MARCH 2007/INTERVIEW/NICKY SIANO

By today’s standards you and Larry Levan (whom we understand you were very good friends with for a period during the 70s) were incredibly young when you got into the world of DJing. Do you think it was to your advantage or disadvantage in retrospect?

Both really, the advantage was that our energy and drive were so high at that age, we were devoted and possessed by playing records. The obvious disadvantage was not knowing how to handle so much success at such a young age; nothing could have prepared me or Larry for that.


In the UK some people feel that the ‘rave’ era somehow disassociated club music from disco, where its original roots lay. How important is it for a DJ to be able to trace back the roots of what he/she is doing?

Understanding where the music came from might be important to some, but not to others…the thing that I think is important is having exposure to the wealth of material, most of which is barely heard today. I also personally think clubs have their roots not just in disco but in funk, soul, and early (60s) R&B.


What were the roots and inspiration for what you were doing in the Gallery both musically and technically speaking?

You know, I had very little to inspire me as it was the very beginning, the Gallery was the first club to do so many things like having a 3rd turntable, crossover, bass horns, parametric E.Q. set with spectrum analysis; these things were not done at all, some had been done at concerts, but never in clubs. Some of my inspiration came of course from David Mancuso at the Loft, but the rest was God! The third turntable idea was actually a dream I had... if that’s not God what is?


Although many consider him to be one of the Godfathers' of the scene, when asked about inventing beat mixing in the documentary ‘Maestro’ Francis Grasso refused to take credit answering: ‘It’s like discovering fire - no one invented it’ - How much do you think that kind of inclusive attitude helped shape the underground disco scene at the time?

Francis was very gracious in that movie, but I was there back then, and he was not beat matching as we know it today. He was blending on the beat when he could, and mixing with sounds and feels at other times - actually holding the tables, but every song being on beat didn’t really happen until Richie Kaczor and myself started holding the tables and changing the speeds. Francis didn’t actually change the speed of the records though.


You are credited with introducing Arthur Russell to Disco and going on to release a record with him. Tell us a little bit about your relationship with him.

Arthur first came to my club as the lover of my best friend at the time. When he said to me one morning that we could do a great record together, I was intrigued by the idea, and saw great potential in growing as an artist. Arthur truly was a musical genius so it was quite an experience for a first time producer, being brought into an environment with someone who had more ideas than there were tracks.


You disappeared from the scene for a number of years to work with people battling the AIDS virus. How did that come about and how much has this experience affected your outlook on life, both personally and professionally?

In 1983, David Rodriguez, my best DJ friend became sick with the AIDS virus and died shortly after. I had stopped using drugs at that point, and I wasn’t going to clubs or playing records, I had produced a few, but nothing was happening with my career musically. Through stopping the drugs I was introduced to meditation, and one day I was moved to call a friend at a drug treatment program about bringing a meditation group there for HIV positive people, they said that was too advanced for them, but that I would make a great counsellor so I just showed up and it all unfolded from there.


In 1997 you made your highly anticipated come back at Body and Soul. How hard was it getting back on the decks in front of such a big crowd after such a lengthy absence? How much have things changed from back in the day?

It was like riding a bike, once I knew I was going to be doing it, there were so many records I wanted to hear that I just blew right through it. Things have gotten a lot worse in clubs though, they’re not really set up for dancing, it’s just all about making money. Nothing is out there now with that purity of giving the experience to people, it’s very sad…and sound systems have gotten soooo much worse!


What kind of sounds are you listening to these days and what could people expect to hear if they had the opportunity to hear you play now? Do you still judge records using the same criteria that you did back in the Gallery years?

Well my main criteria has always been ‘Is this something I would dance to?’. The records I’m into today are things like ‘Church Lady’ by Dennis Ferrer, which I love, as well as a lot of his other stuff, I still play ‘Leave My Head Alone Brain’ by Henrik Schwarz, I like ‘Sweet Calling’ by Quantic and Bob Sinclair’s ‘In The Name Of Love’, and ‘World Hold On’. There’s so much good stuff out there.


If you had the chance to go back in time and change things, would you do anything differently? If so what?

Well, I definitely would not have experimented with drugs to the extent that I did. I don’t think I would ever have tried heroin and from there, I believe everything would have unfolded differently, I could have started producing earlier, writing and making records while the Gallery was THE club, and I wouldn’t have closed the Gallery when we did, that was mainly due to the drugs too, so that would all have been different. Drugs like cocaine, heroin and crystal meth are seriously dangerous and very mentally addictive drugs, people should stay well away from them. Meditation is the best drug you can ever try - if you learn how to meditate it will change your life.