BAD BOY BILL

Burning down the House

Everything evolves. That which doesn’t, eventually fades away. For international DJ extraordinaire Bad Boy Bill, the evolutionary process has brought him to the highest echelons of house music, as his progressive musical mindset has taken him from the beat juggling, scratch-tastic DJ battles of his youth to moving crowds of thousands in dance clubs and festivals across the world with his famed scratch-heavy house sets. The globetrotting Chicago-based DJ has a strong affinity for Detroit and will be rolling into town this weekend to beat the speakers up at Bleu. RDW caught up with Bill to talk about his love for The Windy City, Movement ’07, being single and his infamous YouTube clip. Dig in.

You’ve been all over the world, but still call Chicago home. Why do you think that is?
I was born and raised here. I was living in L.A. for a couple winters, checking it out, and was even thinking about buying a place out there, but then I realized that you can’t beat the people in Chicago and the food’s great, too. The weather can, at times, be the worst thing, but in the summer it’s the absolute greatest place. Plus, my whole crew’s here and my studio so I get a lot more work done. In L.A. ... [laugh] I dunno — I think I just end up hanging out at the beach too much.

I don’t think anyone could blame you for that, man. Where do you hang out in Chicago?
Well, I got a gig coming up at Vision, which is a really cool spot. Ya know, there’s just so many places in Chicago and that’s the cool thing, there’s a lot of really good new clubs opening up and just a lot happening — Lollapalooza was just here and that was awesome.

With new clubs opening up, what's the house scene looking like these days in Chicago?
Well, for a while, I think Chicago had flipped deep into hip-hop and the whole mash-up thing, but if you go to most clubs in Chicago now you’ll see that it’s back, or going back, to house music, which is a good thing because it was born here and so it’s good to hear house getting the predominant play in the clubs.

You definitely have roots in hip-hop and turntablism — do you still get into that?
I still get into it a little bit, but not as much as I did. I’m definitely into the art of DJing and I respect guys like Qbert, DJ Craze and  A-Trak and all those guys, because I know the amount of hours it takes to get to the point where you’re able to execute those techniques. I respect that and I love it, but for me — well, I just went and saw A-Trak DJ and I think he only did one or two scratches the whole time I saw him, so he’s kind of switching up his sound and style which kind of freaked me out because I thought he’d pull out some tricks and do some more scratching, so it just goes to show that people grow, evolve and get into different things.

Last year, in '07, you were in Detroit for Movement, the electronic music festival, and I was wondering what your experience was like as an outsider looking in.
Man, I loved it, it was amazing, it was probably the best festival I did last year. I played the BeatPort tent, which was just absolutely packed and people were going nuts — it was a real amazing vibe. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to come back this past year; I was really excited and ready for it, but they said that they didn’t want to have people play back to back years, that they wanted to bring in fresh acts, which is entirely understandable, but at some point I’d love to come back. I got a lot of Myspace messages from the performance and a lot more this year from people asking if I’d be there or asking why I wasn’t there. So, to all those who Myspaced me, trust me, I really wanted to be there — the festival and the crowd at DEMF is just off the hook.

Speaking of Myspace, you’ve been at this for so long I’m curious as to how the Internet has changed things for you.
Well, like it’s done for everything and everyone, it’s gotten me a lot closer to people. Worldwide, I’ve got people from so many different countries getting in touch, mostly through Myspace; every time I go to a different country and play I get a whole bunch of Myspace friend requests, fans that I can instantly communicate with, which, obviously, before the Internet, was unheard of. It just makes me more accessible, too — if people want to know where and when I’m playing, all of the information is right there along with the latest pictures from shows and all that stuff — it’s pretty cool.

Do you use the site to preview tracks and gauge listener response?
I use it more to expose other artists' tracks  that I like. I haven’t really used it to put up unreleased material or anything like that. For up-and-coming DJs and producers whose tracks I like and might want to work into a mix, I like to put ‘em up and get their music out there. I remember when all we were working with was vinyl, that immediacy was impossible. Now the movement of the music from the studio to the dance floor is so fast.

