A Life With the Wave: Mike Huckaby Tribute Pt. 1
Carlos Souffront, Jeffrey Sfire, Chris Simmonds & 3 Hours of Huck Live from 2015
This is the first installment of what will be a multi-part tribute to Mike Huckaby. Friends, mentors and mentees were asked the same five questions in order to create a collage of Huck’s life, influence and legacy.
Mike Huckaby was many things to many people: taste-maker, educator, mentor, DJ, producer, friend. In his role as buyer at Record Time throughout the 90s and early 2000s, Mike determined what records made it into Detroit, shaping the trajectory of dance music during the city’s most crucial years. A staple behind the decks throughout the Midwest (and later Europe and Japan), Mike was one of Detroit’s foremost ambassadors to the outside world. His productions span 25 years and most genres in the Detroit canon. In the 2000’s Mike mentored a new generation of electronic music producers via the city’s YouthVille program.
These are the broadest strokes. They paint a crude picture of a profound, multifaceted life. No life can be reduced to words alone, but each of the below interviews projects an image of the man and his legacy. Considered together, they build a three-dimensional vision of the life of Mike Huckaby.
Carlos Souffront is a Detroit DJ now living in the Bay Area. Decades of scrupulous record buying have made him one of North America’s most respected curators and purveyors of dance music.
When and where was your first encounter with Huck?
Carlos: I met Huck in the 90s interacting with him when he was the buyer in the Dance Room at Record Time. Also, back then I would go hear him DJ at underground parties and as one of the weekly residents playing the upstairs Burns room of St. Andrew's Hall. Fridays were busy in those days. I would scrounge together whatever money I could and go to Record Time when their order from Watts would hit the Dance Room floor. Huck would always be behind the counter where there were turntables, and he would be playing his favorite new tracks, over and over, for friends and customers. Answering the phone in his unmistakable laconic way, "Dance Room!", taking special orders on index cards, answering the same questions for customer after customer like "You got that Chuck Chuck?". Huck seemed intimidating and short at first, but I think it was mostly that he was just busy trying to manage a thriving record-selling operation! When you think of how many years Huck kept that job at Record Time, coupled with how many who's whos of Detroit Techno worked and then soon didn't work there, it's clear what a magnificent job of it all he had done!
Then, later Friday night, I'd go hear him DJ in the Burns room at St. Andrew's Hall. He had this transparent way of mixing records where he would drop the new record into the mix live, so you would hear the first beat of the new record, and the lead-in to the hook and the records layered on top of one another. There was absolutely no artifice, no "hot mixer hands" but the effect was such that, just by watching him, you could come to fully understand the mechanics of how to DJ. And sure enough, he played that track you knew by heart from earlier that day in the Dance Room. Most of our early encounters were strictly employee / customer or DJ / fan, I wouldn't say we became friends until much later.
In the years since, and considering all aspects of the man and his various roles in your life, who is Mike Huckaby for you?
Carlos: He's an educator. But not in the annoying, pedantic way that's all-too-frequent in macho DJ culture. In the truest sense, where he modeled best practices, openly and readily sharing information, even with actual pupils in those last few years of his life. I also always saw him as a totem of good taste. He had such a refined sense of what was good. Whenever he shared music, you could hear exactly what it was he liked about it. You could also hear something and know instantly whether he would like it or not. That's not to say he couldn't ever surprise you though. His penchant for Sun Ra and metal, for example, were huge surprises to me.
Huck talking Stoner Metal and Sun Ra in his “What’s in My Bag” Interview for Amoeba
Is there a particular memory of Huck that encapsulates his importance for you?
Carlos: My most treasured memory of Huck was the last time we hung out together, summer of 2018. We spent a weekend in Madison for Fête de Marquette. Our hotel rooms were right next to each others’ and we just spent the whole time hanging out and talking about music. For a while after that, we kept in pretty regular touch, mostly sharing tracks we liked and thought the other would too and talking about favorite venues to play. There were a few times we crossed paths in different cities but weren't able to connect again. The thing that stuck with me the most about that weekend in Madison was how readily he shared what music he loved the most. He wasn't evasive about it, wasn't the slightest bit threatened by the thought of someone else knowing what it was or how he felt about it. But the thing was, he had always been like that, I just didn't realize because we hadn't really had that much time together without distractions before.
What is a record you will always associate with Huck?
Carlos: "The Garden of Eden (Serpent in the Garden Mix)". Whenever we talked about Acid House he always said it was his favorite track in that vein. I never heard him play it though, so it seemed like this thing just because he loved it didn't mean he would ever go there when he was playing. He was deep and multi-dimensional, more than he let on.
What is a record that you will always be thankful Mike hipped you to?
Carlos: Well he didn't exactly get me hip to it but Baby Ford "Headphoneasy Rider". Me, him and Derek [Plaslaiko] were together talking one time right after it had come out. When I first heard it, I was intrigued but found it somewhat baffling and impenetrable. We asked what Huck thought about it and he did that thing everybody knows about him: he would repeat his point over and over and over. "Maaannn, the rhythms on it are too close. The rhythms, they're too CLOSE." That album has since become an all-time favorite of mine and anytime I listen to it, I think "THE RHYTHMS ARE TOO CLOSE"!
Jeffrey Sfire is a Detroit DJ and producer who worked with Mike at Record Time as a teenager. Jeffrey's DJ sets a are a staple at Cocktail D'Amore, Club Toilet and other crucial queer parties.
When and where was your introduction to Huck?
Jeffrey: When I was a teen raver in the 90s I befriended Derek Plaslaiko who worked at Record Time, Detroit's most important record store for dance music then. Huck was the buyer there and we became buddies when I showed interest in a lot of house music Huck was into. One summer I worked there as a cashier and I was constantly picking his brain.
