Alumni Snapshots: “Doing” The Clubs
Kris Murphy ’94 has been playing electronic music for four years, and as a DJ, he is making a name for himself in the mid-Atlantic and East Coast music scene.
Murphy, has played clubs as far south as North Carolina and as far west as Colorado, and performs regularly in front of hundreds in Washington, DC, and Baltimore. He has also been featured in URB magazine, a prominent, national electronic music news source.
The journey for Murphy began not with a turntable or sampler, but a much more traditional instrument.
“I picked up the guitar during my junior year and played mostly acoustic stuff—pop and folk,” he said. “After graduating I played in a garage band in DC and really started to experiment with different sounds via effects pedals and drum loops.
“Although I enjoyed playing and writing music on the guitar, everyone in my band either moved out of town or went back to school. Meanwhile, I was just getting introduced to the electronic music scene and I decided that I could create as much energy and significantly more interesting sounds with a pair of turntables, a mixer and a crate of records than I ever had with a guitar.”
Influenced by break beat producers and DJs like Photek and Roni Size, Murphy began experimenting, working hard at beat matching (syncing rhythms from two different records on the fly) and getting a feel for blending diverse pieces of music, sampling anything from Radiohead to Bob Marley. Friends loved what they heard.
“I went from spinning records in my living room to playing at house parties, and then to clubs in front of hundreds of people all within a year’s time,” Murphy said. “I never turned down a gig at a party or club no matter how small. I also distributed hundreds of demo tapes and CDs.”
Murphy credits his friends, including Ben Harris ’98 and Andrew Stein ’99, for helping contribute to his success with promotional efforts and events planning. Many alumni enjoy meeting up regularly at Murphy’s performances around the DC/Baltimore area.
Murphy's sets, which can run anywhere from two to four hours, are upbeat and high energy and keep you moving for the duration. He uses strictly vinyl in his performances, avoiding the sometimes glossy, overdone sound that goes along with CDs. He estimates he has about 2,000 records in his collection, 30-40 of which are rotated in a given night’s set.
“I usually know how I’m going to start a set, but where it goes from there is completely spontaneous,” Murphy said. “I like feeding off the crowd too. If I can tell people are getting down to certain types of records, I’ll give them what they want.”
Murphy has experimented with many different varieties of electronic music, but for the last year or so has focused mainly on “house,” an eclectic, up-tempo variety of dance music.
“I don’t think there’s another style of dance music out there that is as broad and diverse, yet distinctive as house. House music is an extremely positive form of music and it can be quite uplifting. Derek Carter, Halo Varga, Sneak and Terry Mullen are who I enjoy listening to the most.”
Murphy currently works for a marketing agency in McLean, VA, but still has time to play multiple shows per week, and is enjoying the opportunities that are opening for him in the electronic music scene.
“My plans are to produce a few tracks in the next year, record a mix-CD on an established label with broad distribution and to play at Buzz,” a weekly DC club night internationally known for hosting premier line-ups.
Murphy performs frequently at clubs in Baltimore including the China Room, Goodlove, and Latin Palace. In DC, he plays at MCCXXIII (where Michael Jordan has been spotted on occasion), Andalu, Five, Sesto Senso and The Warehouse. Murphy also created his own organization called Leisure Productions which helps promote dance music and dance culture in the DC/Baltimore area.
“We host a monthly club night in Baltimore on the first Friday of every month called Frequency, which consistently draws hundreds of people,” Murphy explained. “It features some of the finest DJs and producers on the East Coast.”
Murphy will have a website up by the first of the year that will feature dates, images, audio and other information. In the meantime, he can be contacted via e-mail at: frequency_crew@hotmail.com for updates and information on upcoming shows.
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