Chicago is a tricky place to sum up. It’s the city that invented electronic dance music culture, plain and simple; the place where the idea of staying up all night in a warehouse to dance to synths and drum machines first took shape. If it weren’t for Chicago, none of us would be doing what we are doing today. It’s that history, and Chicago’s continuing role at the forefront of electronic dance music culture, that made me move here four years ago.
Chicago is the world’s best music scene and the world’s worst music scene — over the last 30 years this city has produced countless world-famous, genre-defining, revolutionary artists, and at the same time the actual party scene is somewhat grim: too few events, a lack of interest in new genres and emerging out-of-town artists, cliquish micro-scenes divided by ethnicity and neighborhood, and crowd turnout that is almost nonexistent throughout the bone-chilling Autumn and Winter months.
Add to that Chicago’s notorious history of music industry treachery, broken promises, mistrust, backbiting, trash-talking, violence, and corruption, and you have a pretty fucked up place. Ever since Trax Records shafted the first generation of house producers, Chicago’s music scene has been defined by a particularly unfriendly code of business conduct. It’s the city of shady dealings and hurt feelings—the city where a famous, successful DJ/producer once called a bomb threat into his record label’s office because they owed him $75. (!!!)
In fact, even by writing this I’m sure there will be some people who hate on me—because I’m a northsider, or because I am not a native Chicagoan, so I wasn’t true to their experience as natives / southsiders / westsiders / suburbanites / etc. So to clarify, this is MY OWN very personal take on the city.
That having been said, Chicago is a great place to be a musician. The cost of living is low, the record shopping is phenomenal, and it’s a great place to meet other like-minded young artists. If you live in Europe, I can personally guarantee that you would fucking CRY if you knew how cheap my rent was. And on the rare occasion, when a party does go off right, it’s AMAZING. In my experience Midwesterners know how to party—how to really let loose and dance till they drop—better than anybody in the rest of America or Europe. Even with all the bullshit, I still kinda love this place.
Photo: Stuart Leech
