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DJ/Producer/Vinyl Freek. He mixes disco, house and more with wild abandon.
We have had the pleasure of interviewing him and this has been the result.
How would you present your work to someone who doesn't know you?
Ah, happens all the time, every artist's dilemma! You're at a party and someone asks what kind of music you make. You want to answer in a way that doesn't kill the vibe and send them to sleep.
What I want to say: My sound? Oh yeah, imagine if Ashford & Simpson got into a bar fight with Arthur Russell & Larry Levan, or Chic heckling Sly & The Family Stone at a concert, demanding they play Strings Of Life.
What I actually reply: Well, I've had different periods in my twenty year career so far, but right now I'd say I write very organic and soulful disco with a modern edge that is performed entirely by musicians. It isn't very snappy, but it's accurate.
And your latest work? Where is it born from? What is the concept behind it?
In this case, my latest work isn't my latest production; that would be “Let's Invade The Amazon”, which was a set of funky disco/jazz-funk tracks with a message about our disconnect from the climate emergency, that earned me death threats from a couple of overly intense Brazilians that took the title of the track a little too literally. But back to my latest work, which is a collection of remixes produced by Dimitri From Paris as well as myself. The idea was to take a jazz-funk and soulful boogie disco project I released three years ago which did well on release, but which my label, Lovemonk Records felt hadn't realised its full potential. It's comprised of four new versions, the very positive DJ feedback and public reactions we have received so far for this forthcoming release tell me they were right – the label, that is, for coming up with this proposal.
What message would you like to convey to the public? What do you want to transmit with this work?
The message from both tracks – they are very closely related – is as suggested by the titles: “Doing Our Own Thing” and “To Be Free”. I pretty much do my own thing in music and I want to push that message - that it's definitely a lot harder and it usually takes much longer if you tread your own path, but if you can resist the pressure and temptation to conform, there is potentially much more satisfaction in store for doing so. This is my personal opinion, of course, it does involve a lot of dedication and sacrifice, it isn't always great for your ego either.
As for your studio, what is it currently comprised of?
My studio serves two purposes, one of which is for composing and mixing, I tend to do most of my actual live recording in outside studios. The other main purpose of the studio is to house a sizeable portion of my record collection in true floor-to-wall style, so that the rest of the place looks a little more respectable and a tiny bit less like a crazy hoarder. With all this in mind, my most important components in the studio are my monitors, I use a pair of ADAM P22s because I like the quality and their very extensive low end. For my DAW I use Cubase 12 for sequencing, arranging, mixing. Any spare space in the studio is for bass traps and instruments, keyboards etc
What is the one instrument you would never get rid of, no matter what?
So, of all my instruments, the electric guitars, electric bass, my most special instrument is a Ramirez Spanish guitar which was given to me by my dad when I was a teenager. It was made especially for him as a gift in 1970 by the Ramirez family, so it has sentimental value but it also sounds so beautiful and unique, it'd be very hard to part with.
What was the last record store you visited? And what did you salvage from there?
Actually, if you'll allow me, the last physical record store I visited, I didn't actually visit. Ok, let me explain. There was a release by the Space Grapes label, whose releases always fly out on release and which are ridiculously in demand online. On this occasion, they decided to support record stores by specifying that there were to be no mail order sales, the record had to be purchased in person. Only thing is, as far as I'm aware there were no copies available here in Madrid, so I tracked it down to a store in Belfast that still had one copy. I then had to rely on the kindness of relatives to go and buy it for me. It was worth it, but I hope that doesn't happen again.
Do you have hope for the future of music? How would you like the future of the music industry to be?
Of course, like everyone else, I'm looking forward to buying my very own AI Disco Machine in the very near future and sitting back with a shot of small batch bourbon while uploading 567 new songs per day to Spotify. Ok no, I'm actually quite optimistic about the future of music streaming, I think people will only continue to be more knowledgeable and open-minded about music in the future, my hope is that the space for original, left-field, more interesting, underground styles of music will continue to grow. I find so many musicians these days who understand exactly what I'm talking about and are able to convert my ideas into a beautiful reality; this I find fantastic.
Can you reveal some future projects?
I have a great release forthcoming on a US label, we are just deciding on the remix at this time and we'll be ready to go. I also have a couple of remix projects that are waiting on a release date plus at least two further projects with two different labels that are already in the planning stages. Unfortunately, none of these are signed into contract so I'd much prefer to wait before announcing anything. After all, this is the music biz, where anything can happen...
What makes you happy?
Projects that are released on time; vinyl pressing plants that deliver in under three months; great, easy-going musicians; the crema catalana filled croissants at Duquesita; dancing all night to great music with friends; my team winning; seeing the Ayuntamiento leaf blower's engine jam up the other day and stop working; playing great music for enthusiastic, happy dancers; pretending I understand quantic computing. I'm a simple soul.
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