Ahead of his visit to Australia over New Years, Sandy Rivera speaks of his wish to work with Connie from Sneaky Sound System on a collaborative project. In fact he is so keen on the idea his plans to get in touch immediately to get something happening.

“You know what? My manager just spoke to me the other day about that exact same idea and now a couple of people have mentioned it. My feeling is when a few people talk about the same idea who don’t know each other the idea must be good,” says Rivera.

If you have listened to his latest release Persuasion, featuring upcoming female DJ Rae you will agree such collaboration would be nothing short of awesome. The track has already received worldwide acclaim as a dancefloor hit and graced the airwaves of the UK’s Radio 1. Therefore, it would be an exciting prospect to see what Rivera could come up with using the dynamic vocals of Connie; I am almost certain the result would be dance floor gold.

“It has been licensed to a big label in Belgium and Holland and it’s going to be a top 20 hit there. It is getting radio play across the globe in various places”, says Rivera.

Rivera has become known as a “sonic innovator” during his 15 year career, which he puts down to growing up in New York. He describes his upbringing as “hard” because he started off in the ghetto and was always the younger kid getting picked on. However, he was able to get through it and now he is all the better off for it. He says his musical tastes were developed by exposure to his environment.

“Being raised in New York means it’s where I am from so therefore it is everything that I am”, says Rivera.
“I am kind of like a seventies baby because I was born in 71 and by the time I realised what music really was it was that whole disco, funk, jazz thing going on. Then my teenage years was pretty much Madonna and things like that with the whole electro-fusion coming in. I was just young and into an abundance of music; even Latin music, just all around me, everywhere.”

He began his career as a hip-hop artist before changing direction to produce house music. He says his exposure to soul, funk and R&B created the desire in him to incorporate those elements within his music and with the success of tracks such as Lollipop with Pixie, Finally, which became an anthem of the early naughties and now Persuasion, it has obviously paid off.

And now there are plans to produce an entire album with DJ Rae that will hopefully be released later next year. He says it is all about relationships and how they fall apart and come back together; however he has yet to come up with a title. “Actually on my computer it’s called No Name Yet,” laughs Rivera.

He met Rae about three years ago while working in Ibiza, and now with the release of Persuasion it will be his third collaboration with her. Before producing Persuasion, they first worked together on the deep house classic Can’t Stop, with yet another collaborative track still awaiting release.

“It’s an interesting story. We were DJing together at Bora Bora Beach and she emailed me about a year and a half later saying we should catch up and make some music, which we did and everything just came together from then”, said Rivera.

His work with Rae is another step in his long and diverse career. Under the various guises of Kings of Tomorrow, Mysterious People, Auréi, D’Menance, Awesome Foursome, The Committee, Organized Noize, Sandy Riveria, *Sanjay, Sanjose and Soul Vision Rivera, his music has taken on many forms over the years. Early works reflect the New York flavour of his youth, while there is a noticeable shift to a darker sound when Rivera made a move from the states to London in 2005.

“My decision to move to London was a personal thing because I got divorced. I made a few mistakes and decided to depart so I had enough room in my life to get things done. I originally moved to California in the San Francisco area for about a year, but I was constantly DJing in Europe and the flights were horrible. It was like 10 hours flight from San Francisco to London and a further six hours on your trip if you went to Greece”, said Rivera.

The album Sandy has been working on with Rae reflects a heavy influence from the UK music scene, and the two have drawn inspiration from bands like Portishead and Zero Seven. “We had to find a drummer, guitar and bass in order to get a band together to record this album, and we have only just done it. In February we hope to record all the vocals. Then we will let the world hear it and see what happens”, said Rivera.

With so many interesting options at Rivera’s fingertips it will be exciting to see what develops next for this cutting edge performer. It is time for the real Sandy Rivera to please stand up.

Sandy Rivera plays the SHE NYE Party on Thursday 31st December, tickets on sale now at ITM.