DJ Feature:
Kai Alce
BIO
Kai Alcé is a prime example, someone who witnessed the genesis of Detroit’s electronic musical landscape and strives to keep that spirit alive. For him it is imperative to pass on the lessons he has learned, to create a space where deep soulful vibes can reverberate while honoring the African Diaspora roots of dance music’s culture.
Being of Haitian descent laid the foundation for his musical ear starting with his childhood in Queens, New York. Some of his earliest musical influences included his mother’s penchant for soca music and the distinct Caribbean rhythms of his culture. An appreciation of Jazz would be further guided by his father’s expanding audiophile home system. During the 1970s the kindling of Hip Hop and the heyday of Disco perked the ear of a young Kai while they were living in NYC. The Big Apple would remain a constant throughout his musical journey as the years went on, but it was the move to Michigan that ultimately shaped his artistic vision.
IG: @kaialce
SC: @kai-alce
Listen to Kai’s Series Shift all 7” vinyl 45s mix:
Tell us a little about yourself, where you're from, where you're based?
I'll say born in New York, raised in Detroit now I live and play in Atlanta, in Atlanta, you know? So that's why the record label was called N D a T L from New York, Detroit Atlanta.
How long have you been collecting records?
Wow. I've been collecting records probably about 30, 40 years, I guess. I started collecting records right before I left New York and then I just kind of continued when I got to Detroit. I think when I left Detroit, I probably lost a few, but now I probably have about, I don't know, maybe about 7,000, 10,000 records somewhere in there.
Do you remember your first record? Was your first record a purchase or a gift?
Something like Instant Funk, I Got My Mind Made Up. Somewhere in that era, you know? I remember buying Wikka Rap and Sugar Hill, all that kind of stuff. Somewhere in the late seventies.
What was the scene like in New York and Detroit at that time when you went from New York to Detroit?
I was young, I was probably about 10 or 11. So hip hop was just kind of becoming what it would be. I can always clearly remember walking home and seeing a Curtis Blow, performing at the park. I remember going home and then that being on the evening news, they're like, “Oh, this new music, is taking the world by storm, blah, blah, blah.”
Then moving to Detroit, would have been in the early eighties, we called it progressive. It was kind of like listening to, I guess, Euro dance and Italian disco type of music. So that was what was going on. And then, a couple years later house music came out of Chicago. And it changed my life.
“I just want them to feel better than they did when they walked in. If they had any problems they can let them go. You know what I'm saying? That's all I want.”
How would you describe your musical tastes? if you had to say something about it.
I have a friend that told me “Kai, your sound is like dirt.” He said like dirt, because it just was like dirty could be dirty. Otherwise it feeds the soul, like nutritious. I've kind of kept that, you know? That's hard to say. Just for the places that I've lived and experienced, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, as well as Chicago, especially back in the eighties and early nineties. You'd be very hard pressed to find anyone who's experienced those three scenes, let's say New York, Detroit, Chicago, thoroughly. You know what I'm saying? New Yorkers stay in New York and they don’t go anywhere. You'll meet people from Paradise Garage and they'll tell you how wonderful it was but that's all they know. Yes, from their perspective, that was that.
You'll meet people from Chicago and Detroit that have been to New York. You may meet people who've been from Detroit who went to Chicago, but you won’t meet that many people from Chicago who partied in Detroit. By no design of my own, it’s just where I was. I saw things like the Red Zone and Save the Robots in the World and all that kind of stuff in New York. I also saw the Music Box and Little Lewis parties. Hot Mix Five and all that kind of stuff in Chicago. Then being that I live in Detroit, I was right there in the hot bed while those guys were really making their identity. So it's funny just kind of knowing Derek May and Chez Damier. These were kind of people that I would see on a random Monday or Tuesday. Now they're like they're icons and foundations of what we know now.
What are your favorite digging spots, past and present? What's one of your favorite shops in each city?
New York, I always find myself going to A1. Back in the early nineties, I would kind of just run the circuit, Vinyl Mania, Rock and Soul Downtown, Eight Ball, you know? You would just kind of get on a train and just stop at each store. I think lately when I come to New York I always stop at A1.
