With Tourism and Its Treasure Trove of Club Hits,
Danny Tenaglia Drops the Drama and Says,
“Music is the Answer”

By Jim Tremayne

Miami Beach, Fla. – It’s nearing 7:15 at Groove Jet and inside there’s a riot goin’ on – albeit a joyous one. As the morning light creeps in from the far corners of its back room, the Miami Beach nightspot teems with humanity and humidity during this the Winter Music Conference’s most-awaited event. But for the moment on this March morning, the crackling tribal beats have ceased, the groove alarmingly gone. Shirtless men and midriff-baring women are stomping on the side bar, their faces flushed, hair matted and water bottles still tightly gripped. Wide-eyed dancers, many arm-in-arm and graduating from third to fourth wind, begin to shout from the floor as if they were begging Reggie Jackson for a World Series curtain call. “Dan-ny!

Dan-ny! Dan-ny!”

Very sheepishly, DJ Danny Tenaglia steps back behind the decks in front of the room he’s been rocking for the past five hours and grabs the mic. “OK, OK, I’ll play some more, but I have to be finished by 7:30.” Someone from the back screams, “Play anything!” Soon Tenaglia launches into a reprise of “Music is the Answer (Dancin’ & Prancin’)” – a then-new vocal track featuring Chicago-based diva Celeda. It’s about the fourth time he weaves the song into his mix and, of all the dandy cuts he debuts from his upcoming Tourism album (Twisted), this is the one Tenaglia makes sure you remember. Even a startling P.A. that sees an overly sassy Jo-Jo Americo gyrate though a Tenaglia-produced cover of Front 242’s “Manhunter” can’t unpeel the stamp left by “Music is the Answer.” By the time Tenaglia signs off for good, his annual industry thank-you finished, people stream out onto 23rd Street still singing the song, literally dancing in the street. They won’t be attending the early seminars today.

As Tenaglia might say, the song has elements – inspirational message (“Music is the answer to your problems, keep on moving and you can solve them”) and a hip-twisting groove that Tenaglia readily admits recalls the early days of the Chicago sound. A testament to house music’s simple, yet palpable power, “Music is the Answer” strings together a bassline, four gospelly piano chords, a steady, propulsive kick-drum loop, a few bare effects, and Celeda’s dynamite, momentum-building vocal into what will surely be 1998-99’s club anthem. It’s the perfect house song.

Though “Music is the Answer” serves as the garage centerpiece to and new single from the new album, Tourism is by no means a one-trick pony. On this varied, yet focused disc (also available in DJ-friendly, four-pack vinyl), the vocal tracks are fierce. For example, Liz Torres’ irresistible cameo on the sultry “Turn Me On” goes deep, but Lula’s turn on “Read My Lips” gets deeper. Listening to either of the spacious grinders, you can close you eyes and you’re immediately on a slightly disorienting dancefloor, a slave to the rhythm. Old-school jocks will smile upon hearing Teena Marie’s soulful “Baby, Do You Feel Me,” perhaps the most radio-ready moment on an otherwise very clubby collection.

More on that tip, there’s “Elements,” Tenaglia’s chart-topping
“tour of a 12-inch,” which progressive/underground DJs find alternately commanding and joyful. Like “Elements,” Darrell Martin’s “Roots
(The Sound of the Drum)” has Tenaglia more closely replicating the
harder, bangin’ sound that he’s come known for in his Manhattan residencies at Twilo and now Tunnel. A rare all-house album that works through and through, Tourism also serves as a treasure-trove of
New York club grooves for DJs looking for the real thing.

Goodness knows the 37-year-old Tenaglia has vast perspective to draw from. After early teen mobile and roller-rink DJ duties, the Brooklyn-raised DJ – like many New York thirtysomethings – discovered the legendary Paradise Garage and its masterful programmer, DJ Larry Levan. Sufficiently inspired, Tenaglia made his mark on the Miami Beach club scene in the mid/late 1980s, then eased into studio work, which blossomed into a flurry of remix projects. He moved back to New York and experienced newfound notoriety for his mixes of The Daou’s 1992 No.-1 dance hit, “Surrender Yourself” (Columbia), among other remix triumphs.

