Interview with Louie Vega

Interview with Louie Vega

20 August, 2007 | 4.11PM

• Written by: gregsawyer
• Filed under: Music News : in the house, interview, louie vega, masters at work, maw

With his fantastic ‘In the House’ compilation released next week, Beatportal cornered Louie Vega to find out about the musical influences behind his unique style, dancing to Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage, and why his mum can often be found behind the decks at his gigs.

What happened to your famous diamond Masters At Work pendant?

“Arrrr… that poor pendant. It’s in Miami somewhere.

“Some lucky cleaning lady has it or something.

“It was a gift from Kenny that he gave me about 10 years ago.

“When I was in my place in Miami, my son was wearing it and I guess it must have just got lost down some sofa somewhere.

“That was a very beautiful piece. I am having a new one made.”

We saw a video of you DJing recently in Miami. Was that your mum behind the decks?

“You know a lot of my parties here in the US are family orientated.

“My Mom, my sisters their daughters, they all come out and they love this music.

“It was my Mom who was rocking out and the other woman was my aunt!

“You can see the video at www.defected.com/tv

Did the music that they played when you were growing up influence your style now?

“As you know I have Latin heritage, so salsa music is a big part of my growing up.

“I had a very famous uncle singer named Hector LaVoe signed to the label Fonia,

“I also listened to Elton John, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and got I got musical influences from my sisters going to clubs and being club queens in the late 70s and 80s.

“They brought a lot of records from Zanibar and The Loft, Paradise Garage and The Gallery.”

Did you go to any of those clubs?

“I got to go to the Garage when I was 15 years old.

“I remember what Larry Levan was playing when I first went in there, it was amazing.

“He played Candido ‘Thousand Finger Man’, Street Player ‘Chicago’ - a lot of those records that influence us today were played at that club.

“I still play those records to this day. I was in awe of the sound system, Larry Levan, the way he played, he mixed a lot of effects and accapellas, he really took you on a trip.

Was Larry Levan your role model?

“Yes he was a role model for me as a DJ, a producer and a remixer.

“He remixed and produced tons of great records, the Beach Boys, Grace Jones, Gwen Guthrie even Mick Jagger.”

Maybe you’ve reached the same stature as him now?

“Ah man… I don’t think I could ever go that far, but there were a lot of great DJs around at the time.

“I remember watching Tony Humphries at the Zanzibar, the way he played records. 

“At that time it was amazing in New York. 

“It was all about the big clubs and the soundsystems.

“You had 10 or 15 clubs the size of Ministry of Sound in London and they all had amazing DJs.

“Between 85-90 I played the tops clubs in NYC when I was young, 20 years old and I was playing every Friday and Saturday to huge numbers every night, maybe 2500 to 3000 people every weekend.”

What about your legendary Underground Network party?

“I took a break for a couple of years when I met Don Welsh who was Barbara Tucker’s partner at the time.

“He had already started the Underground Network at Elite.

“They said ‘look how do feel about being the resident DJ at all our parties every Wednesday?’

“Then they came up with the concept of making it a music industry party where all music industry heads could hang out, dancers and DJs, and so we went over to the Sound Factory where we had seen Frankie Knuckles playing. It was bumping and we loved the club.”

Was the parties at Sound Factory your first residency?

“Yes it was my first house music residency, because before I would play Latin, hip hop, reggae, R&B - a big mixture.

“In the late 1980s (87) I met Todd Terry.

“We started hanging out a lot and Todd said to me ‘Man I’m doing a lot of records at the moment, will you mix them for me?’

“I was mixing pop records at that time.

“If you look at Todd’s early records you’ll see my name on them.

“Records like ‘Just Make That Move’, ‘The beat Goes On’ and ‘Give Yourself to Me’.

“Todd and I became really good friends and we used to hang out after that.”

Do you think that the record label Strictly Rhythm kick started your career, especially with songs like ‘Beautiful People’? 

“I would say as a producer for house music, yes.

“Strictly Rhythm gave me the opportunity to release a lot of the ideas that I had.

“Mark Finkelstein was the man behind the scenes sorting out all the business side of things, but Glady Pizarro was in charge of the creative part, she was always out, checking out the clubs, checking out what was new, checking out the next thing.

“She would always say to me ‘what you got that’s new?’ and I would call her at 3am in the morning, her and Micheal Weiss at Nervous.

“Strictly Rhythm and Nervous were very instrumental to my career and I would call them and they would listen and I would say ‘I have this record and it’s real hot!’

