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Quentin Harris

Written by Jeffery Taylor

Some people are destined for greatness. With talent and drive, they accomplish things that others can only dream of. People like Quentin Harris. As one of today’s most respected producers and DJs, Harris maintains a hectic travel schedule that spans the globe while working with artists like Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, and Jennifer Hudson. Making music is something that Quentin Harris was born to do, and he spreads his joy to people on dance floors all over the world.

“Music was around me everywhere,” at his parents’ or grandmother’s, Quentin Harris says of his childhood growing up in Detroit. “From Ray Charles to classical—everything,” Quentin says. “We heard it all. I think that’s why I have such an eclectic mindset.”

His father and younger brother played trumpet; his mother played violin, cello, and French horn; his grandmother played piano; and his older sister sang in the church choir. So it’s no surprise that Quentin developed quite a penchant for music. When he was only five, he taught himself to play piano. Quentin didn’t have formal training until he was 12, when he was already playing Bach and Beethoven. Clearly a prodigy, he went through three piano teachers, because they kept making him play elementary pieces.

After his grandfather died, Quentin came across his father’s old beat-up trumpet from high school. His father bought him a trumpet of his own, and the two would have competitions. “Anything you can play, I can play better,” his father would say to motivate the young musician. They would play together; that is, until Quentin started to surpass him in skill level. “And he kindly put his trumpet down,” Quentin recalls, with a laugh.

When he was 13, his father bought him his first set of turntables. Unlike most kids his age, Quentin never wanted toys for Christmas or birthdays, but instead asked for records, radios, or other electronics. It was also around this time that he entered the recording studio. His uncle, who had a hip-hop group, would bring Quentin along to play keyboard lines on the synthesizers during their sessions. Before long, Quentin was telling the group what to do and directing them musically. “I didn’t realize,” he says now, “at the time, what I was doing was being a producer.”

By the time he started high school, Quentin was picking up other brass instruments with ease. He joined the orchestra and jazz band, and was even assigned a project where he had to score and arrange the parts for the whole school band. Quentin played keyboards in his own band as well, where he started experimenting with the sounds of hip-hop and R&B—before they had truly emerged on the scene. “It's always been my mentality, even to this day,” Quentin explains. “I'm always looking forward and thinking ahead.”

Growing up in Detroit in the ‘80s, Quentin was heavily influenced by the sounds of pop and techno, which originated in the Motor City. He was glued to the radio. “Radio was very different when I was growing up,” he recalls. “The actual DJ was a DJ and not just a radio personality.” Hearing such influences as Prince and Michael Jackson as well as the electronic stylings of bands like Kraftwerk helped to shape the ear of the budding producer. “I guess it made me who I am today musically,” he says.

Motor City to NYC & Back Again

After high school, Quentin started taking trips to New York. “That’s really when I got the bug,” says Harris. “It was everything I liked that was being played in the clubs in Detroit, but on a bigger scale. I knew this was where I needed to be.”

The first DJ he heard in New York was Junior Vasquez. “It was mind-blowing because I had never heard records played like that before,” he recalls. “He took records and made them sing. He took records that I heard a lot and presented them in a new light to me—manipulating them, mixing them in a certain way, bringing them in and out, playing with people’s heads with music.” The second New York DJ that really opened up Harris was Timmy Regisford of Shelter fame: “He was just relentless. I never heard any spaces; I never heard any pauses; I never heard any breaks.”

Back in Detroit, Harris started working with Michael J. Powell, who produced Anita Baker’s three Grammy award-winning albums. He freelanced at Powell’s studio as a session musician for such artists as Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle. Harris got even more heavily involved with hip-hop, playing at open mic nights at The Hip-Hop Shop on 7 Mile in Detroit, where he met many of the emerging heavy hitters of the hip-hop scene, including Eminem and many of the other characters made famous by the film 8 Mile.

“The music scene in Detroit is very small, and I’ve had the pleasure of learning from and working with a lot of great people,” Quentin states. “But I always knew that, in order for me to actually do what I had to do, I couldn’t do it and still live in Detroit. I guess this may be my competitive nature, but I needed to be where everything was.”

Quentin was offered the position of touring DJ with The Masterminds, a local group for whom he had produced a number of tracks. After touring for a while, he moved permanently: “I literally took two suitcases—one full of records, one full of clothes—and got on a plane with a one-way ticket to New York.”

