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Hey Fellas!
 This
month I want to present you a very high talented production team
from Switzerland - C&M Productions. Some
of you may already know them from their latest releases such as
the "Another Lesson EP" on More Riddem Records or the wicked deep
house anthem "True House" on Deep Touch Records which they did
together with UF's own Marcel Schooler. And several massive tunes
will follow very soon, so watch out for them in the future!
Stefan
Urankar
May 1999
The following interview was conducted by Stefan Urankar on 04/30/99:
First of all, a little warrant of apprehension to fill in.
Name: Marc Zehnder + Christian
Kistler
Name: better known as C&M
Productions or Parliament of House
Age: 28 + 30 years and counting...
Place of residence: Around Zürich, Switzerland
Styles of music: True-House-Music
Hello Switzerland, how's the view at the moment
in the mountains? How many meters over the sea-level do you live?
It stopped snowing :-), but we are not touched about this stuff,
we live both near the lake of Zürich, means only 500 meters
overseas, you know the high mountains have deep valleys...
Tell me, when was your first contact with the
good old house music? How did it all develop and to which styles
of music did you listen to before?
I can not tell which record it was, because I got some records
from a friend with names like Jes Say Records and all this stuff,
you see I had the pleasure to listen to the first house-records
ever made from Jesse Saunders, Marshall Jefferson and the other
pioneers of this genre... before this happened, like other 12
or 13 year old guys, I listened to the charts on the radio, disco-stuff
and of course soul and jazz music on my parents-turntable.
When did you start to produce and what was your
first track?
The first complete track we did... mmh... maybe in 1993 or sumthin',
but we don't give them names, we just made them and used them
for our mixtapes we made.... The first record of ours was "Lesson
One" on Urban House Traxx 1997, this one was licensed and remixed
by Robbie Rivera.
You are a DJ- and production team. How are the
tasks divided? Who is more the DJ and who is more the producer?
 I've
started DJing in the age of 13 years, after years of practicing
with belt-driven turntables I showed my skills to Christian, currently
we are spinning both on parties, but Chris is the better "spinner,"
he can mix the stuff very clean, that's why he mixes all the records
for mixtapes and mix-CDs we did and will do in the future. In
the studio, it's my thing to handle all the hard and software
and compose, edit and arrange all the stuff, Chris is like my
second pair of ears. Means I prepare the song, and he tells me
what he likes and what not... but he can use his sampler and gives
me samples of the latest trax every week.
How long do you know each other? Are you old school
friends?
I think it must be in 1989, in this time our girlfriends of this
decade worked together, so we met once, when we both picked up
our girls at work... we changed many times our girlfriends since
then, but we both are still together, hahahahah, house is stronger,
hahahahahah
Is there a life besides music? What are you doing
when you don't work with the music?
We are working in normal day-jobs, I work in a software-company,
Chris is like a trader and salesman... We have normal hobbies
like watching sports on TV, and hanging around doing nothing...
Music is the thing we do on the weekend.
Which other producers or deejays have inspired
your work?
There are no specific producers or deejays, I think, good, honest,
true-house-music is inspiration for our work, no matter who it
is ! There are names which are standing for quality like Frankie
Knuckles and others... but there are also a lot of good trax out
there from unknown producers. I think the trax are important,
not the people who made it...
I didn't hear a lot about Swiss house before I
met you guys. How is the house scene in Switzerland? Are there
any other talented producers like you?
There are a lot of talented guys in my area, and we work with
the best ones of course... like Domenico Carluccio, Lou Lamar,
Fabio and Franco, Maurice Knight to name the best :-))) haha,
there are a lot of people creating music, but most of them do
trance and techno stuff, house is not the big deal in Switzerland.
But we have other "housers," maybe you heard names like Djamin
+ Mr. Mike (Black And White Bros. "Put Your Hands Up") or Oli
Stumm (H20) with his label Liquid Groove in NYC (you can run...,
the future...) or Jamie Lewis with his label Purple Music and
some school-friends of mine they called themselves 'The Saucermen'...,
it's very hard to release house-music in Switzerland, we are just
too small here, that's why I want to have our tracks released
in the United States or in London, because I want to have our
records available worldwide and not only in Switzerland.
There is one discjockey from your country who
claims to be an "original houser." His name is Dani König.
If you ask me, I don't think that he is a "houser" at all. He
is one of the most booked deejays here in Germany, always in the
house context. But when you look at his productions like "Shisco
3000" or whatever the name is, you really have to wonder what
is sold as house nowadays. Do you know him personally and what
do you think about him?
Dani gets big with the acid-house-thing, since that time he is
like a local hero, about the "original houser," every time
I join his DJ-gigs he spins techno stuff and this progressiv-house-sets,
means soulless-cold-music, it's not my thing, but the people love
it, that's why he's so popular. He just plays what the people
wanna hear, and if they wanna hear crap, he plays it, but the
people start thinking...
How do you assess the future of house? Do you
think that real house music can reach the status it deserves one
day? Do you have any good ideas how to clean house music from
all the dirt?
I think house music goes a good way, there are a lot of people
with open minds in this world, they understand and support what
we do ,and all we can do in the future, is producing honest, true
house music, with a lot of soul, and I promise we will :-)
Coming back to you, are you currently working
at some tracks and what are your plans for the future? What will
be your next releases?
Currently, we are doing mixes for mister Aaron-Carl, for his
forthcoming release called "Dance Naked." The plans are simply
producing more music and if possible more DJing. Our next releases
will be "The Returning" on Deep Touch Records with our new project
name called 'Parliament Of House.' We have a finished E.P. called
"Spiritual E.P." as well, but we are still looking for a label
in the US and in the UK. We will bring out some remix-tunes in
the next weeks.
One thing I always wanted to know is how did you
come in contact with our man Marcel Schooler?
It was the classic internet story, I surfed over his site, wrote
him an e-mail, he replied and that's about it....:-) After that,
I've sent him some of my trax and since then we are brothers.
As a DJ, which clubs did you rock so far? Are
there any good clubs in your area? Do you have a resident job?
We worked in many clubs and on many private parties, the house-scene
here in Switzerland is quite big. Here in Zürich we have
clubs like 'The Kaufleuten,' 'The Ruby' and others. Every club
has some housy-nights per week, means you have a lot of choices
on every weekend, it depends on which style you prefer... There
are also a lot of bars and restaurants with house-music in Zürich,
I think sometimes there are too much... In the French part of
Switzerland, in Lausanne and Neuchatel there are big clubs, in
Bern, Basel and other bigger cities as well. I think you can't
go out in Switzerland without listening to house music :-))
Is there any question you'd like to be asked?
Do you have a special message for the house world?
Keep on rockin, house-world, keep on moving, and don't forget
where you come from!
Finally, I'm interested in your discography and
your alltime-charts. Are there any special records which maybe
even changed your life?
Chris and I together have an archive of more than 5000 house
records, there are so many outstanding records, maybe I have to
show you my favorites when you come to Switzerland... Our discography
is available on our internet-site:
http://www.truehouse.ch
- just check the "sounds" site.
Thank you very much, and keep the spirit alive!
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