His own artist career flourished as well, with vehicles such as 1995’s Hard & Soul (Tribal), which spawned the dancefloor smash “ohno!” (subsequently reworked for Twisted in 1996). Mix CDs on Twisted such as Gag Me With A Tune and Color Me Danny (a comprehensive collection of Tenaglia remixes) also gave honest aural representations to unlucky DJs who never experienced a live Tenaglia set. Through all this, his global DJ gigging ballooned and Tenaglia brought his New York vibe to the world.

Unfortunately for Tenaglia, all his artistic merits, all his DJ travel, all his years of good work often go underappreciated, as those accomplishments pale in comparison to the interest generated by his well-publicized difficulties with fellow New York mega-jock Junior Vasquez. Long story short: During his own Tunnel residency, Vasquez once had bouncers ask a visiting Tenaglia to leave the premises. Apparently unthrilled that Tenaglia had taken over the residency at Twilo – the West Side venue that once housed Sound Factory, Vasquez’s former haunt – Vasquez played the dart-throwing diva, while outwardly Tenaglia did his best to maintain professionalism. (See the well-made Hang The DJ if you want to see the situation cinematically exploited to its fullest.) Vasquez eventually took his party to Arena and, after many false moves, began his still-running, Saturday-night residency at Phil Smith’s Twilo; a nonplussed Tenaglia moved on and soon settled into his current Saturday stint at Peter Gatien’s Tunnel. To this day, gossip-hungry club types won’t leave it alone.

But this story’s not about that because neither Tenaglia nor the DJs who care about the music deserve to be dragged into a ceaseless and silly disco catfight. The point is simple: Tenaglia’s a fucking great DJ, perhaps America’s best, and with Tourism, he’s finally delivered his masterpiece. DJ Times recently sat with Danny Tenaglia at his house in Queens in his newly constituted basement studio. We discussed his career, his gear, his album and, yes, the other things.

DJ Times: Every year at the Winter Music Conference people
seem to be really excited about your Twisted Party at Groove Jet.
What does that gig mean to you, given the response you
get and the expectation level going into it?

Danny Tenaglia: It means everything. It’s probably every DJ’s dream. And then there’s the sad part to it that it ends, you know, and you have to wait another 12 months for it to happen again. I do have a residency and I do travel all over and get a lot great responses, but playing for the industry people who really understand, it’s unexplainable. I really get to play from the heart. I’m a little nervous at first, but once I get into it and see that they’re willing to be right there with me, I’m not nervous any more.

DJ Times: We’ve done a few stories on you in the past.
But could you give us a thumbnail of how you got into DJing?

Tenaglia: I recently came across an old DJ Times magazine from about 10 years ago and a girl named Jill Tracy from Miami interviewed me when I was living there at the time. And I remember reading the same stories of how I got started. It’s really interesting how I discovered the art of DJing because I was 12. Before that I was just a fanatic for music – record players, jukeboxes, instruments. But I discovered the art of DJing through an 8-track tape and I was just amazed at how music was blended together, just non-stop. How did they do that without a pause? My cousin explained to me that there were nightclubs and DJs and two turntables and all that.

DJ Times: How did that end up translating into club life?

Tenaglia: Well, the funniest thing about the story was that I called the number on the 8-track and the guy who made it lived in the neighborhood coincidentally. And he came over to the deli that my family ran in Brooklyn and he brought me more tapes and recognized my cousin from the club, Monastery on Queens Boulevard. Jenny Costa was a DJ there and I went there for the first time when I was 14. I got snuck in towards the end of the night by some relative. But that’s when I discovered it and knew that it would be my future. I always knew I’d do something in music. I didn’t know it would be DJing and that it would branch out into production and travel.

DJ Times: Was there a DJ who most inspired you, someone who blew you away with their skills or their programming?

Tenaglia: It was definitely that same guy, Paul Kasella, who dropped off the scene many years ago. Back then we’re talking about early Motown LP cuts, 45s, imports and stuff that was all live drummers, before programmers. He would not only mix it on beat, but also harmonically. I’m not a trained musician, but I have somewhat perfect pitch. I freak musicians out with that sometimes. It would astonish me how he would go harmonically go from one to the other. He was my main influence, but I was also influenced mostly by Larry Levan, but also other DJs like Bruce Forest, Shep Pettibone. I definitely picked up a lot from [Levan] and learned how to entertain a crowd and how to read them and feel what they’re feeling and try to make them feel what you’re feeling.

DJ Times: You’re still a UREI 1620 guy, right?

