Christopher Lawrence   "It’s really important people start defending club culture and the civil liberties issues involved, because if you lose these rights, once these things are taken away, it’s next to impossible to take them back. History shows that. If we don’t stand up today then our children are going to have a really crap world to grow up in. Then you’ve got the War on Iraq . .".   Chatting BS this week, with West Coast superstar DJ Christopher Lawrence we discover he is as passionate about the state of US politics as he his about his new debut artist album All Or Nothing.   Hugely popular for the tech-trance music he spins across the States (he recently took 5th spot in BPM’s annual Favourite DJ poll) he’s also one of dance culture’s most articulate, thoughtful, friendliest characters, which is why his predictions for America's cultural future make grim reading.   "The real truth is, I don’t like the direction the United States is heading in, I don’t want to raise my son here,” says Christopher. “By the time he starts school, we’ll be living in Australia".   And in the meantime, though he’ll be continuing DJing throughout the States and beyond as well as promoting his much anticipated debut artist album All Or Nothing, which comes out on KinkyBeat/Pharmacy Records June 29. Produced over five long years, its release marks a key new chapter in his ever burgeoning career.   How would you describe your new album All Or Nothing?   Christopher Lawrence: “Up until now everything I’ve done has been singles and compilations and the album certainly doesn’t sound like a compilation, which I’m glad about because a compilation CD is usually like a souvenir of a night out; a snapshot of a DJ set. This album is more representative of the music I like to play combined with the music I’m influenced by, so it’s more diverse than a compilation CD. Of course, there are dance tracks on there but also some downtempo tracks. It’s more eclectic but not too far afield to make people who’ve been following me for years go ‘what the hell is he doing?’.”   Do you feel more exposed as a producer than a DJ?   Christopher Lawrence: “I find it more revealing and I guess I’m more self conscious about it, because a compilation CD is just a collection of what I consider to be the best records around over the past few months. So I know those tracks I’ve chosen are good because I’ve compared them to loads of other records. Whereas with an artist album all you have is your own material, it’s all yours, so it’s taken me a long time to do this record; five years.”   How many ideas have you kept on board since the beginning?   Christopher Lawrence: “There’s a couple of tracks that were recorded four years ago that I felt were so good, they fit perfectly, then there were others that sounded so dated that got pushed aside. The album was finished a year ago but because of legal issues it got delayed which gave me another year to go over the whole process again and re-evaluate everything. Ultimately, it’s the best I can do and I’m happy with it.”   Who do you consider your peers these days, people like Paul Van Dyk or BT?   Christopher Lawrence: “I’ve always respected Paul Van Dyk, he’s somebody who’s remained consistent to his sound whilst also exploring different areas within that sound such as vocals. I also wanted to work with vocals because I felt for an artist album it feels empty not to have a vocal element in there. And musically it’s nice to have a human element in there.”   Paul Van Dyk’s involved in the US Rock The Vote campaign, what do you make of the strength of the dance scene right now?   Christopher Lawrence: “The whole dance scene is still very apathetic and unfortunately it’s going to lead to our own demise, particularly in the US. We actually contacted moveon.org, who are very strong, to see if there’s anything I can do to help out there; Moveon.org are the organization Moby is working with as well. Another thing I’ve been posting people about is a campaign by the Government, saying that they need to introduce mandatory drug testing in schools. Not only is that a (civil liberties) violation but as many teachers have said, it means you lose the trust of the kids. In schools you still have a chance to develop relationships with children and maybe steer them towards sports or music or drama, areas where they could focus energy instead of drugs. But when you introduce drug testing you lose any connection you have and the teachers will no longer be considered friends because the kids will think they can be betrayed. Or they’re not gonna’ show up at school at all.”   Why do you think most clubbers are still so apathetic?   Christopher Lawrence: “Because that apathy with regards to politics is actually what first allowed the electronic music scene to grow and survive for so long. If you look at the hippy scene in the 60s that became extremely political and when that happened people started getting alienated. The punk movement was the same   How significant do you see the ongoing US crackdown against clubs via the RAVE act and all the other new laws?   Christopher Lawrence: “It’s really important people start defending club culture and the civil liberties issues involved, because if you lose these rights, once these things are taken away, it’s next to impossible to take them back. History shows that. If we don’t stand up today then our children are going to have a really crap world to grow up in. Then you’ve got the War on Iraq. This administration invaded Iraq firstly on the premise of weapons of mass destruction and that was clearly not the case. Then they said ‘we’re liberating these people because they’ve been oppressed’ and yet back home the same president and the same administration is imposing increasingly strict sanctions on his own country. It’s really hypocritical that we went there on the premise of liberating people whereas at home we’re restricting the freedoms of the people more and more.”   You’re definitely still moving to Australia? Christopher Lawrence: “The reality is I’m not going to move to Australia until my son starts school, we’re moving because we don’t want to raise him in America. The real truth is, I don’t like the direction the United States is heading in, I don’t want to raise my son here. By the time he starts school we’ll be over in Australia. We’ll be maintaining a base here so I can come back but that should be in about three or four years.”   Do you reckon Bush is going to get re-elected?   Christopher Lawrence: “Well the man didn’t even win the election the last time. I find it unfeasible that people can support Bush. What’s really surprising to me is this; I travel everywhere and I talk to everybody from taxi drivers to people in nice hotels, affluent people, and I have yet to meet a single person who supports Bush. Even people in the South don’t support the war, of course they support the troops because a lot of people in the military comes from that area but they’re seeing that the war isn’t about what it was supposed to be about and their sons and daughters are dying over there. I don’t know who likes the man besides CNN.”   What do you think is going on?   Christopher Lawrence: “It’s all a façade that’s being projected not only to the American people but also to the rest of the world that Bush is a popular leader but he’s not a popular leader. People in America are not behind this war or his policies either, about the only thing behind him is the multi-national corporations and that’s what gives him his power. Unfortunately multi-national corporations are now more powerful than countries because they can move wherever they want for tax, benefits, natural resources or to whichever countries give them the most favoritism so countries have to kowtow to them, to placate them to get the money from them, at the expense of people living in those countries.”   Christopher Lawrence’s debut artist album All Or Nothing is out on June 29 (pre-order via his website below). He also DJs at Turnmills on July 23 (London).   Related Link: www.christopherlawrence.com