Joe Claussell is a name that shouldn’t be new to anyone with even a passing interest in good music. Unique DJ, landmark producer and label owner…the list goes on. We grabbed an hour for a chat while he was in London prepping for Gala a few weeks back.

PE: Can we start at the beginning then? So you grew up in a big family, right?

JC: Yes, I grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Fortunately enough, at a time when I believe music was at its height of creativity and eclecticness. I have a large musical family, everybody, especially my mom, we were all infatuated with music from very early on.

PE: So what was in the background as you grew up? Was it the radio or records, what was playing at home?

JC: I would probably say it's equally both, because the radio back then was, incredibly, incredibly rich - in all different genres of music. That was very important. But at the same time, growing up at home was really the education. Because, my mother birthed her first child when she was very, very young, we had older brothers playing music around us. But my mother; She was crazy about music. She always made sure she had the home stereo on, it was there while she was rocking at the crib. My older brothers, I wouldn't say they were record collectors, because I'm not even a record collector, but they brought music home almost every weekend. And they each had a hi-fi stereo. So music at our house was, literally, I'm not kidding, or exaggerating, it was 24-7. We woke up to music and went to sleep to music.

PE: So where are you in the sibling order?

JC: I was the second youngest of the brothers. We were seven brothers and three sisters. I was the third youngest of the whole clan. But again, we were all, every single one of us, infatuated with music. In fact, I don't know if you know about my brother, Jose, he was the rhythm section leader for Eddie Palmieri for almost 30 years.

PE: I think I did read that, yeah. That's incredible.

JC: Yeah. Yeah. And everybody at home could have taken on music as, and I don't even want to call it that, but an occupation, for lack of a better word anyway. They all could have made a career out of it, because we were all deep, deep music listeners. So most of my education came from our home, but I also did a lot by stepping out that door, going to the outside!

PE: Are there any records from that time or, even live experiences, that you remember? For someone like me coming from a cold and wet England, New York has a certain image, the vibrancy of the street culture, all that kind of stuff. Is that accurate?

JC: I wouldn't say any particular record stands out. I would liken answering that to when someone asks you, “what is your favorite record of all time?”. It's impossible. That's an impossible question for me to answer. But what I can tell you, is the collective soup of music that I was listening to all at once. From Carole King to Fela Kuti to War, to anything African, to Roy Ayers, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple….you name it, all of this. I'm not even doing any justice to the range of music and the number of bands that I was listening to. But if you get my point, we were listening to all that. At once. So I didn't grow up with an appreciation for just one genre of music. My brother, Larry, who had the loudest stereo system for a long time, but also was a drummer in a Latin rock band that used to rehearse in our basement. So there was a lot of rock, like Ash Ra Temple along with Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. There was a lot more of that being played at home. But again, we listened to everything all at once. It was crazy at home, definitely.

PE: Is there any sort of common thread, do you think, in those artists? It’s a pretty diverse range, is it the drums or the melodies or the songs? Carole King, just to pick one out. Those songs are just timeless.

JC: I think that the common thread for this music is that when they were doing it, they were producing this stuff purely as artists. Back then, I believe that was their voice. They were speaking from personal experience. If you go back to Carole King, Tapestry, the album, when you hear the lyrics of those songs, she's written that from the heart, from experience. I think that the common thread between all those artists back then was that they needed an outlet to speak. And for them, that was music.

That’s as opposed to today, back then, you could only listen to them either live or on the radio. Now it's all about social media, and there's so many platforms where you can listen to music. I believe a lot of people are making music more now to feed that machine, rather than just creating from within. Now certainly, but even then, as a child, I was a deep listener. I would really get into the three-dimensional part of these artists. And what I felt from them was they were speaking from the heart. They were telling stories. So that, to me, is the common thread that joins them.

PE: Growing up in New York, the city played a strong part in who you are now, and your journey..