Tenaglia: Totally. I wish UREI was still designing mixers for DJs. It would be great if they made a mixer with separate EQs for each channel, so that you could drop the bass when you mixed into the next song. To me, you just get more feeling with knobs. With crossfaders, once you start bringing that mix in it decreases the level of the other mix when you might not want to do that. You might want to bring it up and then start pulling back.

DJ Times: Tell me how your UREI is modified at Tunnel.

Tenaglia: The tech there, Sean, had it modified in many different ways to tailor to the needs we have now with samplers that I use in the booth. It’s modified so that when I’m playing a record for the dancefloor I can listen to a record inside the booth without headphones – fully monitored.
I can also send signal to my sampler from any turntable that I want – it doesn’t have to be the record that’s playing. Now I can send a song in and play back the sample first and then go into the song so that
I can loop a good section of the song – a drum or whatever – and it
makes it easy. It makes things more DJ-friendly.

DJ Times: What about other booth specs? Crossovers and that?

Tenaglia: I don’t know who makes them, but there’s a five-way crossover and a three-way crossover for the dancefloor and I have a three-way in the booth, which has a pretty heavy system. I mean, there are double 18s underneath the console. As far as samplers go, I have the [Lexicon] Jam Man. I use that for delays to help myself get out of a record, if I want to delay a broken-down part and get the timing of that. It doesn’t have pitch control and it doesn’t have memory, so you can’t remember your samples. I had a little Vestax sampler; now I recently got the Boss sampler with the card that gives you up to four minutes. The Boss remembers the samples. It has eight pads and it has four banks. If your samples are short, you can do 32 samples. The Boss has been playing a good role in all my sets.
It’s helping me out. It has filters. It’s pretty cool. I have a DAT machine. At one point, I had my Akai 950 sampler. Since I have an extensive
floppy disk library of all my remixes and I have all my a cappellas on disk, a lot of times I’ll be triggering them with a little keyboard over tracks.
A lot times I get calls from record stores: “What’s that remix of Grace Jones or so and so?” And I’ll have to tell them, no, I just happened to be playing that over somebody else’s track.

DJ Times: Anything you’ve been in love with lately?

Tenaglia: Lately, it’s been India. I’ve been using India’s a cappella from “Love & Happiness” over a couple records, but mainly it’s been this one “Macumba,” which happens to have this bhangra Indian sound.
It’s right in the key of India’s voice and everyone thinks it a remix so I’m starting a little controversy [laughs].

DJ Times: Let me get back to the beginning. Did you start with
mobiles or clubs? How did it happen for you?

Tenaglia: It was in local neighborhood bars when I was 16, 17. There was a bar a few blocks from my house that my older brothers and cousins would frequent, shoot pool. It had a back room about the size of this basement with a mirrored ball and it was used for parties and dancing. Then the disco thing was moving in and it was almost the “in thing” to bring in DJs. I was a kid, but I was a DJ. It was like 9 p.m. until 1. My parents OKed it because it was the neighborhood; it wasn’t like I was some kid out in the club with a bunch of freaks.

DJ Times: Did you ever do mobiles?

Tenaglia: I did do a few mobile things. I played my brother’s prom. I never made it to my own because I left school to be a DJ. I couldn’t learn anything in school anymore. Unfortunately, I wasn’t interested in anything else. I was just so motivated by music. My parents were disappointed, but they’re happy for me now obviously.

DJ Times: Things worked out.

