Clubs

Why go to Manhattan when it can come to Kings Cross? Time Out speaks to the men behind one of the Big Apple‘s legendary parties

Time Out: How did B&S come about originally?
In July 1996 John Davis [the behind-the-scenes promoter] and I decided to put a real simple party together somewhere on a Sunday morning (as it was originally) at a club that was called Vinyl at the time and we decided to make something which no-one was really doing in New York at the time which was really a very sort of low key, no-kind-of-pressure-or-anything, no dress code… like a sort of house party but instead of doing it in somebody's home we just did it in the club. We were thinking maybe 40 people were going to turn up, and I guess, er, they brought their friends (laughter all round) so it kinds quickly turned into something that was a bit away from the kind of heavy duty, do I look good? Am I dressed enough? Can I get in? Do I know somebody at the door? kind of pressure scene that was happening in clubs everywhere else. It was more about the music and the friendship…
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All of you were involved from day one?
Francois K: Er, Jo came on the third week.

And then that was all three of you?
Francois K: Actually, the first week it was called something else but we decided to re-name it and I decided to call it Body & Soul. So, yeah, you can say from the beginning, I don't know if it really matters…

Well, one week here or there over ten years doesn't make much difference.
Francois K: Right, exactly.
Joe Claussell: Also Francois did invite me before it got started but I just wasn't ready at the time so I came in three weeks later, that's all. I was there, in spirit anyway, right from the beginning.
Francois K: The whole thing was very casual in the beginning. It wasn't like, hey you want a job? It was like, hey, why don't you come down and bring some records? There won't be many people maybe but we're just going to have a good time. And the whole first summer was like that.

And did you feel that Body and Soul worked from day one? Or did it take a while to develop its style?
Francois K: It worked from the first record.
Joe Claussell: Once again, there was no plan. It didn't work in any other way than us playing music, like Francois said earlier, kind of like a living room environment, inviting our friends and it just built from there naturally. There was no concept of the success of it because it was not about success. It was simply about music, with friends, and having a lovely time together with music. That's all. From the very first record it was a success.
Danny Krivit: Success was just something that just kind of came in on its own from doing something that I guess people liked.
Joe Claussell: We didn't look at it being a success in terms of how many people or how much press it had. On its own it became naturally this huge thing that looking at it from the outside it may have seemed to some people trendy or a success in other ways, but for us, however many people were there, why it was successful was because it was that home that people came just to be with each other through music. It was just about music so regardless of whether there were just 30 people or 1500-1600 people; the vibe was actually the same.

And talking about the music, the sounds at B&S can range all over the place. I guess from classic disco to techno, from dub to R&B, Brazilian and Afro beat and yet collectively B&S has often been referred to as a spiritual house event. How do you feel about that?
Francois K: The spiritual thing is nice but I guess house music seems a little limiting. It's just music.
Joe Claussell: We were just about music. Unfortunately we can't control how the world wants to pigeonhole what someone does, you know. In our hearts it was just simply about music. There are three different DJs who collectively come from three different music backgrounds but also we enjoy the same kind of music as well. Each of us individually brought our own music, our rhythms that influenced us as we grew up. We brought all those different kinds of music. Once again we can't control how people want to label what we're doing, but it doesn't really matter to us. We didn't think about it that way, we just played music.
Francois K: I'm not sure why someone decided at some point that only specific sounds had to be played for a night because otherwise people would get confused maybe? I'm not sure why because it didn't used to be like that in the clubs. Today it's like micro-formatting, it's like it appears to be that way. Maybe it's the people thinking [puts on a silly voice] "Oh, this is a funky house night? Oh no it's, er, minimal." It's like what? I guess everybody has to be identified by a quick tag and if you don't have a tag people will get confused. But unfortunately, because we decided to do it like a living-room party, when you usually play at home you don't care, you just play what you want to play because it feels good.
Joe Claussell: Exactly. I think that it's the media. They look at us and they look at our backgrounds and they figured that FK and Danny had been involved in disco and house which were the two prominent sounds that were widely featured at the club, and then people started to label that and then there was a domino effect as other publications followed suit. A lot of journalists didn't come and find out what Body & Soul was like, they just read from another journalist what it was like instead of coming and seeing and feeling for themselves what it was like. A lot of those who did come didn't necessarily have the balls to write about what Body & Soul for what it really was. People need to take the time and have more balls to write things as they really are. People just label you because it's so much easier to do that…