JC: Yeah, I mean, Brooklyn, especially where I was brought up in Park Slope, in the city back then, there was music everywhere. Plus with the culture of New York City being as diverse as it is. Particularly, my neighbourhood where I grew up was one of the most diverse neighborhoods in all of New York. So that has had a profound effect on who I am today and how I communicate my art.

PE: Being exposed to so many different cultures, I mean, it blows my mind a little bit how many different nationalities and backgrounds are represented in one place, but do you think that's fed into how you DJ too?

JC: I would say that fits directly into how I create music. More than as a DJ. My DJ story is not the traditional one. I never wanted to really be a DJ, or a producer. That all happened through my involvement with Dance Tracks. But to answer that question, no, it had more of an effect on me producing, because, like I said, I was a deep listener. We literally, especially my brother and I, being kids and sleeping in the same bed. We were rocking ourselves to sleep with music, we were deep, really deep, in the music in a way that I can't express. But that way of listening to music has helped me be who I am today. Naturally as a producer, and it’s to a point where there's not a genre of music that I cannot create that will be legitimately created in that genre. Because all again, stemming from how deeply I would listen to music. If you want to go the DJ route, that's a whole other thing to be honest with you.

PE: Can we talk about that then? You said it's an unconventional journey…

JC: Absolutely. More than anything else, I’m a dancer. Although I'm much older now. I still dance when I go out, but not like when I was much younger. I'm a hardcore dancer. What I mean by dance isn't like going to dancing school, doing acrobatic moves, even though I used to do a few of those things! But that was only as a release. I mean, purely being one with the music on a dance floor. When I would go, let's say, to the Paradise Garage as a teenager, when I hit that dance floor, it was just me and Larry Levan. I was on that dancefloor 24-7. I didn't want to know anyone. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to dance. Somewhere like the Paradise Garage was impressive. Larry Levan was the DJ. But never once did I look up at the DJ booth and say, “wow”, I want to do that. No. I was so content with listening and dancing.

How I became a DJ was because of what a few people saw in me from working at Dance Tracks. When I used to play music at the store, for my customers. They saw in me what I wasn’t looking for on my own, for myself. I would credit people like Jerome Sydenham from Ibadan Records. Then a few years after that, François K, he and Danny Krivit were customers at Dance Tracks. Just to segue a bit into Body and Soul, that was where François approached me. I know he doesn't like it when I tell the story, but I have to because it's part of the journey. He approached me, and told me that he was going to start a party at Vinyl on Sundays. Danny would be one of the DJs too. The party hadn't started yet, it didn’t even have a name, but he thought that I'd be a perfect fit to join them.

And again, the truth of it is my not really wanting to be a DJ in that way. I turned it down, respectfully. An opportunity that everybody and their mother would have said yes to at a drop of the dime. Let me tell you, FK to me, growing up musically, in the disco era, was one of my heroes as a remixer. So saying to him that I was not really interested in doing that just further shows that I was not interested in taking on that role. But, he was very persistent - which I'm grateful for. Then it came about three or four months later, after the party was already going on, that he approached me again for the Larry Levan birthday party. And because Larry is the one that rocked my world on the dance floor, I caved in and I said yes and that really propelled my DJ career.

I was doing gigs before Body and Soul though, again all coming from Dance Tracks. I did my first gigs in Europe and I did two tours in Japan before actually joining Body and Soul. So I was DJing a little bit before that but consistently, as a DJ, becoming Joe Claussell as a DJ, that didn't happen until Body and Soul.

PE: How did you start working in the shop then? Were you a customer yourself?