In Detroit, the classic one would have been Record Time. Shout out to Mike Huckaby, RIP. He was working at that store. Since then, it's been Music and Melodies is cool. Detroit threads is dope now. My record shopping in Detroit is going by everybody's house. You know? Mara's house, Killer Kane's house. I know y'all got some records, come on now, give them to me!
Do you find yourself more attached to records based on the experience behind it or is it more about like the music?
I'm addicted to vinyl. It's a problem, a good problem. Which is fine even doing this 45 set, I tried to stay far away from 45s. Which I pretty much have done all this time while collecting. So I never really bought 45s. That's just a whole other rabbit hole to go down.
I think maybe about two or three or four years ago, I played some party with Jay rock and he rocked a whole dope dance set. Cause I was playing a house and I don't know if he did it because I was playing house. Anyway, he pretty much wrapped this whole set of like, you know, just dope stuff on seven inch, I was dancing. I was like, “Oh, I didn't even know they put that on 7 inch.” So after that I kind of just caught the bug.
Seven inches back then were very limited. They were only for songs that became like major hits. So it wasn't going to be like in the infinite amount of classic house, seven inches out there. There's going to be a finite amount of it. So I was like you know what, “I'm going to get all the house seven inches.” I did that, moving forward. That took me about two years, but after two years I got all the classic ones that were made back then. I got some of the newer ones as well, but if there was a classic house song on seven-inch, I've got all the good ones. Cause there were a couple of ones where they might've put on seven inch, but it was like the wack mixes. They weren't worth it, but all the cool house, seven inches, I think I've collected them all.
If you get a record from a special collection that someone is letting go or maybe from an experience, do you find yourself attached to a certain record?
No, I just love my records. I mean, I have records that are Holy grails, I guess, but I don't always go back to them. It's just good to know that I got them, you know?
You started posting on your Instagram and you're like, I just started collecting 40 fives and I'm gonna do these mixes hit me up. And he was like, we got to hit him up.
So with the mix, the only reason I didn't put a lot of the house classic things on because it would have just sounded like house music on 12 inches. I tried to kind of just expand into the other seven inches that I have bought and play some house stuff.
After I collected all the house, I bought a lot of Prince seven inches. Then I bought when you gotta rock that one, classic set of all the hits. The Michael Jackson's, the Luther Vandross’s. So if I need to do a barbecue set, I got all the seven inches. Yes. that's my house collection or my seven-ish collection. I got classic house. I got some classic R&B, some Prince and then I buy new seven inches when it comes out.
You've actually put out one or two, 7 inches on your label as well, yeah?
We did the Andre’s remix and the remix on Feeding. Then I think the very first special edition was on 7 inch. Which has turned out to sorta be like a tradition. When I did that party, I think it was Second Deep Detroit. I had Theo and Larry Heard play.. So, you know, just for shits and giggles, I was like, “Yo, y'all give me a track. We're going to put it out on a seven inch.” So we had one track on one side and two tracks on the other side. The pricing was horrible. It was just sorta a novelty. I was just like, “Alright we're going to sell them at the party. Larry and Theo was like, “all right, cool.” I remember my sisters going around the party, holding them up, like cards, saying “records, records!” People were buying them.
I think that Monday we just happened to be looking on Discogs and somebody was selling it for like a hundred bucks. I was like, “Oh, fuck. I got something here.” From that point on we raised the cost of the record. Then it just came in a whole other thing because then I was able to pay the DJs more. I gave them the records each, every year I always give a stack of 100 to each of the artists as well. So not only am I selling them, they're selling them. They can either selling for 20 bucks or they can sell them for wholesale to some of the record stores. So that's how some of them ended up in the record stores afterwards. It kinda exacerbates their DJ fee.