“The records would be ‘Deep Inside’, or ‘Beautiful People’ and they would be freaking out.

“I’d say ‘I got this idea, we wrote this song called ‘Beautiful People’ and it was actually India, Lem Springstein, Dereck Whittaker and myself who had written the song, and the next thing ‘Beautiful People’ was born.

“I had a great team at the time trying to pull together some great song writers, I was working with India at the time, and Lem Sprinstein.”

What’s the story behind ‘Deep Inside’?

“I came up with this hot groove and I wanted to do something for Barbara Tucker because she was always singing at the Underground Network.

“So I said I got this song for you.

“When she sang this song she sang one little part that really stood out for me that was ‘Deep down inside, deep deep down inside’ and I was like ‘wow that gave me an idea’.

“I went back into the studio I wrote this new groove to it and it became ‘Deep Inside’, and I thought that I would use this groove to introduce Barbara’s voice to the house scene. 

“I think it’s perfect for getting the crowd to get into vibe.”

What’s this we hear about a certain up and coming house superstar DJ helping you out?

“It’s funny that it’s such a small world, when I took that sample I went to a studio where a young guy who had a tiny little studio in a room in his house helped me out.

“This young engineer who worked on my song turned out to be Erick Morillo.

“The young Eric Morillo did my track!

“He was my engineer on ‘Deep Inside’.

“From there the song blew up and I couldn’t believe it, I gave that song to Strictly Rhythm for practically nothing and it did amazing out there.

It has become every house music aficionado’s favourite record.

“It’s wild how that happened.

“I remember going to Italy and seeing the reaction, I saw how huge it was, it hit everybody on the spot.

“It’s a classic groove and the hook is infectious.

What was The Sound Factory like?

“The Sound Factory – everyone used to hang out there. 

“Everyone went there and I was the resident there on a Wednesday night.

“You’d see all these people hanging out who came from the same area: Kenny Dope, Roger Sanchez, Danny Tenaglia, Erick Morillo, Armand Van Helden, Barbara Tucker.

“Everybody would be hanging out and when they did jams they would bring them and I would play them, we would break the records right there.

“It became a whole scene and they used to bring their records, I used play them and the crowd would freak out then the records would just go boom.”

Who do you think is setting the standards now?

“I love it when people get creative.

“Henrik Schwarz, Dennis Ferrer, Ame, Mr V, Alix Alvarez, Will Rodriguez from the West Coast, Frank Roger, Joe Clausell.

“This crew are coming up with some really crazy things.

“Even on a mainstream level Bob Sinclar and Martin Solveig.

“There is a lot of music our there and it’s up to the DJ to develop his taste to music, the DJ has to make it his thing.

“That is the sign of a really good DJ when you identify exactly what his sound is.

“It’s like yo - that’s a Larry Levan record, or that’s a Zanzibar record, it goes from way back.”

Do you ever follow trends?

“Things will stand out if you like them.

“I play music that I feel moves me, music that gives me chills.

“It’s how you play the particular song, you can see the reaction from the people, how you bring it in, what you do to create a dynamic.

“You can make a crowd sing a song just by the way you’re are playing it, you can accent parts that people what to sing it or say it, even if they haven’t heard that song before.

“When I play there is a certain energy, I’ve got to admit it now to this day as I have inspired a lot of people and it feels really good to have touched and inspired these people.

“I’m proud and honoured to be able to do that, whether it’s a DJ or a person on the dancefloor.”

Music is in a transitional stage at the moment. How is it changing for you?

“It is changing, obviously the vinyl that we have had a great run with for the last 25 years is now dwindling and it is becoming more of a purist thing.

“With my releases at Vega Records we still take care of the purists, that is something that is close to my heart obviously because I am a DJ who still collects vinyl, even though I play CDs when I’m travelling.

“I have a huge collection of vinyl.”

Do you play from a laptop as well?

“I have Serrato, the DJ mixing software so I can do either.

“It’s great as you get to carry tons of music.

“It’s a good time for independents and small labels because you get to sell your tracks digitally around the world from different digital stores, you can promote through the internet, you can sell your records without having to invest tons of money in marketing and production, at least you can get a start.”

So are you saying it’s better at the moment?

“It has its better side and its worse side.

“It is not easy for an independent label to survive, you have to be very consistent and make good music.

“The best thing is that nobody can stop me making music, I make tons of music, I always have Ideas, my mind is always fresh full of them as I travel around the world.

“We can almost control our destiny because we are creating the music and finding the new talent. That’s what I have dedicated Vega Records to, to find new talent.”

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