MURDERBOT INVASION!

Is Women’s Studies a juke album?

Chrissy Murderbot: Though I’m tied to the juke scene here in Chicago, I really don’t think of this album as a ‘juke’ record. There’s certainly a lot of juke on it, but there’s also a lot of house, bashment, and odd bass music hybrids. I’m really just trying to make some fun music that incorporates all the different stuff I love.

Tell us about the club music you grew up on – how big an influence were the likes of DJ Sneak and DJ Assault?

CM: I grew up on a steady diet of UK Rave and Jungle imports, as well as all the local house and techno that ran the midwest during the 1990s. Plus a lot of disco and US garage and pre-house stuff. Slugo and Assault and Deeon and the like were a huge influence on me, but I’d say my music aesthetic is probably more informed by Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles et al., as well as the pioneering production techniques of people like Remarc, DJ Dextrous, Krome & Time, 4Hero, etc. I like to think of my style as 2 Live Crew meets 4Hero meets Paul Johnson.

Is it the musical aesthetic of juke – stripped, high-tempo, sample-heavy, 808s and 909s etc - that attracts you as a producer, or is it more to do with your association with the sound as a DJ?

CM: I definitely make what I make because I love the music, and then I find a way to make that music fit into my DJ sets. I’ve always had a fondness for really fast, bass-heavy tunes, so I’m sure that’s a big part of juke’s appeal to me. But I really just play whatever I like, and I think my tunes reflect that melting pot of sounds.

Tell us about the making of the video for ‘Bussin’ Down’- you worked with an artist from the Chicago Department Of Cultural Affairs, is that right?

CM: The video was funded through kickstarter, and through a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. We worked with local directors Jon Sands and Jay Schroeder. The video features me, DJ Spinn, and two of the city’s best footwork dancers - AG and LiteBulb.

Your album is called Women’s Studies – what’s the story behind the title?

CM: The album is all very much in the ‘booty music’ tradition - pretty much all of the tracks are about girlies in one way or another. A lot of urban music gets a bad rap for its sexuality - people mistake hypersexualization or objectification for misogyny, and I think Women’s Studies is just a clever way to kind of acknowledge what this music is - sexed-up booty music that’s all in good fun.

How long have you known and worked with Scream Club?

CM: I’ve known Scream Club since about 2008. Met them through Cody Critcheloe (of Ssion fame), who directed a video for them. They don’t appear on this new album, but I recently did a collab with them in the form of a track I produced for Shunda K (of Yo Majesty - Ed) that features Scream Club. They are delightful.

Tell us how you chose the other collaborators on the new tracks, such as DJ Spinn, Mungo’s HiFi, Warrior Queen and MC Zulu?

CM: This album features a lot of guest vocalists, and they’re all AMAZING. DJ Spinn is of course a JUKE LEGEND who did vocals on ‘Bussin Down,’ and MC ZULU is a really interesting guy - a half-Panamanian dancehall MC who has ghostwritten for some Chicago house classics and is making BIG MOVES in the bashment scene. He appeared on my last album as well, and I think this new track is our best collab yet. Popeye is a Chicago MC who has worked with DJ Slugo before, and has a really unique flow that fits really well on ‘Bump Uglies.’ Coool Dundee is one half of the Texan hip hop due DMG$ (aka Damaged Good$) - he’s an absolute genius of cleverly under-the-table naughty wordplay and he appears on two tracks on the album.

Likewise, Johnny Moog is another Texan hip hop MC - I did a remix for one of his tracks (‘Dope Love’) and he repaid the favor with this brilliant pop-meets-garage-meets-juke-meets-jungle anthem, ‘Sweet Thang.’ Rubi Dan is a really great British MC who has had hits in several genres - Bashment, UK Funky, 2-Step, Grime, etc. And Warrior Queen is of course a dancehall superstar who has worked with The Bug, Mungo’s Hi-Fi, The Heatwave, Skream, etc. She has two tracks on the album, where she really serves as the counter to all the men talking dirty.

On the b-side ‘Braain’ you’ve re-worked the classic ‘Sleng Teng’ rhythm – do you think it will always be possible to re-rub classic loops like this and find something new to do with them?

CM: I think that there will always be room to do new things with the old, even if they are played-out classics. This whole electronic dance music thing - from the very first days in Chicago - has always been about re-working and re-inventing your influences. Ditto for all the reggae music that has informed dance music so much over the last 30 years. I could get into a big thing about sampling and why the restrictions on copyright really need to be reformulated, but I’d probably bore you into a coma.

I basically make whatever I like, so yeah there are a lot of genres that spans. I do think that genres die sometimes - while there will always be some supporters and a lot of people who draw influence from those genres, I think a genre is dead when you can no longer argue that it makes a significant impact on the forward movement of culture in general. That isn’t to say that any genre can’t be resurrected - look at what happened to disco, jungle, and speed garage in the 2000s.

Were you happy with the attention you got for your ‘My Year of Mixtapes’ project? Any regrets about undertaking something so ambitious?

CM: I am really happy with how My Year Of Mixtapes turned out, and all the positive responses and connections that came from it. No regrets. I really hate being restrained or pigeon-holed in one genre - whether that’s jungle or juke or house or whatever, so I think the blog really let a lot of people know what kind of diversity to expect from my sets and my productions.

Can you tell us one of your favourite memories from the jungle scene you were a part of back in the mid-noughties? Do you still break out the jungle sometimes?

CM: I love jungle, but a lot of the reason I left the scene was because the atmosphere was a little too aggressive, macho, narrowminded, etc. I hated feeling like I wasn’t allowed to play music other than jungle at a jungle party. As such, I really enjoyed the parties that were more open-minded in their outlook, where you could play anything for an audience and they’d give it a good listen. Bang Face, the show in Tokyo with Melt Banana and Drumcorps, or any party in Belgium. I still break out the jungle from time to time! I played a classic Grooverider tune in the middle of a juke set in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago.

---

CHRISSY MURDERBOT’S JUKE TOP 5!

RP Boo - 114799 (aka the Godzilla Track)

DJ Gant-Man - Let’s Get It Percolatin’

DJ Rashad & Chi Boogie - Ay Ay Yo

Jammin Gerald - Pump That Shit Up

DJ Spinn - U Don’t Need