I met Sandy Rivera at the launch party for his Kings of Tomorrow album, Trouble, almost four months ago. Yes, the album was meant to be out then, but living up to its title, there was… TROUBLE. The interview itself is slightly surreal: Sandy’s had some lunchtime beers and is a bit tipsy!
Sandy Rivera’s probably best known for his anthem, Finally. Funky fans will almost certainly have danced to the singles off the new album: bass-line killer, Thru; the soulful, Changes; and of course, Dreams, with its Eastern-strings. You probably recognise his chin from the DSI top-of-page banner and, in case you were wondering, his mass of ringlets is remarkably soft! What I now discover is that he’s a good laugh. He’s friendly, and self-effacing rather than self-important (comparing his track Young Hearts to Finally, “less people know it, but it’s pretty good!”).
Sandy explains how Trouble isn’t banging but it’s still funky, “I’m soulful, Kings of Tomorrow is soulful… but with a bit of an edge”. It’s ideal for getting ready for a night out, for winding down afterwards or soothing-away the mid-week blues. It’s pretty varied - as well as the singles, there’s Tong-fave 6pm (not a million miles from Deep Dish’s Flashdance with its guitar riff) and the techy London Fog which, despite the title, was inspired by a gig at DC10.
Sandy’s keen to emphasize his own musicianship, explaining how the album is totally sample-free and includes instruments, even a Symphony Orchestra. He explains how the tracks are based on his own life stories and those of the contributors, Haze, Nina, Steve Edwards and LT Brown: “Everyone just let out what they needed… it’s a really personal album”. He describes how Haze – who sings the “earthy songs, like Mary J Blige” is like a brother now. They met at one of Sandy’s gigs in Malaysia – just two weeks later, Haze flew over to America for the first time to record Changes, Dreams and Thru. Sandy reckons he’s moved on since the first album a few years ago, and says he’s travelled round the world, met people like Haze, grown up as a person and musically.
So why did it take so long to get his second album out?
“DJing takes up a lot of fucking time! Guys are out every weekend, kinda tired in the week, gotta buy records. Trying to produce and schedule singers takes a while. That’s probably the only reason why. If a producer was just dedicated and that was his only source of income, he’d have an album done in three months!”
“It’s not about money and keeping in touch [with the dancefloor]. Yeah it’s really good money, but once you get the energy and the people, you miss it, you can’t spend a whole month or two away from it, I don’t know any DJ that can… they say they might want to, but no. It’s an extremely good feeling when you’re performing in any which way, whether it be playing guitars, singing or just DJing”
“No it’s hard [living out of a suitcase] but once you get there the people make it an addiction. The flights? Hell, yeah. That shit’s fucking hard, full on! You miss a flight – hardcore. You lose some records, lose a bag, whatever - it’s always a problem. But once you get there, you get the buzz from the people. If a DJ doesn’t get a buzz from the people, he shouldn’t be DJing.”
He explains how he’s equally a DJ and producer. He was DJing aged 13 and producing at 21, “They’re both intertwined to me, they’re like one. I don’t separate them.”
So after so long in the game, what stand out?
“Too many crazy gigs, too many crazy places. Ibiza’s just mad; I don’t get enough sleep… Redbull, oh boy! You run around, I’ve had a lot of special moments; I can’t really explain them all. With dance, or with any kind of music, people who feel that format, feel the same energy. Even techno fans understand that vibe. It’s always a crazy moment walking into town when there’s a big special night, and it’s just going mad, it’s like News Year’s every other weekend!”
Ibiza’s had a lot of flak recently – has he noticed a change? He explains he’s not there the entire summer, so can’t check out every party, but: “how can you really complain about an island with really beautiful sea, good food, people all round? I mean, it might go through phases in music, but come on! I’ll stay there all year if you want me to!” He says playing in Hong Kong is mad because the people go crazy and is a fan of Sydney too; playing to eight thousand people on the harbour was “amazing”. He’d live there but it’s too far…
In fact the native New Yorker, now lives in London: “Well, three years ago I got a slight divorce, I was married before”. He decided to hop around, living in California for a year and then on the road for six months. He figured he was always in Europe and getting jet-lagged, so London was the next best place. “And the parties over here are just amazing… getting better and better. The UK is home to me now – it’s cool.”
“Yeah, it is hard maintaining a relationship [while jet setting]. You can see it is hard. No, it’s cool. It depends on the person pretty much, some people can’t handle it, some can.”
He says the scene’s better in London, with the clampdown on clubs in the States. “People are just open to more kinds of different music. Radio, I really don’t get, but the club scene. There are millions of people around, a scene for everything. They love what they love, there’s like hundreds of thousands of people listening to house music, dance music, whatever you wanna call it, every week. Whoever says [house is dead] is only talking about sales.”
But with people’s openness to different sounds, Sandy still feels he has to record under different names. “People are very separated with house, tech-house and techno. But there are big amounts of people listening to all formats, from jungle, drum’n’bass. Now, if you’re a producer that can tap into everything, you have to change your name, or people will think you’re crazy! They won’t understand the balance. It’s frustrating, because everything has to work with promotions, and interviews, and a look… One producer can’t do everything, people find it weird… we’ll find out!”
Here’s his advice for all you budding DJs and producers:
“Anyone just starting in production, learn an instrument, learn about music itself, melodies and tones. You don’t wanna make an off-key song - that would just be fuckin’ wrong! You wouldn’t put two bands together at the same time, doing two different songs. I think most people have it naturally, to understand why something is wrong. But there’s a vibe to everything. When the vibe is just right, it sometimes doesn’t matter.”
“Forget the key, do your vibe, learn how to mix. The tempo thing is just pitch. At some point, you’ll just get it. It’ll take a month, 6 months, a year.”
He explains how making tunes is good for promotion and getting noticed, “Producers making records are more known. It’s a gamble for clubs to bring in someone unknown… but there’s a lot of bedroom DJs who are just fuckin’ amazing! I hear a lot of opening DJs that are just SICK all around the world, pretty much. If you start producing and it’s good, it’ll be good! Argh, you’re killing me here!!”
At, this point, DSI’s Paxman-style questions - and possibly the beers – seem to have exhausted Sandy and we wind up.
“Some people are like hot for one minute then not. Some people have longevity in the industry. You figure out who you are as you go along, but if you stay true to what you wanna do, and you wanna make good music, it’ll happen naturally. That’s all I can really say. I gotta stop!!”
Trouble by Kings of Tomorrow is out now on Defected.
Sandy Rivera album launch parties:
Saturday 5th March at Pacha in London
Friday 4th March at Sanctuary in Middlesbrough
Friday 1st April at Neighbourhood in London
Saturday 9th April at Shindig in Newcastle
Saturday 30th April at Déjà vu in Hull
www.defected.com
www.kingsoftomorrow.com