Tenaglia: Yeah [laughs]. I did a few other [mobile] events, like anniversaries. I never did a bar mitzvah, but I did do a wedding or two. I remember those days well. I remember how hectic it was...unhooking all my equipment in the house, loading it into the car, sometimes doing it myself. Bringing it into the venue, the whole procedure. I dread the thought of ever having to do that again. And the music, I recall having to play the standard, safe hits that anyone would want to hear at their parties that they’d always go home happy and entertained by. But I somehow always managed to sneak underground, cool records. I only recently thought about this, but even back then I was pretty underground. If people bought an album and they were into “I Will Survive” Gloria Gaynor I’d find a cut on that album that was more cool because nobody else was playing it, but it still had a groove that was strong and wasn’t the obvious choice to play. I was into playing cuts by War and The Supremes, even when Diana Ross left. DJ Times: Other gigs? Tenaglia: After I started DJing locally, I didn’t really have a big break in New York. The only thing that ever came close to a residency I had – something that kept me busy on a consistent basis and that kept myself professional and active – was a roller disco. It was in Brooklyn called Roller Palace and I did that for almost three years, from 1980 to 1983. This was the beginning of rap with Sugarhill Gang and all that. To me, that’s when rap was fun with Blondie and all these people – before it got angry [laughs]. DJ Times: Grandmaster Danny? Tenaglia: It wasn’t that I was into being a hip-hop DJ, scratching, cutting it up and all. At that point, that’s when I was really peaking with Paradise Garage. I discovered it in ’79, so between 1980 and 1983 were the best years there for me. At the roller disco, I would play some of the Garage stuff, but I’d also play for the kids, too, and give them what they wanted. When that closed, I was in limbo for two years, gigging wherever I could. I couldn’t even tell you one specific place that was a residency, until 1985 when I moved to Miami to become a DJ at a club called Cheers.

DJ Times: What was that like?

Tenaglia: The first year was a little rough because it was a video bar that took over the next room for a dancefloor. The DJ who worked there was more commercial, so I kind of had to play what they were expecting. Back then, a lot of the popular stuff was Rick Astley, Taylor Dayne, Company B, Exposé. I had to give into that. But I started introducing the Chicago/New York sound. The fortunate thing and the key to what really made it work for me was that it was the only club in Miami that could stay open until 7 a.m. So that’s when you have them by default [laughs].

DJ Times: So how did you make it work?

Tenaglia: Well, all the other clubs would close and people would still be drinking and partying so they wanted to go to the after-hours place and Cheers was it. Miami’s where I got turned onto industrial music. I would go to a club called Fire & Ice and hear Tony Garcia and Carlos Menendez DJ. That’s where I would pick up on Front 242 and I would incorporate in between J.M. Silk and “Love Is the Message” and Bananarama. I threw it all in there. I’d say that 75-percent of my programming was house and house classics, things like “Work It To the Bone,” when those records were coming out, Ralphi Rosario, all the Liz Torres. They were all coming out bing-bang-boom all of a sudden in 1988. Then came the acid movement – A Guy Called Gerald, Electribe 101, Kevin Saunderson, Inner City. They were instant classics for me at the club and it was perfect timing for me to have a residency outside of New York where I wasn’t in competition with anybody.

DJ Times: Sounds like serendipity with the great records coming out just when you had the freedom to play them.

Tenaglia: Exactly. It’s having the residency where people don’t have to wait three weeks to hear me. I was there Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

DJ Times: How did that period lead to what you’re doing now?

Tenaglia: It gave me total confidence because that’s when I really started to realize how much I learned from Larry [Levan] in entertaining a crowd. I’m not the type of DJ who likes to be totally varied and play, like, Kool & The Gang next to anything. I’m not into that. I’m into sets and stuff and making sense of it all. I mean, I love trance; I love Underworld and that stuff, too. But I wouldn’t play it after a Teena Marie [laughs]. I know how to make sense of it. And that’s what I really learned the most from Larry and the Garage – how to know the right moment when to change up. I’m getting a flashback of playing at Cheers and I could’ve been playing anything from Company B to JM Silk to Inner City and then the crowd would applaud and then I’d play a “Bamboleo” or a classic like “MacArthur Park” and they would just go crazy because it was really like I was throwing them a bone. They were really into what I was doing. It was exciting, new and fresh, but I could never forget where I came from and that there are people out there. Then I’d maybe drop into something downtempo like Sinead O’Connor and then back into uptempo.

DJ Times: Could you get away with that at Tunnel now?

Tenaglia: I could do that at Tunnel now. I gotta tell you, if you want to touch on my time at Twilo, as magical as that room is as far as the sound and all that, I always felt pressure. I didn’t feel like I felt way back at Cheers or how I feel at Tunnel now where I could really do whatever the fuck I want. At Twilo, it was about 60-percent freedom. The rest felt like I was playing for a sea of people who wanted to hear Tony Braxton or the obvious throw-your-hands-in-the-air record. And I’ve never been about that. I played it because I knew it was the right thing to do. I always had two or three of those safe records. Like right now it might be “Ray of Light.” I’m not into playing Madonna or “Ray of Light,” but I’ll always have it with me because it’s just professional to have those records to make everybody satisfied. At Twilo, I always felt like that’s what they were waiting for. At Tunnel I don’t feel that at all. I feel 100-percent freedom there.

