Brazil’s new producer on the block making massive waves with his latest ‘City Lights’ monster
Words : Dan Prince
Henrique welcome to DMCWORLD. You are yet again setting the world’s dancefloors alight thanks to your music, this time round with your ‘City Lights’ monster on the Hot Waves album – with Jamie Jones claiming it’s his personal favourite. But before we get into that, let’s rewind and take you back to where it all began. It sounds like music was an important part of your life growing up. Your early days were all about “Afrika Bambaataa”, breakdancing and important bands like the Jungle Brothers. Tell us about your early hip hop days and influences…
“The main thing in my background and growing up was Hip Hop/Break Beats – when I was 14 I started to breakdance with some friends. We used to breakdance listening to stuff like Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock”, Jungle Brothers’s “Because I Got It Like That” and Jurassic 5’s “Jurassic Finish First”. As the time passed, each friend and member in this crew found their way into different stuff and we just quit breakdancing. Nowadays I’m still listening to this music and sometimes I like to check my iTunes library for some “A Tribe Called Quest” before my gigs.”
It was your brother who eventually turned you onto the path of house and electronic music – who were the artists and tunes that got you moving back then to the house beats…?
“Back in the day my 31 year old brother used to listen to radio shows and also electronic music CDs – Groove Armada, Tom Novy, Lasgo to name but a few. It wasn’t really underground Electronic Music, but from these influences I got the interest to keep listening and finding new stuff about the genre, until I got to know the music I’m into nowadays.”
Everyone has shit jobs they look back on. Yours was doing the night shift at a hostel, but even then you were making beats on your laptop. What was the dream back then for you musically?
“Yes, it wasn’t the best job in the world – but it was fun Dan! I met a lot of international people and also had the chance to work on many of the tracks I’ve been releasing lately while I was on break times at work. At that point I had no big ideas, no big dreams – I was just having fun, making my own music.”
You were also studying global business at the time – was this something your parents pushed you into just in case your music didn’t work out? What does your mum think of your career now?!?!
“The choice of going to college was mine and I wasn’t working that hard on music at that time – Global Business is something that gets bigger and bigger, especially for my country which is on the rise lately. I don’t really have a very tight relationship with my parents – I met my father 17 years after I was born. I love my Mom and she loves me, so I know that she’s very happy about all the good things happening to me/my career/my life.”
Who were your early DJ heroes?
“I like some of the new school and also some of the old school ones – Kerri Chandler, Gorge, Steve Lawler…”
An important moment of your life was when your brother Fabø went along to a Russ Yallop show in your home city and handed him a USB stick containing some of your material. How soon did he get in touch and what did he say?
“Yes, it happened exactly like that – Fabø gave him the USB with some of our music and two months later he got back to us asking for some more tracks. At this time I was just finishing the track “Point of View” – we sent him the track and everything happened from there.”
Like so many of today’s superstar DJs, you started out by throwing your own parties in your home area. What were some of the highlights of these events down in Curitiba…?
“There were not really big parties to be honest. It was just myself and my friends making some parties to have fun and enjoy the music we wanted to listen from the local DJ’s back then.”
Your home country Brazil is one of the most influential places on the clubbing radar at the moment with many important clubs. Where are your favourite clubs there right now?
“There are some great clubs and parties – clubs such as Fosobox (Rio de Janeiro), D-Edge (Sao Paulo), Club Vibe (Curitiba) and Warung and Space (Santa Catarina). About big parties over 15 thousand people: TRIBALTECH (Curitiba) – XXXPerience (São Paulo) – Tribe (São Paulo) and Kaballah (São Paulo). Those big groups are also touring the country during the whole year, bringing the crowds some fun and great moments.”
The new tune ‘City Lights’ is grabbing all the press at the moment – talk us through the history of the track…
“I started the track building the drums as usual and I asked BIP to sing something great over the first loop I’d created after building it. She sent me a pack with 4 different acapellas and I picked that great one which is on the tune. After building the main thing, we kept in touch for those “sexy” shots of vocal and that is pretty much the history of the track. About getting signed to the Hot Creations imprint – I sent it to Jamie Jones and Lee Foss and they liked and signed it right away. It’s one of my favourite tracks I’ve done.”
What is the current top 10 you are spinning?
“I keep changing my sets all the time. These are some of the tracks which I always like to drop…
KINK’s remix of Jackname Trouble’s “Light Again”
Fabø’s remix of Saccao “It’s Over”
H.O.S.H.’s remix of my track “We Do It’
Phill Weeks’s remix of Brett Johnson’s “Broken”
Dake’s “Internal Disaster”
Trickscki’s “I Cant Get Through”
Dubshape & Anninha’s “Everything Change”
Elijah Collins’s “J Funk” – Martinez Brothers’s remix of Santos Reslak’s “A Better Light”
Catz ‘n Dogz’s remix of LunaCity Express’s “Mr. Jack”
To name a few! I really like to build sets of more than 3 hours and there is a bunch more to mention.”
Your label Playperview is going from strength to strength. What are the next releases coming up from you all in 2013?
“EPs from Dimitri Nakov, Funky Fat, Greatnextthing, HNQO, Rolldabeetz and also the Vol. 2 for our “Samplerview Compilation”. We have some great remixers such as H.O.S.H., Atapy, Kolombo, Mike Tello (Pillowtalk). We’re also discussing possible remixes from Kink and Andre Lodemann, but nothing confirmed yet.”
The world started to sit up and take notice after your first release with Hot Creations – a label with some incredible producers. Who from around the world though producer wise is getting your pulse racing right now?
“I like productions from Stimming, Andre Lodemann, Kink, FCL, Trentemøller, Trickscki, Chopstick, Gorge etc.”
So we kick back to yours after the club, who are the artists you spin us to chill us out as the sun rises…?
“I would love to just press play on my lists and enjoy some original works from San Soda, Jackname Trouble, Crazy P, Ost & Kjex, A Tribe Called Quest…”
What is the best part of your job?
“To work and feel like I’m having fun.”
Not many people know this, but I am really good at…
“Playing Call Of Duty. Ok, not that good, but still, I’m good!”
Tell us about your diary for 2013 – where are the gigs you are really looking forward to spinning at?
“I’m looking forward to my next tour- excited to get to know about all the places I’m going to be/DJ. After Europe I’m going to Australia and I’m also looking forward to that.”
HNQO New Track ‘City Lights’ is out on the Hot Waves New Compilation now
https://soundcloud.com/hnqo/hnqo-ft-bip-city-lights-hot
