Sunshine Jones took a moment out of his busy schedule to shed some light on his past, present and future workings in life, love and music with Native Intelligence. Native will be conducting interviews and penning album reviews for The MML, who have been kind enough to grant permission for him to cross-post his writings here.
From unknown garage band to international acclaim, Sunshine’s done it all and then some. Dubtribe Sound System, which is one half Moonbeam Jones, put a deep imprint on house music and on our dancing hearts and for that we are truly grateful. Here are the goods on the man behind the musical magic.
What was your childhood like and how was music involved?
I grew up in San Francisco listening to KDIA on my Panasonic radio. I left home at 12 to live in the street and live the late-70’s dream of Punk Rock. By 1982 I was bored to death by the shift from transgender-anarchist punk rock as a social experiment to suburban slam dancing and was kind of saved by disco. At first it looked like it was going to be a magical time. We were going to parties called anon parties – off-site warehouse parties which played modern music (a kind of a mix of new wave, electro, and disco.) You had to have an invitation, and the only way to get one was if you went to one. So people were scrambling all over each other to find out where and when the party was going to be. Ultimately the eighties turned out to be a desert. Everyone died, A.I.D.S. really ravaged San Francisco in a way no one expected or understood, and the music was on perpetual repeat. I was standing on a dance floor in 1986 thinking to myself, “if I hear ‘White Lines’ one more time I am never coming back here,” and as if on cue, the DJ mixed ‘White Lines’ in and the crowd cheered. I rolled my eyes and went home. I traveled a lot for the last part of the 80’s. I spent the summer of 1989 on Ibiza, discovered the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and found drumming and dancing in a completely new way from getting dressed up and going out to clubs. When I returned to San Francisco I met people who were listening to acid house and techno and a kind of renaissance began here. People from all over the world were living cheap in the Lower Haight, little shops were opening up, Brad bought The Top, Mal threw a party in an abandoned racket ball club, my childhood friend Preston started a party called Toon Town, and my favorite pizza chef from Sparky’s – Martin Mendoza – switched from hip-hop to house and the world was changed forever.
Have you ever been in a band, what kind of music?
I started my first band when I was 14. It was one of those punk bands that never played live. Eventually I got a real band together; we played punk rock, and were the first song on the first side of the Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll compilation, ‘Not So Quiet on the Western Front’. I was a really drunk teenager, so I never really got much together. I tried throughout the 80’s to put bands together, but I was always reaching way too far.
By the late 80’s I had a 12 piece band together and realized that there was nowhere to play, and even when we played – people liked it, but so what? I wanted to connect with people and really have an exchange with them. Somehow getting 11 people together to do what I asked them to do just wasn’t any fun. So I started making music with machines to try and better explore my ideas. That’s where Dubtribe Sound System came from. As usual, at first we had more people than we needed, but soon, as we began to tour, record, and really make the kind of sacrifices you need to make in order to really be in a band, we were only two. We added drummers over the years, and always welcomed improvisation in our performances, but Dubtribe was the only band I was ever in that many people actually liked.
Our next event is quickly approaching, and as always we made some time to talk with our headliner, all the way from Milan Italy Lele Sacchi. Over the past few years, Lele (under the studio moniker Boogie Drama) has released some seriously amazing tech house, late night bombs that have gotten play by all the major names in Europe.
Lele, it’s great to have you coming back to Sullivan Room! It’s been a while since we have had a chance to catch up, so tell me…
What things have you been up to since I’ve last seen you? Recent releases, tours, etc?
“A lot of things have happened, as usual. Production with the Boogie Drama project has been steady and as singles or remixes, we’ve been published by important labels like Systematic, Get Physical, Mood Music, Liebe*Detail and others just in 2009. The djing side as well has been full of traveling around, plus my usual core of nights I keep doing here in Milan. On top of that, recent news (in 2008) I began teaching a course as part of the sound design degree at the European Institute of Design (IED) here.”
I bet it’s kept you quite busy! Do you find time for any other interests? Any hobbies?
“Luckily I try to keep my free time to follow all my other passions: books, movies, politics, football…. I don’t have a particular hobby, but I like to leave space to follow all kind of arts and culture. I believe that above the personal enjoyment, keeping your eyes opened and the brains working on what’s happening around the world in the creative scene always adds something to the music career. Then I keep my teenage passions: as you remember I took you to the stadium to see my favourite team, Inter Milan, and that gave me a lot of satisfaction in recent years”
I definitely did’t forget seeing a great game with you and your home team! For those who may not know… what is Boogie Drama, and how did it get it’s start?
