Preview
DAVID MORALES
Friday, January 23
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Forget Beyoncé and her bunch.
Disregard a certain IQ-lowering television show.
David Morales is truly a survivor – in the music industry, yes, but more importantly in life. Raised in a poor Brooklyn neighbourhood by his Puerto Rican parents, Morales soon got swept up in the gang life, as did so many of the kids in his neighbourhood, and dropped out of school in grade nine.
However, instead of ending up as another casualty of the American social structure, he was saved by music. At the tender age of 14, Morales found solace and a focus for his energy in what was then still a relatively rare vocation – club DJing (we’re still talking the mid-1970s here.) He also became a devout attendee of David Mancuso’s fabled "Loft" after-hours parties, where he would hear all types of music: world music, reggae, jazz, funk and, of course, disco.
At the time Morales was cutting his chops at many of Brooklyn’s underground clubs, including Inferno and Better Days and by age 21 his close friend and future manager, Judy Weinstein, got him his first gig at the legendary Paradise Garage in 1983. A feverish fanaticism for the beat led him to house music and Frankie Knuckles – with whom he eventually formed the Defmix partnership with. He also became one of the first DJs to tour Europe. Like many of the most innovative DJs of his time, Morales was courted by major labels looking for ways to sell more music by having club DJs remix hits by their stars. Quickly becoming the most popular remixer of the time (and arguably of all time), he started attracting A-list stars with big songs – Annie Lennox, Janet Jackson and Aretha Franklin, for instance. (Even Ace of Base sounded cool under his "Red Zone" moniker.) His remix of "So Hard" by the Pet Shop Boys helped invent tech-house, while Mariah Carey’s "Fantasy," which he wrote and produced, earned him a Grammy nomination in 1996. A Grammy for remixer of the year followed in 1998.
But, even with as much major label money as Morales has taken, he’s never stopped supporting the underground, and his many mix-CD sets have documented house music’s progression.
PP: First, talk about growing up in New York. I’d heard that you had a pretty rough childhood. What advice would you give to kids that are growing up in bad situations and feel hopeless?
David Morales: I definitely had it a bit rough. I was lucky to have some people in my life that helped me stay focused and on the right track. When I look back at my life as a teenager, I always give thanks to God for getting me through those times. My advice to those kids is to stay in school. Education is so important in life. Not everyone can become a rap star, and even then an education comes in handy.
PP: You started going to David Mancuso’s Loft at a young age. How old were you when you started going? How did you learn about it?
DM: I started going to the Loft when I was 19-years-old. I came to know about the Loft from some friends of mine that were members there. I remember going there and hearing records I had never heard before. The Loft was like going to someone’s house party with balloons and an incredible sound system. You got treated as a guest, not as a customer. For me the Loft was my university and David Mancuso was my professor.
PP: What about the Paradise Garage? I’ve had a number of DJs and artists say it’s still the best sound system that they’ve ever heard and that the vibe was incredible.
DM: The Paradise Garage, until this day, is the best, loudest and most powerful sound in a club ever. The Loft also had an incredible sound system. The Loft was more hi-fi, where the Paradise Garage was about brute power. The Paradise Garage was my first NYC club gig. I was 21-years-old. I was one of the privileged few to play there back in 1983.
PP: You’ve done a trillion remixes. The first one I’d ever heard was a remix of Pet Shop Boys "So Hard" when I was a kid. Do you have to love a track to remix it? Do you ask to remix tracks or do you wait for artists to ask you?
DM: My God, you must be young. That wasn’t even my first one. I’ve been doing remixes since 1986. Usually a record company would send me a tape of the song, and I would decide if I wanted to do it. Sometimes I did favours for companies if I didn’t really like a song. When you do many mixes for a label then you have to sometimes do the right thing – when they ask. I used to mix an average of two records a week. Usually each one would take an average of two to three days, depending on the project.
PP: What musical moment or moments are you most proud of?
DM: I’ve had so many great musical moments to choose from. I guess one of them was the DMC Awards back in the early ’90s. And winning a Grammy.
PP: What are three or five things that you feel make a good DJ anywhere? What are things every DJ should know and be aware of?
DM: There is no such thing as three to five things. A healthy attitude. A love for music. A joy for entertaining people. The most important thing is to play for the audience and not for DJs.
PP: How old do you think you’ll be when you stop doing this? Or can you even think about the finish line yet?
DM: I don’t know what that is. For me it’s timeless. It’s not like sports where once you get old you have to stop. |
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