DJ Times: Still, aside from the remixing success, Twilo was the moment that really brought you to the forefront.

Tenaglia: Yeah, but that was also the 60- to 70-percent of me that did whatever I wanted, maybe moreso at times, but yet there was always that pressure that I should be playing for that hardcore Chelsea crowd, or whatever you want to call it. I was there a year and a half and I definitely credit Twilo for where I am know and the respect I’m getting from the kids in New York. I also have to thank The Roxy for that, too, for giving me a break and bringing me to a big venue in New York to play for a big crowd.

DJ Times: How did your studio career develop?

Tenaglia: It started in Miami. I always had a love for instruments and some knowledge of keyboards. I’m still not a professional musician by any means. I can find my way around basslines and hooks and chords, but when it comes to trying to structure music to an existing a cappella, I don’t even bother. I might attack the dub, but I always hire [keyboardists] Peter Daou or Eddie Montilla to put their trained professional touch to it. When I started in 1988 and I tackled my first project in the studio, it got signed to Atlantic Records. It was “Waiting for a Call” and the name I used was Deep State. That was a sample record that had a little Karen Young “Hot Shot” in it, a little Exposé – I had a scream from one of the girls – the bongo from The Clash “Rock the Casbah,” just different samples. I made my own basslines and hook out of it. When it was done I realized I had my own project even though it was inspired by other songs – but not necessarily because it was snippets of other people. I knew I could do it. I always admired Shep Pettibone, Jellybean Benitez, Bruce Forest, Larry Levan with the Peech Boys. I always saw myself moving from DJ into producer.

DJ Times: Did you work in somebody’s studio? Did you buy yourself gear?

Tenaglia: I met this guy at Cheers who had a 16-track studio,
gave me a good rate and he programmed for me. I’d play the parts in and he’d record it into the computer and then he’d quantize it, lock everything up to the kick drum. I just started building on top of that. It was like,
“Oh my God, I’m producing! I’m overdubbing! I’m doing all the
things I read about and always wanted to do!”

DJ Times: Was there any studio inspiration for you?

Tenaglia: Actually, I had the opportunity to visit Shep Pettibone and Justin Strauss in the studio. I’d come up from Miami and visit and, either through a friend or through a New Music Seminar workshop, I’d get into a session. Joey Carvello signed the Deep State record and then he hired me to remix 7th Avenue, who did a cover of Harold Melvin “The Love I Lost.” I later did Bardot, Red Flag, Shakespears Sister, Dead Or Alive. When I was in Miami, the last remix I did was Double D “Fell In Love” on Epic and it went No. 1 in Billboard. That brought me back to New York with a good stance. [The top-charting mix for The Daou’s] “Surrender Yourself” came in 1992.

DJ Times: How many mixes are you willing to do each year now?

Tenaglia: It’s not a money or budget issue. It’s somewhat that.
It has to cover the cost of what I’m accustomed to working with. I don’t want to do it all by myself at home for $2,000 and be the engineer, programmer, do it all myself. I can’t do that. So I’ve grown accustomed to recording at studios and mixing in an SSL room. That’s the only way I really know how. I know how to operate the computer by myself. That alone right there, recording at a room like Axis and mixing in an SSL room is probably a minimum of $5,000 right there – and that would be without any fee. So for me to remix a record because I love it would have to be at least between $7,000 and $8,000 before I even hire Peter Daou.

DJ Times: What circumstances could find you remixing a record
for less than a regular fee?

Tenaglia: It would have to be something that really inspires me. I get a lot of offers to remix records from a lot of artists I’ve never heard of. It could be major dollars and I just won’t do it. What especially really turns me off today is the concept of time-stretching. I might hear a record that sounds like Portishead and think that it’s cool, but I can’t do anything with it. There’s too much vibrato in the vocal. It’s gonna sound all stuttered when I take it from 100 beats to 125. I just instinctively know that
I can’t lend my talent to this record. But if it’s Kimara Lovelace or something like that...I mean, as soon as I heard it I had goosebumps. A lot of times I don’t think these records need remixes. I mean, I would play it the way it is, but I also understand the concept of tailoring it for DJs.
The first thing that gets my attention is a nice, soulful vocal – male or female. I don’t think I would limit myself to a certain number of
remixes per year, but I don’t want to be locked down in the studio.

