The name of his website, SimplyCoolMusic.com, is a great description for Kerri Chandler himself. Touring the world with his love of soulful house music, he not only produces his own music but his own equipment setups. If you see him in the middle of the dance floor playing with lasers, don't be alarmed ? that's just how he does it. And for a taste of the finest quality house music, check out Kerri's new mixed compilation for Coast 2 Coast.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: I've been jamming out the past couple of days to Coast 2 Coast, enjoying it in the car.
Kerri Chandler: That's cool. That's the best place I think, actually, that's where I listen to a lot of my stuff too.

RS: When you start a project like this, how do you choose the songs for a compilation CD?
Kerri Chandler: I start with what I'm currently playing most of the time, unless they ask me to do otherwise ? say there's some kind of old classics kind of deal or something like that. I try to keep it balanced with enough vocals on the tracks and a couple of other things for an intricate measure.

RS: So the CD is an accurate representation of what you're playing out about now?
Kerri Chandler: Yes.

RS: When you play out, are you playing mainly clubs or big events?
Kerri Chandler: A combination of both. I've noticed around the summertime that there are a lot of lot bigger parties going on. In the wintertime it's mostly indoor, everything gets kind of dark and it rains enormously. I can do anything from the smallest of maybe three hundred people to this thing in Singapore with about two hundred thousand people.

It really varies.

RS: I'm a big lover of soulful house and one thing that always drives me nuts is that it seems like the trance and the harder guys get all the attention and the soulful house guys are always thrown to the side. Why do you think that is?
Kerri Chandler: You know what, I'm not really sure. I think it's just that trend and that movement took off and that's where all the press and everything was, and they just kind of led things that way. It's also one of those things where you have to really think when you listen to this kind of music.

RS: That's a great analogy, go further with that...
Kerri Chandler: Its about the genres. The trance and harder dance tracks are a different type of dance music and are a lot easier to absorb for the younger generation. With the soulful house, you have to sit down and really think about it and there's really some deep meaning behind most of this stuff. They're soulful tracks, a little bit more downtempo, not way up in your face and you have to really feel something. With the other way around it's so instant and you know what it's going to do. You can enjoy and get high off the music we make just by listening to it.

RS: It's a more mature sound, almost for a more mature audience. Do you notice that in your crowds?
Kerri Chandler: Yes, I actually did. But the funny thing is, I've noticed a whole new generation coming in listening to this stuff now. I can't say they're tired of techno or electro, they're coming in and want to hear something different and new. I always try to put on some fun stuff and give my all in there and put on a show when I play out somewhere.

RS: You also do a lot of original production. I love the track on here that you did with Monique Bingham. When you write with artists do you write the track, do they write the song to your beats, or how do you produce music?
Kerri Chandler: This was really funny, I'd met Monique in South Port and I'd only seen her once. When I was talking about doing a track with her, I actually started doing the track at my house and I sent her a copy of it and she actually sent the vocal of it the next day back to me with all of that stuff on it. I said 'oh, you've got to be kidding me, this is so insane.' It sounded like we've known each other for years but I didn't know her at all. That's how that one actually worked out. It was just so spontaneous and she's very talented. She picks up and then she just goes on from there. We've been very cool since then and very close and we get along like a house on fire.

RS: Get along like a house on fire, love that. I also like how you're picking up the best from around the world. Where do you find your music or how do you meet the people the make this kind of music?
Kerri Chandler: The funny thing is that I've been in this business for so, so, so, so long and I met a lot of these people playing out while I was DJing and we've all kept in touch. We all have a network and we all keep in touch with each other, sending tracks over instant messenger when we're not meeting each other some place or playing out. They'll give me a CD and I'll give them some stuff and it works that way. It's like we're all happy to see each other and we're like family. Everybody on my CD I know very well, they're all my friends.