It’s difficult to get through a 24-hour period these days without hearing the instantly recognisable sound of Reel 2 Reel’s ‘I Like To Move It’. And whether we love the track or just can’t seem to stomach another bar of it, the reason it’s been doing the high rotation rounds, be it on television commercials, film or radio for so long is because of it’s simple but effective ingredients. The man responsible for the track may be a little more complex these days, but he still runs with the same strong idea, to take dance music back to the people.

Now fresh after releasing his highly anticipated artist album ‘My World’ and the 5th chapter in the Subliminal Sessions compilation series, he’s set to return to his humble Aussie audiences for a liberal sprinkling of festival dates. He’ll be captivating crowds at this year’s Two Tribes and making an appearance at the first Future Music Festival. ITM’s Semone Maksimovic caught up with the outspoken New York native to get the lowdown on his new album, his new found alliance with P.Diddy and trying out the live band approach.

Upon call connection I find Erick on the other end eagerly inquiring about our temperatures this summer, it seems he’s been spending the better half of last year chasing the warmer climates from one country to another and is keen to keep up his stroke of luck. “I just came back to New York and I gotta be honest with you, I’ve been pretty spoiled this winter. I spent Christmas in Miami, then I went on to South Africa for a week, followed by Brazil for two weeks. So, it’s been beautiful, then when I got home it was warm enough to walk down the street wearing a t-shirt! I mean this is February for Christsakes…that just doesn’t happen in New York at this time! So this has been the warmest winter we’ve ever had over here,” states a surprised Morillo, before unearthing his grand plan, “and now I’m going to go over to Australia and just keep on chasing the summer,” he laughs.

The very fact that usually snowy winters are producing t-shirt weather, is great for people in search of the endless party weather, but also says a lot about the way we’ve been treating this earth for the last 100 years, Erick agrees, ”Tell me about it! Although the funny thing is people keep saying how out of control our temperatures are compared to 100 years ago. I can’t even imagine that they were even taking really good temperature readings 100 years ago anyway,” he laughs, “But I do know that the way we’re using and abusing this earth, it’s only a matter of time before it pops,” says Morillo of how he thinks time will play out.

It’s been over ten years since Mr Morillo first hit our sonic waves with the dancefloor crossover smash that was of course ‘I Like To Move It’, since then a lot has changed. The sound has changed, the tastes have shifted, the format has evolved, but his original ideals have still remained the same. Releasing his first artist album ‘My World’ just brought that lesson all the more to the fore for Morillo, the way everyone happily bound together, joining forces to help him create the new and exciting sounds. “I think releasing the album was an achievement in itself, cause I’d been talking for such a long time about the album coming out. Then for a while there, after talking about it for three years, it kinda felt as though it was never going to come out,” laughs Morillo of the laidback approach he first took with the foray.

“So I’m just really happy to finally have something to back up all the talk and it’s been greatly received so far by fans, peers and industry alike.” The odd international phonecall and email seem to be finding their way into Morillo’s inbox and voicemail in the wake of release, with everyone’s messages of gratitude being greatly noted, making his day look just that little bit brighter. Post release has been a great time of change and transition for Morillo, as he put together a live band and shook up his live shows for a few select dates to bring the album’s sound out into the open. But this story doesn’t end in tears and tragedy the way it seems to have done to most DJs who’ve travelled this tried and true road before him. The shows actually went down so well with the band and with the audiences that there’s currently talk of making that live format an ongoing thing in future. “We only did a few dates together and they went really well, everything went according to plan luckily, so we didn’t want to push our luck too much. We are however thinking about doing some further full live band stuff this year, it could be something that the world might see from us in the year, cause it was a lot of fun for us and really got a lot of energy out of the people.”

The live format wasn’t the only thing that Morillo felt inspired to experiement with after working on ‘My Way’, he also had his eyes opened to the fast paced advancements of technology during the making of the album. “For me, technology has come along way and it’s made it easier for us to be able to multi-task while we’re doing other stuffm as I so often am. I think it was a little insight into what will be possible for us to do with technology and the ongoing advancements in the future, but it’s great for people making the music that I’m making these days. There’s just so many options for us if we’re open to experimentation,” enthuses Morillo.

One of the most talked about collaborations on the album, however, saw Erick team up with fellow New Yorker P.Diddy for the title track, a collaboration which has seen the teamed duo go from the studio, onto the live stage, to becoming somewhat inseparable socially and continuing to work on numerous other projects together. “I have hit the jackpot with that collaboration. He just understands it all, we never seem to run out of ideas to bounce off eachother and we have a lot of fun, so we’re looking at doing another show together this year and continuing studio stuff.”

Catch the subliminal Morillo force as he returns to rock the festival circuit as part of the 2006 Two Tribes tour and Future Music Festival:

Fri Feb 24 – Two Tribes, Brisbane (BUY TICKETS)
Sat Feb 25 – Two Tribes, Melbourne (BUY TICKETS)
Sat Mar 4 – Future Music Festival, Sydney (BUY TICKETS)
Sun Mar 5 – Two Tribes, Perth (BUY TICKETS)