He started by working at Satellite Records, where he met many of the movers and shakers in the New York music scene. Among them was a manager, Marvin Howell, who assessed Quentin’s talent by giving him a CD full of a cappellas, which included the track “Ready for Love” by an artist named India.Arie. The remix that Quentin did of the song ended up in the hands of Timmy Regisford, who liked it so much that he asked to have a meeting with him. “That was the door opening,” says Quentin.

Quentin considers his big break, however, to be the remix he did of Donnie’s “Cloud 9.” He gave the record to Regisford who liked the record so much that he played it twelve times in one night. “That was the record that started the whirlwind,” says Harris. “There was such demand for it. Everybody was clamoring for it, everyone wanted it, and no one could get it. It was crazy.”

Quentin followed the underground success of “Cloud 9” with his epic remix of Mariah Carey’s “Don’t Forget About Us,” a 13-minute track that demonstrated Harris’ virtuosic production talents—and the track that catapulted him onto the gay scene. In 2005, his original track, “Let’s Be Young,” gave him widespread recognition across Europe, and his reinterpretation of the Leela James classic, “My Joy,” has become legendary. He also produced a remake of the ‘90s After 7 hit “Can’t Stop” with Jason Walker, which was recently nominated for an International Dance Music Award (IDMA) for Best House/Garage Track of 2008.

Keeping the Dance Floor Guessing

The records, although all produced by Harris, are all sonically different. “I do whatever I feel works with the song. I've never been able to confine myself to one sound, and I've always experimented with music and meshing things together. Just like if you hear me DJ, you’ll hear all different kinds of things. My music has always been like that.”

At a time when music is so accessible, and everyone is calling himself a DJ (including iTunes), it can be challenging for an artist with Harris’ musical background and talent. Promoters looking at the bottom line might be more inclined to hire a local iPod DJ to spin Top 40 because they feel that’s what the crowd wants. Harris counters that someone had to play Britney, Whitney, and Madonna for the first time when they were still unknowns.

He believes his job as a DJ, “first and foremost, is to entertain; then you have to inform the people and educate them.” He strives for balance in his playlists. If you hear Madonna in a club, you should also hear an unknown artist that you’ve never heard of. He believes that today’s DJs don’t take enough risks, especially since the average partygoer can download almost anything from such sites as Masterbeat.com and Beatport.

“It goes back to making the record say something,” he comments. Harris sees his job as finding the good stuff and using the most up-to-date technology to spin it in unique ways—just as he heard Junior Vasquez and Timmy Regisford all those years ago.

Harris himself enjoys a huge international following. He travels extensively to London, Frankfurt, Ibiza, and points beyond, including exotic locations like Estonia and South Africa. If you check out his numerous clips on YouTube, you can see how the crowds overseas idolize Harris like a rock star. They stare up at the DJ booth like he’s spinning straw into gold.

He credits his success to his production work. Although Harris has been making records for years, however, he just recently released his debut album, No Politics, on Strictly Rhythm. In addition to his recent hit “Can’t Stop” with Jason Walker, the disc also includes tracks featuring Colton Ford, Monique Bingham, and Byron Stingily.

Harris has also collaborated with House legend Ultra Naté and is currently working on an album with her. He is also putting together his second album, exploring new sounds to incorporate. If you listen to some of his latest tracks on his MySpace page, you can hear some rock elements blended with his trademark House beats. “Like Grace Jones said,” Quentin comments, “give them what they’re not expecting.”

Harris is also exploring the art of songwriting—the one area he has yet to conquer. He’d like to write his own material so that this next album can be a bit more personal. “I feel like I have a lot to say,” he says. “I can make you a fierce track, I can give you a fierce remix, I can produce you a fierce song, but I don’t write songs.” Not yet; Harris’ drive and musical talent will likely produce some future dance classics.

Although only in his 30s, in some ways Quentin Harris is an old soul. His music, though fresh and new, harkens back to the classic House sounds of the past. This is certainly just the beginning of a very long journey for this prodigy; Quentin Harris is sure to make beautiful music for years to come. We should consider ourselves lucky, for his music brings not only him, but all of us, joy.

See Quentin’s upcoming tour schedule and discography on his website at quentinharris.com, and hear some of his tracks on his MySpace page at myspace.com/quentinharris.

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