DJ Sneak
It's quite surprising how much can change in a year. When I last interviewed Sneak just over twelve months ago he was still rattling out records for Chicago's celebrated Relief imprint and he wasn't all that well known over here outside of a few select circles; a year later Relief's star has fallen somewhat while Sneak's ascent has been the total opposite - to the point that he's now accepted as one of Chicago's true wunderkind, he now works extensively with Roger Sanchez, and he's been chosen to headline Cream's tour of Australia.
Some people should be so lucky.
Sneak began his career DJing in Chicago in 1986, beginning as a mild-mannered and undiscovered bedroom DJ for several years before getting the chance to go out and play his wares to an audience. Then came his own short-lived label called Defiant Records. Sneak's first major foray into producing came through this outlet; called 'Sneaky Tracks Vol. 1', it went on to sell over 7000 copies. "After a couple of records through Defiant, I just kind of pumped into Cajmere [aka Green Velvet]. We talked and stuff, and after that I got my first deal. That was through Relief."
At the time Relief Records was the shining light of Chicago's resurgent house scene, pumping out classic tracks by producers like Green Velvet, DJ Rush, Glenn Underground, Lester Fitzpatrick and DJ Spookie, but over the past twelve months things have changed as Sneak explains: "I personally haven't done anything with Relief for awhile - the last thing I did for them was the 'Blue Funk Files'. I really don't know what's going on there because I haven't been home for awhile," he muses. "They used to be on top . . . I don't know what the deal is there."
The name 'sneak' is a bit of an unusual moniker, more likely to infer a character in 'The Pink Panther' than one of Chicago's top DJ's. So where did he get the title- "Sneak-" he muses. "Hmmm, Sneak was my tagging name when I used to be a graffiti artist, but I grew out of that - I was getting into trouble and my mom wasn't really down with that."
Sneak's soundscape is as charismatic and elusive as the man himself. His early work was best portrayed by stark and repetitive, bass-heavy tracks that each etched out their own inroads into the hard house ideal; these tracks explored an extreme, sometimes brutalised house ethic with the occasional machine-gun drum pattern and abrasive synths where funk, samples of old disco riffs and distortion worked together in a realm that could make you feel it was house music in search of an audio strait-jacket.
A year later, what's changed- "Oh, it's still the same old funky house with Chicago-style beats; I've just been working with a lot of other people, stuff with the S-Men [alongside New York icon Roger Sanchez and prot�g� Junior Sanchez] and Armand Van Helden, Dajae and Eric Morillo . . . it's opened my mind to a lot of things and I've been working hard, you know- . . . I'm still doing disco-style sounds but not so much. I want to take it to the level where it's a song rather than just a track."
Remixes are something DJ Sneak has excelled at, along the way putting through his own mixing wringer people as diverse as Dajae, Green Velvet, Cool Jack, Dave Clarke, Tori Amos, Josh Wink, Wild Child and Martin Damm (aka Subsonic 808). "The remix stuff has been really coming through," he advises, "and I like doing harder house but vocal tracks as well." So what is it about the process that appeals- "I don't know - I've got to like<
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