I forgot who it was, maybe Galcher? I think Galcher was on one. I was like, “Oh yeah, you could sell those records for 20. And he's like, “What?!” Then he sold like half his box to one distributor. He tried to take it to places in New York. He said nobody would buy it. I think I gave him an email to Phonica. And they bought like half the box. Algebra Miller, same thing. I think when I did one with algebra, he was like, “Hey man, can I get another box?“
NDATL, how did it come about with you starting it? It's gotta be one of the most consistent, prolific house labels since its creation. I mean, so many records!
Luckily I have great friends who make great music, that's always helped. I guess after I put out something on Moody Mann's label, put something out on a Fresh label or actually bread label first, then Kenny's label maybe did one or two things for an import label from Europe or Real Soon. I felt like I was just kinda sending my music. I didn't make music that was going to come out on the labels that were kind of already out. I couldn’t necessarily give a bunch more to Kenny or Theo cause they got their own sound within their labels, you know? New York labels have their sound.
I just said, I'm going to work on starting my own label. Just kinda like Brian did at Made. Try to make a bunch of tracks so that if the first 12 inch did well then I had music to put out right afterwards. And the first one did do well. Which I'm actually reissuing right now. I'm waiting to come back. It remastered, it sounds a lot better. Then I think I put out Power Through. I think number three was something else that I did. Then the fourth one was the first record that I put out which was Somebody Else, which was comedic, I got lines, because before that most of the stuff was tracky or instrumental.That was like my first vocal record and it did real well. Reached out to Spinna, Spinna gave me a remix.
Then I think somewhere around there is when I started doing the music Institute Series. From that point on, it was kind of a smoother sailing because I always had production. By this time I'd already probably reached out to the people who you ended up seeing on the label like, Brett and Larry heard. Everybody I asked were friendly enough or offered. You always gave something, whether it'd been a remix or whatever. Finally a little bit after that I felt stable enough to like start trying to showcase new people.
That's why I got the Stefan. What else did we end up putting out? We ended up putting out some vocal stuff with Miranda Nicole. It's really been a great journey. I'm just grateful for how things are falling into place. I think the label doesn't necessarily stick to one sound except for a good sound. Some of the stuff can be techie. Some of it could be melodic. I tried not to stay in one lane too long. I try to keep everything drawn.
How old is the label now? When did you start it?
2008, so 13 years.
Some of the stuff you put out have different aliases or they end up showing up as different aliases, you have like the Distinctive Kai vocal records, like distinctive vocal edits.
Distinctive was the night or the name of the night that I used to have at Sound Tape. So I just always remember back in the day, everybody kind of always had a name for their mixes.
Let's talk a little bit about the mix that, that you put together for us. Now, where was it recorded? What was, what was the vibe?
I was just trying to show the diversity of what 45s I have. Not so much my musical taste. I guess it's all my musical tastes since I bought them. I tried to give a little boogie, classic r&b and then moved into some house. That's pretty much what I had got. Right? I'm not like Spinna or Kenny Dope where I got crazy breaks, you know? Every now and then I'll do a 45 show on my Twitch. I can say being a 30 year, 40 year veteran DJ, I'm not comfortable playing seven inches. For me it's kind of stressful. But it keeps you on your toes. So the challenge is great.
You recently started a sunglass company. How'd you decide to do that?
I've always been known for my eyewear. I probably have 45 pair of different glasses. Over the years some people were just like, “Oh, you need to do your own!” At first it just seemed really far-fetched. It's one thing to buy some glasses that are already made and then put your logo on them. It’s another thing when you're trying to actually design them, you know? We were just going back and forth. Luckily I have friends that helped with startup companies doing that type of stuff. I have been working on it, from 2018 into 2019 and then 2020 in the very beginning when I first got my first like prototypes back and stuff like that.
By May or June I was like, “Okay, cool let's go ahead and do this!” Then COVID hits! Part of the selling point was “Kai Alsace Eyewear, established 20 20” you know? For 20, 20 vision. Oh, this is perfect! And then COVID hits. I was like, yeah, no, this is not perfect. A friend of mine, OSHA. I remember he showed this meme of this guy looking outside the window, real somber or whatever. The meme says, “I picked the wrong year to get my shit together.” Everything was shut down. Which kind of pushed back, cause I kind of sat on my hands for a little while. I was like, you know what, I’m either I'm going to do it or I'm not. So I did it. It seems to be selling pretty ok. I mean I've gotten great support from the community and just random people as well. I'm happy.
