An in-depth conversation with Brooklyn’s own Danny Tenaglia about Larry Levan, the Paradise Garage, his residencies at Twilo and Tunnel, his “Be Yourself” party at Vinyl, his Global Underground mixes, and the Winter Music Conference.
This interview originally aired on September 16, 2021.
Super Progressive: I am just so stoked for this interview because today on Super Progressive we’re joined by Danny Tenaglia.
Danny Tenaglia: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Super Progressive How are you doing, man? How has your trip out in California been?
Danny Tenaglia: It’s been amazing. I played Vegas on Friday, San Diego on Saturday, which was really good, but it’s always nice when you save the best for the last, no disrespect to the other gigs, but Los Angeles was by far a larger venue, a host of DJs, just like a mini, one-day festival kind of thing. So I really appreciated the energy from the audience and I fed off of it and my adrenaline is still on ten.
Super Progressive: And you were saying a little bit before the interview that when it’s a techno show, you get to get into it a little bit more quicker, or you get to bring a little bit more heavy tunes to the table.
Danny Tenaglia: Right, because it’s not a typical journey where I’m starting the night, and I’m waiting for people to fully get into the room and when everything settles, coat check, whatever it might be, when they’re all finally in that spot on the dance floor, I can then take it to the next phase with the punch and the levels and sort of like what you consider peak time tracks. So when you have to play two or three hour sets, and I’m a journey kind of guy that loves to tell a story because that’s how it always was when I started this career back in the day, you’re the DJ and you have your opening songs usually not so fast, down tempo. You gradually pick it up until the room is full and then you’re full on. Then, you have your going home down-tempo like more something maybe vocally to have them remember the night by and just wake up the next day singing. And I love techno, but I don’t get to play techno sets very often.
Super Progressive: I spend so much time reading about house music history, and one of the coolest things that I’ve learned throughout all of house music history is that at your ‘Be Yourself’ residency at Vinyl, you would actually take the microphone and welcome the clubbers to the dance floor and speak to them.
Danny Tenaglia: Well, I’m kind of like a host. I was the host at Be Yourself Fridays at Vinyl, which lasted five years and three months, every Friday, and it was midnight till noon. So if I didn’t have an opening DJ, I’d play the whole night, 12 hours and I loved it, but I often had guest DJs open until maybe 2:00 AM. So then I get on the mic, say, welcome to Vinyl and Be Yourself at Vinyl, and please give it up for Deep Dish, Demi, whoever my guest DJ may have been over the years, and so that’s pretty much how it was. Or I’d mention who might be coming next week. It is all part of the entertainment game. It’s like the shows which I was accustomed to in the early days of working nightclubs. You’d just stop the music, and there’d be a performance by maybe a famous band or something, and then the DJ goes back on, but that’s long ago. So I pretty much felt comfortable to be that person, that host artist, whatever.
Super Progressive: I got to see you for the first time at Reform Festival and everyone’s talking about the magic of Danny Tenaglia and the magic of these sets, but I never really fully understood what they meant. But then when I see you in your power stance, you know your music so well, you’re DJing, there’s an awesome vocal about to come up and you just on the stage, wailing the lyrics. And it’s like an exorcism of energy from you, through the mixer, through the speaker, to the dance floor. How do you prepare yourself for these moments? How do you create these moments in your sets?
Danny Tenaglia: You know what, let me just first say that what you’re saying, and I appreciate it. It made me think of when I’m often asked the question about my mentor, and although I have many, the number one mentor for many DJs from New York is Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage. So if people ask me what was it about Larry what was the magic, whatever the question might be. I would say from him, I learned to make the people feel what I’m feeling. So he was in a mezzanine. People were on the dance floor doing their thing. People weren’t staring at the DJ back then at all. Now you feel almost pressured to be somewhat of a character, and I don’t have a problem with that because I’m a little Italian boy from Brooklyn. And so with that, with my love and passion for the music and learning it and knowing it, studying it, the breaks, the changes, it’s like I don’t try to take ownership for the song, but I do feel a sense of performing it, even if there’s no lyrics, like just accent that break.
Super Progressive: You brought up Larry Levan and The Paradise Garage, and I’m going to have some questions about that at the end of the interview, but I want to bring it back to 1992. I want to bring it back to your mix of ‘Surrender Yourself’ with The Daou because you were on a Chris Liebing podcast and you mentioned that this track holds a really special place in your heart. So why is this one of your favorite tracks?
