DAVID MORALES radio interview (good stuff imo)

[silverbull]

This is a transcript, it's a little long, but definitely worth the read IMO.

Gregory T. Angelo: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Gregory T. Angelo thanking you for joining Mike Apotheosis and me for this latest edition of “The Revolution.†He comes from the old-skool. As one of house music’s originators, tonight’s guest emerged as a force to be reckoned with during his still-celebrated tenure as the resident disc jock of the legendary nightspot Red Zone, matching his success in the DJ booth with a highly celebrated career in the studio. His 1993 remix of Mariah Carey’s “Dreamlover†is certified by spinners across the globe as one of the greatest dance tracks of all time—an honor echoed in 1998 when he was honored with a Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year. But following the closure of Red Zone, the profile of tonight’s guest in the New York Scene diminished, in lieu of a celebrated career on the international circuit that endures to this day. But now, with the release of his first artist album in 11 years, the world of the old meets the world of today—and when two worlds collide, music will never be the same. Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I announce that tonight David Morales joins “The Revolution.†Greetings, David! How are you this evening?

David Morales:Can you write that for my biography? [Laughs.] That was so like—whoa! I was like, “Whoa, man!†I was just like embossing what you were doing just now. It’s like—oh my god! You sold me right there! [Laughs.]

GTA: Well, thank you very much!

DM: Very well said. It is a pleasure to be here.

GTA: Great. Well, let’s kick things off by giving props where props are due: 2 Worlds Collide, to me, is really nothing short of a masterwork. I could probably go on gushing for the full half-hour about how much I love this CD, but I’m sure our listeners are more interested in hearing how such a kick-ass dance album came to be. So I guess that’s my first question, David: It’s been over 10 years since your last studio album, 1993’s The Program. Does that mean you’ve been working on 2 Worlds Collide for the past decade?

DM: No. Definitely not. No, actually, 2 Worlds Collide I’ve been working for the last two-and-a-half years. In reality, the majority of it was done within the last year-and-a-half. I sort of took a break from the studio and then it wasn’t until the last three years that I built a studio and I got the studio bug again, but now it’s on my terms. Whereas, I’m not constricted to a time-frame, you know, when it comes to mixing records. Back then, when I was backed up with offers, you know, it was always “yesterday, yesterday, yesterday, yesterday.†So there was always this turnover rate. Now when I was making my own [studio]—you know, and I live right across the street, so it—great, I come to the studio, and if I’m feeling it, great; if I don’t feel it, you know what? I cut it for the day and I go home. I’m not paying for studio time. You know, years ago I was spending $2,500 U.S.a day in the studio—that’s just for the studio; we’re not even getting into tape, we’re not getting into engineers, we’re not even getting into musicians. So you can imagine the money that was spent in just making a record back in them days. Now it’s just—I own my studio, so I pay rent, and actually I had to invest in the equipment and all that, and I still use an engineer—who is Steven Barkin—which is like my right-hand man; he’s the one that makes everything work. And I didn’t want to make an album; I wanted to make records, because I figured, you know, now it’s time for me to make records, get back into things and just make records, especially since there’s such a void for good music. And I’m not making it seem like I’m the champion of making music, but I’m one of the few that has the experience to write and produce songs and work with artists, you know what I mean? There’s a lot of great tracks out there, but that’s exactly what they are—they’re great tracks. They’re not great songs, they’re great tracks. There’s a difference between a track and there’s a difference between a song. And as I started to write songs, and eventually I had a bunch of them together and as opposed to releasing them out as singles as I was going to do with different names, different artists, I did it. Especially now with the DJ culture that has gotten really so big within the last few years, then now it’s expected for a DJ to put out an artist album, as opposed to 10 years ago where they would look at you, “Why are you putting—who are you to put out a DJ artist album? You’re not singing! You’re not…†You know? Whereas today, now, today, it’s acceptable because the DJ is now the rock star.