Boogie Drama is the name of the music production team consisting of me and studio partner, Sandiego. I was working as a label manager for independent music distributor, White&Black, and Diego (Sandiego) was a salesman there but also a hip hop beat producer. He was coming to the parties I was playing, and at some point we decided to start producing music together. So he stopped the hip hop thing and we dedicated ourselves to the Boogie Drama project. We’ve produced music together for around 6 years, and although we’re both really busy on djing and promoting, we had the opportunity of releasing records on some of the most respected record labels of the electronic scene in the world. I’m very happy about it and we’re great friends and music partners.”
Do you ever produce with anyone else?
“Actually I’d like to have even more time to produce with Boogie Drama so I’m not concentrating on else at the moment. But obviously you meet so many good artists, you’d always want to start new projects, especially something on a different sound….we’ll see.”
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of playing alongside of you at what some call the best club in Italy. Tell us about Magazzini Generali… What makes it so special?
“Magazzini Generali has been going on for 15 years, it’s a kind of institution for the electronic/house/techno scene in Europe. Not many venues have resisted so long with such an impressive line-up of guest artists. We have had the luck of going through different generations of clubbers and different trends in music without losing the profile. Magazzini is also one of the most important live venues for indie/rock bands, so I believe that adds a lot of what is so special about it and what gives such a perception on the public.”
How long have you been resident there?
“I started playing there 10 years ago. Quite a long time to think about it! So many dj’s, musical fads have changed. I’ve tried to keep my attitude and my vision and I believe it has paid off.”
Are you still playing mainly vinyl?
“Unfortunately less than I’d love. If it was up to me, I’d keep it as it was with good solid booths and PA’s dedicated to the vinyl sound. It gave a special feeling to the sound, a great image to follow for the youngest kids (you didn’t look like you were checking your emails or playing just one cd!). Plus most important, you needed to be very dedicated to music (researching, record shopping…) that made as well a natural selection between wannabees and proper artists (let’s also think about the practicing you had to do with the pitching on the decks instead of having automatic beatmixing!). Nowadays all the promos are being sent as digital files, most of the booths are designed for digital sounds and the airline controls have been more complicated for a vinyl dj to keep it like it was. So I’m playing quite a lot of cd’s as well.”
What do you have coming up for 2010?
“At the moment I’m working hard on the production of the new edition of Elita festival, www.elitamilano.org , which is coming to its fifth edition and it’s becoming always more interesting. Productions being released are in the pipeline as well. Touring as usual (SE Asia at the end of the month and then coming back for the WMC the nearest foreign trips). Magazzini Generali and Tunnel parties here in Milan as regular.”
The return of the legend himself, “Evil” Eddie Richards, comes this weekend and we are proud as always to be the guys to bring him to you…live and direct Known to most as the “Godfather of Tech-House” it’s no secret that this guy has been around the block a few times and knows how to treat a dance floor!
If for some reason you have yet to come across this man’s profile, I’d say you probably need to do some homework on house music. If you haven’t had the chance to hear him for yourself, THEN I’d say you better be there this weekend!
We got a chance to ask Eddie a few questions about his career as a DJ and how he got there.
Eddie,
Welcome to a new year… a new decade… 2010! Thanks for taking the time to speak with us.
Was being a dj and producer always your career path, or was there ever anything else in mind?
I got into djing by starting a mobile disco with a friend at school. I really had no idea what I wanted to do as a career & at that time being a club DJ wasn’t even an option. There was no such thing as a career as a DJ, unless you were on a radio station.
How often does that keep you out on the road still, performing for your fans?
I’m playing out about once a week still, all over the world… and its enough for me these days.
What is DY-NA-MIX, and how did it get it’s start?
Dy-Na-Mix UK was a DJ booking agency that I started in 1990. It was the first dedicated DJ agency, I believe. When the rave scene started to grow in the late 80s, DJs needed some form of representation & we started off by booking tours for some American acts & DJs. The concept just grew & continued growing over 10 years. We had offices in Japan Germany Belgium Canada USA & even South Africa!
When was the first time you came to NYC, and what keeps you coming back?
