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By Jen Boyles   Photography by Alex Martinez & Chris Merket

02/19/08 :: URB 152

Standing off to the side at Chicago’s Berlin bar in his blazing tattooed glory, DJ Klever is uncomfortable—a weird feeling for the seasoned party DJ who’s seen pretty much every possible shade of debauchery. Is he uneasy because a drag queen in a pink powdered wig just sauntered by, angrily muttering something about the bar not having Zima? Or because all the bartenders look like mischief-hungry dudes straight off one of those late-night Live-Links ads? Nope, Klever is made uncomfortable this winter night by the wide open space on the dancefloor—an unfamiliar notion for a DJ who is used to his own drag-em-out-by-their-hair kind of parties in his hometown of Atlanta (“Sloppy Seconds,” it’s called). Plus, he’s never played a gay bar and wasn’t prepped beforehand—Berlin is a total surprise. 

“Does stuff normally get poppin’ late in Chicago?” he asks, nervously, with a twinge of hope, throwing back a Corona and smoothing out his “KLEVER KILLS ME!” t-shirt that hangs slack on his bony frame. The unique-looking, 30-year-old Klever, known as Josh Winkler to his fiancée and two-year-old daughter, blends in easily with this crowd, resembling Anthony Michael Hall from Sixteen Candles crossed with an albino Tommy Lee. His pal and DJ partner on the “Kleavage Tour,” Tittworth, is spinning jams alone in the tiny booth reminiscent of the one Danny Devito shouted one-liners from in “Taxi.” A few more beers ease Klever’s nerves, but like any clubber knows, a certain kind of magic happens between midnight and 1 AM. Just 45 minutes later, Klever and Titts are up in the booth cranking out an earth-shattering set for a room full of Chicago scene kids, hot lesbians, local rappers, muscle-bound dudes and everyone in between.  

Now, just three months later, Klever tells URB over the horn from The ATL that he’s got a different agenda—and it doesn’t involve partying all the time (though you should check out his remix of the hilarious Eddie Murphy song of the same name). These days, our man is set to immerse himself in the producer lifestyle.

“I definitely got wrapped up in that club hype about a year ago, but my love for original music has really just kicked in,” he says, perhaps with a shrug. “You’ll never be looked at as someone really solid if you just keep [DJing]—and really, I give it up to guys like MSTRKRFT and Boys Noize and Mehdi and Sinden. But lately, I’ve been studying all the stuff I didn’t give a fuck about a while ago—this is the stuff that pays off, that makes big noise and gets those fans to see you in another light.”

As it is now, his fans are plenty. You saw them bouncing off the walls in Klever shirts when he toured alongside Craze last summer. These fans are considerably different than the more serious heads who followed Klever in his DMC days when he took the U.S. title twice in the early ‘00s. But then again, Klever himself is much, much different now. So we wondered, what would the old Klever—in plain black hoodie and baggy jeans—say to the new Klever, rocking a flatbrim, tattooed bod and gold teeth?

“He’d take one look and say, ‘What the hell are you doing!!?’” modern-day Klever blurts out with a laugh. “He’d probably say, ‘Do your shit, and do it harder than ever. . .and give thanks to the moon gods, too. Thank ‘em for the mojo.”

CONTINUE READING "WITH TEETH"

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