GTA: Got it. 2 Worlds Collide hits the streets with quite a bit of advance buzz, thanks to the seeming omnipotence of the smash single “How Would U Feelâ€â€”a track that has been in rotation by most every one of the world’s most respected DJs for well-near a year now. Let’s take a moment and have a listen to that. [. . .] Gorgeous. The vocalist on “How Would U Feel†is a sweet siren by the name of Lea Lorién. How did you discover her, David?

DM: Lea Lorién is the daughter of a very famous—first of all, she comes from a family of musicians. She’s practically like a goddaughter of Luther Vandross, her mother’s an incredible session singer, her father wrote “Fame†with David Bowie and he is an incredible guitar player. I met her—I was working with her father, he was playing some guitar on some of my tracks, and the guy that handles my publicity at the office, Dennis Wheeler, he told me, “Oh, you’ve got to meet his daughter! His daughter’s gorgeous and she’s a great singer, she’s a great songwriter.†And I said, “Well, what is she into?†And he said, “She likes Jill Scott, she likes Angie Stone. She’s more into the nü-soul thing-slash-R&B.†So I met her and I asked her how did she feel about writing to some dance tracks. She said she was open, you know, she was a songwriter, so why not? I gave her like four tracks to write and she wrote a couple of them. One was “Lifted,†of course, and then there’s “How Would U Feel†and we did some other ones from the initial that I didn’t go with but that we ended up writing more tracks anyway. But when we tracked “How Would U Feel,†I loved the sound of her voice, and she just like blew me away. And I was like—I asked, “Would you be interested in being a featured vocalist on my album?†And she said, “Why not?â€

GTA: Now you said she comes from that nü-soul background?

DM: No, she’s into nü-soul—that Jill Scott, Angie Stone, India.Arie kind of thing.

GTA: So did it take any convincing to initiate her in the whole dance music scene, house music scene?

DM: You know, I did, which was ironic. She has—as time goes on, she has more respect for it, of course, because, obviously, she’s getting notoriety for it.

GTA: As I said a moment ago, I cannot name a single New York DJ—not one—who hasn’t worked this record. When you wrapped production on “How Would U Feel,†did you know you had such a unique, once-in-a-lifetime track on your hands? Or did the song’s across-the-board success come as a surprise to you?

DM: No, I knew from the minute that I heard the demo in a hotel room in Florida that I had a very special record. I knew right from the beginning that it was a rainbow, sunshine, paradise. I knew from the moment that I really took a listen to that record that it was going to be one of those kinds of records.

GTA: Now your dub of “How Would U Feel†is even more surprising; it’s a hard-as-nails stormer vastly different from the cut’s more dreamy original mix. For comparison’s sake, let’s throw on the dub. [. . .] Now that’s not exactly the sound that comes to mind when someone mentions a David Morales production. David, do you find that promoters and punters and clubgoers expect you to play in that classic, soulful, old-skool style you became renowned for back in the day when they hire you for gigs today?

DM: In the Red Zone days, I was making—if you want to call it for lack—tech and progressive records 10 years ago—or over 10 years ago, for that matter. That’s what the Red Zone sound was about. And it was really the Red Zone dubs, because the A-side was always what the song was—I gave you the song, as I did with “How Would U Feel.†And the Red Zone mix was always representing Red Zone, which was almost bridging two continents, and at the time that was the United Kingdomand America. So we were the only club that was really playing this different—because I just went to England for the first time, and I was doing a lot of mixes for England, and I liked doing something that you were still able to relate to the original, but it was something left-field of it; it was off the center. So there was a darkness, and everybody—the Red Zone mixes became famous for it. It was just slowed-down progressive.

GTA: “How Would U Feel†has also served the alternative purpose of re-introducing “David Morales†to the New York consciousness, especially among clubland’s next generation of clubgoers who didn’t get the chance to experience you at Red Zone back in the 1990s. Now correct me if I’m wrong, David, but the last regular residency you had in New York was your stint at the helm of the now-shuttered Red Zone.

