20 Years of DNA, DJ Three Aims to Finish What He Started
Christopher Milo, the South Florida–bred DJ known to the underground clubbing scene as Three, is one of the world’s consummate spinners, beloved as much by his globetrotting peers as he is by the dance-music community at large. The fact that he’s reached that pinnacle despite having a sparse production resume, not to mention an on-again, off-again approach to running a label, is a testament to the man’s selection skills. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that some of those productions—remixes for Rabbit in the Moon and UNKLE, for instance, and original work as one-half of Second Hand Satellites—are considered stone-cold classics. It also helps that the label, Hallucination Limited (an offshoot of the Rabbit in the Moon–affiliated Hallucination Records) released some of the best tech-house of the ’00s, with Robbie Hardkiss, Terry Francis and Q-Burns Abstract Message among the imprint’s small but stellar roster.
No, it’s simply because the veteran is a mind-blowingly great DJ, with a sound that’s imbued with elegance, depth and emotion, yet still capable of packing a wallop on the dancefloor. It’s a style that slots perfectly with Crosstown Rebels—and Three will be spinning with that label’s head honcho, Damian Lazarus, along with Acid Pauli and DJ Tennis, on Saturday 23 for the Get Lost L.A. party (at The Egyptian Theatre during the day and at Create Nightclub for the afterparty). We recently caught up with the modest superstar, who between gigs is prepping for the debut follow-up to Hallucination Limited, a new label called Hallucienda.
There really is no better way to learn as a DJ than by being a person on the dancefloor.
So many name-brand DJs, not to mention civilian clubbers, cite you as their favorite DJ as well. What do you think it is about your sound that people love so much?
I really don’t know! I’ll let other people pontificate on that. All I can really say is that it may be a reflection of the people who have informed me, and through my experiences with them. And I mean all my experiences—reading about them, meeting them and, of course, hearing them. There really is no better way to learn as a DJ than by being a person on the dancefloor, and I’ve done whatever I can do to put myself in that situation.
You’ve been hitting those dancefloors for years, right?
In the early ’90s, I had a girlfriend whose parents worked for airlines, so I was able to do the standby thing a lot. If I had a night off on a Saturday in ’94 or ’95, I could just catch a plane to JFK, go to the East Village and hang out till 4am, and then go to the Sound Factory ’til noon. And then go straight back to JFK and fly back to Tampa!
Who from those days would you consider to be your major influences?
Junior Vasquez, who was the Sound Factory resident, was a huge influence. So was Doc Martin, Derrick May… there are so many I could name. And then there were all the Europeans, like Sasha and Laurent Garnier. But I wasn’t concerned with being in any group, musically. I was more interested in hearing people who did things their own way, and trying to figure out how and why they did it. After a while, I found that, with the best of them, there really was no “why”—they just did what instinctually feels right. I realized that was the best path to follow, really. And to occasionally hear the commentary from my peers makes me think that maybe things are okay.
You’ve gained that admiration even though you’ve done only a handful of productions over the years, and despite the fact that your labels’ releases have been a bit sporadic.
If someone wrote the bullet points on what a DJ should do to sustain a successful career—running a label consistently, putting out productions consistently, and then doing PR that strings those things together—well, I’ve failed on that. The irony is that the original Hallucination Recordings’ label motto was a play on words of the Pledge of Allegiance: One Nation, Underground, Invisible. It could probably also say in parentheses, “perhaps to a fault.”
Do you think that might be changing now with the new label?
That’s the plan. Hallucienda, which is launching very soon, has taken two years of prep—and 20 years of DNA. It’s going to continue the lineage of the two previous labels. I was kind of a peripheral guy at Hallucination Records, working more behind-the-scenes and as an artist. Then after Rabbit in the Moon split up, I launched Hallucination Limited, based on the aesthetic from Hallucination Recordings that I was most in tune with. That went great—I was putting out tech-house records in the peak of the minimal era, and I was still getting a great response. But then [distributer] Syntax went down.
What convinced you that this was the time to give it another shot?
In the ’90s, the trend—the underground trend, at least—was ambient techno, and in the ’00s, it was minimal. But trends eventually fade, and the best parts seep their way into the DNA of proper house and techno. I could see that coming and figured if I waited around enough, it would be time for this. I think the real sign was when Cassy did that “Sound of DC10” Mixmag cover-CD in 2011, and five of the songs on it were Hallucination Limited songs. That was the final push to figure out what I needed to do; I needed to finish what I started. And that’s what I’m doing.
Follow DJ Three on Facebook
Follow Hallucienda on Facebook | Twitter