Right, I hear you. Could I ask you does B&S mean more to each of you because it's very much a synthesis, a team effort in which you bring different styles to the turntables and fuse to become, if you like, Body and Soul? Does it mean more because it's a team and a joint effort?
Joe Claussell: I just want to add when you put the word ‘effort’. There's no real effort. Firstly it comes from love. I can speak for myself, I can't speak for Danny and Francois, but we love each other. There's a true love and respect for each other. And when we play, you know, there's no ego with it and it's just so simple. And the respect that we have for each other enables us to be free on our own but while being part of a team, and that's what's really special about what we do and for me that's part of the reason why I'm still in it because I just love playing with these guys and I love what they individually represent and what we represent as a whole.
Danny Krivit: I just want to say that what I would add to that when we started this it was remarkable how many similarities and (at the same time) how many differences there were between as, and how much music we all held. We came together and had this love and this sharing we really brought the magic of all this into one. I played with a lot of partners or other DJs before and some things have been very nice and you know, good friends and crowds of people, but I've never had this kind of experience where we really came together in this way with so much in each of just kinds of melts together. So many times for so many years at Body & Soul I've just felt 'Oh magic! Magic!' Like this mounts that. It really is wonderful. It is wonderful.

And it's obviously ongoing. Body & Soul is still happening. To some extent you talk about Body & Soul in the past tense because obviously it was weekly for six years at Vinyl but people have been coming to Body & Soul on an incredibly regular basis and regarding it with a near-religious fervour. Does that still happen now that it's a monthly party?
Jo Claussell: I'd like to ask Francois to answer that but it was six years or five-and-a-half or whatever at Vinyl. Arc was afterwards.
Francois K: They renamed it, only for a few months. It was Club Vinyl for five-and-a-half years. I kinda wanted to add to the previous question that although your question is asking about the three DJs. I think that when we talk about Body & Soul what happened is that as it progressed, besides the simple fact that there were three DJs playing the music, the most important aspect of all of this is that the community that formed around the party was so strong and so full of totally amazing people that it really helped forge a bond between many, many different people that came together. There has always been a great deal of diversity [at B&S], something that is most of the time, even in New York, very much unseen, and I think that in the end, besides the fact that we play music and so on, the real big story there is that we managed to foster and create growth, naturally. None of this was planned and it did not happen because we were having meetings, you know marketing meetings saying that we should be doing this and this and blah blah blah. It just happened very organically, very naturally that a community of people grew around the fact that they were not just able to come together every week and dance together but that they also became good friends and lovers and everything else…
Joe Claussell: Then they got married! (chuckles). We heard of quite a few marriages of people who met at Body & Soul.
Francois K: Yeah, and many times I think that that community became a very, very beautiful thing, a fact that I'm so proud of. If anybody is asking me what it really all meant in the end it's that that community once it was created it just refused to give up, even to this day. Like we just had a big big event two days ago [the launch party for Body & Soul Volume 5] and people will just come together any time we decide to do any kind of event. That community to me is the most important, the most meaningful part of it because it is the glue that brings it all together. I'm not sure that it really matters about, for example, the individual DJs and so forth as the fact that we were able to all come together as a group of people who seemed to all kind of more or less feel the same way about what we wanted out of partying and dancing together.
And again, the most significant part of it for me, at least when it comes to New York City, here, back home, is that we were able to have a very very amazing amount of diversity and it was not planned like that, it just happened. And the reason that that is important to mention is because that is what people tend to want to do on their own. It happened naturally, and we were just the recipients of such an incredible blessing that I think, no matter what, we should feel very very lucky that we were able to witness this and be part of it and help foster it and keep it going. I certainly hope that when we go to other countries somehow this can appeal to more than a specific group of people and help bring as great a variety of people together.