Danny Tenaglia: Well, Peter and Vanessa Daou became really good friends of mine. Peter Daou was a brilliant piano player, and his wife Vanessa did the vocals. That record was released on Columbia Records. Their album version was kind of like an alternative rockish with jazz influence when he plays the piano. And they allowed me to basically transform it into a 13-minute dance record. So she resang the poetry and the background vocals, so it was basically like a production of mine, and they gave me full reign to do what I want, the mix down and editing the arrangement. And I brought it into somewhat of a disco appeal by putting in a soul kind of loop and stabs from ‘Love Is The Message’, and it was just a whole journey within itself. And then I went on to do three other songs with them, and all four songs I did with them were number one in Billboard, so it got us a lot of attention. I mean, they weren’t sales charts, but they were club dance hits, and one of them was even at number one for three weeks, and that’s really hard to do, even for super popular artists. So throughout the nineties, I had a big remix career and Peter was often my programmer, piano player, and on the keyboards. So yeah, it just was like the start of something that got me recognized internationally. People were buying records back then, and DJs were getting promos, and that led to the following year of me making my own record, which was Bottom Heavy, which came out on Tribal, and the Hard & Soul album, which was originally a remix of mine for New Order that they rejected. So I took away all their vocals, got permission, they were cool with it, and I just put in the vocal. That was the one that really elevated things. I started getting phone calls to play in London and Tokyo and Italy and 45 countries later, I’m sitting here in LA for maybe the eighth time playing here. So I’ve traveled the world extensively stemming from that.
Super Progressive: I’m going to kind of jump around here a little bit, but because there’s so many different eras of New York clubbing, and I think that might be because an era of clubbing kind of comes down to the clubs that are open and sometimes clubs are only open for three or four years, but one era of clubbing in two specific clubs that our reviewers consistently refer to are Twilo and Tunnel. And a lot of our viewers are big fans of the Progressive House era in New York City. Can you kind of explain some defining characteristics of Twilo and Tunnel and why those two clubs have kind of achieved this legendary status all these years later?
Danny Tenaglia: There’s a lot of similarities. Twilo and Tunnel were both on 27th Street on the west side. Tunnel came first and it was originally a train station, so it still had the beams that you’d see in a New York train station, and it was very, very long and narrow, which is why they named it the Tunnel. It had different rooms and I remember nights I played there where there was well over 4,000 people there, same as Twilo. But I think average there was three thousand and above. Tunnel had a history of being something that was almost like rave culture. It welcomed different types of DJs in the main room and had different nights. It could be hip hop, it could be rave. They had a DJ set up in the gender-neutral bathroom, which is a thing here and there around the world now, even in Ibiza. I remember people like Timmy Redford played there, so it had its deep soulful roots, and it just evolved. And then the same owner was the owner of the Limelight, so it also had that club kid appeal, same promoters, all those guys that had that colorful side. Twilo was originally the Sound Factory, the original Sound Factory, and I believe that opened around 1986 or 1987. The Sound Factory was modeled after the Paradise Garage. I could talk for days about this because there’s so much history, because in order to talk about the Sound Factory, I’d have to describe the Garage.
Super Progressive: We can go into the Paradise Garage right now if you’d like.
