Marshall Jefferson sits amongst a select group of producers, numbering in the single digits, who can truly lay claim to being founding fathers of Dance music as we know it. Starting his career as a DJ in Chicago in the early-’80s, Jefferson quickly graduated to producing and releasing records of his own, as well as taking on an active role behind the scenes of the influential label Trax. He would go on to have a hand in several of House music’s seminal tracks: his release Move Your Body (House Music Anthem) invented the sequenced House piano sound. Under the moniker Virgo, meanwhile, Jefferson can lay claim to production credits on two of the earliest Acid House records – Sleezy D’s I’ve Lost Control and Phuture’s Acid Tracks. Later, as the man behind the boards for R ’n’ B/Deep House outfit Ten City, Jefferson created some of the genre’s first crossover hits.

Now firmly planted as a resident of the UK – having first moved here in the early ’90s – Jefferson is as active in the House music scene as ever. Alongside his steady stream of DJ dates and production credits, just last year he launched a new label, Freakin909, alongside House Of Virus and DJ Ides, through which he released his latest track, Kiss Off The Dragon, just last month. Future Music caught up with Marshall to find out about his formative days as a producer and how his approach to making and playing House music has changed over the past three decades.

FM: What was your first introduction to music making?

Marshall Jefferson: “I was a DJ before I started making music, and I bought this record in a record store by Jesse Saunders, who was a DJ we all knew. I was like ‘Man, I want to make records like that to get a whole bunch of girls’. That’s what put the thought in my head, but it was just fate.