You played so many parties over the years in so many different places. What one of the most memorable moments or parties that you played over the years?
I remember playing at Berghain one time and I'm playing a song called The Light. This might have been my first time playing there. I wasn't aware that they can open up the shutters and they open up the shutters and people went bananas! They couldn't take it. It's a Ralf Gums, it's like some, some, and “the light”. And when they open up the shutters everybody was just like what in the fuck? I was like, “What, they opened the shutters?!”
Japan, Japan was dope.
Italy was always been very receptive and some of the smaller places, I think played in like Bresha or something like that. And I played in, well God, where are some other smaller cities. So those were really cool. Yeah. Those are some of the big ones I remember. Lots of the deep Detroit those are great memories for me.
What’s the scene like? It almost seemed like when you went to Atlanta, the house scenes grew. It seems like every house DJ that is a producer or is somehow connected to you in Atlanta.
Being a DJ I was real aggressive about trying to get promos. I worked at Satellite Records, there was a satellite here. When I used to send promos or people would get in contact with Satellite. I was the house buyer for Atlanta. Sometimes I bought stuff in Atlanta that I would end up having to ship to New York because New York didn't have that connection. I helped Scott Richmond when Scott Richmond was the owner of Satellite, the whole Detroit connection. So he ended up buying direct from them.
So funny enough Satellite would have been Juno. What Juno is today. If they would have learned to shut down the stores. If he would've just said, “I don't need brick and mortar” and just moved into a warehouse. He would have been Juno. Thats what Juno does they buy direct from the artists or distributors or whatever. And that's he wanted.. He would buy straight from artists, straight from the labels. Again, that helped me with all the connections I ended up having. Cause again always traveling to New York. When I traveled to New York I was too nervous to pick up promos or Eight Ball to pick them from. They knew who I was.
What is something that you want people that hear your music or come to see your play. What is something that you want them to think or feel? What's the message you want to get across with music?
I just want them to feel better than they did when they walked in. If they had any problems they can let them go. You know what I'm saying? That's all I want. I remember a girl telling me how one time she walked in and right before she walked in the party she was told her grandmother passed away. She was like “I was kind of in a funk. I was ready to go because I was kind of debbie downer.” Her friends told her just have a drink if you want to leave, we'll leave. And she was like,” I got caught up in the music and I totally forgot what had happened.” It got her mind off of it. Those types of things make it worthwhile, a hundred percent.
House in the Park, maybe 2010 or 2015. I remember playing Masters at Work, Can't Hide Love, this edit that I have of it. When I tell you, it's online, you can look it up on YouTube. Can’t Hide Love, House in the Park. It will pop right up. You're talking about 8,000 people in harmony singing that song. And yeah, it was crazy. I don't think I'll ever be able to top that. You know what I'm saying? It was just like, as soon as the beat hit, everybody, parents, kids! That was a moment. Anybody who was at that house in the park will tell you, they remember that!
Anymore questions? You got Kai's first and probably last 45 mix. The first one that is ever out there, you know?
Kai Alce Series Shift Track List:
L J Reynolds - Trust In Me
BB Boogie - Reach Out
Rodney Franklin - The Groove
Ilevel - Give Me
Montana Sextet - Heavy Vibes
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - Let The Beat Hit Em'
The Blackbyrds - Rock Creek Park
Running Away
Booker T & The MG's - Melting Pot
Atmosfear - Outer Space
WAR - Galaxy
Incognito - Parisienne Girl
Skyy - Here's To You
John Beltran - As The Sun
Antonio Energy - Organic Energy
Nu Guinea - Amore
Session Victim - Good Intentions (live at Jazz Cafe)
Louie Vega - Montana's Groove
Mental Remedy - With More Love