BIOGRAPHY - DJ PIERRE DJ Pierre is the producer’s producer. From the seminal acid of Phuture to the development of the highly influential Wild Pitch sound ignited by Photon Inc’s Generate Power in 1991, Pierre’s groundbreaking ideas have acted as inspiration for a myriad of other producers, for the Italians who copied the grand piano sounds of Phortune’s ‘String Free’ and for Junior Vasquez, DJ Duke and London’s own X-Press 2 and Farley & Heller, all of whom developed their own strains of Wild Pitch.

Of the original key movers on the Chicago scene, perhaps only Steve Hurley and Frankie Knuckles have gone on to achieve greater recognition after their initial success, but where they became enveloped with the majors, Pierre kept the heart of the underground, developing the moods and textures of early acid. Since his early ‘90’s renaissance, Pierre has built up a formidable catalogue of both productions and remixes for the likes of Yo Yo Honey, Lil Louis, Rupaul, Michael Watford and the Pet Shop Boys, and was a key producer for the legendary Strictly Rhythm label during its heyday in the 1990’s.

Though Pierre’s trademark DJ style, which encompasses everything from early Chicago acid and Detroit techno to current garage, house and hard house, continues to be much in demand all over the world, playing regularly in the UK, Germany, France and Italy as well as across the US. Fired up once more by the success of The Don’s The Horn Song in 1998, one of the records that truly blew away the Miami Winter Music Conference that year, Pierre has maintained his reputation over the last few years as one of the most consistent of the original house music producers with Wet Dreams (Nu Camp), Free For Life (Azuli) and Switch 2001 / R U Ready (King St) and Good Luv (King St).

Pierre debuted for Essence in 2001 with Everybody Dance (Clap Your Hands) by DJ Pierre and Marshall Jefferson featuring Janine Cross, (incredibly the first record on which he and Marshall Jefferson worked on together since Acid Trax) a big room vocal version of Clap Your Hands originally released on Strictly Rhythm. Now he’s finally ready to unleash the follow up, This Is House, a monstrous floor-shaking groove that pays tribute to the founding fathers of house music via a thundering spoken word vocal. This Is House is a taster for the first essence compilation, the essence files volume 1, a double CD release with the first CD mixed by Pierre and the other showcasing original 12” mixes of the labels best releases by the likes of Full Intention, Inaya Day, Kathy Brown etc.

DJ Pierre also heads up his own DJP Records imprint. Originally through Strictly Rhythm, the label is now distributed by essence, and has scored notable club hits with Get Ya Buzz On featuring Byron Stingily and Paul Johnson, and Put Ya Hands Up featuring Felicia, a big Ibiza hit with Roger Sanchez last summer. And just bubbling up now is DJ Pierre featuring Erica Darden’s Nobody But You.