JC: I was a customer and admirer of the shop. But before that, I was a foreman of a cabinet shop, I was a cabinet maker. I'm probably a little rusty now, but back in the 80’s, I was really good at that. I moved not long before that to the East Village, because I was also a skinhead, a punk rocker. I was into punk music in my teenage years. I was one of those punk skinheads that was against the fascists. We had a group, we did the whole bit, but then it began to taper off. I was becoming a bit more responsible in my life. I would walk through First Avenue from the train station on my way home to 7th Street, and one day, taking that journey, I heard some music on the left coming from somewhere. There was like some deep bass and I said to my daughter, “what's going on” and I saw this door, very unassuming, nothing fancy about the outside or anything. Then, when I walked into the shop this man named Stan Herzakis who is one of the people I credit for my career today, he had this store. It was quite basic, but the store had great music in there. However what got me, was this man had two Altec Lansing ‘Voice of the Theatre’ speakers on either side of the room. I don't know if you know these speakers, they're pretty massive and they're pretty great sounding. Anyway, long story short, I became a regular, hanging out there. I felt right at home, and this is right about the time or maybe a year after the garage had closed.

PE: So when was this?

JC: This is ‘89. I was hanging out in the store and Stan and I became friends, and after a while he had some trust in me. Then one day Stan had to go to the bank and he asked me to look after the store while he was gone, and when he came back the store was rocking. I was on the turntables playing music to sell the records. Luckily I was a regular at the store, so I already knew all the jams. From then on, I became one of the main music DJs at the store. I was invited with Stan every weekend to take a three hour trip to the distributors, to pick up new music. That was my involvement in the store. But then a couple of years later, Stan decided he wanted to get out of the business, and he wanted me to take over. So, he asked me and then Stefan Prescott who was a customer at the store but also caught wind of this> We decided to become partners and we took over Dance Tracks. I completely renovated the store, made it into a completely different thing. A unique situation, one that I've never seen before or experienced since. I was the curator of the store.

PE: What sort of music were you buying at that time were there any records that stick in your mind?

JC: From that period it was about Deep House. Well obviously Frankie Knuckles used to live right up the street, so I knew him well, he was directly up the street from Dance Tracks and he was there all the time. It was also the era of C&C Music Factory. Masters At Work was starting to come along at that time. Death Mix was coming along at that time too. All the deep stuff that was coming out of Europe. One of my favorite records at that time, although honestly I'm a little bit tired of it now, but it hit me really hard was Alison Limerick, all that stuff we were selling.

But I can't not mention the deep stuff, that was not so popular, but that's the stuff we were looking for. Our store was primarily about the deepest house music possible, as well as some eclectic stuff from Japan, jazz or whatever. If it was funky and different, that's what we wanted at Dance Tracks.

PE: How did that come to an end then?

JC: For me it came to the end when I started becoming busier with creating Spiritual Life Music. Plus, I also was becoming busier as a DJ as well as a remixer, I left in 1998.

PE: So was it while you were working there that you had the idea for Spiritual Life Music? Were you getting demos and thinking I need to put this out into the world, or how did it come about?

JC: Spiritual Life Music came as a necessity. I tell everybody the same thing, we were all about the deepest music, even deep techno from Detroit, we were about the deepest shit possible. So what happened, and it was going on more towards later in the 90’s, into the 2000’s, when Hard House became very popular. What that meant was, and you know how it works in this industry, most people are not really artists in the way they create on a whim and just follow trends. So it's not about being an artist, it's about whatever other things you want to get out of it. But anyway, even some of the people that were making Deep House back then, just jumped on the bandwagon and so it became a lot more difficult to acquire this music that we were selling. And we were not about to change what we were doing. That's just not in my DNA. So I had two choices, either I sell my part of the business or I create a label as the antidote, to try to save this music. I made that choice, to create Spiritual Life Music, and that's how it started.

PE: It sounds like a punk attitude, it's not there, I'm gonna do this stuff myself!

JC: Yes, I come from the punk environment. But even then, again, it's not that I wanted to be a record label owner. I didn't want to do that, my whole thing, and still the greatest thing that I enjoy the most, is being behind the turntables, in the store and serving people. That's really my greatest joy in all of this. It's not really about the DJing, the hands in the air, that's nice and everything, but I love dealing directly, giving direct energy and advice, and that's really why I created Cosmic Arts in New York. To be able to do that, have that hands on, face to face, approach with our clientele that's what I'm about.

