François Kevorkian


François Kevorkian, also known by the stage name François K, is a French DJ, producer, remixer and record label owner of Armenian descent and based in the United States of America, who started his career DJing in clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54. Kevorkian has produced and remixed work by a diverse range of musicians including the Smiths, Adam Ant, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and U2, and is considered one of the forefathers of house music.

Biography

François Kevorkian was born and raised in France, with Armenian heritage. He played the drums in his adolescent years.
He moved to the United States in 1975. At that time the competition to be a drummer was very high, so around 1976 he became a DJ in underground clubs in New York City. DJing soon became his full-time occupation, including some work at more commercial venues such as the club New York, New York in 1977. He taught himself tape editing and started making disco medleys, such as Rare Earth's "Happy Song". He was offered a role in A&R for a nascent dance independent record label, Prelude Records, which allowed him to go into the studio and do remixes. His first remix, of "In the Bush" by Musique, became a club and radio hit, and was followed by further hit remixes including "You're The One For Me' and "Keep On" by D-Train, and "Beat the Street" by Sharon Redd. He left Prelude in 1982, and in the same year had the most #1 singles on Billboard's Dance Music Chart, including his remixes of tracks such as "Situation" by Yazoo, and "Go Bang" by Dinosaur L.
Kevorkian also performed as a DJ at Club Zanzibar in Newark, New Jersey during the 1980s, home to the "Jersey Sound" brand of deep house or garage house.
During this time he began building his own recording studio, Axis Studios, in the same building as Studio 54. The studio soon became a major commercial operation. He stopped DJing around 1983 to focus on recording and mixing full-time, but started again in early 1990. Due to the new international popularity of dance music, he gained exposure overseas and began performing abroad. He toured Japan with Larry Levan in 1992 on the 'Harmony Tour' before Levan's death in November that year, and also appeared at London's Ministry of Sound and Fabric, Japan's Spacelab Yellow, Ibiza's Pacha and Space, Italy's Angels of Love and many large festivals.
In 1995, he started an eclectic independent record label, Wave Music, on which he released his own work, including the FK-EP, as well as records by Abstract Truth, Floppy Sounds and other electronic music releases. In 1996, with partner John Davis, he launched Body&SOUL, a weekly party held every Sunday afternoon at Club Vinyl, 6 Hubert Street, playing alongside co-resident DJs Joaquin 'Joe' Claussell and Danny Krivit. The 'Body&SOUL' sound, a soulful mix of organic and spiritual dance music, led to the release of a compilation series by the same name.
He continued his career as an artist, returning to a more electronic sound, and the release of his Sonar Music set in 2002 marked an edgier and more futuristic style, more closely related to Techno and Dub than the House sound he was identified with as a DJ. In 2002, he also started touring with Derrick May, playing sets together as the Cosmic Twins at Berlin's Tresor, Manchester's Sankey's Soap and London's Fabric. Kevorkian released a new compilation CD in 2006, entitled Frequencies.
In April 2003, he started a residency at a new weekly Monday night event in New York City called "Deep Space NYC", an eclectic night focused on dub music and related styles. He mixed Deep Space NYC Vol. 1, a compilation featuring several of his own productions, along with Jamaican dub reggae and roots reggae artists Mutabaruka and U-Roy. Kevorkian's work with U-Roy was co-produced in a discomix style with British roots reggae and dubplate artist, Russ Disciple of The Disciples. He also provided remixes for Moloko, Yoko Ono, Cesária Évora, Nina Simone, as well as for his own label. In 2005, he was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame as both a remixer and DJ.
Kevorkian has subsequently performed at events around the world, including Midem, Sónar, Global Gathering, Exit Festival, The [Big Chill (music festival)|The Big Chill], Bestival, The NYC Downlow at Glastonbury and Electric Picnic.

Wave Music

In 1995, François Kevorkian founded Wave Music, an independent dance music record label headquartered in New York City. Its catalog features a wide spectrum of musical styles by many different artists, as well as several compilation series, such as Body&SOUL-NYC, Deep&Sexy, Bossa Mundo, and Frequencies. Over the years, Wave Music has launched a variety of imprints such as Wavetec, clicktracks, Wave Classics, Streetwave, and Deep Space Media. As well, it distributes other independent labels such as Chez Music and Bombay Records.
Some of the artists that has been signed to Wave are: Abstract Truth, Boyd Jarvis, Fonda Rae, Kevin Aviance.

Selected discography

As an artist

FK-EP (Wave Music) 1996