It's no secret that one of pop music's most notorious queer divas, Boy George O'Dowd, has been working the turntables for many years now in between his solo efforts, recording and performing with the reformed Culture Club, and producing dance acts ( not to mention running a label for some of those, More Protein ) . In fact, he began DJing back in 1979, and during the 1990s, was responsible for mixing around half of Ministry of Sound's delicious...albeit mainstream...Annual series.
But American audiences were rarely given the opportunity to sample this "other" Boy George at all ... until now. And on Essential Mix ( London/Sire ) , George has finally been given full reign to expose us to his smorgasbord of ragga, R&B and vocal house via tracks like Boogie Macs' insane rework of "Girl From Ipanema," Tutto Matto's "Take My Hand," and The Colein's "Spreading the Light," on which George also performs.
Bogged down with the flu ( George had to flake on our first interview appointment due to an emergency nap ) on the week of his DJ appearance at New York's Twilo, George seemed more thoughtful and far less trademark bitchy than in days past. But he still had some Georgian things to say on spinning, avoiding disco ball death, and going solo again.
Sorry to hear you've not been feeling well, George. Perhaps you should sell your flu on ebay.
"I'm sure it would go like hotcakes."
Are these tracks Essential, literally?
"Well, it's all relative, isn't it? It's personal taste, it's what I like. I'm trying to introduce some stuff to America which perhaps people haven't heard before. I wanted to do something more...well, not 'educational' because that sounds patronizing...but an expression which was the different things I like."
Do you feel a lot of the DJ-mixed discs out there are tired?
"Not really. I mean, some of them are very generic, some DJs have a sound, a style and they stick to that. In the UK there's a lot, the market is flooded with compilations, and lots of times you end up buying CDs with the same tracks. But with this I was given complete artistic freedom and it's much more a collection of the different styles of music I like"
Do you play a lot of ragga in general these days?
"I play everything, depends on the club. In Ibiza you do a lot of pre-club bar gigs, beach, early evening sets. And what you play there would be very different from what you play at a late set. Most DJs are quite adaptable, and will take a different set of records depending on the gig. Obviously there are people like Paul Oakenfold, who definitely has a sound he's mastered and is stuck with and that's the sort of stuff he releases on his label. It's a reflection of what he likes as a DJ and producer. I tend to jump all over the shop with what I like, a bit into everything. For me there's only good and bad records."
To what degree do you bring over your rock star personality when you're DJing?
"You can't help it really. There are DJs who are very studied and serious and never smile and they bring a certain energy to a set. Other DJs like Jeremy Healy or myself are quite showy. I don't think you can really separate the man from what he does or wears or thinks. It's a kind of totality as far as I'm concerned."
What's a DJ's sex life like these days?
" ( laughs ) Well, I can't speak for anybody else but mine's fair to middling."
Do you get more phone numbers as a DJ or when doing the singer thing?
"I think it really depends on your energy. I don't think I have that kind...I think I tend to intimidate people rather than allure them. I play in a lot of the straight clubs anyway, so people come up and say hello but they're not handing out phone numbers. I don't really play in gay clubs...a lot of the clubs in the UK are mixed now. But there are clubs which are predominantly this or that way, and the gay ones tend to have their own cliquey DJs and their own sound and if you don't get into that sound it doesn't work that well. The hardcore gay clubs in London really have their own DJs and it's really hard to infiltrate that."
What sorts of other careers have you been fiddling with in secret?
"I don't know. I don't think of anything I do as a secret. I do a radio show in the UK, I make records, I produce, I DJ. In America a lot of the music I've made hasn't been released, but people who are hardcore fans pretty much know everything I've done. It doesn't really matter really. I'm just working and getting on with my shit."
The last Culture Club album wasn't released in the USA.
"Yeah. It's just one of those things. Virgin America I've had problems with when I was a solo artist, a lot of the stuff I released in the UK or Europe was never released in America. The imports are collectable, but it's frustrating from an artistic point of view. Not everything you're going to do will be high profile, the longer you're in this business that's how it turns out and you have to work accordingly."
What's happening with Culture Club right now?
"At the moment there's nothing happening. We're taking a bit of a break. We may be taking some of the tracks from the last album in remix form, probably for an independent label. In America we don't get played on the radio, but in the UK we had a top 5 with 'I Just Want to be Loved.' We get on pretty well now. Quite civilized."
How about your love life?
"It's OK. ( laughs ) Not dating anybody solidly. I'm not in love, but I'm open to persuasion."
Name the three sexiest cities.
"London, New York, and Paris. There's a brashness to New York I like and there's something about Paris that's very romantic. And London's home, and the boys there are very sexy"
Has life been quiet or crazy lately?
"I don't work on the same manic level I did when I was 25. I work probably more than I used to but don't have a manic attitude to life anymore."
You've escaped death a few times, George, and you're certainly suffering through the flu now. Has anything as ludicrous as the incident where a disco ball fell and almost killed you happened recently? And was that a good moment or bad moment?
"Nothing at all, no. I wish it was a bad moment. It was funny...it wasn't funny at the time...but you can laugh about afterwards."
Any other new projects?
"I'm doing a new album, my own album. I'm going to be hopefully starting that in the next couple of months. It'll be a mixture of everything, really. Dance, acoustic, whatever works. For me it's about the songs."
Are you hungering to do a duet with Elton or Eminem? Maybe a trio?
"No. No interest whatsoever. I wouldn't work well with someone who I couldn't have a conversation with, you know what I mean?"
You've had conversations with Elton.
"We've had an on-off friendship for a few years. We've talked about it...through other people anyway ( laughs ) . He has his rights to do what he wants, it's up to him what he does. But once you put something like that in the public arena you can't really complain if people comment."