DJ Times: What’s the remixing process for you?

Tenaglia: I look at it as a five-day process – two days to overdub, two days to mix and one day to edit. [The artistic process] usually happens differently. It depends on whether I hire Peter or another musician to do an initial chord structure. I usually don’t work that way any more. I try to make it as painless as possible to musician. I try to do as much as I can before they get there. I lay down the drum tracks, come up with a mock
bassline – which I may keep. Sometimes I’ll play the a cappella here in my basement and there will be things that I’ll loop and sample.
I’ll lay that on top. Sometimes people can tell it’s me, but I don’t
think there’s any one precise sound – which I like.

DJ Times: Going in, what was your vision for Tourism?

Tenaglia: Initially, I knew it would be Hard & Soul Part 2. I knew I’d work with different people and it would be a progression in maturity from the last LP, but not knowing exactly what the outcome would be. Like with Teena Marie, I was so thrilled to work with her, but it was difficult with her being in L.A. and sending her an instrumental, her writing to it, her sending me the vocals, it was a long-distance relationship. Celeda and Liz Torres both came in from Chicago. If one of your questions is: Why Tourism for a title? For me, it has three different meanings. First is because of all the travelling I’ve done as a DJ and also D-Tour, the party [at Tunnel], but also the album is a musical tour in itself with all the people on it – from Teena Marie to Jo Jo Americo to Liz and Lula. They’re all worlds apart.

DJ Times: The new single “Music is the Answer” with Celeda is just magic. Even the five times you played it at Groove Jet down in Miami – or however many times it was – people never seemed to get sick of it. Ever since then it seems that every DJ who’s heard it has gone nuts over it.

Tenaglia: Yeah, that one’s real anthemic. I probably felt how they did when I heard it. Celeda had come up with the vocal concept and I was immediately inspired by it. “This is genius!” I did all the music to that one and I tried many different things, but I kept sticking to that basic sound. I tried parts to make it lush, but I kept coming back to, “no, it’s raw.”
It’s got that retro, Chicago, classic vibe going on. That Marshall Jefferson vibe is what I was getting from it. One of the things that I was most proud of that song is that I didn’t take anything from any other song. After it was done it started reminding me of other things. It had the rawness of
MK-style. It was basically a 909-drum groove with a great bassline and piano and I felt like I was capturing it in the studio.

DJ Times: How did playing it at Groove Jet help you?

Tenaglia: When I tested it at the Winter Music Conference, it wasn’t done yet and I knew that was it [laughs]. I didn’t need to do anything more to it. I actually only played it twice that night. I just was teasing people with the a cappella. I had it triggered. I was playing it over Cevin Fisher’s record “The Freaks Come Out” and several other things. I threw a lot of people off by doing that. DJ Times: How thrilling was it to work with people like Liz Torres and Teena Marie, artists whose records you were playing back in the day? Tenaglia: It was exciting, but I wasn’t starstruck like I would’ve been back in the day when Liz was putting out “Mama’s Boy” and “Can’t Get Enough.” I think I was mature and professional about it. It was the same thing when I worked with the Pet Shop Boys, which was a great experience and opportunity for me.

DJ Times: Do you decide who gets what, as far as remixes go?

Tenaglia: Yes. I had that stated in my contract when I signed my new with Twisted/MCA, as opposed to Tribal, that I really wanted it to be my decision on who remixes these records and then I would approve them. And this album was a little too personal. It’s not that I don’t want to give new people a shot, but I don’t want to see just anybody touch a Teena Marie record or a Liz Torres. It’s too precious to me.

DJ Times: Do you consider bigger and greater things for Tourism – meaning crossover, sales, etc.? I think “Music is the Answer” is a great pop record across the board.

Tenaglia: I think I would be excited if I was told that it was huge in Italy or England or Germany or Japan. When it comes to radio in America for dance music, I’m just numb. To me, it’s non-existent. I don’t care for the dance stations. I don’t care for their programming. It’s an awful representation of what us DJs are about in the clubs. The mix shows...I mean, are they serving a purpose? They go on such weird hours late night. They don’t tell you what song it is, what label. Who’s really hearing it? The people who would most appreciate this music are already out in the clubs.

DJ Times: Tony Humphries in the mix at 4.a.m.

