01. What were your early musical influences?
I got into Lover’s Rock at around 13-14 years old and at 16 years old, I got stuck on this new music at that time called Detroit Techno, Chicago House, NY Garage… at first I brought records from Blackmarket Records in Soho (London, UK) and then friends asked me to make mixtapes going to party and it lent to being asked to DJat various events.
02. What sort of music do your gravitate towards generally?
I tend to music on Soulful side of things, be it House, Disco, Funk, Soul, R&b, Rock, Indie, Afro Beat, Dance and more… over the years I’ve tried to evolve musically and be true to myself! I allow that to take me to music of all kinds. I have at times avoided Popular music and just brought more deeper unknown music… but I have recently found my taste getting more poppy and towards more crafted song-written tracks as time goes on. It was not very comfortable at first – but now I just go with the flow! I’m always looking and searching for new music… and indeed interesting new acts to explore.
03. What have been the bands or sounds that have always been in your play-list or record box?
Oh my taste and events are so wide and diverse, nothing can really stay in there forever… but timeless acts for me are people like Massive Attack – who I saw last week do a live music meets documentary screening… was very political but at same time asking people to look to themselves and not their Government for the answers to life… it was held at Park Ave Amory… inspiring! Back to records that I’ll play forever… Minnie Ripperton is one, Marlena Shaw is another… in rock acts… Radiohead and Muse… with House music there are a million different tracks…but less albums.
04. What about the formats available, your thoughts on Vinyl, CD and MP3?
Well I started on Vinyl , played Vinyl and CDs together but now I use a Laptop and a Midi Controller (traktor software) I use the s4 Controller – an amazing piece of gear…You can play on 4 Channels and with Effects and more and it weights 7lbs… I never ever have to worry about if a venue has decent Equipment… it’s made by Native Instruments who make a lot of great stuff…
05. Any current bands or acts that you feel seem to be producing the goods?
In the Dance field I discovered a pop act in Krewella who are now huge… and are signed to Columbia… their first single sold 500k which is unheard these days in the download world… but in more or less ‘Pop’ I would say I have a lot of unknown people I want to see get signed who I rate… like Liah Alonso and her band and Danielle Parente, who are all also talented song writers and musicians and I expect them to all sign and do amazingly well. On the Rock and Soul vibe and i expect more of that and less of the EDM Dance stuff to come through… in the USA EDM/House music has become ‘pop’ for the first time.. people like David Guetta and Calvin Harris are household names… it’s amazing how long it took…. and now there are 100-200k Dance Music related Festivals! Though my perosnal fave in the USA is still Coachella in Palm Springs.
06. What can we expect to hear on your show or during your Sets when you play?
My sets change depending where im playing I try to find the crowd a bit and if I’m lucky I get to play many different styles and the crowd is open to it… I think Clubs/Parties should have a beginning, middle and end… most Clubs seem to start with Peak Music… and hence why noone bothers to turn up for hours… do something interesting early and maybe people will check you out more formally!
07. Anything that you really hate or that grates and why?
I prefer not to hate… but I’m not into the poppy Hip Hop stuff that talks about a negative life style… and bling bling… it’s not helpful for people to want what things that in the end wont make there live’s happy it’s a fake dream… it may make them happy short term and the ideas maybe fun… but it’s not a good message in Society my view and a real waste of a opportunity for the musicians – there could wake people up to the world and take positive actions and not look for just big cars and big houses.
08. What about requests from the floor?
I think it’s good to take requests, some Clubs well it just is not going to work others it will… you can’t just play a record for someone and kill the floor because its there Birthday and they wanna hear something that is not going to work… sometimes you get lost in your direction and someone can come up and ask for something and their more spot on… DJs are not perfect… or not always on point.
09. Tell us what you are up to at the moment, where can we catch you playing or your events?
This weekend we organised a big event 3 days and 24 bands to play the CBGB Festival at National Underground in NYC ( Lower East Side)… but over the last few years I’ve been owning and operating Night Clubs… like Le Royale where anyone from Patti la Belle to Lady Gaga would pop in and play live… and I also broke 100’s of new acts like the Tings Tings to Dragonette’s to Azealia Banks and 100’s more when they were still building their early careers. Also DJs like Steve Aoki and Diplo and Justice would pop in as well. I also did first ever shows with many acts including Major Lazar, Oly Ghost etc.. in a 150 people room… plus a second club that I would not name did more Deep Electronic music… 800 people room… was more like the Ibiza underground parties… and all the House, Techno, Minimal DJs… I am about to do a few new projects with Clubs/Restarant all in early planning… more later.
10. Your thoughts on the future and things that excite you beyond current music?
I think Midi is exciting for DJs and it bring them closer to being producers and producers closer to DJs… also I think live Singers are merging this with more Electronic Music… in the live music area we have seen lots of people combining… but I believe full Live bands in Pop will come back even though the odds and expense are on record labels… putting monies into cheaper productions… aka Electronic Pop acts.
11. Have you met or Worked with anyone Interesting on your musical journey?
I have DJ’d with Keith Richards from The Stones once, and as I mentioned been lucky to had people like Patti la Belle and Gaga and many many others come by and perform for us…got to DJ at Grand Central Station myself and did the last event at the World Trade Center with Groove Armada… it was my event Promotion as well.. we had everyone from MTV, to the BBC filming it…. also was the first DJ ever asked to play Brooklyn Academy of music for their annual event… I’ve been lucky to travel the world playing music from Copacabana Beach, Rio De Janeiro (Brazil) to Australia, New Zealand… yeah I’ve been very lucky!
12. Top fave tunes right now and fave other current DJ?
I’ll always like DJ Harvey and Diplo as they are real DJs for DJs! Though Diplo has become a Pop Star of sorts, but there are lot of good locals who are unkown yet great DJ’s too!
