You’re debut release: Blame Game was released on Hot Creations just over a year ago. How did you get your track heard by the label and how would your describe your career since then?
I met Jamie and Lee when they were doing a show in Montreal. Luckily I knew the opening DJ, wandered backstage and asked them for their email addresses to send them my work. I sent them a few songs and some pictures of my artwork which they were digging and then when Jamie heard Blame Game he signed it right away. Things have definitely been very colourful since signing the record, and I’ve been welcomed into an amazing family of musicians, dancers, artists and people all connected to the label and the Paradise parties in some way, shape or form. I still have a lot of hustling to do to make my career as an artist sustainable but it’s all about the journey anyways. I have to say though that the label has been a huge help in getting my name out there and promoting me as a DJ. I moved to London recently and it’s not easy out here but it is very rewarding and there are always talented people around you.
Can you tell us about your family background and how come you have lived in so many different countries?
I had kind of a weird childhood… My dad’s job moved my family around every 2 or 3 years so I was always going to different international schools. It was sometimes a real pain leaving all of your friends and school but overall it was really cool because I got to meet new people all the time, many of which I still see randomly all around the world. I definitely didn’t realize how cool it was to grow up like that until later in life. When you are 16 and your parents tell you that you’re moving in the middle of your junior year from Peru to India, somewhere you love to somewhere you’ve never even thought about living in, it’s devastating at the time. Looking back on it all now though, making those moves made me a much more open-minded and versatile person.
Where did you first encounter Dance music and who are you biggest influences?
Probably when I moved to Thailand when I was about 6 or 7 I was already obsessed with soundtracks and albums and when I saw the film Hackers, with Orbital’s Halcyon+On+On in the opening credits and then Underworld, Stereo MCs and Sneaker Pimps later on I was hooked! I guess once I started getting a few mix cds and learning more about it, Danny Tenaglia and Danny Howells became my biggest inspirations as they always seemed to make the most beautiful journeys with their mixes. Music and art were always the constants in my life. No matter what country I was in I could get lost in that stuff.
Outside of Dance music what also inspires you?
This crazy multiverse we live in! I love how different societies express themselves and am a huge fan of different art from around the world, especially Western pop art, South American and Australian patterns and South Asian architecture. I believe every society and every person has their own forms of art. We all have ways of expressing ourselves and that’s what makes us unique. I also love the idea of having a set of influences and borrowing techniques and ideas to create new ones.
Your latest single: Connected People is being released soon on Culprit. Can you talk us through how you produced it?
Connected People came together in a flash… When I came back from BPM festival last January, I got in the studio the day after I landed and within 8 hours later, the song was born. That festival this year had such a good vibe I felt very close to all the people I attended it with. I took the vocal snippets from a conversation I recorded with my dad ages ago about how amazing it is people all around the globe are so well connected. Those vibes combined with some analog goodness from 1981… It just came together. After I was finished it, somehow I just knew it would go to Culprit.
Buy: http://www.beatport.com/release/connected-people-ep/1354383
I believe you have an album planned as well. How have you found recording that and what can you tell us about it?
The album has been a huge challenge. That whole concept will take its time and will happen when the time is right. Its been one of the things you think is gonna come together fast but actually takes longer for it to evolve. I do have a bunch of material saved up though and much of it’s just waiting…. While it simmers I have some other music coming out in the fall, the biggest is a record of mine called “Last Night” coming up on Nic Fanciulli’s Saved label. The cuts on that EP have been doing some serious damage for me on the dance floor. The B-Side is a collaboration with my friend, Andre Salmon.
Where are you looking forward to DJ’ing at over the remainder of the summer?
I’m still just coming back down to earth after two back magical gigs down in Ecuador! I’m doing a special Blacklight party at the Delano in Miami which means I always spend a bit more time there in the studio with my Miami music family. I also have some good stuff coming up in Dublin and a party underneath a bridge in London in early September which is apparently incredible every year. Sounds like the kind of stuff I used to dream about!
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