Geographically speaking, do you tailor your sets depending on location? For instance, when you play Bleu in Detroit are you going through the same formulation process you would, say, if you were DJing a rave somewhere in oh, I don’t know, Belgium?
Yeah, but I do that more for the type of crowd. If I’m playing a rave, it might be a harder, more edgy set, but if I’m playing a 21+ club it might be more vocal. But that could happen in the same city to be honest; it could be in Cologne, Germany and you could play a club that has one sort of vibe or a huge rave that just has a different crowd. The same could be said for Detroit; if I’m playing DEMF or if I’m playing at Bleu, I’m going to play for the specific crowd.

What’s your post-performance wind-down like?
[laugh] Every show is different; sometimes I have a flight to catch at 7 a.m. and I don’t even get done DJing ‘til 4 a.m., so I go to the hotel, shower pack and take off right away. Other times, like if I haven’t slept in two days, I’ll get back to the hotel and immediately crash, but then sometimes, like if I’m in Las Vegas, I’ll get pulled out to the strip club after the show and then there’s always the after-party thing to deal with, too.

And that’s not even taking into consideration that while your DJing you’re forced to watch a sea of girls shake their ass in front of you for three hours or more. I’d bet it’s hard to just chill out. Is there a city that comes to mind that you recognize as having the sexiest women in the audience?
Without hesitation, I’ve always said that as a country, Colombia has the hottest women that I’ve ever seen — just amazingly beautiful women. But if we’re talking about America, then we’re talking about San Diego, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, Arizona — in the warm climate cities I think the girls just get used to showing their bodies all the time — they’re in shape, they got fake boobs, they’re just putting themselves out there more — at least more so than places like Rochester, New York or some place like that. [laugh]

So, is it hard to enter into any serious relationships having the job that you do?
Yeah, but I don’t think it’s because I’m surrounded by a ton of attractive women all the time, I think it has more to do with the fact that I travel so much and I’m never really home for that long. Ya know, if your girlfriend works a nine-to-five, Monday through Friday, and she wants to spend some time with you on the weekends, well, that’s most likely when I’m out of town.

So, I take it you aren’t in a relationship.
No, I mean that’s the problem I have, man, is the time. And when I am home, I’m usually in the studio for really long hours throughout the week working on an album or trying to run the label, so the work is constant. It’s hard …

Speaking of work, you’re working on a new album right now, right?
Yeah — I think it’s coming out in February of ’09. We’re basically done with the album, we’re just tweaking it out and maybe making a last-minute addition, but for the most part it’s already done and we’re working on remixes for the first single right now.

Is it hard to have completed something that has to now sit on the shelves for the next seven months?
It is frustrating, to be honest, but for an artist album, as opposed to a mix CD, it’s different. On a mix CD the songs get old really quick, so you have to get it out really fast, but for an artist album, these are songs nobody’s heard before. A good song is a good song, so if it’s a good song now, it’ll be a good song six months from now. You can always do remixes and release singles, so I don’t get too upset. I think that the label knows what they’re doing so I’m totally cool to roll with it and let them set it up the way they think is best.

Let’s clear something up real quick. Pre-1989 DMC battle, that featured the infamous de-robing and “titty-scratch,” you already had the name Bad Boy Bill, though I’ve heard some claim that you made that name up for that infamous evening.
It started out when I first started DJing in the early-‘80s, but one of my boys would always say that my DJ name was Bad Boy Bill and he ended up putting it on a flyer and ever since then it just stuck. That was how it all started, but yeah, it was way before that DMC battle.

It’s been almost 20 years since that night, when you pulled your pants down and attempted to scratch the record with your dick, has it been hard to live it down?
Naw, man, I mean it’s funny. You know, I just met [DJ] Dirty South a couple months ago here in Chicago and he was like, “Hey! I just saw your YouTube video of the DMC thing yesterday!” What’s funny is that the video had been laying on a VHS tape for years and years and no one knew about it, unless you were a battle aficionado, and then all of a sudden someone found it and put it on YouTube and now everyone’s talkin’ 'bout it like it happened yesterday. I’d actually done that trick in battles before that competition and it was always funny. I’m not ashamed of it — but it’s funny that it’s getting all this exposure now.

Bill, thanks for taking the time to chat, man. We’ll see you soon.
Absolutely, man. Ya know, I really love Detroit, it’s always an amazing party. I feel that Detroit has really shown me a lot of love and I’m excited to see everyone down at Bleu.  | RDW

Bad Boy Bill • 8/22 • Bleu Room Experience

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