by Cyclone Wehner

Freddy Fresh, aka Freddy Schmid, is a man with many guises. Hailing from the rather unlikely Twin Cities, Minnesota, Freddy was known for his techno output until just recently when, apparently out of the blue, he recast himself as a postmodern b-boy. Freddy's latest album, "The Last True Family Man", has seen him proclaimed the next King of Big Beat in the UK. However, with its funky, new skool live orientation, Freddy's LP has the potential to transcend the often superficial big beat tag altogether. This is a more musical offering. Indeed, Freddy has revitalised the genre with a retro-nuevo organicism.

So just how did an American techno DJ who once received classic Underground Resistance promos direct from Mad Mike himself come to make a flashy breakbeat album?

It was in Minnesota that the amiable Freddy met his Latina wife, who was raised in both her native Puerto Rico and the Bronx. She would play a critical role in Freddy's musical education by indirectly introducing him to hip-hop during the couple's stay in the Bronx. Yet, at the same time, New York also alerted Freddy's senses to the emergent house movement. He took an interest in the scene's early playas -- like Francois K, Shep Pettibone and the Latin Rascals.

Once back in Minnesota, though, Freddy would go on to earn an international rep for cutting Detroit-influenced techno. In fact, Freddy at once stage released an album ("Accidentally Classic") on trance wunderkind Sven Vath's ultra-cred Harthouse label. As a DJ, Freddy likewise travelled with his crates of techno across the States and abroad. Two years ago he even visited Australia for the first time. Freddy wasn't exactly raking in huge amounts of money. Until relatively recently he was still delivering pizzas to feed his family.

Freddy has already left a momentous mark on dance music. Together with Woody McBride, he pioneered the underground house and techno circuit in the Twin Cities, which is today just one part of North America's growing rave subculture. 'Right now we have a techno and house scene that's pretty big but still underground. There's no commercial level of success in the US, especially the Mid-West. It's very conservative. But I'll be DJing at a party coming up, and I did do a lot to help the techno scene here in the Twin Cities, but right now I'm not involved at all.'

Still, Freddy says that he is not necessarily reinventing himself on "Family Man", but rather returning to his hip-hop roots. Is he forever leaving techno behind? 'I came from hip-hop originally, and then I did 80 techno records under different names. It's not that I don't like techno any more, it's just that I'm more into my beats and I'm going back into the funkier stuff because it's more fun for me. Yeah, I like it more.'

"Family Man" boasts a snazzy, high-profile support cast drawn from the hip-hop and big beat worlds alike: Fatboy Slim, The Freestylers and, most impressively, the legendary Grandmaster Flash. Freddy struck up a relationship with the old skool MC when he was brought in to produce material for a new album Flash is making for the German imprint Marlborough Records. 'He loved the songs that I gave him,' Freddy enthuses. 'I was originally gonna do a one-track demo for his album and he ended up taking three songs.'

So what kind of album did Freddy himself set out to record this time? 'I wanted to make an album that you could listen to in a club or in the car -- an album to groove to or just chill to. I wanted something that is more versatile; something that you could drop a needle on in five years from now and still find one song that you like -- you know, I didn't want it to be totally disposable.'

Freddy also admits that his current (post-techno) label, Eye Q, is somewhat responsible for his change in direction. Presumably the Minnesotan followed their cues because he is sick of delivering pizzas. Now he wants to deliver hits. 'I have a label that is pushing me more towards different commercial sounds. I give them demos all the time and the ones they select are things that are a bit more crossover. And I'm also reaching more of an audience now because we've got Sony behind us.'

The UK top 40 success of the LP's second single, "Badder Badder Schwing" (the collabo with Fatboy), has opened more doors to Freddy. He's now been asked to remix everyone from Corduroy to Meat Beat Manifesto. He is even looking at turning (of all things) the "Hawaii 5-0" TV show theme into a rockin' dancefloor tune.

Freddy realises that he has been given a role to play in UK big beat, but doesn't necessarily feel that "Family Man" falls under that banner. The LP instead charts his long musical history, with hip-hop, electro, house, techno, funk, rock, jazz and Latin music all in the mix. Mind you, for some, that very wild cross-fertilisation constitutes big beat at its best. Not so Freddy. 'If you listen to my album there are only two -- maybe three -- songs that are "big beat". The rest are funk and hip-hop,' he says, adding, 'I think it's a stupid word, "big beat". It's a really dumb classification.'

Finally, Freddy decided to call the album "The Last True Family Man" out of respect to his long-suffering yet ever supportive family. 'The fact is that I've been doing music for 15 years, and I've been married 17, and my wife has been standing by me through both the nightmares and the good times. And I feel bad because I'm always travelling. I've got three kids and I'm trying to maintain a family and do the music. A lot of times it's tough, but I manage to keep it all together. So I daresay I'm the last true family man.'

Already Freddy's teen son has made an early foray into music under the alias Invisible Man on Dad's Socket imprint. 'He was working on music with me for a while, but now he's discovered girls,' Freddy says, his voice that of the knowing parent. 'He doesn't want to do anything but play with girls right now. So that's pretty much all he does now.'

"The Last True Family Man" is out through Sony.