New York house hero Roger Sanchez has always intrigued. If David Morales is the playa, Armand Van Helden the hustler, and Masters At Work the dons, then Sanchez is harder to pin down. In fact, The S-Man plays all these roles at different times.
At any rate, the charismatic Sanchez shed some of the mystery with last year’s debut album, First Contact.
The oft-delayed LP proved a success with its smash singles – from the early ‘I Never Knew’ to the crossover ‘Another Chance’ to the club classic ‘You Can’t Change Me’.
But, on a deeper level, First Contact was a very personal LP. Sanchez presented songs about the breakdown of his relationship with longtime girlfriend Karen. Above all, he wanted to make the transition from DJ/producer/remixer to ‘artist’.
“I think for me it was a very interesting first ‘artist’ album because a lot of people seem to see me a bit differently after I did that album – before it was just a DJ – and now I get seen more as an artist, which I find very funny because I’m still doing the same thing that I’ve always done. I’ve always produced and written and done tracks, but I think people tend to see me as an entity or a person more than just, OK, a DJ this. But I still get the same DJ title too, so it’s a bit of a funny one, ‘cause I get to be in a bit of both worlds.”
Sanchez spent three years completing First Contact, but he is already looking ahead to his follow-up – and this time he wants to bring it out sooner rather than later. So does the American have any ideas on how he will approach it? “I’m starting it right now, so I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing just yet, but I do know it’s gonna be still definitely on the emotional side and very personal.”
Indeed, Sanchez has talked to hip-hop soulstress Kelis about guesting on the project – and there’s a chance of him collaborating with Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay. The two have been meaning to record together for a while.
Sanchez was raised in a middle-class Dominican family in Queens, New York – his father was an engineer. In his teens Roger identified himself as a b-boy – he threw himself into the hip-hop scene – and, at 13, hit the decks for the first time, convinced by a friend to fill in for another DJ at a party. Sanchez was hooked. Inevitably, Roger was drawn into New York’s iconic clubs, where he embraced the new house music. Roger started promoting his own nights and passed out mixtapes, eventually leaving college to dedicate himself to music – he’d planned to become an architect. Sanchez premiered as a producer with the Underground Solution record ‘Luv Dancin’’. It wasn’t long before he was in demand as a remixer – tweaking tracks by Diana Ross, Soul II Soul and M People.
Of late Sanchez has issued a new double mix-CD, Release Yourself, inspired by his Ibiza residency at Pacha. The first in a series, the volume encapsulates his current club sensibilities.
“It’s very representative of what the vibe is for the night – it starts off very chill and very deep, the first CD, and then gets a bit more emotional and energetic and tribal and more party on the second one, and I want to continue that series. I think it’s good because I tend to do only one compilation a year, if that, and in between my artist albums I wanna have something out there for people to have from me. I think it’s a very good indication of what I’m doing, where I’m at musically at the moment in terms of my nights and my clubs, so I’m gonna continue that one hopefully for next year before my next album comes out.”
House music has been getting deeper and darker – more ‘tribal’ – yet Sanchez has never been one to pursue trends. “I’ve always had a bit of the tribal element from the Latin side of it, I certainly have a couple of darker tracks in my sets, but I can’t say I go down in one direction. I don’t like to be necessarily following trends. I like to kinda do my own thing, and sometimes create one, so my vibe tends to be definitely a bit more emotional and definitely a bit soulful and funky, even if it’s got more tribal edges, so that’s one thing that I always want to be able to maintain – it’s gotta be very personal to me.”
At the moment Sanchez is not interested in producing music for other artists, since he’s concentrating on his own LP, but he has been working with a big-name Aussie pop starlet – Dannii Minogue. “I’ve written one track on her album, I’ve actually done a few rough demos for her – but she’s very, very cool and surprises me, her work ethic is very strong. She’s really focussed in there, she comes with this guy who writes with her, who’s really, really good, and we just kinda all vibe.”
Sanchez is aware that Dannii is not considered ‘cred’, but he doesn’t care. “My initial one was do something so very underground that no one would even know it’s her until it was out, but then she got the album deal and it was something that I had some tracks that I was starting to work on and I said, ‘OK, well, let’s see what would fit,’ basically just vibing on the personality thing. It’s funny, I’ve got a very hard ethic when it comes to some artists – you know, I’m like, ‘Well, OK, that’s not really my flavour,’ so I kinda stay away from that, but then sometimes I think that something may fit or may work and then I’ll try it. I try not to really worry too much about, ‘She’s pop’ or ‘She’s this’ or ‘She’s that’ or ‘She’s Kylie’s sister’ – it’s not really what I’m looking at. If the songs wouldn’t have been there and if the vibe wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Sanchez has written some ‘underground’ pop for Dannii – but it’s not something he’d record himself. “Because it’s for her own album, it’s a bit different than what I would do for myself. I try to get into the artist’s personality and see where they’re coming from and also listen to whatever stuff they’ve done on the album, ‘cause the album has to take on a certain direction, but still keep it within my flavour. It’s funky, it’s got a bit of an electronic edge to it, but definitely a little bit more on the melodical, slightly pop – I wouldn’t say pop, but it’s got definitely a lot more on the melodical side.”
While in the past Dannii has been torn apart by the UK music media, not to mention the tabloids, Sanchez, too, has experienced backlashes – especially after ‘Another Chance’ debuted at number one. But he finds it funny. “Believe me, everybody gets a hard time in the UK, you’ve just gotta learn how to take it and get on with it,” he says with a laugh. “It goes in cycles – one minute I’m the saviour of house music, then next minute it’s ‘Roger Sandwich’! They just like to take the piss sometimes, but you gotta learn to take it. It’s part of being an artist. You have to develop a bit of a sense of humour.”
Roger Sanchez plays mobile home, NYE in Sydney and Perth, New Years Day @ Sunshine People!, Mounts Bay Sailing Club