PE: I mean, that's a good moment to talk about Cosmic Arts….

JC: Everything I do musically, there's a purpose behind it and Cosmic Arts, which by the way, is a labour of love, it's not a record store. It's more of a music/art community centre, based on the idea of bringing people together and having a place where they can come and congregate and share ideas. They can feel like they can get immersed into it, somewhere where it's all about the vibration, it's all about music. Why I say it's a labour of love, is because it's something that is not sustainable on its own but that's not the point of it. I mean I do a lot to make it, and others do as well, contributions from others, really great friends do a lot to help Cosmic Arts be what it is.

But that's a service that I'm so happy and so willing to provide, because music has given me, and continues to give me, so much. I mean just the idea, being grateful of being able to keep music in my head and let it come up in my head, whenever I want to hear music. The joy that it brings to me. I have a duty, from that good feeling, to give it back and that's where Cosmic Arts comes from, that's where my purpose is. Spiritual Life, and my role at Dance Tracks - that's where it all came from, giving it back.

PE: Spiritual Life Music has kind of ended now, is that correct? And Atypical Dopeness has picked up the mantle? Is that a fair take on how one has followed the other?

JC: Both of them are really different. Spiritual Life was more so organic really, a forward thinking, music loving machine! Whereas Atypical Dopeness is more of a distribution company. We distribute other music that we feel needs to be put out there for the world to see and hear. Then Sacred Rhythm, traditionally, is more my personal label, an outlet to create things. Although, I've invited incredible musicians and artists like Slam Mode, Kuniyuki Takahashi, which is my younger brother, Ron Trent and artists like that. Jephte Guillaume is another, to come with me because I feel and know, that they know, this is a place where their music is safe. It's being pushed out there into the world with respect and a like-minded intention when it comes to what you're trying to achieve.

PE: Can we just flip back to the Body and Soul and those times? I know you talked about that first party, but do you remember how you felt playing with Danny and François at the start?

JC: Let me be honest, I have to credit that beginning obviously to François K, Danny Krivit, John Davis, Evelyn Santos and the crew of Body and Soul. The whole crew made it so easy, the first party left me speechless, and also put me to the place where I decided, you know what, I think I can hang with this for a while. My intention before that was to do a one-off when I agreed to do it. The concept was already put into place.

It was Danny and FK going back and forth with each other, one record each, and I fell right into that. We worked magically together, with no ego. I actually prefer that flow for Body and Soul. I think it worked magically, and obviously it showed over time that it did work. From a party that probably had 50 people at the start, eventually you couldn't hold the amount of people, it was more than 2,000 plus people every Sunday, for at least 10 years. So to answer your question, the blueprint was already laid out before I got there.

PE: The first time you brought it to London I went along to that and it was pretty incredible. Going from the CDs and obviously reading about it, especially with it being before online videos were really a thing, so we didn’t know exactly what to expect, how did taking it out of New York compare?

JC: Well it didn't, but it had its own vibe and those were also incredible. We really appreciate every single person that came out for that party. We even just recently did it at what is it though I forget to the venue [The Cause] and the audience was you know absolutely incredible. We took a ride together, and it was really dope. It rained on that day too, but rain didn't bother us! We were just flowing. So to answer your question, nothing really rivals New York, except maybe Japan. But London had its own flavour with Body and Soul, and they were dope and we really appreciate everybody that came and joined us and supported us.

PE: So, when you DJ by yourself I guess that's a little bit of a different thing to when you're playing with Danny and François? Do you prepare in a different way?