Tenaglia: Yeah. Tony’s like my favorite DJ and I can’t even get to hear him in my own city. But that’s another story..

DJ Times: Have you slowed down on your faraway DJ gigs?

Tenaglia: I think after travelling and DJing for four years now, I’ve finally come to a place where I’m being more selective. I’m never going to go to the U.K. again and tour the whole country in a van and go from one gig and drive three hours to the next one.

DJ Times: Danny the punk rocker...

Tenaglia: [Laughs] I will never do that again. It’s too stressful. It affects my performance. I’m going there to entertain people and here you are exhausted with no time to prepare. You just show up, place your
records down and just start. I don’t work like that. I work with a lot of preparation in mind. Even if someone on the dancefloor doesn’t notice
it, I know the difference. I compare this to the remix thing. It’s similar.
I’m getting great offers, but I’m being selective, but not necessarily
for the gigs with better money.

DJ Times: What are some of your favorite venues to spin?

Tenaglia: The first one that comes to mind is Industry in Toronto. The kids are incredible there. Mission in Tokyo. I haven’t played in Scotland in a while, but it’s always incredible there. Sydney, Australia, also. Naples, Italy. A lot of people wouldn’t believe how different it is, how people treat the DJ and see the DJ as an entertainer. Most of the people are facing the DJ booth, looking up. It’s embarrassing for me, but they’re really entertained and they’re just waiting for you to stop so they’ll applaud, which I’m not really into doing. I don’t like a lot of those pauses. But if a record naturally breaks down by itself, they just wait for the first reason to scream and that’s a great feeling.

DJ Times: Outside New York, do you play much in the States?

Tenaglia: Not a lot. The last year I did Philly, Boston, Atlanta.
Miami is like my second home and I’ll do parties there on like Thanksgiving and Halloween. I did the West Coast recently after not being there for three years. We get a lot of calls, but once
I started my residency at Twilo, it was like, “OK, I’m at home.
I’m a New Yorker and I finally got my residency.” They usually want
you for a Saturday, so it just doesn’t work out.

DJ Times: Do you have a rider or specs you require from a club?

Tenaglia: I won’t go to the extent of asking for a UREI mixer. I haven’t had a problem with having Technics turntables, although a club I usually spin at in Montréal just replaced its turntables with Vestax units. Different mixers I can deal with because I know how hard it is to take them out and rewire your whole sound system to a new one with amps and outputs. I do request a Denon double-CD player, either the 2000 or 2500. I find them accessible and easy to work with.

DJ Times: Are these CDs you burn yourself?

Tenaglia: Yes. All of a sudden out of nowhere I’m playing CDs.
I never used to play CDs. It only started in the last year that I was working at Twilo. People used to burn CDs for me or I’d do it myself,
instead of spending crazy money on acetates, like I used to.
I’m saving a fortune now.

DJ Times: Did all the Twilo and Junior drama drain you? It seems like that’s all anyone wants to talk about.

Tenaglia: Someone asked me in an interview, “Is it true that you were physically removed?” And I wasn’t. I was asked very nicely by a security guy, who knew basically that Junior was a drama queen about this with other DJs in the club. He said, “Look, I don’t wanna do this, but I gotta ask you to leave because he’s having a hard time up there and he can’t play right with you in the club.” It was very professional on his part and I laughed and left. But I said, “Now he did it to the wrong person.” He may have gotten away with it with other DJs, so I made sure people knew about this. I mean, some of them might think it’s cool, make a joke out of it and have something to gossip about. But even before it happened to me I was looking at it how wrong it was. You don’t treat people like that.

DJ Times: Why do you think the whole incident became such a controversy in the club community?

Tenaglia: People feel the need to compare us, like Coke to Pepsi. Because we were the only DJs in New York playing to large crowds on Saturday nights, there’s no way around it. People are going to compare us, even though I feel there’s nothing to compare. He’s into a lot of vocals and stuff that he remixes and produces and plays. I’m more into stuff that I’m more into making and a more European, harder element or hardcore tracks. What we do is 90-percent different from each other.

DJ Times: How much time do you spend listening
to new music each week?

Tenaglia: Maybe 10 and 20 hours, maybe more. I do a lot of research. I mean, when we finish this I’m going to go to Satellite Records and I’ll be there for four hours and listen to everything that came in. Then I’ll come home and listen to everything I bought and everything that came in the mail. Then I’ll listen to records that came in last year.

