ZOOM1018.WAV

Move Your Feet and Feel United

In a musical world where technology has made it possible to become a “credible” DJ in nanoseconds, it is good to know there are still DJ’s out there keeping it real.  Enter Marc Buxton.  Here’s a guy who believes that DJing is an outpouring of human emotion and that the best way to express that emotion is through playing actual records “in the moment”.  Marc does not use digital software to pick out the next song or to mix them together.  He does not pre-plan his sets and has very little time to dance around.  “I love to play all night so I can build a proper set - starting with foreplay and moving through two or three peaks throughout the night.”  Marc's style defies categorization, but includes elements of wave, house, electro, funk, disco, acid and industrial.  According to Buxton, "DJing is like cooking... just a dash of the right ingredients makes the recipe special".  The listener can expect a seamless mix of tasty morsels that touch on many of today’s sub-genres.  “I started playing in clubs in 1978…the word genre didn’t apply.  I still follow the same template.  I don’t favor specific record labels or producers.  I listen to hundreds of new releases across multiple genres every month and I buy a lot of records.”
  
Marc’s great journey into The Dance began on the radio in 1975.  As a young teen Marc became entranced with a fairly new medium called FM radio.  For the next three years, Marc worked as an overnight DJ broadcasting to the invisible masses.  As fate would have it, this was the exact time the Disco Era exploded onto the scene and Marc found himself moving out of the lonely radio station booth and into an environment filled with excitement.  “I actually fell asleep at the switch while on the radio.  I think it was an Air Supply song that knocked me out.  The owner called the studio hotline and woke me up.  He wasn’t very happy!  Two weeks later I started my first club gig.  Funny thing is that’s only job I’ve ever been fired from, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” 

Marc’s first big break came two years later.  The Midwest’s first mega-club, “OZ” was getting ready to open.  A then 19-year-old Marc was tapped as resident DJ even though he wasn’t old enough to drink.  “OZ provided a wonderful laboratory to grow as an artist.  As an afterhours club, I could really push the limits musically.  It was a game every night to see how late we could keep ‘em going.  On a cold winter night, we’d go til’ 7 or 8 in the morning.  I played an 8 hour set five nights a week during my 10 years as resident at OZ.”  In other words, 2,500 gigs!  With security like that, why would a DJ ever leave?  To open a club to call their own, of course!   

The year was 1990.  The Summer of Love.  The Rave movement was exploding all over Europe and Marc seized the opportunity to open his own club, Metropol, based on the lifestyle that was emerging.  “We were playing everything from Madchester stuff to Ministry, along with the amazing new sounds coming from Europe such as Guru Josh, 808 State and the whole Belgian New Beat movement.  Chicago House was also a staple.”  The club was a smashing success.  So much so, that Metropol couldn’t handle the demand, with long lines spilling out into the street.  Within a year it was clear that a bigger more advanced club was need.  That club, Evolution, opened in 1992 and was truly a game changer.  “The concept was to make the place look different every week.  Bars were moveable to create differing layouts.  All the walls were painted with white screen paint.  Every square inch was hit with some kind of projection; 32 slide projectors on an Apple II controller, four first generation LCD video projectors which showed music videos and fractal images, oldskool film loops and 3-D foam core cut outs.  The place was a total sensory overload with 8 EV 18” subs rocking the block.”

After a successful three-year-run, Evolution closed its doors and Marc Buxton changed his focus.  His next business would not play music, it would sell it.  “After putting my heart and soul into two nightclubs, I felt drained.  I realized that typical club shelf life of two years would make it necessary to be a perpetual club developer.  I was looking for something more stable.”  That stability was achieved with the opening of Marc’s DJ focused record store, Deep Grooves.  Deep Grooves was a DJ’s wet dream, offering a one stop shopping experience and providing a centralized meeting point which helped the entire scene grow and mature.

After a nearly one-year hiatus, Marc was itching to get back into the booth.  Unfortunately, the few clubs operating were less than desirable.  Marc approached the owners of an existing club, Sanctuary, with a complete redevelopment plan for turning the space into a major nightclub called Velvet.  “It was great.  They followed my plan verbatim, and I didn’t have to risk a dime of my own money.  I felt vindicated.  Of course, Velvet broke all the paradigms and lasted almost 10 years…”  But, Marc would only make it through half of that period.  The Windy City was calling and Marc was ready to make the jump.  Marc had already been playing as a guest at Shelter in Chicago on a regular basis before the move.  Shelter was being forced out of its space and owner Barry Paddor was making plans for a brand new club called Transit.  Paddor chose Marc to be Saturday night resident alongside Chicago legend John Curley. From there, additional residencies at Crobar, Soundbar, Y, Rednofive w/Pure and Zentra cemented Marc's Chicago presence. 

“My love of playing records is what does it for me”, according to Buxton.  “The other aspects of the business are satisfying, but nothing comes close to spinning”.  Buxton summed it up, “sophisticated concepts deserve sophisticated music.”


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