In the Fried Archives: Larry Heard
From 2016, the house music progenitor talks about the Warehouse, working at Social Security, being sampled (and not paid) by You-Know-Who, the second Fingers Inc. album, and more.
(This interview is compiled from three separate phone conversations for a piece for NPR.)
While Robert and I were recording “Bring Down the Walls,” the doorbell rang. We just left it in there. I had birds at one stage so we would always get birds in the recordings. It would give it a tropical flavor (laughs). Sometimes what’s outside becomes part of the elements.
There’s a lot to cover. Let’s start with the brand new stuff. You had 25 Years From Alpha. What made you go back to the Mr. Fingers name?
It just dawned on me I hadn’t used that moniker in a long time. I was doing more and more DJing things, since that clone I ordered hadn’t shown up yet. The DJ thing absorbed the time for everything else. There was little time and energy left to do creative things. Once I stopped DJing as much, which got downright dangerous in terms of my hearing.
What happened with your hearing?
I started playing drums back in 1977, so imagine how much sound pressure I’ve been around in those four decades. It finally started taking its toll. I thought things were wrong with the monitor speakers but it turned out it was my ears, trying to protect themselves. It was over the course of the past couple of years, 2010 and 2011 I noticed weird things, having to turn my whole body to have a conversation with people.
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