The world raises it’s hands yet again for one of the kings of house music
Together with one James ‘D-Train’ Williams, the legend Fontana has just produced probably the biggest house track of Miami Music Week with ‘Raise Your Hands’. The master has returned!! Dan Prince checks in with one of New York’s finest…
DMCWORLD’s old friend Lenny Fontana in da house! Well young man, we are catching you in the middle of another year of Miami madness…how is it this year, word on the street is that it is a good one?
Hey Dan! Big Tracks, African House, Anthemic Vocal Tracks…that is the word on the Miami streets my friend…
Some nice footage of the Three Kings making their WMC debut spinning your ‘Raise Your Hands’ not once but twice! Have you been hearing it everywhere you go?
Not only there but with the technology of camera phones and Facebook, everyone is writing to me all the time and videos are coming in…heard here and then heard there – it felt great hearing something like this and also reading who is playing it.
Please tell us the history of the track with D Train…loving your behind these scenes look at Karmic Power Studio…
James D-Train has been friends with me for years and I always had it in my mind to get him back on track and back in the dance music world. I called him one day and said to him come over I will barbecue some food and I want you to hear this track that I feel is right for you. Well I had the track prepared with my assistant Joon and was in the studio when he played it and D-Train comes running outside and says to me come check out the ruff vocal. Oh well from there the track just progressed and my gut feeling was people where going to love this feel of us going back in time to come forward. Now DMC just proved to me that my gut feeling was right on this.
Where have some of the bomb parties of WMC been this year?
It seems that the 3 Kings was probably on the top of the list…Barbara Tucker hosts and let’s the voices be heard but there were a lot of other parties that people spoke about. Like all the African DJs taking over Miami with their parties. So you got a little variety of house music and then you just have to pick and choose where to go.
You have yet again had The Buzz Chart office jumping around thanks to your music, this time around ‘Chocolate Sensation’ that’s been freshly redone for 2015. Please talk us through the sounds of the track and this bass heavy mix…
Well Chocolate Sensation started out with me retouching the original track and reproducing it and bringing it back to today. Also CR2 wanted it to cross to the younger generation so back at ADE Mark Brown and Hiroki sat me down and asked would I be opposed to going in this bass heavy direction with it. I said no lets try it so for me it is like revisiting some of the older house sounds from back in the day. We went into the studio and we programmed some fresh sounds using some of the older keyboard plug ins to get that early 1990’s sound. The younger DJs heard it and loved it as well as the people who remember how big Chocolate was when it was released on FFRR. Well Dan, I had to do it justice…just freshen it up so that it can be useful today.
Another big tune causing mayhem in the Buzz office is music from your Karmic label via Murdoch and ‘Say You Love Me’…
It is a track that my assistant Manuel Genzel had been sent. When I heard it I told him right away to sign this and with every track we try to do a proper promotion. All of a sudden we found people writing back verifying to us what my gut instinct was on this, CR2 grabbed it from me and are now going to work the track in the UK so hopefully we will have some great success with that as well with our joint venture. Be on the lookout for Murdock – he is hot…
What are the next release plans for the label?
Right now we have Lenny Fontana feat. D-Train ‘Raise Your Hands’ and a whole bunch of stuff we are working on. We are trying to find records that we think will work with the DJs around the world. So of course I am always looking for new stuff send us your demos to demo@karmic-power-records.com
What are the 5 biggest tunes in your box this weekend
– Louie Vega, Winans and Clark Sisters ‘Dance’
Dope dope tune! Love it. Louie Vega is a master at making these type of records.
– David Morales feat. Quentin Harris and Hector Romero ‘The Xperience’
Hot tune and works dancefloors for me every time I play it
– Jose Burgos and Kenny Bobien ‘Everyday’ Defected’
Classic big vocal love the message a must have.
– Lenny Fontana feat. D – Train ‘Raise Your Hands’
A labor of love that smashes the dancefloor…soon to be an anthem
Murdoch ‘Say You Love Me’ Karmic / CR2
Intoxicating vocal track perfect for summer and the UK got my office going nuts when I signed it.
We had Carl Cox in the DMCWORLD interrogation chamber this week talking about North America and how ‘dance music’ has finally hit. He said the whole EDM was a good thing and that these clubbers would go on to find new genres of house, techno, Drum&Bass etc. to call their own. What are your thoughts?
EDM people are getting older and because of this musical tastes change. I personally believe that when this happens you start to look for music with depth. Ray Caviano from RFC Records and I sat down this past Christmas in 2014 and he said to me, ‘let’s try something…instead of running to Europe first on D-Train’s record ‘Raise Your Hands’, let’s test the waters here. He asked me to work the record only in North America with him to see if what he has been hearing is true with dance music coming back strong here in the USA. I said okay, I will put the restraint on. Well he was right and I am glad we did it like this because the love for a soulful style rhythmic dance record really came full circle.
What are 3 bucket list adventures you wanna do in your lifetime?
Skydive, swim with sharks and take a selfie on top of the tallest building hanging without a line…oh well this may never happen LOL…
Your musical education when growing up came via guys like Frankie Crocker at WBLS FM. Do you ever hook up to any of the hundreds of dance shows crowding our airwaves?
I try to, but in those days when Frankie was on your radio he turned you onto records that where happening in the clubs. Nowadays it’s funny when I am running around in my car. I will throw Studio 54 on Sirius radio and hear one of my favorite DJs Tony Smith and he will take you on a journey. Louie Vega Roots show is very cool too and from time to time I check BBC Radio 1 because I like to keep my ear to the kids.
An interesting thing you once said in an interview… “growing up I even loved Kraftwerk from Germany”. Man, that’s all I ever get when I ask your DJ brothers this side of the pond who their early musical influences were…!
I cannot tell a lie Dan, I did say that…especially the ‘Numbers’ record. My god that was amazing and still sounds fresh 30+ years later…
When you started DJing at The Underground in New York a set of 8 hours was the norm. These days a 1 hour set is the norm at big events. Thoughts on this?
It’s a shame as the one hour set is not even enough to get warmed up, but you have to do your best and go in and kill them. But what is upsetting me is these sets where the Pioneer kit is not even on. This makes a mockery out of all the professional DJs that worked so hard to get to that level.
I love the story of how after a wee break you returned to your trademark sound in the studio. I believe it was DJ Behrouz who had a word with you at the late great Gary Stewart’s funeral…?
Yes he said to me these exact words “dude go back to what you use to do when you released on Strictly, this is what the people want from you, forget about making hit records just do it and keep it simple”. I left there saying to myself is this possible? Oh well, we fired up the studio, put some wood in the pit and away we went…and here we are now with the whole world accepting my sound once again. For me this is a dream come true and I am humbled by all of it.
A great, up and coming producer/DJ we should look out for in the near future?
Another Excuse is hot right now…he is from Houston Texas/ Carl Tregger and Marc Tasio (both from France) doing some great stuff for us on the label also…
And finally, what is coming next from the amazing Lenny Fontana studio…?
Working on a big track with Alison Limerick, something in the pipeline with Chaz Jankel and some other big names that I am in negotiations with right now. And of course now that Ray Caviano from RFC is in full working power once again, we are talking about doing more and more. The Disco Pioneer strikes again…
www.lennyfontana.com