Is there a particular memory of Huck that encapsulates his importance for you?
Jeffrey: One day when we both were working at the record store we went out to lunch and when we got in my car a mix of mine was playing. He was so into it and leaned over and turned the tape player up so loud and was dancing more than I've ever seen him dance. He was like ,"This is you?!"
In the years since, and considering all aspects of the man and his various roles in your life, who is Mike Huckaby for you?
Jeffrey: He will always be a huge inspiration to me and my mixing style. His style of mixing was very much his own. Hearing him DJ would alway remind me to just do my thing, technique wise, and not to care about how other people are playing records. I once asked him if the WBMX was considered cool in his world and he replied, "Of course! Why do you think we would check for it on the radio when we drove to Chicago?" Looking back now there was definitely a Hotmix element to his technique.
What is a record you will always associate with Huck?
Jeffrey: Round Two “New Day” on Main Street Records.
What is a record that you will always be thankful Mike hipped you to?
Jeffrey: Round Two “New Day” on Main Street Records. "Jeff... Just buy all of them, Jeff"
Chris Simmonds is a London DJ and producer. Mike's first credits were a remix and co-production on Chris' "Work It" EP on Definitive in 1993. Chris' label, Cross Section Records, was a platform for his house productions and hosted Huck's classic "The Jazz Republic EP". Mike credits Chris as a mentor in learning how to produce.
When and where was your introduction to Huck?
Chris: My first contact with Mike was a phone call as he got my number from a mutual friend, Frankie Valentine. He wanted to order some records from me directly for his store Record Time. We discussed the trends of London & Detroit and I was very intrigued to visit the city myself. Mike was like “Well come over. You can stay at my place and we could do some production and a couple of parties in Detroit”. A few weeks later I was in Detroit, the first time ever visiting the US in 1993 for 3 weeks. I remember I arrived on a Thursday evening and he mentioned he was playing at a party in Canada that weekend. He had a friend that was going to drive and it was going to be around 4 hours. Typical Mike, so understated he never mentioned that the party was at the CN Tower with the top floor playing Techno and House in the basement.
I had brought a couple of unreleased tracks with me from London and he mentioned that he could hook up a deal with Definitive and do a remix of one the tracks "Work It". We drove over to Richie Hawtin’s studio and met with Jon Aquaviva too. The remix was recorded at the studio and the deal was done for The Chris Simmonds Project EP.
Mike had a studio setup at his home and we would work on a few things but Mike was frustrated with not being able to achieve what he wanted to get out of his gear. I showed all I knew in the time we had so he could start to get real value out of the stuff he had. Even after I returned to London we would speak on a regular basis about equipment, releases and everthing else in between. We became good friends.
Is there a particular memory of Huck that encapsulates his importance for you?
Chris: He stayed with me most of the time when he came to the UK and visa versa. He championed my music in Detroit, not as a favour but because he liked it. He was honest when it came to music. If he didn't like something, he would be straight up about it. If it wasn't for Mike I would not have played the legendary Motor Lounge and toured many parts of the US. I'm eternally grateful for his support. I’m saying that it worked both ways as I was always there as a voice of reason with his contracts and other industry issues too.
Huck loved my wife's cooking, she had a special chicken curry recipe that she would do when friends came and family came over. He would always ask if it was the menu for when he arrived. He alway used to say I can never forget the taste of it, and would eat as much as humanly possible.
In the years since, and considering all aspects of the man and his various roles in your life, who is Mike Huckaby for you?
Chris: Mike had this thing of knowing what style of music you liked and he would always be telling you about new tracks to look out for and he was always right. He had a great knowledge of music before he started to take piano lessons and studied synthesis. After that he rose to a whole new level and understood that if you couldn't play and understand what you're using you’re fighting a losing battle. The fact that he was then sharing this knowledge locally at YouthVille and globally with Native Instruments surely tells you what kind of person Mike was. To me he was great friend with a great sense of humour. The original Deep House Soldier!
What is a record you will always associate with Huck?
Chris: Stardust, “Music Sounds Better With You”. We were on tour in Vancouver and that track was everywhere – the most requested track at every party. I remember a guy walked up to Mike and requested the track while he was playing so Mike went through his vinyl pulled it out and gave it to him, and told him to take it home and play it. The confused look on the guys face I will never forget.
What is a record that you will always be thankful Mike hipped you to?
Chris: Kings of Tomorrow, “Fade To Black” and “The Invoice” by Kerri Chandler. Mike remixed "Work It" and we worked on "Club Trance" for The Chris Simmonds Project. Mike also remixed Alex Faith’s “3rd Hustle” and had his own 4 track EP for Cross Section, “The Jazz Republic".
Sincere thanks to Carlos, Jeffrey and Chris for the time and consideration they put into sharing their thoughts and memories of Huck.
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An audio addendum: I’ve uploaded a 3-hour set from Huck recorded September 2015 at Midwest Fresh, a series of late-night events thrown by Brian Cheng, Jed Fenton and myself in Columbus. From the summer of 2015 to June 2016 we sublet a 400-ish capacity steel box in the center of a derelict meat processing facility. We did our best to turn it into a proper warehouse rave-space with four corners of sound, acoustic treatment, a chillout room and a bar. Good times were had by many a dancer and DJ but the highest compliment came from Huck, a man of few words and high standards: “Man, that was a real fuckin party!”. Below is his set, released for the first time as part of this ongoing tribute series.
Great piece of content. I remember Mike telling me how Chris Simmonds was the ultimate producer and that he had learned so much from him directly. Awesome to hear it from Chris! Mad respect