That's a very good point because essentially Body & Soul is about the people. When you take Body & Soul to other countries inevitably it's going to become something else, a different event, but you're still going to try and make it as authentic as you can and as close to the original experience.
Joe Claussell: We just go to wherever it is and do what we have done from the very beginning. We come together as a family and play music, undiscriminated, wide-open music. The dancefloor is open for anyone who is interested to come, just like those wonderful people who Francois correctly explained to you, who are the party. They came expecting just to come and dance together and have a good time and come together as one. We're allowing this to happen everywhere we go in the world and we're not coming with anything different than the love and respect that we have and the knowledge that we have of what music does in this world, and that's bring people together. And if people choose to come under the banner of love and respect for that unity in music then that's what we're there for. Don't forget that we have no grand expectations. We have been invited, we openly and happily have accepted the invitation to come and do what we normally do. Our hope is that like we have done naturally here in New York, is that we can spread that message of peace and unity through music everywhere we go, including our next journey to London in a couple of weeks.

Great. Well, of course this is going to be the Body & Soul experience in London. For many years B&S was on a Sunday afternoon and evening in a venue that didn't serve alcohol. Yet when Vinyl lost its licence I think you had more people coming than before, is that right?
Francois K: Well, I don't think that the fact whether there were alcoholic drinks served or not mattered very much by the point that the club lost its licence. There were only serving beer before but it was never about that. It was so secondary. It appears that the experience of just dancing together and just enjoying themselves so much was certainly more important than the alcohol. I hope that we're never identified with the kind of event where people go 'oh well, I'll go there because they have good drinks!' (laughs). Unless I'm mistaken, I don't want to say that we're trying to promote health or well-being or any of that new-age crap but it was really secondary to what was taking place on a social level and the reason why it was so strong as it was is that once this sort-of snowball phenomenon started happening is that people were finding out that there was this really special gathering of people where you could just feel really free and hang out without really worrying about what you looked like, about what you wore, or what people thought of you. Of course this is not something that we can entirely control when we go overseas but on a personal level (I don't want to sound like the spokesperson) I certainly hope that there are not any events that we organise or participate in where there's a dres code or anything of that kind of nasty attitude because we've always been very inclusive and welcoming anyone, as long as they were, you know, behaving themselves. Over the years of course we've had incidents where people sometimes get asked to leave because they were not behaving themselves but that's completely different to people coming to the door they are not looked at like 'Oh, what kind of loafers are they wearing? Does he or she meet the cool quota? Or 'oh, it's a group of three guys, we're not sure we can let them in.'
Joe Claussell: Or 'who do you know? Who do you know?'
Francois K: All these things are the kind of things that are contributing to the scene not being quite as carefree and relaxed as it should be. I think that starts with things like that sort of élitism, or when you get 'Is my name on the guest list? No, sorry, you can't come in today. I don't know, does that strike a cord with you?

Oh, absolutely. If people want to dress up, that's great. If they don't then that's great too, that's always been something that's important to me. We've all been turned away from clubs for whatever reason at some time, which can be very irritating and obviously it takes away from the positive experience that going out should be. That brings me on to something else. Was it important to you that Body & Soul appears to echo some of the seminal New York clubs like the Loft and the Paradise Garage in some ways?
Francois K: Of course. I mean we're all children of the Loft and the [Paradise] Garage. There's no question. I don't want to speak for Joe and Danny when I say that…
Danny Krivit: You can speak for me. I used to hang out with Francois and talk music so I know we'll agree.
Francois K: Joe?
Joe Claussell: I've never been to the Loft but I'm definitely more of a child of the Paradise Garage.
Francois K: Well, I saw your ass at the Loft.
Joe Claussell: Yes, but not in the early days. What you guys got from the Loft that was so powerful. Well, I got there late, but I do understand that there was a history at The Loft, however I was more of a devotee to the Paradise Garage. It was one of those places, those club environments that changed my life.
Francois K: Obviously there is no question that these two events that you mention – and bear in mind that the Loft was not a club, it was David Mancuso's home, where he invited people, so those events were really what inspired a lot of people here in New York and even elsewhere because it gave them a blueprint, it gave them a template, something to even think that was possible whereas before no-one would have had that idea where you could have groups of people from all walks of life come together peacefully for the purpose of dancing and listening and enjoying music together. In 2007 when everything is on cyberspace and you can just click on to hear somebody's latest mix or hear a tune that came out in Japan yesterday, it feels different, but it was all new and much more underground then. The release of all these people getting together and growing into amazing communities – again, we never even thought about it but obviously this is culturally where we all came from, the point of reference, and I think that some of the people who came to our event, especially in the beginning, were also part of that same core group of people and they already knew about this, so it all kind of fit naturally. It just kinda kept going in the same direction. People knew that it was about enjoying the music and listening and experiencing this sort-of very peaceful togetherness, this joyful celebration, becoming one. And yeah, there's no question, I would be very proud if someone quoted us as being part of that (laughs).

