Green Velvet’s mission from God
26/10/2006

“I didn’t give up drinking when DJing overnight but I prayed to God to help me and eventually I got to the place where I managed it. Then there was another strange episode which happened when I was doing some drugs. I was smoking some marijuana and doing some mushrooms, which I’d done before so knew what to expect, but this time I had almost died. This happened when I was in an apartment, I think someone put GHB in my drink. I felt like I was dying so I prayed to God, saying ‘God please don’t let me go out like this’, and ‘God, what about the fans?”

Chatting down the line from his Chicago headquarters, house / techno icon Curtis Jones (aka Cajmere aka Green Velvet) laughs uproariously as he recounts his conversations with God, though is simultaneously deadly serious.

“I said ‘God, I know you are not going to have me going out on an OD (overdose)’; that’s what I told him. I said ‘God, if you save me, if you spare my life this time, I promise I will turn my life around and people will know that I have changed and I will do right’. That’s what I did and that’s the prayer that I prayed, and that’s how I am today; I do my music differently now, because I made that vow.”

Famed for his house persona of Cajmere as much as his techier alter ego Green Velvet, Curtis’ biggest success remains his anti-ecstasy song La La Land, inspired by his own brief, largely negative experiences with the drug.

“The thing that I realised about ecstasy is that it’s a dangerous drug,” he explains.

“That’s why I did the song La La Land as a warning for people because I had a lot of friends who had got to a place where you could say they were addicted to it but at the same time it was hindering them on a mental level. My whole thing was I was trying to do a song so that people would hear it and sort of turn away from doing it. I’m being honest, that’s all I can do.”

Religious ecstasy talk aside, Curtis is chatting to Skrufff today to promote his new double mix compilation for Ministry Of Sound, Cajmere versus Green Velvet: The Sessions, a schizophrenic selection he admits he did virtually live.

“The way it happened at the end, I was sort of rushed, I was very pressured to finish it because I had a deadline to meet. I didn’t have that much time at all, to be honest. It was a good thing because it forced me to get down to it and not over think it,” he says.


Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): I noticed you’ve got a Cajmere track on the Green Velvet CD and a Green Velvet track on the Cajmere one, is that because you didn’t realise?

Green Velvet: “I just noticed that yesterday so it’s funny that you mention it. I guess the message behind it would be it’s not like it’s some sort of battle or competition between the two, it’s all love. Anyway though the sounds are different they do overlap too. For the most part, if it‘s really housey, I’ll make it a Cajmere track or if it’s really hard techno then it’s definitely a Green Velvet, but sometimes there’s a grey areas where it can be either one.”

Skrufff: I remember seeing you perform ten years ago sporting a green mohican wig, how much are you dressing up nowadays?

Green Velvet: “I don’t dress up anymore at all, I just changed. Time brings about change, so I think all artists change with the years and that was a long time ago. I’m in a different place now than I was then.”

Skrufff: Looking back, why were you dressing up so extremely back then?

Green Velvet: “From the visual perspective I guess you could say I had a punk appearance, which came from the new wave stuff and punk influences that I had, plus the likes of Parliament. I was also a fan of David Bowie and he influenced me. At the time all those artists really influenced how I presented myself on the stage too.”

Skrufff: There’s a new remix of Play Paul’s version of La La Land out at the moment, which I’ve had a number of people tell me they think it’s you, what do you think of the Play Paul cover?

Green Velvet: “I just think it’s great that somebody liked the track enough to cover it.”

Skrufff: Would you play his mixes at all?

Green Velvet: “I think people would have a problem if I played it, because they would want to hear the original from me. Most of the time when I do La La Land I sing it anyway, I don’t really play it.”

Skrufff: Many US DJs have relocated to Europe in recent years, what’s made you stay based in America and Chicago specifically?

Green Velvet: “I love Chicago. It has advantages and disadvantages, like everywhere in the world. I’ve been everywhere and there have been times when I have wanted to live in a lot of different places, but I really love Chicago, so I choose to stay here. I can travel wherever I so choose.”

Skrufff: Sneak chatted to us recently about being delighted to leave Chicago, not least to escape the city’s gangs, were you ever affected by them?

Green Velvet: “I never had any trouble with gangs at all. my family is from the south part of Chicago which is the predominately black area of Chicago, but also I was from the south suburbs too – there are definitely no gangs out here. I grew up in a black suburb, but we had no problems, people would leave their doors unlocked. Thank God I’ve been in a very safe environment. And even though all my family and relatives live in the city I didn’t have any negative experiences.”

Skrufff: Do you go to the South Side much now?

Green Velvet: “I just saw my grandmother there yesterday. The truth is, in every country I’ve been to, you have your bad areas. I’ve haven’t been anywhere where there wasn’t a bad area.”

Skrufff: I read your Mixmag interview - one of the quotes from you is saying that you had a life changing experience talking to God? What happened?

