Hector

Rolling up his sleeves for a massive summer of Vatos Locos


Interview by Rob Chadwick


Hector welcome to DMCWORLD…where in the world are you right now?

“Hey Rob, I’m in Los Angeles right now.”

Are you working out there or are you touring, making music?

“I’m touring. Have been here since October doing all my America n’ South America tour. This weekend is my last weekend here then I’m doing Mexico, then Miami and Music On with Marco Corola.”

Cool, that’ll be a big one. And where you headed after that?

“Back to Berlin and then going to Dubai for the first time. Then Bali, Australia then back to Brazil. A little all over the place to be honest.”

I know you started your new concept last Month at BPM – Vatos Locos. How did the concept come about?

“Vatos Locos is slang for crazy guys/ boys and used to be one of the biggest gangs in Mexico and America. There have been movies about it and it just became a popular thing. Everywhere I went in Europe, because I’m Mexican, everybody started calling me Vatos including Dice and Dubfire. People really related to this and started posting stuff about it. Then one day I made a t-shirt which was a bootleg of the Louis Vuitton logo as it has the same initials as Vatos Locos. Everybody just went crazy and it created a lot of hype. People were asking if it was a label, record label, a party or clothing brand and people started turning up to gigs with flags and tattoos.”

Check the video here : http://www.be-at.tv/brands/canibal-royal/bpm-2015-vatos-locos

Yeah that was actually my next question. People have started branding their own T-shirts, is that right?

“Yeah! It was just a very natural thing so we decided to invent something with this concept, like a party somewhere…and we agreed on BPM in Mexico. We began with the concept but then I thought well, who wants another techno house party? There’s thousands already! What can we bring that’s different? So I thought, lets just bring my friends. People that I support and their music. The people that don’t have much opportunity or the exposure that I do when I play with Dice, Dubfire or Corola. If I can help and expose them to people in hearing their music and realising who they are, then that would be great. I didn’t want any egos, any big names or anyone that wasn’t part of us hanging out together and having a good time. In the end we did the party, nobody knew who we were and it was amazing. Everyone played amazing music. You can see it now on BeAt TV. All the sets and the vibe of the people. Everyone dancing, drinking tequila, having fun, making jokes, enjoying everyone’s music. The venue was so cool, right next to the beach. So this is what I wanted to do. If you go to a party, you want to have fun – you don’t want to be serious or pre-occupied with looking too cool. That’s why I made the t-shirts and gave them away because Vatos Locos became like a gang or a dress code to people. I just gave out some T-shirts as everybody was becoming so crazy for them, asking me about them and where I was going to sell them, so this was just a present for them. In my other parties I’ll give out more and stickers etc. It’s something to give back to the people that have been supporting us and that was the concept and it worked really well.”

Was it always going to be in Mexico, where you started it?

“Yes. Vatos Locos comes from Mexico and the next party will be in Miami at WMC. I’ve got a different line up for that including old school boys; Harry ‘Choo Choo’ Romero, Joeski – I’ll play back to back with them. Also Javier Caballo, Chad Andrew. I’m also going to probably have one live act, which we’ll keep as a special guest for surprise.”

And moving on from that…Sonar as well!! Anything else coming up?

“I just got offered to do Sonar, which could be our first European party. We got offered a really cool venue which is like a daytime/night time place, which now makes me think I’ll really want to do it there. I’ll really need to put a good line up on there. That’ll be like the first time ever bringing it to Europe. We’re doing Movement Detroit, two warehouse parties – one in NY, one in Chicago. This will be the first time in Europe at Sonar.”

So just touching back with your roots with Phonica where it all took off for you I guess, you must be thrilled to see that vinyl has been absolutely huge again over the last year or so. What’s your thoughts on that seeing that the stores are really thriving on vinyl again?

“Well it was never gone. The digital era just came in and a lot of people don’t have access to vinyls like we probably do in Europe and physical record shops like we have in London. But it’s really good to see people play just vinyl only and they put amazing music on vinyl now that you can only get on there. Therefore, if you are playing vinyl, that makes the significant difference, if you can’t get that music on digital. For example, all my releases are vinyl only. They sell it on digital but first it’s released on vinyl. I don’t have digital releases because I work in a record shop. I’m vinyl orientated and I want to keep on supporting the vinyl.”

And release wise yourself, do you have anything else coming up right now?

“Yeah, 2015 will be busy also. I have things coming out on One Tracks, Left Room, Born Records, 20-20 Vision, Suba. I have a lot of stuff coming.”

I know you’re back in Birmingham playing The Rainbow Festival, how would you say that the Birmingham scene has developed over the last few years in comparison to other cities?

Birmingham has always been my favorite city to play. I remember playing at Below around 10 years ago. That was the first time I came to the Rainbow and to say that I’m now playing at the festival, which is something that has been developing the Birmingham scene for a long time into something really cool, I’m really happy and I’m so happy for the boys also.”

Obviously Below will finish this year as Adam’s decided to stop doing it after 10 years. What kind of testimonial could you give after what Below has become?

“For me, Below was one of the best parties and this is something that made cities like Manchester and Liverpool want to do their own little parties on a Sunday. I think it’s something that inspired a lot of people. You can see how many DJs played there like Jamie Jones. When people like that started playing, that was the best place to start and now look at them, they’re huge! If you asked them to come and play Below now, they’d probably do it. It was one of my favorite parties and something that created a new trend.”

And all the guys like Lee and Adam that are behind The Rainbow have been major players in the clubbing community, you don’t really get that any more. You always get a lot of promoters trying to make a bit of money, especially in the UK. You probably know that yourself?

“And these guys started from zero! These guys know exactly how it feels to start a party from zero, from nothing. To do it from their heart. And what better example from those who are now making these cool festivals. From me, they have all my respect and I love the guys. Its amazing.”

And just to wrap up, what else have you got that we can look forward to? Any events that we can see you at in the UK?

“I’m playing at Electric in Brixton on 7th March. That’s a pretty big event. Then we’re closing a gig in Fabric, obviously I have to come to Fabric at least twice a year. Then focusing on the summer, we have a new residency on Fridays. I can’t tell you where exactly but you can probably imagine. It’s one of the biggest parties on Friday’s. It’s going to be a pretty good year.”

https://www.facebook.com/Hector.Official.Page

***Hector plays The Rainbow Festival Birmingham – April 4th/5th www.therainbowvenues.co.uk