JC: Yes for sure, because like I tried to allude to earlier, I'm really not a traditional DJ. And when I say that, I mean I don't go through all the traits. I don't really have DJ friends that I communicate with on a daily or weekly basis. I don't have DJ crews. Even in the heyday of Body and Soul, my routine for that was to prepare the day before, do the gig and once I left that building and that club, I lived a completely different life. It was not about DJing. I let that completely go. I only assumed that role when it's time to do it. Even today I don't really practice doing it as a DJ. However, what I will tell you is that I work feverishly in the hotel the night before to prepare for the gig that I'm about to play. I do a lot of preparing, deep preparing, before every gig. I take it seriously when I'm doing it and I give it my 100% and in the natural way that I do it.

PE: I think if anybody went to see you and didn't realize that was the case, I think they must be on a different planet…

JC: Yeah and understand, first of all, I don't ever watch myself, but people need to understand that this is the way I've been playing music forever. When I was DJing with my friends at their place, or whether I was at home in my room alone, when I used to live with my mom as a teenager…. or playing at Dance Tracks, it's just who I am. It's a very spiritual thing, I'm connected with something higher. It all feeds into my deep listening, my appreciation for all genres of music. The music just hits me differently, I need to release it in the way I feel. It’s just what it is, there's no show. Maybe some people are irritated by it, but I have more people that absolutely love it, and I appreciate those people that support me. I can't change, no matter what nor will I, that's just who I am.

PE: Again, speaking from personal experience, and with my friends, when we've seen you, that energy. I'm struggling to think of the words really, because it doesn't do it justice, but when you're playing music, the passion, again these words probably aren't really enough to describe it. What you’re doing transmits to the audience and I'm sure it’s a kind of feedback loop, and that's makes the experience so amazing.

JC: Well you were searching for the right word and you kind of hit it on the head. Basically that's what I am. I'm a transmitter of music and I believe it's coming from a higher power. I am the transmitter, spreading that energy into the audience. It is a collaboration between me and the audience, so when they're feeling it, I'm feeling it. That's what really makes the party. I'm really cognizant of that. If people are not feeling it in the way that I'm feeling it, or even similar, our energies have to merge in that way to create that party. It’s kryptonite for me if anybody is just standing around taking pictures, that's number one, or just standing around because they want to watch or even just standing around because they don't like it. But when the energy is flowing…I never lose sight of that. That makes me get lost, and connect even deeper to the higher powers, transmitting that energy and connecting deeper with them. Then we all feel it.

I know that we all feel it because when people send me messages, after gigs, it's exactly what I felt, how they describe it to me. I also let them know right away, and thank them for what they’ve provided to this party, because if it wasn't people like yourselves it wouldn't have taken off the way it does. I'm that kind of person, I'm cut from the cloth of just being a deep music lover, and understanding that music is way above what the hell I do - I'm only a messenger that's it, that's all.

PE: You’ve touched a little on the production and remixing side of things, can we talk a little about that? The new release is your take on Emanuele Cisi’s Pharaoh’s message, how did that come into being and what is it that makes you choose what to work on?

JC: It came to me in a very powerful, and what I consider the right way, for someone like myself to be approached to be involved in creating music. The record label owner approached me in a way that I would if I wanted someone to be involved with a project. He was very, very passionate in his approach, very sincere, through his words, his vibration, letting me know how much and for how many years he wanted to work with me. And how much he admired the things that I've done in the past and what a big fan of mine he was. That in itself, to me, is part of what contributes to me saying yes to something. I must say, I’ve turned down more remixes than I'm offered. Anyway, he spoke to me about this project from this artist on his label called Emanuele Cisi and he sent me the music. Plus, of course it's a tribute to Pharoah Sanders, so as a big fan of his, and of jazz and spiritual jazz, that already sparked my interest. But then I heard the composition, and I was really drawn to it.

PE: I mean you're almost taking the track to pieces and rebuilding it in your own way, is there a process there, how do you even start to reinterpret something so differently?

