This Friday, Portland plays host to yet more footwork legends, Traxman and Jamminâ Gerald. I gave Trax, aka Corky Strong, a call to see what we can expect from the Chicago producer at Holocene on Friday.
Willamette Week: Thanks for agreeing to the interview, Corky.
Traxman: Hey thank you. When I talk I like to make people feel at home, just so you know.
Sure! Weâre all very excited for the show here. What are your connections and associations with Portland?
The only association I had with Portland was through Dave [Quam], I didnât even know it was a big fan thing there.
Footwork is something that the people wanted. If you really look at the information, it's still the music of ghetto house. Itâs been around for 27, 28 years. The people made it its own genre. You can footwork to anything, you can footwork to âFarley Farley.â It could be 130 or even 110 [beats per minute]. If you can listen to most anything on Dance Mania, we just took the halftime clap. RP started that, I didnât pick it up till like 6 years later.
Footwork is pretty notorious for having prolific producers making amazing tracks that never see the light of day beyond a club, or are just passed around between friends. Would you prefer it this way, or would you rather have more traditional releases, singles and albums?
Me personally, well, we all got too much music. Half of the stuff thats coming out, its stuff that I did 8, 9 or 10 years ago, thatâs how strong the music is. Iâve considered putting it on wax. Thereâs a lot of my stuff thatâs on Planet Muâa lot of stuff thatâs old. But every track tells a story. As long as theyâre getting heard⦠Yeah I got thousands and thousands of tracks. If you catch me like every other day, Iâm putting up music: regular house music, techno.
Thatâs pretty impressive. Are we going to get to see any of these in Portland?
Iâm gonna dedicate a set to Frankie Knuckles. Itâs not even about the money, Iâm just playing for my people. Lotta people are like, Iâm gonna go out there and get my couple hundred bucks... No I do it for the music.
I read that you never dance. RP Boo suggested the same to me. Is this rare or common for DJs to stay behind the decks?
I never danced. I canât footwork. Iâm the one that comes and parties. I donât footwork, but I do get the party goinâ. I know how to do the fila.
Do you have any albums or artists that have touched you this year, outside of the footwork and Chicago house scene?
My man MikeQ!
Anything Portland needs to know before coming to your show on Friday?
Have good weed, have alcohol. It will be cool just to see you guys. We gonna sit down and work, network. We all sit down and work together.
Traxman plays Holocene on Friday, April 4 with Jammin Gerald,
Modern Melodies,
Ben Tactic and Lincolnup. 9 pm. $5 before 10 pm, $10 after. 21+.
Also this week:
- J.Phlip, Christian Martin, the Perfect Cyn at Rotture (Friday, 9 pm, $15, 21+)
- LowRiderZ, Diamond Crates, N.O.X, Tyler Keys & Charley, FireShaker at Refuge (Friday, 9 pm, $15 advance, $25 day of show, 21+)
- Atish, Ginkgo, Andy Warren at the Rose (Friday, 9 pm, $7 before 11 pm, $10 after, 21+)
- Beenie Man at TAO Event Center (Monday, 10 pm, $30)
WWeek 2015