True House Stories® Youtube & Spotify Video Podcast
TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ ROLAND CLARK
Roland Clark interview podcast hosted by Lenny Fontana # 126 - True House Stories®
Roland Clark is an Artist, Vocalist, Producer and DJ. He has gone under the aliases Jesus Jackson, Digital Pimps, Dark Clark, South Street Player, and is also a founding member of the dance music project Urban Soul “Alright”. One of the many projects he has been involved in is “Flowerz” by Armand van Helden, from the album 2 Future 4 U from 1998, as well as delivering his writing and vocal talents to the likes of Todd Terry, Duke Dumont and Katy Perry.
He was featured on two of Fatboy Slim songs, “Star 69” and “Song for Shelter”, both of which sample part of Clark’s song “I Get Deep” and feature on Fatboy Slim‘s 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. In 2017, “I Get Deep” was once again sampled in “Swish Swish” by Katy Perry.
His 2006 song “Running on Sunshine”, which he performed using the Jesus Jackson alias and co-recorded with Fatboy Slim, has appeared in various ABC programming such as Grey’s Anatomy and Men in Trees. Roland was part of one of the biggest Afro House Shows with Producer / DJ Black Coffee. His voice stands out and is a massive part to the dance music scene. Come check out New Jersey Houses Finest share his story with us on the show.
Biography Roland Clark
Roland Clark House Musics Songsmith House Music Producer, Songwriter and Vocalist Past Aliases:South Street Player,HE, Jesus Jackson and Urban Soul. There aren’t many artists works out there that can make you feel deliriously happy and hopelessly estatic at the same time. Roland Clark is the exception. Exhibit A: His girlfriend, he sings, is drifting away from him but his tight, drop-dead arrangement simply won’t leave you alone: a late night classic with real heart and genuine funk. In other words, proper house music.
His colors do not always contrast. Roland Clark is a featured vocalist on many Fatboy Slim releases. His voice is sometimes described as wildly erotic, soulful, loving, and deep. On Fatboy Slim’s “Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars,” several tracks are indelibly imprinted with Rolands lines, especially the final track, “Song for Shelter.” On “Shelter,” Roland Clark, extemporizes a beat poet paean to house music, exalting it as a haven of real-deal family values in a hostile world, I get deep, I get deep, I get deeper He goes on, word-jazzing about how its rhythm “goes in my blood like alcohol, gets me drunk”
All you hip hoppers, you doo woppers, name droppers, you pill poppers – come into OUR house to get deep! “Song for Shelter,” a Fatboy Slim masterpiece, would lose its soul without Clark’s blissful babble about dancers with “wings for feet” and Jesus being a DJ. The track is a gorgeous vision of disco heaven, and Roland Clarks parts are at the heart of it all.
Rolands voice proliferates throughout the realm of House Music, and his Midas Touch seems to be constant: if you can get Roland on your track, its going to be magic. His contributions infuse many artists best works, including Van Helden’s gorgeous “Flowerz.” Not surprising, though it is another track blessed by the voice of Roland Clark. Quite simply, Roland Clark has carved-out his place in history as THE [male] voice of House Music. Quote: “If House is a nation, I Wanna Be President!” (Roland Clark)
“They don’t know what is what/They just strut/What the fuck?!” On “Shelter,” another black voice Roland Clark, the singer on Van Helden’s gorgeous “Flowerz” extemporizes a beat poet paean to house music, exalting it as a haven of real-deal family values in a hostile world, and word-jazzing about how its rhythm “goes in my blood like alcohol, gets me drunk.” It’s a shock when the “don’t know what is what . . . What the fuck” lick of “Star 69” suddenly re-materializes in “Shelter”:
As a component of Clark’s monologue, it signifies not B-boy menace but the house convert’s pity for unbelievers who’ve never experienced the dancefloor’s state of grace. “What the fuck” is “Song for Shelter” is a gorgeous vision of disco heaven, from Clark’s blissed babble about dancers with “wings for feet” and Jesus being a DJ to the way the track’s spangled billow winds down to a gulf of light that could be drone-rockers.
Using another’s voice to spell out his personal creed, In most recent years Roland Clark has spread himself over dance music much like a undeniable storm working with such deejays and other producer like himself such as Todd Terry, Kenny Dope, Marc Knight, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mikejust to name a few.. Roland sounds if need be compared would be much like a chameleon going from a soulful sultriness to a hard house and techno. He has been sometimes pegged as the Nate Dogg of house, or house musics loriette.. but whatever his title be sure that this man is just beginning after all these years and will be a force to be reckoned with.
