Mr. Andersonic

Hailing from Jersey and living in Brooklyn, Mr. Andersonic never fails to put the "dance" in dance party.

Here we talk with him about how it all got started and the early days of Brooklyn's Chicken Hut.














Chief Magazine: So what do we call you?

Mr. Andersonic:  My name is Craig Andersonic, Mr. Andersonic.

When did you get started actually spinning and making music?

I was making music for a while, but I wasn’t making danceable sounds until around 2001.

And before that?

I started out playing in hardcore and punk rock bands. In high school I was in a punk band. I was in a band called “Taste of Fear” in ’95. It was fun. I don’t know. I got into making more noise, more experimental sounds. The first thing I bought was a sampler, just made bizarre sounds. Everything was like, not musically correct, just really obnoxious, hard to listen to stuff.

Was there a really good response to that?

Well, I wasn’t really trying to put it out there. I played a few shows, and after like two or three years of that I started making it a little more listener friendly. It was more ambiance, like evil ambiance I guess. And after a while I just started making dance music somehow.

Did you go to school for any of this?

No, no. Actually I went to art school for a semester. That was about it, though. I was always good at drawing and art, but I was always interested in music.

What art school?

University of the Arts in Philly.

So, in 2001, you started playing shows….

I was never DJing; I played live off of my samplers. I had a whole hardware set-up. In 2002, I started playing live more often. I did some shit with the Avenue D.

What kind of stuff was Avenue D doing?

They were doing a lot of stuff during the Electroclash period. I think they’re still doing it. It’s like, electro-booty, two girls--kind of like 2 Live Crew reversal.  They’re really raunchy.

That sounds awesome.

They get all dressed up in like hot dog dresses and stuff. Totally dope.

And you collaborated wtih thm?

I did one track with them. That was the first thing I did, I guess. The next few years I played a lot of shows with a sampler, a synthesizer, and a mixer. It was kind of a headache, setting it up all the time. I did this relentlessly for a few years, and just got better and better at trying to get an original set that was more fluid, and it sounded like I was DJing, but I was playing all of my sets.

It was all just gear.

Yeah, it has just been recently--in the past year--that I’ve been trying to play other people’s stuff. So it’s kind of new for me to be DJing.

I remember three or four years ago, when Brad [Downey] was working with you, he had one of your CDs and he just kept putting it on and putting it on. That was sick…

That was all original, everything that’s out there, ‘cause I gave out mad CDs.  That’s all my original stuff.

What were you into as a kid? What kind of kid were you?

I was always really into music. Since the beginning of high school, I got really turned on to, I guess, at first, Living Colour. That was the first band I was really into. Some other bands that really affected me were A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, The Cramps. Later, I listened to a lot of really hardcore stuff; Infest and Crossed Out were my favorite... To the point, thirty-second songs that butchered your face. That shit. I can listen to that at any time. That’s what I was into.

From there, there’s a band, Man is the Bastard, who started doing noise, experimental noise. They would put out a 7 inch of like weird, “what the fuck is this” stuff. So I remember my brother and I, we would hear this, and be like “what is this,” and try to make it in our rooms. And we would set up vacuum cleaners and all sorts of stuff. I still have the tapes, and it’s pretty amazing. It’s like crazy noise, whatever you can think of. It’s still music in a way…

Yeah man, it’s just this ash-track, fucking noise. 

Yeah. So this is what I was doing at 15, 16.  From there, I came to New York, just working a lot. I got tight with Black Label. I lived in the Chicken Hut for a while.

Oh shit, I didn’t know that.

Oh, hell yeah. So I knew all those guys fairly well.

God bless the Chicken Hut. I’ll say it for the record, God bless the Chicken Hut.

That’s the place. That’s pretty much where I played and got better and better, and that’s what I was doing now. The Chicken Hut’s insane. It’s funny actually, all the people doing dance parties now; it grew out of the Chicken Hut.

Like Conrad [Dirty Finger] and Pork Chop…

Pork Chop, he came from Chicago already killing everything.

How long did you live at the Chicken Hut?

A pretty short time—like 6 months. At that time, the origin of the Hut, we would scrape the paint off the ceiling to repaint and there were chicken feathers underneath, from floor to ceiling. When I got there, there were still fluffy feathers throughout the building. We were on the fourth floor, and on the third floor, they had this machine that would clean down feathers, prepare them for use. It would be cleaned in the daytime, shit would shake, and this dust would come up through the floorboards. So everything I owned would smell like burning feathers.

Oh shit…

It would rain, and it would just stink.

No… that’s fucked.

But even with all that, it was a great place, and it’s amazing to see what it is now and how it’s grown. It’s beautiful.

