Although a little tired from some heavy duty touring, Sneak is heading to Australia for Stereosonic and he’s nothing short of excited. “House music is back, the old dinosaur Sneak is back!” he declares.
Being part of the music scene since the early 90’s Sneak developed his style through a rich musical upbringing rooted in Salsa and Latin Orchestras. In the years of his producing his style and sounds have “never changed.”, He believes that “everything changed around me.” His creation, 'You Can't Hide from your Bud’ is still a classic. It is a blueprint for funky, filtered disco-influenced house. Over the years he maintains that “technology and the like,” have changed but “I kept pushing music and people have come back around.”
He considers that the scene he is playing to has new people, but he maintains that “dance music, house, is all based on the Chicago sound...I’ve embraced technology but kept my old flavour, people are trying to change to the new technologies but I may be loosing out”. Sneak is trying to go “back to analogue to make music,” but incorporating the laptop options to bring it all together.
Considering the fierce competition between artists and labels, his only wish is that “classic tracks should be left the way they were made,” rather than being resampled, remixed and “murdered”. “Overnight producer superstars,” he starts, “are part of the problem with the quick in and quickly forgotten artist of the modern dance music era. What they do is kill the original vibe,” of the song they have remastered. “Music in general needs to get to grass roots. If people are serious about house music they should go back to the beginning. Is it too easy to open Ableton, slice a track, rename it. It’s crap.”
“I know it’s how they make their bread,” he says, “but I’m an old school dude. I’ve been into house music since 1983, DJing and am now almost 40,” he knows how things work and what works best for him. “My secret is no drugs,” he laughs, “I’m a big boy but I try to stay healthy and do things that I love, that makes me,” he pauses, “well it reflects on how I look,” grinning “everything feels great so everything feels great around me.”
His methods, way of like and sound has been wearing off, “I know I’ve inspired and spawned another artists; like trees,” he reflects “like a forest of house music,” and “GOOD music in general is back. I’ve had enough of shit music.” These days he says that “it’s too easy to make a tune. I’ve got Cubase, own a Mac but I’m not a one plugin producer. It’s all Atias 950, drum machines, my own techniques, with a cold and dry sound, using more analogue.” Looking at the sounds and directions of house music today, “occasionally one great track comes out. Then 100 more come out (sampling it) and then sound shit. They over compress everything, it’s like they think that ‘if its loud, it must be good’, but that’s a complete lie.” He says he still uses an old 1932 board to data tape, it works “don’t fix wants not broke,” he laughs. “I hope people are reaching for originality, old vinyls and make ‘music’. Not something you can just download.” The whole process now is presented as being too easy and yet if “you don’t know what you’re doing it’ll sounds shit.”
For Sneak, his preference and passion is “live instruments, they become something more organic and beautiful, you don’t have this package deal you get in a download. Like DJ Premier; he’s hip hop but the way we work is similar, we put texture into the music. Make it sound organic. When you add instrument into productions it sounds great, I love it – rather than using a kit.” Again speaking that it’s all just too similar and packaged, he mocks “’oh wow a new kit’,” laughing, “but everything sounds the same.”
If you’re one in the studio hoping to break into your own space in music, Sneak suggests going back to your roots. “Finding the good stuff, personally was when I worked back in records stores,” he laughs, “I have 25,000 records. My way of finding stuff is going back to those records, shopping in my own collection. Its ‘easy’, listen a lot of different DJs, mixes and not always dance music. A lot of DJs who play classics, find them on YouTube, search their name then search for their originals and find their samples.”
When playing, “it’s a combo of what I own on vinyl and about 25 – 30% from downloads artists,” laughing, “people just find me through my Facebook, I hit them up, listen to their stuff, it’s all constant digging, but for 100 you’ll find 1 you like, then just put it aside.” The whole process, “takes a lot of time, I listen to promos all day and it can be a total waste of my time. If all else fails, I just go back to the records.”
“If you don’t have a collection – it’s tough, but try YouTube, it’s my jukebox. We know records from back in the day, find a brother on YouTube, get the link, I have it, record it. Technology has made things accessible, you just need to use your own judgement. Just cause a DJ says ‘buy it’; don’t. Half the time its crap, their diamond isn’t yours.”
His diamonds include some of the most referenced lines in house history, ‘can you fix my sink’. “I give a little smile,” he says, “it’s an incredible track, even though it’s so old, people love it, I love that they love it. But I’ve been asked (to fix someone’s sink) thousands of times, most were a few years back,” laughing “it’s great to be known. But like with another underground hit ‘You can’t hide from me’, people joke about it, now with this tour and the type of DJs, playing I keep growing and evolving. At the end of the day its all house music,” so while incorporating a few of the golden oldies, he’s “glad to have the new tunes. This tour I feel I have some sidekicks, it’s not all techno and harder stuff, its house, not quite my style but we are getting closer by the minute, I think it’ll be a good tour with a little bit for everybody. I love Australian festivals; you get lost and listen to something random, so I’m excited to share music and DANCE.”
“Its good to see that great music is on the way back.”
Check him out - touring nationally with Stereosonic 2010.
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