DM: That was my last main residency. I mean, I had a small one after that, but it was just very something small at a place called—god, I can’t even remember, that’s how short it was! [Laughs.]

GTA: Very well!

DM: It was actually called Expo.

GTA: Oh, Expo! Yes, right on 43rd Street.

DM: Right, that was the last sort of like mini-residency. But Red Zone was my last. I was there for three years. It was home, man. I mean, Red Zone, you know, I used to love, after working in the studio all weekend, walking in with two brand new records on reel-to-reel ready to play, ready to test. It was a testing ground for—right out the box—for everything that I was doing back in them days.

GTA: In the years since Red Zone, you’ve done a lot of touring—and when I say a lot, we’re talking on the road for—what? Nine, 10 months out of the year?

DM: Oh my god, it’s crazy!

GTA: So your international profile has risen considerably over time. Presently, in New York, there’s no doubt that you’ve got the respect—that will likely never go away; but do you yearn to regain a presence in New York as a DJ, David?

DM: Yes I do, and I have the respect with the older crowd or the older generation, and we’re probably talking a generation-and-a-half ago. But yeah, I do yearn for a presence in New York. It’s unfortunate that a lot of the great New Yorkguys don’t have residencies, you know what I mean, in proper clubs. You know, we have to somehow, sometimes create our little things and stuff when it’s a Monday or a Tuesday or a Wednesday, but you know when it comes to the weekend, nobody’s really getting any—nobody’s getting a tap on their shoulder, you know what I mean? You know, the really sad thing about it is that New York is the home of some of the best talent in the world, but yet they’re not giving us a chance to express ourselves in our own territory. But I don’t trip about it, you know what I mean, because I can keep working somewhere else, you know what I mean? You know, it’s sad because I would like to play my own town. For our listeners as well, why do they have to listen to a radio show? Why do they have to hear from other folks how great we’re doing in other places, you know? They should be able to experience that here. But all the promoters and the club owners care about here is what the masses want or what they feel the masses want, you know what I mean? Like, opening up a magazine and saying, “Oh, okay, well Tiësto is the man of the moment. This is a guy that we need to book.†The problem is that this has been the mentality, and so there’s nobody trying to break any new ground or to try and even support their own talent which I think is a crime.

GTA: I think it’s Also somewhat ironic that you maintain a highly successful residency at Club Stereo in Montreal, which is really just a stone’s throw away from New York City. Is the atmosphere and the vibe and the respect that the Canadian crowds have for guys such as yourself that created this whole thing we call house music different from the level of respect and knowledge that the crowds in New York today have?

DM: I find that in Canada, not being—now going in Canada, it’s going to be six years come March. And for me, you know, I invite people up to Montrealmany times—I fly folks out there, whether it’s DJs or whether it’s people that went to clubs in New York and that are frustrated with the club scene in New York or the club scene in The States, for that matter. But we’re talking about New Yorkbecause, you know, this is where we are. And when they come up to Montreal, they’re like, “What the hell is this? We need this in New York! Why don’t you bring this to New York?†And my words are, “I don’t know if they deserve it; I don’t know if they’re ready for it anymore.†You know what I mean? Because the last places that we had like that were places like The Loft, places like The [Paradise] Garage, places like Body & Soul, where people just—it’s very rare to [be able to] put gay and straight audiences into one room where they hang out for 15 hours and you go all across the board with music and the sound is incredible and they know the music and they’re open. They appreciate it. The biggest things that they appreciate, they’re not like—and they’ve seen a lot of talent. It’s easy for them to say, “You know what, we’ve heard it, we’ve heard it, we’ve seen it, yeah, okay,†you know? They’re very educated; you can’t just think you’re getting over. And for me, this is Canadians in general, as compared to the American scene in general. You know what, I’ve witnessed the two, so yeah, I can speak on it from experience, and I dare somebody to tell me any different. Yeah, I wish it could be done in New York, and I’m not saying that it never could. It definitely takes patience more than anything, because to create something special, it’s not something that you can mass-market, you know what I mean? I’m an owner of Stereo now, you know? It’s not something that, you know—I don’t care about mass-marketing. I want to create something that is about a unique party, a unique place where you can enjoy yourself. For me, it’s a matter of bringing my experience. I experienced The Garage, I experienced The Loft, I experienced Zanzibar. And not to mention whatever other places I’ve experienced before that, you know? I’ve been playing almost 30 years now. You know, I’m playing to an audience out there that didn’t have—and will never have—the privilege to experience those places. My responsibility and what I feel is my calling with Stereo is to incorporate as much of yesterday into today and tomorrow.

