*Radio One Interview : Satoshie Tomiie*

[shadowchaser]

For those of you old enough to remember the classic 'Tears' and even for those that don't, you might be interested to know that Satoshie Tomiie has a new track out right now. 'Love In Traffic' is from the recently released and critically acclaimed album. We caught up with Satoshie on a rainy Wednesday in London for a chat about what's coming up for him.

'Love In Traffic' isn't your average dance track, it's more of a song, but it has great crossover appeal...

It's got unusual lyrics especially for dance music, but it's all good. This is my favourite track from the album. To write a track that's a song and a club track as well as being a 'song' song is difficult, it was a ig challenge for me, but I like challenges.

Your previous releases have a similar vibe to them, even 'Tears' which is twelve years old...

My goal, well it's not quite a goal... What I try to do is to keep the quality. I don't suceed all the time. The style is different between 'Tears' and 'Love In Traffic' but the vibe is the same, yeah.

Did you find making an album a good experience?

Yeah, I enjoyed it but it was painfull. I struggled, it took me, like, two years. Maybe I did one or two remixes but apart from that I didn't do anything [but the album]. The first album you do is probably the most difficult for anybody, plus I like many styles of music so it was very hard for me to pick the tracks. Cutting it down was hard because I made like 40 songs. I had a great time making it.

Did you take tracks out into clubs to see if they worked?

When I started making it, Digweed & Sasha were playing at Twilo, so I gave John some tracks to play out there to test it out. As a customer I'd like to buy an album that would work on the dancefloor as well as being enjoyable when you get back home.

How often are you on the road?

Almost every weekend I have to travel which i'm enjoying, but I wish I could play more in New York. I keep telling everybody that New York needs a couple more decent clubs, but there's a lot of small clubs & bars happening right now. I've been doing a party, it's a nice vibe, very intimate, no bullshit, no politics. I don't get paid much for it but I don't care, it's quality and that's hard to get.

Do you think that people in New York are being inspired to set up there own nights, to try and build a scene?

I think that Twilo's role, having the european DJs is somewhat educating the younger generation. Five years ago, what they called New York house music doesn't exsist anymore, it's not like the mainstream, I don't know what the mainstream is. Clubs in New York are definately getting healthier, but there's still politics going on, but not just club politics, the police try to stop things and a liquor licence is hard to get so clubs just don't do well. To me Twilo is the only decent club in New York.

Well you don't get to play in New York much, where else do you like to play?

UK is definately my favourite country right now for the stuff i'm doing and playing out. Italy I like also, Japan I like of course because that's where i'm from. Australia I like too, but UK is top of my list.

What do you think of the UK clubscene?

The good thing about it is that there's a lot of really good clubs. Too much to choose from but it's better than nothing, having nothing to choose from.

What are you going to be doing in Miami this year?

I just started my own label, Saw Recordings, so we're doing a party over there on Sunday night at Salvation. Apart from that, just hanging out.

What's gonna be your big tune out there?

Probably a few tracks from my label and maybe some stuff from my album, we'll see what happens...

Tell us about your time with Morales & Def Mix

Most people might think that Def Mix equals David Morales or Frankie Knuckles or whatever. One of the reasons I started my label is because I'm part of Def Mix, but the stuff i'm doing doesn't really fit into the image that they have right now. I try to make one image that represents myself but still I'm part of Def Mix, which is really established, an institution in house music, it's great to be part of it. I think that what I'm doing now might help change the image that Def Mix has. I wish that the Def Mix name would represent quality rather than 'vocal house', so I hope that what I'm doing helps with that.

What's coming up on your label?

A song called 'Paranoid' by Bypass and another track called 'Penetration' by Madam, both of which were featured on Digweed's Global Underground compilation. These two tracks represent what I'm trying to do but it's not the only thing I want to do, I don't want to stick to one style. I'd like to keep the quality. We're gonna be doing like, the vocal stuff, and some techno stuff, maybe some trancier stuff, we'll keep the quality the same rather than the style.

Are there any artists you've got your eye on for the label?

I've been talking to Lexicon Avenue and they've promised to do a track for us, we're really happy about that because their stuff is amazing. I'm also going to work with Tarantella & Redanka in April right after Miami.

------------------

every move you make...every step you take...i'll be watching you...

shadowchaser076@aol.com