One message I'm getting loud and clear is that you don't need to hark back to a golden age of disco or nightlife, this is a golden age when you have that special feeling week after week or month after month…
Francois K: Definitely.
Joe Claussell: Yes, I definitely agree. But I just want to add that when looked at Body & Soul and being part of this amazing thing or whatever I personally never thought about these clubs of the past. We were part of something, obviously, but we were the core of something in the future and the present of what we were doing. For myself it was a whole new experience. My true birthday as a DJ came at Body & Soul. I mean I'd done a few things before that, but my true birthday, being a resident of something, came at Body & Soul. And so I was completely overwhelmed by being part of such a beautiful concept. At the time I never really looked back at the Paradise Garage or the Loft or whatever, I was just really appreciating from that moment on. As Francois mentioned there were a lot of people there in the beginning who had experienced The Loft and the Paradise Garage one of the profound things it however is that we were able to be part of that, but in our own way, which was really natural. Through that were able to expose that feeling to hundreds of people who never had the chance to go to those clubs. I mean to me Body & Soul represented freedom, and it just opened a gate where people from all over the world who were interested, to the point of just coming to New York City and putting Body & Soul at the top of their list of things to do, to come and experience this magic that, as Francois said, the people had created. In itself, this was something different, being a part of something much bigger. And to me, as a whole what's much bigger is music. Besides the Garage and the Loft we all come from a very diverse musical backgrounds. When I think of myself personally, and where I got my musical knowledge and the excitement of music, so once again being part of this beautiful thing was really something new and I'm very grateful to have been part of it.
Danny Krivit: Yeah, when Joe said about magic I feel like the things you mentioned in the past really stuck out as magical as people got together and felt music was magical which is a great thing to come together and experience. With Body & Soul we all felt that music can be so magical, it's not necessarily what needs to be done or whatever people are doing…
Joe Claussell: Exactly.
Danny Krivit: It's such a great thing to come together and feel the magic with friends, people who feel music is magical. It doesn't necessarily have to be like something else, it's not looking for drinks or whatever or trying to meet people it's just what the music is doing to you in a magical way.

Time Out: Just a couple of days ago ago you had a Body & Soul party that was the launch party for the latest Body & Soul compilation.
Francois K: Yes, we were going to do a party anyway but it just coincided at the same time. We just finished this compilation a little way back and it's just coming into the stores now. There's been a bit of a hiatus since the last party we had but it also happened to be the 4th of July weekend which is is a holiday for us in the US and it was an incredible event. It was in a bigger space than we've ever done in New York before. We had about 2,000 people which is bigger than we've been used to but it came off. It was really incredible because sometimes in the bigger rooms you tend to lose some of the intimacy that you're used to having but for some reason it didn't seem to bother anybody and people were having the time of their lives.
Joe Claussell: I'd just like to echo what FK said. It was an amazing party. This is what the power of music has created. Each time we hold a Body & Soul event though it's in a different time it's like the feeling in that room is pretty much the same, just as powerful. Things can change but there's always love in the room; it's like every individual that comes is a family member, and they have a certain care and appreciation and love for the whole thing. Myself I went on the dancefloor and did a little dancing and you could feel the love, it's so incredible and it's just amazes me that this has been maintained through all this time. It's just beautiful.
Danny Krivit: It was a bit larger but it didn't feel that way. The set-up was similar to Vinyl.

And where does Body & Soul go from here? Will it be a monthly party or a sporadic affair?
Francois K: At this point we're debating what we're going to be able to do as the venue we just did, Studio Mezmor (which was used to be the Crobar) has just closed. It could well be a good venue for us but it's just been taken over by the Miami club, Mansion, and they have plans to change it around so we'll see what happens. It's really important for us to find the right venue for Body & Soul, so we can't really comment on this yet but I'm sure we'll do more events in the near future…