GTA: Alright. Let’s bring it back to 2 Worlds Collide, if I may for a moment. The album’s second single release is a track titled “Here I Am,†featuring vocals by Tamara Keenan. Let’s play that one. [. . .] Now much like Lea Lorién, Tamara Keenan is a fresh face, correct?

DM: Yes.

GTA: What’s her story?

DM: You’re going to laugh with this one—as I said, get a giggle. Tamara Keenan I heard off a record that she was singing on, and I asked Hector Romero that works with me, I said, “Hector, who is this girl?†He’s like, “Her name is Tamara and she mainly sings on breakbeat stuff. I heard her even on the breakbeat record and I told Hector—I was like, “Find me this girl!†So he got me the information, I reached out to the girl, to her, and she told me how she didn’t know who I was, which goes to show you the new generation, how they really just don’t know, and you know, she’s in a different genre of music. And she asked her producer friend from breakbeat, she’s was like, “Some DJ/producer from America called David Morales wants me to come to New York and work with him, he’s making a new album.†And her friend was just like, “Are you out of your mind? You go! Get on that plane and go! This guy has worked with some of the most incredible artists in the world! This guy is the king at what he does! Go!†And she was like—she didn’t understand what it was about. She told me the story. It’s nice to have someone from another genre of music really think about you that way, you know?

GTA: Now David, as you said, you’ve been DJ-ing for well on 30 years now, you’re one of the originators of house music and one of the original players in the game. I think you likely could have had your pick of any of the more established underground talents when it came time to recording tracks for 2 Worlds Collide. Why put the focus so much on new and undiscovered talent?

DM: All I want to be is a platform to make other people’s dreams come true. And by that I mean there’s so much great talent out there, and all they need is a break. Yes, I could have asked many numerous—and I’ve been asked this question a few times—and, you know, yes, but you know what? It was never a thought to think, “Well, let me ask this person, let me ask that one, let me ask—†You know, I wanted-in reality, at the same time I wanted it to be my record. Yes, it’s easy for me to have a big artist name, but they’ve already done so many records that in a sense it almost becomes one of their records. I’ll show you an example: Jocelyn Brown can make the worst producer in the world sound good, because she’s that good, you know what I mean? She can take a bad song and make it sound good, and very few people have that talent.

GTA: As I said earlier, David, you’re constantly in motion touring nightclubs around the world. Where can our listeners catch you in the coming weeks? I hear you have a big Halloween party coming up at Stereo.

DM: Well, let’s see. October 30th, this weekend, I’ll be at Stereo. Next week I’ll be going to Englandto do the Southport Weekender. I believe the week after that I’m in Boa in Toronto. After that I’m going to Dubei in Belgium. And after that I believe it’s back to Stereo for our sixth anniversary with my friend Frankie Knuckles together. Gee, I’m traveling every single weekend until practically the end of the year.

GTA: Do you have a web site our listeners can go to to get your touring dates?

DM: Yes. Defmix.com. Click onto yours truly, David Morales! [Laughs.]

GTA: Alright! One last question, David: So many DJs are asked by journalists to reveal the secret to their success and to give advice to dance music’s next generation of disc jocks. It’s a softball question and you’ve probably been asked on countless occasions—so I’m not going to waste your time by asking it again. Instead, David, I’m going to ask you what it takes to stay on top. Proportionally, there are so few DJs who actually make a career out of spinning compared to the number of guys and gals out there who call themselves “DJs.†So just making it is tough enough. But staying there seems like an even greater challenge. So what’s the trick, David?

