In 1984, Larry Sherman, Vince Lawrence, and Screamin' Rachael began what would arguably become the most important record label in house music: Trax Records. I recently sat down with Screamin' Rachael ­ a long-time Trax artist and current label president ­ and talked with her about the label's history, house music's ties to the gay community, and Trax's future. Pleasant and enthusiastic, Rachael had many insightful things to say.

For the younger and uninitiated among us, what is Trax Records and why is it significant?
For house music, which we specialize in, Trax was the original label that started the whole house music trend. From house music came drum and bass, hard house, techno/trance... When we started out 20 years ago as a small community, our whole thing was to have vinyl records for the dj's.

You said it was a small, local community. Twenty years ago, were all of you friends that collaborated, or was it a thing that you were interested in separately and then you just found each other?
It really was a small group of friends, and we used to go to Frankie Knuckles' parties at the Wharehouse and Ron Hardy's parties at The Music Box. They were playing their own self-created tracks combining different musical genres such as disco, new wave, R&B/soul, and even some rock, mixing vinyl records with tape ­ both cassette and reel-to-reel. So we basically all came together out of going to these all-ages parties.

Tell us more on how it all began!
The first actual house recording started around 1984, and that's why Trax itself is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this year. It was all about filling a need that was there. We wanted vinyl records for our parties and my partner Larry Sherman had a vinyl pressing plant in Bridgeport on the Southside. We began shopping these records out of the trunks of our cars to the smaller mom and pop record shops: like Gramaphone. Places like that which are now the backbone of dj culture still to this day. These records were selling in really big numbers, even though it was such a grass roots kind of thing. Larry realized "Wow, this could be something, maybe I should back these kids." So he did.

As part of the anniversary package you have a compilation called "Queer Trax" which includes tracks from Ralphi Rosario and Frankie Knuckles. How do you see the gay community's ties to house music?
When house music first started to get out there, many people were saying "This isn't even music." They didn't grasp it or understand it. However, the gay community's artistic culture was much more open-minded and receptive. Also, from the beginning the first dj's that were starting to create the music, were gay themselves. Not everybody that created house music was gay, but certainly the majority were.

In the beginning people didn't realize it could be black, white, yellow, red: all people of all nations coming together around house music. That power is there. The reason I can say that and not just give some kind of flowery speech is because we at Trax helped changed the world and influenced so many people with house music. A small group of people or even one person can initiate a change if you believe and take positive action.

What does the future hold for Trax?
The future holds a lot of excitement and promise, but what we have to depend on is the people who really love the music to support it. There is a lot of emphasis on what we did create in the past but even more so, we are hoping that people will support the new music. We have the compilation "Trax the Next Generation," and my new album "Screamin Rachael, Extacy." Their success is going to depend on the support garnered from the people who love and appreciate house music.

I hope that all BOI's readers will support Trax Records. We are kind of like the little train that could. In a world where everything is corporate, we are not. We hope you can go out and buy the product so that we can remain being us. Just love house music because it does come from the heart. We at Trax Records are on the fringes and I hope we can always be that. We are going to depend on the people to go out and buy the record, whether from a chain stores like Virgin or from independents such as Gramaphone or Hot Jams. Support the music that you love. We did it when we were growing up, and hopefully you are going to do it these days.

Read the entire interview with Screamin' Rachael at ChicagoPride.com.

Erik Roldan is a contributor to ChicagoPride.com, focusing on the web site's queer music coverage. He also co-hosts "Think Pink," Chicago's only all-music radio show for the queer community on WLUW 88.7 FM, independent community radio.