Green Velvet: “Actually there is a series of events, to be honest and truthful. If people care to know or not, I don’t know. The truth is that it happened once when I had been drinking a lot. When I used to DJ in my earlier years I used to drink a lot. I got that from college where we would binge drink on the weekend. I would be playing but I would also be drinking. There was one time where I had been drinking and also feeling depressed when I heard a voice as clear as day telling me ‘You have to stop drinking or you are going to die’. I was like ‘What?’ I was in my hotel room when I heard this voice. I said ‘OK, I’m going to stop drinking while I’m DJing’.”

Skrufff: How long ago was this?

Green Velvet: “About four years ago.”

Skrufff: Have you had a drink since then?

Green Velvet: “Now I drink, I may have a glass of champagne or a glass of wine, but only every so often, like a couple of times a year.”

Skrufff: Have you become a born again Christian, are you evangelical?

Green Velvet: “I’m definitely Christian. I was born and raised Christian but nowadays they call you born again when you backfired then go back to the Lord but actually being born again is essentially when you first decide to seek God and the spirit. So being born again is being born into the spirit and no longer out of the flesh, because our first birth is the fleshy birth and the second one is spiritual. I was a lost sheep and I found my way back to the Lord.”


Skrufff: How has not getting drunk and being back with the Lord changed the way you DJ and the way people treat you in the club scene?

Green Velvet: “Well, my DJing has got a lot better because I’m a lot more clear when it comes to what I want to do and also it makes my DJ experiences a bit more intense, because I’m trying to get to this euphoric state, but just solely with the music. That’s one of the things that’s different. I’ve never been one to do drugs and stuff like that because I’ve always been sort of conservative on that level. I was 28 when I first tried marijuana, for example. I’ve never been someone who has been totally off their head.”

Skrufff: What made you decide at the age of 28 that you wanted to try marijuana, seems quite late?

Green Velvet: “Actually it was a stupid reason, it was mainly because at that time, people were like ‘Oh man, your music sounds like you are on drugs’ and everybody thought I was on drugs so I was like ‘really?’ So everybody was always surprised that I didn’t do drugs then one time I was with some girl and that was the first time I tried it. She said I was high but I was like ‘I’m just tired and I want to go to sleep.”

Skrufff: Were you disappointed with pot?

Green Velvet: “Very much so. Even then I didn’t really do it that much because I thought It was a waste of time.”

Skrufff: Switching tack a little, do you believe in aliens at all?

Green Velvet: “No, no I don’t. I think they are very entertaining but I think it’s total fiction- science fiction.”

Skrufff: What about ghosts?

Green Velvet: “I believe in spiritual stuff, I believe in angels and devils or demons or evil spirits.”

Skrufff: Do you ever come across true evil in clubland?

Green Velvet: “You haven’t got to go to clubland to come face to face with evil. You can walk down the street and see it. Evil is essentially just that which prevents or hinders a person from loving at all times. I’ve been on a plane and at the airport and seen it; there’s not a lot of love in an airport, especially when flights are cancelled. You don’t have to go to clubland to say that the devil is around. The world is not that great as far as I see it. That’s why people need to resist evil and do good.”

Skrufff: What clues should people look out for to see if they are going down the wrong path?

Gren Velvet: “Anytime you are in a situation where your mind isn’t focused on good thoughts and your heart isn’t really filled filled with love, that’s a sign to you. Little, easy obvious things - you got racist peopele in the world for example. If you thiunk that that’s justifiable, I would say that that person is in darkness. I believe that God created us all, so if you think one is more than the other then I would say you are deceived. You’ve got to have love in your heart….and just doing those things which you know you shouldn’t be dong, but you do them anyway, like married people having affairs and just lying and cheating and stuff…..when I talk to people I really don’t talk to them on a deep level because a lot of times they don’t want to hear it. They think you are preaching to them and also because there are so many different beliefs you just can’t start talking to anybody about something unless they are curious.”

Skrufff: Do you meet many other religiously minded DJs?

Green Velvet: “For sure, I do. I’m not the only one in this world catching hell. I just realised that. There are a lot of people who might be dealing with some things and stuff and don’t have the answers for them yet. I meet all types of people who ran to the lord with the gates of Hell biting them at the ankles. Sure, I’ve met a lot of religious DJs.”

Skrufff: Do you believe we are approaching end times, do you have any apocalyptic visions?

Green Velvet: “All I can say is that the word says that in the last days the hearts of the people will wax cold, so you would expect that in the last days the hearts of the people would be very very cold. I’m always optimistic, I try to be optimistic, but when I go out now I do see a some very cold-hearted people that I encounter. If that’s a sign, I don’t know, only God knows, but it just feels like we don’t have that much longer, because it seems like there are a lot more obstacles being thrown people’s way in order for them to walk in the truth and walk in love.”

Skrufff: What do you see as your purpose in life?

Green Velvet: “My purpose in life is to do good. That’s it. That’s all I know.”

Cajmere versus Green Velvet: The Sessions, is out in November on Ministry Of
Sound.


http://www.green-velvet.com