DM: It sure is tough to maintain, especially now more than ever, because it’s “in†to be a DJ. You know what I mean? You find DJs in all kinds of shops—there’s a DJ in the Puma Store! There’s a DJ in the barber shop! There’s DJs in restaurants and cafés. You know, it’s ridiculous, you know? I mean, you know—what’s her name? Nikki Hilton, she wants to be a DJ! I mean, you know, Tommy Lee is DJ-ing now. I mean, you know, it goes on and on. You know, I started—I’ve always been a music lover. I used to sit at a turntable—one turntable—with records at my feet on the floor against the wall, and I used to pick records when I went to my friends’ house. I was the “selector.†It wasn’t about technology. It was about picking and choosing records to put on a turntable for me and my friends to listen to. We would hang out and my friends would say, “David, play some records for us!†And I would just sit in a chair in front of the stereo and just choose records. Then the technology came where it was two turntables, and I went to my Junior High School prom and the record—the big record of the year at that time was “10 Percent†by Double Exposure, which was the first giant-45 on Salsoul Records. I was so in awe from what I was seeing this guy doing, because he was doing what I loved doing, but he was taking it to another level. In saying that, today, there’s press, there’s magazines, the DJ is a rock star today. The problem with that is that many people are getting the wrong impression, and by that I mean when I ask a guy a question, when they say, “You know, I’ve got great talent man. How can I get out there?†And my first question to them is like, “Why are you doing this first of all? Is it because you want to be famous? Is it because you want to make money? Or is it because you love music? Because if you love music, then who cares whether you’re making money or you’re famous or you’re playing in some club?†Because if you’re a bedroom DJ and if you love to play music, nobody can take that away from you at all, and you can play what you want, as you want. It’s really the same principal when you go out to play—it’s supposed to be this way. So I remember playing in empty bars—I just wanted to play. Where there was nobody to cheer me on. And I come from the culture that you play the first and the last record, so it wasn’t these two-hour hot spots where you came in, shot your load, and said, “Ciao!†You know what I’m saying? [Laughs.] It wasn’t nothing like that. You had to learn how to—different tempos, you had to learn how to speak to your audience, learn when to make your audience dance and when it was okay for them not to dance, because you had—you know, people had to drink. So you had to know to not be afraid to bring the energy down because you knew you were going to take the energy back again. As opposed to today, where you have a young kid that’s playing is saying, “Oh my god, I’ve got to play the big tunes because I can’t lose the dance floor!†Because they don’t have that luxury—the expectation is way too much that they have to—“I’ve got to keep pumping! I’ve got to keep pumping! I’ve got to keep pumping!†You know? So with the way that it is, there’s less experimentation, there’s less risks involved. Going back to when all I wanted to do was play, I remember when I knew a guy who owned an electronics repair shop, and I had records but, you know, I came from a poor family—I didn’t have turntables. I used to go to his shop and just want to play records, you know what I mean? And hang around like a fly on the wall just waiting for an opportunity for him to say, “David, go ahead! I know you want to play some records! Just go ahead and play some records!†The same thing when it came to another friend of mine’s house. He couldn’t play records for nothing—didn’t have any records! He would ask me to come over. He bought a setup just so I could come over and play records for him at his house. So, you know, for me, it was always just about—I just wanted to play records. There was no money. It had nothing to do with money. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t even in a club. I didn’t care if it was two people, one person—hell, myself! I just wanted to play records. So, for me today, I am blessed, I am fortunate. God has, like, looked upon me and has, like, put his hand on my shoulder and was like, “I will grant you—I’m going to give you—this is what you’re going to do for the rest of your life, and you are going to—your job is to pass the message around the world.†And he’s allowed me to travel around the world and put food on my table and put a roof over my head doing what I love doing. And I remember that 30—me, when I first picked up those turntables 30 years ago. I remember having to chase people down for $15 for the whole night! And I used to bring my whole record collection—hell, I used to bring equipment! For $15! $15! I mean, you know, compared to what the fees are today, it really destroys me and it really bothers me when I see some of the big names today that won’t do certain gigs because they can’t afford them, where they seem to have forgotten that when they started there was no money. And somebody gave them—you know, we wouldn’t be who we are if it wasn’t for our fans, you understand? And there’s times that we have to give back, because you can’t just keep taking and taking and taking and taking. For me, all I care about is giving. For me, I get paid to get on a plane; I get paid for the inconvenience that I have to do when a plane gets laid-over, with having to go through customs and immigration, with the two-hour car ride that I have to take from the airport to the hotel and then the hour car ride that I have to take to the gig. For me, this is why I earn my money; it’s not playing records. So I think, to stay on top, A) you have to love what you do, without any conditions. You can’t—you have to learn how to evolve with the music, with the times. You can’t be stuck in yesterday and be frustrated—it’s easy for me to be like, “Well, you know, it was like this years ago, or it was like that years ago, it was like this years ago,†you know? Or, “I’m never going to play this kind of music,†or, “I don’t like the music of today and I only want to play what’s here,†you know? If you get caught up in that then you can’t move on. So one is you have to know how to evolve, and you have to be humble and grateful. Follow those rules and you can’t go wrong. And one thing I have to say is that if you love music, then there’s no failing nowhere; you’re not losing no way at all.