I first came over in 1985 as a kind of pilgrimage. All of the best DJs, clubs & record labels were in NYC & I NEEDED to check it out. I went to Paradise Garage, Zanzibar, Sound Factory, Studio 54 & others. I was able to catch guys like Larry Levan, Tony Humphries, Junior Vasquez, Louie Vega, Frankie Knuckles and more of the original NYC players. Ive since been over at least once a year, firstly for New Music Seminar & then to DJ in most of the great NYC clubs over the years. Sullivan Room has become a sort of home for me over the past 5 years that I’ve visited. We always turn it out there!
Who are your top 3 producers of the moment?
I’m really liking Audiofly, MCDE, Dachshund at the moment.. plus lots of others of course.
Favorite memory of 2009?
Visiting Japan with my girl.. we both loved it there!
Chicago house sensations, Santiago and Bushido have been cranking out chart topping originals and high profile remixes together for the past 6 years, releasing material on top notch labels such as Potty Mouth, OM, and Ultra.
Their track “Head Trick” was a true dance anthem of 2008, receiving major support from guys like Moby, DJ Tiesto, Switch, Armin Van Buren, and Diplo. It was Beatport’s single most downloaded song in January 2008, and the 8th most downloaded of the entire year! More recently, their collaboration with Om recording artist Colette entitled “Make Me Feel,” was released in spring of this year and quickly became a hit. S&B again saw the #1 spot on Beatport’s electro sales and was charted by another huge list of heavy hitters. Their success has brought them to some of the best clubs and festivals across the entire globe.
On Saturday, December 5th, Simply Bangin’ brings S&B to Santos Party House for their NYC debut and we got a chance to catch up a little beforehand in an exclusive interview where the guys tell us a bit about their upcoming projects with Green Velvet and Collette, their future direction, and a couple of their best memories to date… (check the events page for full details on the night!)
You guys have had some major success these past couple of years. Congratulations! It must be amazing to hear when the biggest jocks in the world are dropping your tunes to their crowds. How has the ride been so far?
Tim: It’s been great. Getting a chance to travel different places to showcase our music to different crowds, meeting other artists that we are into and everything.
Chris: The support from our fellow DJ’s and producers has been tremendous. Since our first release on Potty Mouth the shows have taken us not only around the US but to other countries – it has definitely been a fun ride so far.
How did the two of you get your start together?
Tim: We both went to the same college in Chicago and got introduced by a mutual friend of ours. We both grew up on house music and were really into in. Started hanging out, then started producing together and haven’t stopped since.
Chris: Tim just sunk a chunk of money into all this new studio gear – I had to at least go over to his place and check it out! We were both doing our own production separate but everything just seemed to click that first session – our ideas complemented each other. We were really into Chicago style house – that Derrick Carter boompty shit – it was awesome. First track we put out was ‘Chicago MF’ on Doubledown and the rest is history!
What was it like producing part of Collette’s album, and how did that differ from your normal production style?
Tim: It was great, we really love working with Colette, she has a beautiful voice and we’ve found that we work really well together whether we are working on tracks made more for the club or made more for commercial play. On some tracks for her album she chose a beat that we already had done and then we reworked it for her, and there were some time she would send us vox and we’d make the beat around that. In either case there was lots of back and forth and tweaking of a little things to make it sound just right, we also had to work with her engineer to make sure the sound of the tracks fit with the sound of the album. One of our bigger Santiago & Bushido tracks recently was ‘Make Me Feel’ which is definitely more of a club track, but featured some samples of Colette’s vocal of an original track we did with her on her album called ‘Running Around”. We have continued to keep a tight working relationship with Colette, we’ve just remixes a track she did with Chuck Love called ‘Everything’ which should be released on early 2010 and we are also scheduled to work on her upcoming album and an EP for Potty Mouth.
Chris: I really like working w/ good vocals. There’s something about a track w/ vocal – even if it is something small – that speaks to a more general audience. If we had our way we would be working with more vocalists.
Where do you feel your sound is headed? What projects do you have going on?
Tim: Because of the Internet dance music (and all music) is evolving really quickly these days with so many people all over the world being influenced by each other with so many different styles. Sometimes it feels like it is almost too much too fast, but on the other hand it is also pretty cool to have access to so much and be so connected with everyone. We are listening and taking influence from so many things, whatever is fresh. Be it on world beats, dubstep, hip hop, rock, or techno/house. We just try to get in the studio and do our thing, push our sound, as long as it has that S&B sound it works. But we definitely try to keep out sound evolving. The basic style we generally make is dance music for the dance floor that will get people moving. But in addition to that we are getting more and more into working with artist driven music, working with vocalist on music which you may hear outside of the club as well as in the club.