JC: First, I have to do the research. Every remix that I do, I respect the original composition of any record. And even though this was so beautiful on its own, I thought I could enhance it with a few things. The first part of it was the strings, percussion, guitars and so on, and that can complement the second part. Which is, on top of that, I like to create a story with everything I do. So in doing that, I could create something completely different, but that's adjacent to the original production. So when I approached this one, the first part was just complementing what was already a beautiful record and then taking it into a different place by creating what I call a cosmic vamp, a sacred rhythm vamp. This is where I completely created a whole different piece for the second section and that was the result of this remix.

PE: It completely fits that whole deep listening experience, you can just put it on and pretty much get lost in it..

JC: I credit all that to the deep listening experience, being in dark rooms as a kid, rocking back and forth in a chair, listening to music. In a dark room, even when it's daylight outside. That was my preference. Of course I did play stickball with my friends and all that…but if you gave me the chance, I was in dark rooms listening to music. I was in the music to the point where I could dissect every instrument, every tape hiss, every element of the language that was being spoken in the music that I listened to. That allows me today to do whatever it is I want to do musically. And I’m forward thinking with those ideas. I never try to take from the past if I can. Some of those ideas, they are ideas that I haven't exactly thought about yet, but I know that I'm going to get to!

PE: Well speaking of looking forward, what's next? Have you got any more projects in the pipeline?

JC: I have a few things that I'm working on, but there's a lot of things that I can't really say what it is. I'm working on a lot of original production and remixes, but a lot of my time goes into serving at Cosmic Arts, running the label, helping other people with their projects and their music. So I'm very busy with that. Like I say, everything, absolutely everything, I'm doing doesn't happen without the people that are involved in my life and help me. All of my staff that I've worked with at Cosmic Arts: The Kemis, the J-Locks, the Elves and Races, the Lewis Melendez. Dope Jams, Paul Nickerson's set up. All these people are very important to what I do. I don't do all of this alone, my engineer, Frank Cathcart…the musicians I work with in particular, like Bennett Paster.

All of my staff that I've worked with at Cosmic Arts: Jay Locke, Sal Carmona, Akemi Shimada, Elbin Reyes, Luis Melendez, Kenny Smith, Jose. Then from Dope Jams, Paul Nickerson's and his set up. All these people are very important to what I do. I don't do all of this alone, my engineer, Fran Cathcart…the musicians I work with in particular, like Bennett Paster (Joe’s pianist and musical collaborator).

I'm a deep listener to people as well. I take advice very seriously from people that help me. I'm the kind of guy who comes up with ideas all the time, but if you have a better idea than me, then let's load your idea. There's no ego in what I do. I have to give props to all of these people that helped me along the way. This point is very important to me.

PE: So how does the rest of your day look? I didn’t ask, where are you at the moment?

JC: I'm actually in London at the moment, we're doing the Gala festival tomorrow. I just came back from the BBE store to pick up a copy of another remix that's coming out soon (Omar’s So Much Love in the World). I'm going to prepare for tomorrow, and actually later I'm going to see my brothers who I was with last night - Louis Vega and Kenny Dope. They're going to be at the Ministry tonight and I'm also going to see Vic Lavender, another young brother that I've helped in his career. He's taken off now, and deserves credit for supporting the label. Ministry is a day party, both Kenny and Louis start at 6pm.

PE: Ministry has had some refurb, didn’t they replace the dancefloor?

JC: They did, it’s a shame in my opinion. They completely took the sound system out to replace the original, which I think was better, but more egregiously they took the wooden dance floor out. That's kind of weird..really nice people running it but replacing the dance floor has changed the place dramatically.

PE: I guess you will still be on the floor though, right?

JC: I'm a dancer I got to! Concrete, mud, you know what I'm saying, grass, wooden floor… you got to move. I'm a dancer you know yeah I'll be shaking it over there for sure. Masters at Work are playing, you can’t wrong with that.

Joe's remixes of Emanuele Cisi's 'Pharoah's Message' is release on Right Tempo on 5 June.