COURTESY OF GREG DEHNERT
Richard "Humpty" Vission is one of America's most celebrated disc jockey/producers. He started in high school when "it was just something that every kid started doing. Instead of playing football everybody started getting turntables and started up their crews," Vission said.
DJ legend still
loves the mix
After nearly a decade-and-a-half in the game, Richard "Humpty" Vission admits he still catches a heady buzz off going to work. And why not? As one of America's most celebrated disc jockey-slash-producers, his work has not only shown him the four corners of the globe, it's also put him in touch with the stars. "I had this Madonna mix that had to be turned in this morning," he says, matter-of-factly. "I woke up at 5:30 in the morning Sunday, went to the studio from six to nine, went to church, then came right back and finished the mix. I still get hyped working on music and being part of this DJ culture."
'The Love Festival Tour 2003'
Featuring Richard "Humpty" Vission, Aztec Soul, Neil K, DJ Reza and Josh DavidWhere: Club Mist, 1936 S. King St.
When: 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. tomorrow
Admission: $20, all ages
Call: 591-3500
He's collaborated with some of dance music's biggest names and created a name of his own through L.A. radio station Power 106's "Power Tools," the longest-running house music mix show in the country, as well as stints on MTV's TRL, Rock 'N' Jock and The Blame Game.
As for picking up the mixing bug, he credits the social environment in Los Angeles, where trends spread quicker than a California wildfire. The 1980s saw a huge surge in the mixing arts in L.A. and Vission, like many young Angelenos at the time, found himself drawn to "the wheels of steel."
"In the minority communities, it didn't matter if you were in East L.A. or South Bay," he said. "Everybody was doing it. The DJ scene was really exploding in '82 to, like, '88, '89, where in my high school alone, there were 40 or so DJs. Just on my block, there were four DJs. It was just something that every kid started doing. Instead of playing football, everybody started getting turntables and started up their crews.
"Nobody knew where it was all going," he adds. "We all wanted to play records and do parties."
A number of Vission-manned backyard and house parties are now L.A. legend, with several all-nighters said to have been attended by more than 2,000 young partygoers. After a while, the L.A.P.D. began heading Vission and others off at the pass by picking up their fliers and preventing parties from happening. "And that's when everything moved into clubs," he says.
AS THE '80s came to a close, local night clubs, fully aware of the drawing power of neighborhood DJs like Vission, began plucking the underground icons from their party crews. The frenetic freestyle beats of Stevie B., Sweet Sensation and the Cover Girls, which many mobile DJs favored at the time, were slowly supplanted by street-savvy hip-hop jams and the primal thump of house. A musical revolution, he felt, was just around the bend.
"House music was, like, this new thing that no one could comprehend, and when that started kicking in, it really caught my attention," Vission recalls. "It was music I'd never heard before in my entire life. I was really drawn to it. It wasn't about the lyrics or singing about love. It was about the vibe; the feeling that came with house. You didn't have to talk about love -- the music just expressed it. There was this essence of peace and unity that people just gravitated to."
In 1992, he got his first taste of international success teaming with colleagues A.J. Mora and Hazze to form The Movement, whose rave anthem "Jump" helped usher in a new age of electronica in America. "It was definitely a great time," he acknowledges. "That's when the whole techno vibe was kicking in here in the States and I took the opportunity. What's strange is that was the first record I actually produced and it just took off in a global way. It kinda opened my eyes to dance music because I had never DJ'd outside of Los Angeles at that point. It made me see that dance music was definitely a universal kind of music around the world."
Two years later, he co-founded L.A. indie house label Aqua Boogie and embarked on a new career in producing and remixing. "It's a natural progression," he explains. "You're listening to records and beats so much as a DJ, you want to produce your own." He's been making records for 13 years and "I still wake up in the morning just as excited as I was to DJ in high school."
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