I remember I would go there every four months for two and a half years, and every time it would be a different place. It would blow my fucking mind. It’s like, every time I come here, I’m not used to it. It has the same vibe, I see the same faces, but it’s a whole different building inside. That was the first stairwell I pissed in, when I first got to Brooklyn in 1998. There wasn’t even that long of a bathroom line, I was just shit-housed. People were walking right by me, and no one gave a damn. Afterwards, completely fall-down drunk, I still thought I could hook up with this girl I brought to the party.

Oh yeah? So did you?

I did. Realistically, it didn’t matter what happened once we were there. As soon as we walked in the door it was clear what kind of party it was going to be. If she didn’t turn around and run for her life she was down for whatever.

It’s always the best party, always. Best parties of my life are at the Chicken Hut.

It’s just consistently boss. I mean, fuck it, were you there for the one with tire swings?

Hell yeah, that was the spandex party. That was dope. I played that party.

God, the dirty mattresses? That party was insane.
 
That’s another thing that’s so funny and totally great about that place: everyone has their one amazing moment there.

That’s what happens when you let creative people just be creative people in a giant free space without anyone telling them what they can’t do.

It has nothing to do with fashion, everyone there is different. If you have a different background, no one gives a shit, everyone there is just there to have fun and make it a great party.

So where’d you move after you moved out of there?

I moved to where I am now, which is right in the neighborhood. The rent is increasing, so it’s getting pretty hard to afford. It’s two floors, a couple of rooms. It’s really good, but almost to the point where it’s unaffordable.

So it’s on the verge?

Yeah, we're probably going to get out of there soon.

How many people you got in there?

Usually two, but at the moment there’s three.

It’s a little off subject, but you ever hunt? Ever stalk an animal?

No, I never hunted, but there is this story I remember. When I was a kid, behind my grandparents’ house, me and my brother, we were kind of lost, and we smelled this smell, so we walked over and we saw this forked tree. This deer must have tried to jump between them and got his head stuck in between. So he was rotted from the bottom down, and there was this perfect circle of hair. The head was still okay, but the bottom was all eaten away.

Oh shit.

It was bizarre and it scared the shit out of me.

Well yeah, ‘cause at 8 years old you see something like that, you figure the devil did it.

We just booked. We were lost, but somehow we made it home in like two seconds.

You never really think about it, but deer must get yoked up a bunch.  They have tree branches for a head.

Yeah, totally.  Maybe he got shot, and started to run, or maybe he just got caught up and rotted.

How old were you?

I had to be like six or seven years old.

Old enough to be traumatized. It’s a staple though, if you have woods near your house, to have your parents let you wander in them. Because parents really don’t know any better. The woods are the best. Kids need that kind of shit or they’re going to find something worse.

Oh yeah, it’s true. I grew up with woods behind my house too, and we used to go looking for forts, build your own forts.

Yeah, I mean how dope is it--you’re a kid and you go out and you get to build a fort? It’s like, “This is where we’re going to keep our rocks. And if we see people, we’re gonna fucking unload.”

Hell yeah, rock fights, man… that’s the shit.

God, I love that Lord of The Flies shit. So to get back to music, what are you working on now?

At this point, I’m just constantly making music, trying to expand, trying to take in new sounds. I am definitely influenced by Booty music.  That is what started what I do. This is what made me make electronic music, listening to Ghettotech and Miami bass. So now I’m trying to add to it or change it in my way, because if you try to make this dance music, you’re always going to make it differently unless you cookie-cut and copy. It’s always going to be a different flavor because you’re an individual. I recognize that, and I’m trying to do my own thing. So I’m always in the studio, just trying to work on shit.

So you spin a couple times a month?

Pretty regularly. In the summer, I get busier. Right now, about two or three times a month.

Are there any regular spots?

Right now, I don’t have a regular spot. I guess the most regular things I do are the Chicken Hut parties. What I’m doing on August 3 is a laptop battle at the Knitting Factory. There are ten producers who all have their laptops, and they battle each other, basically. The winner goes to Seattle.

Who else is in it?

Calmer, Criterion, Cruc Tesla, Dances With White Girls, Air Jared from Purple Crush, Secret Agent Gel, Tes, Timeblind, Velapene Screen, and me.

God,  “Dances With White Girls.” That’s such a great fucking name.

[Laughs] Yeah man, I fucking love it.

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It’s just brilliant. So wait, that disc Brad had, what was the name of it? Do you have a name for it?

Well, I don’t know which one he had.

How many do you have?

I gave out eight to ten different CDs.

Oh shit. That’s insane.

Oh yeah, I was super prolific. Honestly, I’m embarrassed by some of the stuff; it was pretty immature for me. A lot of it I do like, but some of it is just really early for me. I don’t think it’s bad, but even the things I made a few weeks ago, I’m like “Ahhh.”

You just have to keep working on it.

Yeah, I’m always looking for the new sound. I’m kind of a perfectionist.




Website
www.mrandersonic.com
 

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