GTA: Alright, well here’s to many more years at the top of your game, David.

DM: Did I say too much? [Laughs.]

GTA: That was perfect! Okay, well, David, again, I want to thank you for spending some time tonight with “The Revolution.â€

DM: It’s been my pleasure. I’m here for “The Revolutionâ€! Revolution! Revolution!

GTA: Great! And thanks to every one of you at work, at home, or at large who took the time to join “The Revolution†tonight. Remember, if you’d like more info on my producer Mike Apotheosis and his projects, point your browser to www.apotheosis.dj. As a reminder to our listeners, David Morales’ 2 Worlds Collide hits the streets next week. Look for it on Ultra Records. On behalf of David Morales, my producer Mike Apotheosis, Christopher Saylor and everyone at Metro Mix Radio, I’m Gregory T. Angelo thanking you for logging on, tuning in and listening up. Remember, “The Revolution†begins with you. Until next time…

[truex1200]

he seems confident,kind of cocky..but in a very pleasant way. he deserves it. great artist, has made great music and seems down to eart.. very nice interview. when he was taling about himself and how people were like "omg heez the best blah blah", i found that cocky as stated above, but as you read on..you realize he is really happy and grateful for all he has accomplished and i find that wonderful.

thanx for the interview and thank you mr morales.

[blueskygirl]

Thanks for this!

Goddam I love DM

bsg

[shugabooga]

silverbullet ~ i've been looking for mikey unsuccessfully for a while but can you help me with a direct email or phone number (send me a private email) mikey knows me well....we were twilo and clubplanet buddies back in the day.......... i clicked on the link for his contact but the site seems to be down at the moment. thanks!!!!!!!!!!

shannon

aka shugabooga

[clinton]

thanks great stuff. i miss DM sooo much in nyc. give crobar credit they had him almost monthly.

wtf is going on in nyc when we never see lawler, morales, .cox once/year. . howells once/year. sander once/year. why are all the great djs of 3-5 years ago gone? it makes em think that nyc clubbing is at the worst point ever - (((

[silverbull]

Morales is busy touring the world and nyc seems to be interested in only a certain sound, or just plain dont like his sound to much which i think is sad. Cause David Morales is a beast.

[STCHRIS]

Youve also got a whole new generation of clubbers in NYC who dont know the past or care to which is sad....

[clinton]

so who rules ny now? boris & JP? I am going to vomit .

thank god junior still lives here & derrick carter plays 3 times a year