Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell is working on a new house music-focused project
"EDM will be turned away"
Ahead of Lollapalooza's milestone 25th year, founder of the iconic Chicago festival Perry Farrell spoke with the Chicago Tribune about the legacy of the event and his future moves.
Formerly a member of the band Jane's Addiction, Perry started Lollapalooza was meant to only be a one-off, traveling festival he organized during a hiatus year with the band that leaned heavily into the alternative and rock realms of music. The festival, considered one of the United States' greats alongside Coachella and Bonnaroo, expanded to four days for the first time in 2017 and will showcase a variety of genres including hip-hop, rock and EDM.
In the interview, Farrell revealed that he seems ready to move on from his involvement in Lollapalooza and is already working on a new "project" that will keep music at the heart, but be a "completely new experience". He suggested that the project will launch 18 months from now.
Interestingly, though Perry's name is actually associated with the Lollapalooza stage that tends to house most of the EDM talents of the festival, he emphasized that he's not passionate about the new wave of EDM acts that tend to play at his namesake stage.
"When they said they wanted to name a stage after me (when the festival relaunched in 2005), I was honored," he said. "I like the adulation. But now you say, 'Perry, what's going on with your area here?' Believe me, I've got questions myself. I hate EDM. I want to vomit it out of my nostrils. I can't stand what it did to what I love, which is house music, which was meditative, psychedelic — it took you on a journey. … I sometimes cringe at my own festival." However, he goes on to explain that he understands EDM's role at the festival as a form of pop music that his audience wants to see.
To bring it full circle, Farrell explains that his distaste with the current state of EDM has helped inspire his new project's characteristics. "The only way to change things is by changing things myself. At my new project, there will be great house music. I hope I will keep EDM at the door. They will be turned away."