Here comes the first double interview for i:Vibes of US house legend Hector Romero, and Tokyo funkmeister Satoshi Tomiie, both of whom are under the Saw Recordings hat. They tell us about the past 10 years for them, their influences, and what's to come!

To start off, please tell everyone a bit about both your backgrounds, what you do, your influences, likes and dislikes.

Satoshi: I was born and raised in Tokyo but spent all my music career in New York. I Start playing piano when I was 14 and began producing when I was around 17. DJing came later when I was about 19, I was into scratching records! I have been listening to almost everything but rock, I am not crazy about guitar music! well of course there are some exceptions! =)

Hector: I'm 32 years old. A native New Yorker or a New Yorican as we call ourselves (Puerto Ricans born and raised in NY). I've been a DJ for 19 years and have worked in the music business for 12 years. I originally started as a 12" buyer at a record shop called DJ Specialty in the Bronx (where I grew up). From there I landed my first record company job with the Emotive Records. My influences early on were David Morales (and not cause I work for him), Tony Humphries and Little Louie Vega. My parents were really strict when I was growing up so I used to listen to Tony's mixshows on 98.7 Kiss.
Likes and dislikes (hmmmm) - I like everything but LIVER!

Satoshi, you've been brought forward as being one of the most successful DJs and producers from Japan, although you haven't taken the previously renowned techno / hard trance route taken by legends such as Ken Ishii, Denki Groove and Yoji Biomehanika. Where do your music roots lie, and how has it changed over the years?

Satoshi: I like some of the Techno stuff but I have been playing / producing "House" oriented dance music which is more of my style or sound. I play Techno in my DJ sets pitching it down to -8! It makes the music Funkier this way; at least for me! My first encounter to Dance Music was a Japanese Techno group called the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and then Hip Hop via Modern Jazz like Miles Davis.
Before House, I was spinning Hip Hop, but Frankie Knuckles changed my life completely! His DJ set in Japan was really amazing and that made me get into the House Music scene. Since then I have been spinning and producing what I think of as House music. I was listening to New York and Chicago stuff as well as Detroit stuff and Detroit producers like Kevin Sanderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May were big influences on me at that time which led me to produce that style music as well. Although never released, I did produce a few tunes of my interpretation of Detroit Techno.

Wow, sounds interesting, hopefully some of that will see that light of day

Satoshi: When I moved to New York, first, I was staying with David Morales for a while and got big influence from him. He played some Chicago, Detroit stuff to Soul To Soul, James Brown to KLF. Whatever it is, as long as it is quality dance music, they were on his decks. Also his Redzone mixes, wow!
I am proud of being part of his stuff, especially the Redzone stuff. It was really a "progressive" form of House Music, dark, moody and sexy. Since day one, as long as it is good music, I like it all! so naturally I was into dance music from Soulful to Techno-y stuff and this is reflected in what I play and produce. Morales beefed up my taste to it, so I have been playing and making "House" music ever since. (The reason for quotes is, my House definition covers a very wide range) and I am always into new, sometime even experimental things. What I have been doing for me never really changed, just making House music, quality dance music. My current stuff is getting reasonably popular (thank you very much!) but I didn't start doing this until last year.... but I guess I can say that my sound has developed for years and still keeps on developing. It's almost like my interpretation of dance music is where I got my influences from, my feed back to the dance music scene.

At the same time, Hector, many people declare you to be one of the legends of the NYC House scene by everyone who has seen you play out over the past 5-10 years, playing with everyone from Lil Louie Vega, Roger Sanchez and such, and your acclaimed residency when Tunnel's opened back in 94. How has the change since then been for you? Legend? Far from it. I haven't accomplished anything close to what the names above have. I've contributed a good deal to the business but not enough to earn a Legend title yet.

Hector: The Tunnel, Red Zone, Palladium and Studio 54 to name a few were wicked clubs to play at and 10-15 years ago were the really fun going out times. You were able to play different types of music in a given night and people were up for it. I consider myself a DJ that has accepted change and has learned to adapt to new styles in music. Nowadays I play only House Music but I mix all kind of styles in one night, and it's about how you program it. I get bored simply playing deep or just vocals and You need to change it up a bit.

Both of you have pretty diverse styles of playing, so how do you describe the style of music you're into, and how do you see the general music scene developing during 2002?