Where has all this brought you to perform, and which gig was most memorable so far?
Tim: We’ve been many great places, all over the US, to Europe, to Australia, etc. Everywhere seems to have their own little scene that is in to the type of stuff we do and we’ve met many great people. I’d have to say that we really enjoy going out to Cali because there seem to be a lot of support and interest for the type of music we are doing there. As far as memorable gigs, there are many so many of them, but one that stands out in my mind would be the Decibel fest in Seattle we did last year. Reason being is because that was where we did out first live set, no djing. Just both of us with a bunch of controllers manipulating all the S&B tracks and a few others. Doing all sorts of re-edits on the fly. It was a bit nerve wrecking because we are first and foremost dj’s, always have been and always will be, and that was our first 100% live show. But it went over really well and opened out eyes to other live stuff we can do in addition to djing.
Chris: I’d have to say my fav so far has been the Burning Man festival this year. We had the chance to stay with the Root Society camp which totally took care of us. The vibe, the people, the experience – it was definitely one of those life experiences you will never forget!
Are you excited to play in NYC for the first time? What can people expect?
Tim: yes, we’re very excited. Been eager to get our here for a minute. We’ve been out West so many times but have yet to play in NYC, so we are hoping this is the first of many times we’ll be playing there! We think NYC should be really into what we are doing. People can expect to be moving on the dancefloor to some heavy beats.
Chris: We’ve been incorporating some live elements via Ableton Live and MIDI controllers in addition to our DJ sets. We want to incorporate some of the freedom we had with a live PA set but still keep things DJ centric. NYC will be one of the first to experience this so watch out!
As DJ’s, what do you do to bring your own creative style in to the booth?
Tim: We try to be very meticulous in regards to track selection and mixing. As far as what kind of stuff you’ll hear, first of all you can expect to hear a lot of S&B production (much of it unreleased). Outside of that we play all different sort of fresh dance music, but the goal is always the same to keep the crowd moving and to keep the crowd hyped.
Chris: I think Tim and I have our music preferences and it shows with the tracks we select. Its good because Tim might play something that I wasn’t even thinking about and gets the crowd really hyped.
Anything we should look out for in the near future?
Got a bunch of stuff going on. Right now we are remixing Hatiras’s classic track Spaced Invaders. We just finished up a massive remix of Fame and Eric Sharp called Wiggle Room, out on their new label Rock It Science in early 2010. We are working on a couple of remixes for German label Zooland. A remix for Chuck Love and Colette coming out on Chuck’s label, Love Network. We have an EP coming out on Potty Mouth which features a collaboration we did with with Hijack. We are working on a remix of a Crookers track. Scheduled to work with Green Velvet on a track for his forth coming album. Working with Collette on tracks for her album plus an EP with her for Potty Mouth, etc, etc, etc…..! Lots of good stuff in the pipeline!
01 Santiago & Bushido – This Sound [Potty Mouth]
02 David Ekenbeck & Tony Senghore – Drunk Man Standing (Olivier Giacomotto & John Acquaviva Rmx) [Definitive]
03 Santiago & Bushido – All That I Can Say [Potty Mouth]
04 Santiago & Bushido vs Hijack – Way Back (S&B Version) [Potty Mouth]
05 Nadastrom – Save Us [Dubsided]
06 DJ Falcon – Untitled (Hijack Rmx) – [Bootleg]
07 Hatiras Digital Doom 2010 [Hattrax]
08 The Young Punx – Ready for the Fight (Black Noize Rmx) [Mofohihi Recrds]
09 Round Table Knights – Belly Dance (Mowgli Rmx) [Deadfish]
10 Kink – Dont Hold Back [dotbleep]
11 Dave Spoon – Lummox [Television]
12 Khafra DJ – Fandango Tehuano (AuxdreY & Juan White Rmx) [Southouse Music]
13 Noob & Brodinksi – Peanuts Club [Turbo]
14 Sir James – Special (Bingo Players Rmx) [Strictly Rhythm]
15 DJ Dan & Hatiras – Drop Hits (S&B Rmx) [In Stereo]
16 Chuck Love feat Colette – Everything (S&B Rmx) [Love Network]
Known to most as the “Godfather of Tech-House” it’s no secret that this guy has been around the block a few times and knows how to treat a dance floor!
