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Post-dramatic stress >> Danny Tenaglia takes the lead in New York's house scene
by KRISTA Mirror: Hi! How are you? Danny Tenaglia: I'm good, I'm having a moment.
DT: Well, a flow moment. I was in the flow. M: I'm very sorry to interrupt the groove then. DT: No no, it's all good. So do you have your questions ready? M: Yup. So how did this all start for you? DT: Ha ha... ooh, in the womb, baby, in the womb. I was kicking out the beats of bossa nova and soul long before I saw the light of day. (laughs) M: And you grew up in Brooklyn? DT: Yeah, but I live in Queens. M: So I see you're playing at Vinyl (in NYC) now. DT: Yeah, it's every other Friday and it's called Be Yourself at Vinyl. M: How long ago did you start that? DT: We've been doing that since about January. M: So... What's your opinion of what's going on (musically) in New York right now? You've moved around from club to club quite a bit. DT: Oh, well, that answer could take up several articles. Let's just say that New York is everchanging and never changing, and it's always exciting, no matter what it is that's going on. M: How do you see yourself in everything that's going on down there? DT: Well, I kind of remove myself from all that, I have my own thing going on. I'm removed from, you know, the drama in the clubs and all that big club DJ stuff, like six rooms, 60 DJs, this DJ has to play here, blah blah... It ain't about that for me. Contrary to belief, I'm really rather drama-free.
The Junior thing M: Is that part of the reason you left Twilo and Tunnel? DT: No, let's just say we were just ready for something different. We're moving beyond that. We've moved to a space [Vinyl] that doesn't have liquor, where the party is about the music and dancing, and not about all that other unimportant stuff. Thank God for Vinyl, you know, 'cause that's a space that's doing something different. That's the other side. People don't know, really, that there's a whole other movement going on in New York. M: And that's what you're a part of? DT: Yeah, there's so much more than what people see, you know, there's a whole other scene going down here. M: Outside of what people in other cities see as being New York house? DT: Yeah. Most people don't know about what's happening here beyond the big commercial New York sound. M: Why do you think that is? DT: Ah, hmmm, well I don't really want to go there. M: Why not? DT: Well, because. That's just drama, and I don't want to go there. M: Fair enough. DT: We could blame it all on one person, okay... (laughs) M: Yeah, I saw Hang the DJ... DT: Oh god... Yeah, there's a lot of drama. M: How do you mean? DT: Well, that just wasn't a positive experience for me. Those guys [producers of the film] wanted me to do a soundtrack for the film and do some tracks exclusively for that. I tried to help them out and get them hooked up down here and then the movie comes out, and it's basically just a big documentary about Junior [Vasquez], and this big feud that we're supposedly having, which just wasn't, and isn't, the case. M: So you weren't too happy about that? DT: Well, no. That's an example of people not knowing what's really going on here. There's so much more to this city, musically. I mean, what about Lil' Louie, or François K? And I've been DJing for close to 25 years now, and I haven't had anything to do with Junior since about 1995. I'm doing my own thing, I keep to myself and mind my own business... Anyway, I don't want to linger on that, I want to focus on me.
Fishing for compliments M: Alright, so what are you doing now? DT: Well, everything's really good right now. I'm going to Russia on Saturday to play there. And I just got back from a tour in the U.K., I played at this big festival called Homelands. You know, one of those big music festival things out in the country... I had my own tent called the D tent. It was crazy. And now I'm home for a bit, working in the studio before I have to take off again. M: And is there a new album in the works? DT: Yeah, I'm going to start recording my second album for Twisted Records July 1st, and it'll come out just after the millennium. The year 2000 is going to start off with a bang for me, with the new album and then my birthday in March. M: Aha... Pisces or Aries? DT: Pisces. March 7. And I'm going to be 40. Aach! God, I can't believe it. Anyways, I'm co-producing two songs for Byron Stingly's new album, and Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys has asked me to do some more work with him. And then Satellite Records here in New York, which is the biggest store here, in terms of sales, just called me and told me that my two latest releases are their biggest sellers. My remix of Blondie's "Nothing Is Real But the Girl" is the number one trance seller, and "Be Yourself" is the number one house seller, which is really big news for me. I've never had that kind of feedback from a local store before. M: Hmmm, which leads me to a question regarding trance and house and you. You have really defined your very own sound, in terms of the records you're producing now, and a lot of what you play, and it's often interpreted as dark or trancey. How did that evolve for you? DT: Well, yeah, it's dark, I guess, but for me the darker sound is more about being modern. There's a lot of sub-tribal bass in what I do, and a lot of trance influence, stuff that's on the verge of techno, but it's all in the tempo. The foundation is house-groove oriented. All my tracks are between 120 and 130 bpm. M: Would you say it all started with "Bottom Heavy"? DT: Yeah, that is the tune that really made the mark, for sure. I'm so grateful. It's funny too, because "Bottom Heavy" was a remix that I did for New Order, which they rejected. The other day I pulled out the original mix with Bernard Sumner's vocal on it that I had done way back. After they turned it down I went back and took the vocal off and added some more elements, and it became this big tune. So thank you, New Order, for rejecting "Bottom Heavy"!
With Dimitri From Paris, Laflèche and Luc Raymond at House Nation, Wednesday, June 23 at SONA, 11pm, $40 |
M: Really, a good moment?