Hector: People always ask to describe my style. Bottom line is it's got to be funky; I'm open for all genres of dance music, and this reflects from the different music I would play years ago (Hip Hop, Reggae, New Wave etc). Things are looking good for dance music especially because US radio had steadily begun to support it. Without radio our music will always stay underground. The reason it's so big in Europe is because of radio support and most of all 'cause it's the culture there. The culture music wise here in the States has been pro Rock, Hip Hop and R&B.

Satoshi: Well, quality "House" music! That's my style. that's includes some Techno stuff like Adam Beyer (when you pitch down his stuff, it's really housey and funkier) and other leftfield material.

I guess there are two very interesting guys here, but how did you (Hector) come to being a label manager at Definity? and did you two meet before joining paths at SAW?

Hector: Label manager is just a title that I guess works but I consider myself an everything man. I do contracts, handle distribution, sales, shipping, and make my own coffee! I've been doing Definity for 7 years and it's been lot's of fun along with learning experiences and at the same time hard work. I've known Satoshi for that long because he's part of the Def Mix family which owns Definity. A few years ago Satoshi expressed interest to start a label to reflect the sounds we were playing. It just took off from there.

You have both worked with pretty much everyone in the industry in the house scene, but are there any others you're hoping to work with in the future in terms of DJing, productions of signing to the label?

Satoshi There are countless people we want to work with... I personally would like to work with Radiohead and Vincent Gallo.

Hector: As far as the label is concerned I look forward to working with new talent and helping to develop careers. It'd be nice to work with more established producers as long as we can afford it.

NuBreed 6 is set to be a big success for the series and for GU with Satoshi on the helm, have you set choosing the tracks for the compilation yet? and what do we expect to see on the compilation?

Satoshi: It's really almost done but I am not ready to tell you what it's like.. Really enjoying compiling the CD though!

You're both highly into the SAW label, what can either of you tell us about what's to come on SAW, and how your involvement in the label will progress for the near future from yourself or related artists?

Hector: As my wife, Judy Weinstein and everyone involved in my life can tell you SAW has become my everything. Not that Definity has become a secondary label; As a matter of fact Definity has some of the most amazing releases coming soon. Both SAW & Definity have become a 24 hour job that I love. I didn't go to college so I don't have any other real interest. I'm doing my best to excel at what I do. I'm in this for the long term and I know this goes for all my partners involved. We just signed an EP produced by Medway and Sean Cusick called the Fiscal EP. We've got a single coming this summer from Jerry Bonham. Satoshi and Redanka & Tarrentella have collaborated under the artist name Graffik which will release this fall. We also signed a Stephane K track that sounds like it was produced for a science fiction movie. It's very ambient. Not so much a dancefloor style tune but that will come with the remixes. Both Moogroove and JAS have sophomore follow up singles due out soon as well. We hired Mara to remix and twist the new Moogroove "Deuce" track and we think alot of DJ's and club goers will be very happy with it. On Definity we have this incredible left fieldsong produced by Pete Moss which features vocalist Terra Deva. Satoshi remixed it for us and it's ready to blow up. Also on Definity we have a track called "I'll Be Here" by Automagic and Morales did remix services on this one.

Finally, are there any particular artists / DJs you have admired? or feel have great potential during 2002 and beyond?

Hector: I think the Danny Tenaglia success is so cool. He deserves it all. He's dedicated his life to this any it's starting to pay off. My mentor David Morales still amazes me to this day as he still gets excited when he hears a new record or comes home from a wicked gig. He does 2 radio shows a week and never complains. He's been doing this for ever as well and is an open minded person that accepts the changing sounds of our times. Don't sleep on him 'cause he gonna come strong again really soon. Remember he was producing this sort of progressive (Red Zone) sound 10-12 years ago. Loads of Morales Red Zone mixes still rock to this day. All you have to do is pitch them up a bit. I see great potential from the remix, production team Trendroids. Also MV from Canada and Luke Chable from Australia.

Satoshi: Most of the admiration I have comes from those who I've had influences from, including David Morales and Frankie Knuckles, as they have contributed greatly to my style of production and DJing to date, and as for 2002 and beyond, I think many producers and DJs have a very potential to be massive, and I can't pinpoint single individuals who have more potential than others, but I guess they will reveal themselves during the course of this year!!!

Thanks a lot for this double interview guys, and thanks to Dennis Wheeler for sorting this out for i:Vibes =). Best of wishes to all from the readers and the crew at i:Vibes.

Currently, both of their careers being overseen by the manager Judy Weinstein of DEF MIX. (http://www.defmix.com)

http://www.sawrecordings.com