DJ Times: How has your musical taste evolved?

Tenaglia: My roots are 100-percent garage, but I’ve progressed into a progressive hard element. But I see it as progressive garage. I honestly believe that a lot of the stuff I play today is what Larry [Levan] would play if he was alive. Larry wasn’t just about Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle. He would play The Clash, Kraftwerk, Yazoo and whatever else was cool. There wasn’t such a separation back then, but people have that notion that the Garage was all Loleatta Holloway. Some of the local kids are like, “Yo! How come your album ain’t like stuff you play at the Tunnel?” I mean, it is. “Elements” and “Read My Lips” are pretty much similar to what’s in the clubs. But I guess they’re listening to Teena Marie and Liz and “Better Days” and find that they’re very soulful. I don’t usually go there until much later. I love playing for that crowd because they’re open to anything.

DJ Times: What’s a night of DJing at Tunnel like for you?

Tenaglia: I go through many emotions there. The first two hours are pretty hectic. I do a lot of preparing and the song is the beginning of your journey. But there’s so much chaos going on at the same time, between the back room, security, guest list. It’s a big deal now because it’s a club that holds 3,000 people, so there are always distractions. So it’s not until after 4 a.m. that I feel comfortable. Even though I start at 2 a.m., I get going at 4 and then between 5 and 10 a.m. is when I’m on. I’m in my glory and focusing on the dancefloor.

DJ Times: What about the physicality of the room? Sound and
vibe can get lost in the back.

Tenaglia: Forget it. I don’t even know. I’m just vibing on as much
as I can see until the end of the dancefloor and just assuming that beyond that the vibe is still the same. Since I’ve been there,
I’ve never even been upstairs, the bathroom area, downstairs.
It’s just too big, but that’s The Tunnel. I love it.

DJ Times: Do you feel a rise in DJ culture in the States?

Tenaglia: I feel it in an odd way, I have to say, ever since I’ve become a user of the Internet. I’ve met a lot of people online. I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails from people I don’t know, nice people who ask me for advice.
They’ll say, “I’m not really a DJ, but I bought turntables.
Do you have any advice?”

DJ Times: What do you tell them?

Tenaglia: It depends. Sometimes they’ll ask me where I get some of the music that I play and I’ll forward them to Satellite Records if they’re from New York or I’ll give them numbers where they can mail order from, say, Y+T in Miami. They might ask about studio gear, like, “How do you move from DJing to becoming a producer? What kind of sampler should I get?” I’ll always suggest Akai because that’s what I know and use.
“What kind of software are you using?” I use Performer and Vision, but I’ll mention other possibilities and options.

DJ Times: With all the American media’s electronica hype focusing mostly on the Big Beat scene, do you think house music has been ignored? America’s house scene is vibrant as ever.

Tenaglia: Totally. To me, [American music media] is like a newspaper version of radio. They’re just giving into the major labels and the
obvious. It’s a shame. From their perspective, it’s a rock-n-roll-oriented situation, just like the major labels. Yeah, they might swing out a dance mix here and there, but the executives are coming from a rock background. It’s their lives and they could care less about post-disco. They probably hated disco back in the day and it’s probably just “fag music” or “gay music” to them [laughs].

DJ Times: Does that bother you?

Tenaglia: The truth is, to me, I’m comfortable where it is. I like it being underground. I can’t imagine my album being pop or me being a pop artist, being Top of the Pops. I don’t want that. I’m grateful to have what I have. I’m grateful that I have a label that signed me as an artist and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to work with some of the artists that I work with. I enjoy being underground. I have a roof over my head, but I don’t have dollar signs in my eyes.

DJ Times: Will you always want to DJ?

Tenaglia: I think as long as there’s going to be people out there wanting to hear what I’m doing, I don’t think I’ll ever lose the passion. I mean, I think it’s probably one of the greatest feelings in the world, especially now that I make music, too. So after making a song in the studio and being able to DJ and play it and have people respond to it, that’s the ultimate feeling, let alone playing other people’s records, which feels great. So as long as people are into me and what I’m doing, I’ll always want to do it. I’m 37 now and I don’t know what it’ll feel like if you ask this question when I’m 50, but…there are other DJs spinning in their fifties [laughs].