Hector Romero Interview

With over three decades experience behind the decks, Hector Romero's wealth of experience is book ended by dance music's two great peaks; it's original '90s and boom and the present moment. Starting out in New York when many of the foundations of house's current incarnation were being laid, his talents landed him a job as David Morales' warm-up DJ at his iconic The Red Zone party and brought him into the fold of the DefMix productions, home to Morales and Satoshi Tomiie, alongside Godfather of House Frankie Knuckles.

Having also worked behind the scenes for many years in label management and A&R, he's currently spending time in the studio too, while his DJ skills are being employed to celebrate Nervous Record's up-coming 25th anniversary.

Ahead of Hector's appearance on November 25th, alongside Amine Edge & Dance, Man Without a Clue and many more, we contacted him across the Atlantic...

According to your bio, you began DJing block parties at the age of 13. How did you start out and such a young age and where did you get your records and turntables from? It was a lot more expensive starting out in pre-internet days.

I was influenced at a very early age to play records. This had a lot to do with me growing up in The Bronx, NY where hip hop was born and the art of DJing was thriving. Block parties hosted by Afrika Bambatta and Afrika Islam were frequent in the early '80s. Watching DJ's entertainment really grabbed my attention and when I was 13 (1983) I asked my parents for a set of decks and mixer. Technic SLB100s and a Gemini mixer were my first purchases. I grew up directly across the street from Harmony Record shop in The Bronx so I spent nearly every day and every dollar I had purchasing records. The shop was a big influence in my career.

You grew up in a golden age of New York clubs. Where were some of your favourite places to go out and to play in your early days? What kind of tracks were getting spun and what were the crowds like?

The '90s were definitely the golden age of clubs and house music in NY. I was too young to have experienced the Paradise Garage so for me the Red Zone night club was my Garage. I went almost every weekend for about three years to hear David Morales and we hadn’t even met yet. But other spots like The Palladium, Zanzibar, Danceteria and Limelight were really special venues that were the heartbeat of NYC clubbing during that period.

Acid house and Chicago house music were big in NY in the late '80s, then in the '90s anything released on Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Emotive and Eight Ball Records could be heard at the clubs. Not to take anything away from clubs these days, but the late '80s into the early '90s were a great era for clubs.

How did you get involved with Def Mix and Frankie and David? For those that don't know who is Judy Weinstein?

I was playing a lot in The Bronx and I was building up a nice following. A Manhattan promoter had heard about what I was doing and he hired me to open up for Morales for a party being promoted on a holiday weekend around 1991 at the Red Zone. Long story short, the gig went really well. Morales enjoyed how I played so much that at the end of the night he asked me to fill in for him the following two weeks in a row because he was going to Europe on tour. From there on I became his opening DJ at ever gig he did in NY. Around the same time I was working at Emotive Records and around 1995 David asked me to join Def Mix, because he was interested in starting an indie label called Definity. This is when I first met Judy Weinstein, aka the Queen of Dance Music. Judy is also best known for starting one of the first record pools, called For The Record, in NY. For The Record had a roster of some of the best DJs in the NY area. If you wanted your record played by a working club DJ, then you brought your record to Judy at FTR. And, most importantly, she is the one that as a manager looked after every aspect for David Morales, Frankie Knuckles and Satoshi Tomiie. She’s the backbone to all of us at Def Mix. It continues to be an honor to work closely with Judy. She’s like a mom and best friend to me and I’ve learned so much from her.

You didn't initially make the move into production? Why was that when you were connected with two such influential artists?

To be honest, I don’t really consider myself a serious remixer producer. My real passion is DJing first and foremost and I really have strong passion for label management and the A&R aspect of the music industry. I love collaborating and putting projects together and seeing them come to fruition. Currently I’m working with a good friend and young producer named Francesco Tarantini from Italy. He’s extremely talented and has a lot of patience when it comes to working with me in the studio, so little by little I’m building my confidence. I’ve been DJing for 33 years and I feel like I can finally contribute to producing quality music. Time will tell...

Is it something that you regret not pursuing sooner given the current model of DJ/producer? 

If anything, I wish I had studied piano and music theory when I was young. I really feel that would’ve helped when it comes to my studio work.

What's your role at Saw Recordings with Satoshi Tomiie? Are there any plans to continue your Undulation Mix series?

Currently Saw Recordings is on hold. We were pegged early on as a progressive house label when we started in the early 2000s and as styles of music changed to more of a deeper, techier style it was hard for us to change the music we were signing to the label. So for the moment we’re not exactly sure what we’re doing with the label to be honest. We had fun though. Artist such as Chab, Guy Gerber, Audiofly, Luke Fair, Morgan Page & The Echomen broke out on the label. It's something we’re really proud of.

How does the current state of New York nightlife compare to when you started out?

At this moment NY night life is very healthy but a bit segregated. I miss going to a clubs when there was a mix of straights and gays.

What are three tracks that sum up what you're likely to play at Egg London?

What's next on the horizon?

Nervous Records is celebrating 25 years in the biz and they have recently asked me to mix the next Nervous compilation. It’s a big deal for me personally. In the '70s and '80s some of my DJ peers had Prelude, Salsoul, West End and Philly International as labels they would not miss a release on.  I, however, came up during the days of Trax Records, Strictly Rhythm, King Street and Nervous Records, to name a few. This makes me a child of the post-disco era, otherwise known as the house usic era. The compilation will release late January 2017. It will include a couple of Nervous classics, but they’ve also asked me to submit a track list of new and unreleased tunes from some of my favourite producer remixers. It should be fun to put it together. Most importantly, I’m really excited to play Egg for the SoSure Music party with Amine Edge & Dance, Man Without a Clue, Danism + Train and Hollis Parker on Nov 25th!   

Get more info and tickets for the event here.

To learn more about Hector or to book him, visit his MN2S page.