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Interview
by SashaS
9-7-2001
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| First contact of the close kind |
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Chill Medic
The famed DJ Roger Sanchez’s debut album is icing on a cake that’s been baking for 20 years
Roger Sanchez is a cool customer, resplendent in all-white (to compliment the capital’s heatwave) and sunglasses adorning his face, whom topping the charts with ‘Another Chance’ and regular jetting to a residency in Ibiza haven’t fazed from promoting the debut album ‘First Contact’ with a low-key DJ-set in a London’s underground record store, capacity – 40!?
‘Another Chance’ was also used for the BBC’s coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships 2001 leading to Sanchez’s admission of knowing few tennis players.
“I had a brush with the tennis world a couple of years ago when I did a commercial with Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova. They filmed me coming into the clubhouse, setting up my gear and playing records while the two were playing tennis. Martina came over to me to see what I was doing and I showed her how it was done. She was really sweet and gave me a signed tennis racquet at the end. Very cool, a beautiful person… Kournikova is a very beautiful girl but I found her to be lot more distant, a lot more standoffish.”
Virtuous potion
This album has been gestating a long time and you can take your pick from one year (scrapped version), three years (first scheduled release), ten (a maiden single) or 20 (since he spun his first DJ set, at the age of 13). It’s not his other hats – DJing, producing, mixing, running a record label, being a regular lady’s man – that were delaying his album but a wish to produce music that mixes in all elements of his ‘life’s soundtrack’: electronics, horns, salsa, disco, hip hop, soul, Toto (sampled for the No.1 single), Kraftwerk…
“The worst thing you can do to yourself is release something before it is ready. My album had to have a continuity, to be like… I listen to the albums by Massive Attack or Björk, they are journeys. Re-recording my album I’ve turned it into what makes sense to me; I can listen to it like a complete work, not just a collection of individual songs. My ambition was to tell a story and never have had expectations, projections, targets… I like to be surprised.”
There a quite few guests on the album, from Sharleen Spiteri (of Texas) to N’Dea Davenport…
“I remixed a track for Texas, Sharleen came down to New York to re-cut the vocal and we got on so well that she said that if I ever
needed any singing… N’Dea’s manager called my engineer to ask if it were true I was making an album as she was up for a collaboration. The whole album has been very organic, it came naturally, over a very long time, not forced in any way.”
Hard sweat
Sanchez made DJing a career after years of never dreaming it could be more than a hobby. He studied architecture in Manhattan while running a booming club night and making mix tapes that sold like Microsoft shares only to quit education after his father sat him down and told him music might be a better bet. His first hit, the seminal, soulful ‘Luv’ Dancin’’, came out at the beginning of the 1990s and since then he’s worked with Underworld, The Police, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, St Etienne, Texas, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx and longterm associate Armand Van Helden.
Before all these Sanchez made a small mark as a breakdancer that led to cameo roles in the 1980’s movies ‘Breakdance’ and ‘Krush Groove’. He’s not pursued acting although scoring few soundtracks is an ambition. DJ, running his label, R-Senal, remixing a couple of compilations during the Summer, a project with Nellee Cooper… Does he allow for any downtime?
“I don’t have downtime but I’ve started to chill out more. I have a girlfriend in Ibiza and I’m gonna take some time off in January. In meantime I’ll try to find more time to chill out, enjoy some time with my girlfriend… I get back from DJing and light candles, burn some incense and listen to relaxing music to decompress. I don’t smoke, take any drugs, drink very little red wine and champagne, I lead a very healthy lifestyle. If you don’t take care of yourself and keep fit, this will kill you. It is a high paced living in reverse.”
SashaS
9-7-2001
Roger Sanchez’s album ‘First Contact’ is out now on SINE/Sony
(Wordage: 733; Sun., July 08, 2001; 22:06:13)
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