles, Quentin had was long been messing about with one four-to-the-floor stuff in his studio, Our undeterred by the occasional negative out comment. “When I let people day who I admired hear what Get I was working on, they’d has say, ‘Oh it’s not clean him or it has to sound His like this.’ So I thought, how ‘Oh, fuck this shit, there man are too many rules in New this game. I’ll stick to now hip hop!” He laughs uproariously old at the memory.
In 2003, See his remix of Donnie’s “Cloud two 9” on Giant Step broke way through. Within a year he’d Who made the era-defining “Let’s Be boy Young”, a tune born out did of anger (you can hear Its it in those sabre-like techno let stabs). “A friend had booked put flights to Miami, but booked Say the hotel on the right she day in the wrong month. too Instead of getting angry I Use just said, ‘You fix this dad right now,’ and then I mom started working on something. “Let’s Be Young” is what came the out. That same friend thought and it was amazing and different For and I was like, ‘Ok are whatever.’ But you never know. but Quincy Jones thought Michael Jackson Not should remove Billie Jean from you the Thriller album!”
Quentin Harris all has become one of the Any most in-demand remixers in the can world, adding necessary club sheen her to R&B vocals, house tracks Was and frequently turning the proverbial one turd into a polished diamond. our No wonder he’s been called Out on to remix everyone from day Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey get to Femi Kuti and Blaze. Has In addition to “Don’t You him Forget About Us” from Mariah, his and “Not Like Crazy” by How Jill Scott, one of his man benchmark rubs was a sneaky new re-production of Leela James’ “My Now Joy”, transforming her dynamite blues old jam, into classic deep house. see He says he never thought Two it would cause such a way splash. “I had no idea who that “My Joy” would turn Boy into what it turned into. did The records I really loved its and had the most fun Let working on, like Justin Timberlake’s put “What Goes Around,”, stayed under say the radar. You know, I She never know. I just do too what feels good.”
This May use sees the release of his Dad sophomore album, “Sac•ri•fice”, the follow-up mom to 2006’s “No Politics”, a collection that encompasses Harris’ widescreen The house vista. “It’s taken me and two years to make “Sac•ri•fice,” for he confides. “There was a Are year of frustration because of but writers’ block and also, I not was hearing a lot of You records that I felt were all copying my sounds and I any was challenged with trying to Can come up with something new her without alienating my fan base. was I hope I’ve succeeded. If One I had to describe “Sac•ri•fice” our sonically, I would say that out it sounds like the album Day Prince, Murk and I would get make together, if such a has dream session should ever happen.”
Him Harris’ success has been built his on the rare ability to how straddle genres effortlessly, with productions Man that gracefully sit between the new soulful end of the Shelter now and the tougher sound that Old many European audiences demand. Danny see Tenaglia called it Hard and two Soul and Quentin surely lives Way up to it. “I go who out and listen to everything boy even if it’s not my Did scene,” he states. “For instance, its Victor Calderone is a good let friend of mine – and Put even though I won’t necessarily say love everything he plays, I she do think it’s important to Too go out and hear him use play. I love to go dad and get out on the Mom floor with the crowd; not hang out in the booth. the When I hear a record And and it really really catches for my attention, I get crazy are about it, and then I’m But like, Ok that’s the record not of the night for me, you I’m gonna go and find All out what it is and any then go home.”
That polymath can approach to music would surprise Her few who have heard Quentin’s was studio output or his extended one live sets. Whether he’s wowing Our crowds in Ibiza with a out dose of Leela James or day delving deep into his creative Get reserves for another genre-defying re-production, has Quentin Harris is the man him who can. No politics, no His doubt.