Danny Tenaglia: Okay, well we could go into the concept of how the Sound Factory and Twilo compared to the Garage. Then we could talk about Larry and all the other emotional stuff later. I might need a tissue. Alright, so the Paradise Garage was a unique club because it had no liquor. That’s number one. It had a very strict policy. They were only open Saturdays. They would open at 1:00 AM and go to about 11:00 AM on average. The ceilings were glass, so once daylight came in, it brought the daylight into the room, which is unique. That didn’t happen at Twilo and Sound Factory. Initially, they did have a similar concept, but they eventually closed it up so people wouldn’t leave. I guess just keep them there in the dark. And so when the Paradise Garage closed in 1987, there was a guy that was the owner of Sound Factory, one of the partners, Phil Smith. He was very involved in nightclubs and sound systems as well. He partnered with Steve Dash who became the Fazon Club Sound Systems, which was what was at Twilo and Sound Factory. So Phil’s concept was to make a nightclub like the Paradise Garage, no liquor, just be an after hours legitimate dance party space that wouldn’t be full of a mess of drunks. And I mean, I guess this is even before the whole VIP mentality, but none of that would be there like tables or bottle service. And it was just a pure, hardcore, underground after-hour mentality. And mind you, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention that Paris Garage initially was predominantly a gay black club for many years. It had its mixture, especially with industry personnel, like myself and Judy Weinstein and Bobby Shaw, people that worked at record labels, a lot of us would visit, but predominantly, it was a black gay club. And that’s why when I do talk about the Garage and the music, I can refer that to being like a Gospel or church. Kind of like, oh my God, where are we? The participation was unbelievable, from the crowd performances to what music Larry was playing. So this is what the Sound Factory was like later. It was a different mentality, but still it’s a New York thing, and people did clap and stomp, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t have the drama like the Garage because Larry would often stop the music. He didn’t really mix a lot, he used to, but then he mixed less and less. He would just let one record end and start the next one and people didn’t care. They just stomped and applauded as soon as the next song started, and it was usually something we all loved and you’d get that initial like, oh, he’s playing this. So there’s differences, but Sound Factory was modelled after the Garage. I guess in sound, the four point system that I’m talking about where you’re surrounded by stacks, which is almost unheard of these days now where a lot of the shows and the clubs are just putting sound along the stages of the DJ boots facing out at the crowd in a concert mentality. The way the festivals are as well, it’s almost a whole different topic to talk about that mentality of how they’re putting up sound systems today. Like we have the speakers flown from above and base below, which gives the viewers and the people in the VIP rooms room to look around or be noticed. If you have stacks there, it blocks a lot of the view, so you’re not getting that same quality sound. Although sound has developed greatly with some of these amazing companies, but I’m still more for the four point system. So you’re only getting half the punch. I want you to feel it like Quadraphonic. So I don’t know. Talking about South Factory, after the Garage closed, Phil Smith and his partners developed an after-hours club with no liquor, only open Saturdays, and it was predominantly gay as well in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. But eventually just like the Garage, they started opening Fridays and started getting more of a mixture, but still held a strict policy at the door, membership and things like that and being careful of who they let in. And the Tunnel just kept doing its own thing as it did when the Sound Factory closed and reopened as Twilo. There was I think about a year before it reopened and that’s when they welcomed different DJs and it was, how can I put this? I guess it was the era we’re talking about, the early years of Global Underground and now Trance music obviously has made a big name for itself around the world. Paul Van Dyk, Arman van Buuren, et cetera. And that sound was starting to make its way into New York and then probably with Sasha and Digweed, they made a big huge impact as well. And they started playing Twilo on Fridays along with all the other big names as well as guests. I was the resident on Saturday, but then I also would now play on Fridays. Not every single week, I was resident on Saturday, but sometimes every other week. And we would have all different kinds of guest DJs, whether Progressive or I remember suggesting Daft Punk and we had them. DJ Pierre. A lot of Doc Martin, amazing guy. Derek Carter. So all different kinds of DJs that were elevating upon the scene. Tony de Vit with Trade. They did a Trade event at Twilo a couple of times. So I got to play with a lot of these amazing DJs and this was all around the era of 1996, 1997, because that’s when I did the Global Underground series. So I started becoming known on that platform as well. But I don’t know, you might want to interject with a question because like I said, I could talk about this for a month.
Super Progressive: Well, there’s two different directions I want to take before we get into Be Yourself at Vinyl and Global Underground. I have a specific question for you about the Paradise Garage that I’m really interested in. So around the world, there are dedicated house music fans that know the Paradise Garage as one of the initial homes of dance music, of house music, of this culture. The same thing goes for The Warehouse in Chicago. And these are two clubs that have international adoration from the house music community. The Warehouse is currently a lawyer’s office and there’s no museum commemorating the Warehouse to the best of my knowledge, or the Paradise Garage to the best of my knowledge. How can New York City, Chicago, and just these cities and communities in general, do more to celebrate the history of house music in its home cities?
Danny Tenaglia: The roots of house music has evolved into so many different genres that some people wouldn’t even know how to dissect it, especially if they didn’t live it. They’re not from the seventies and eighties and saw the changes that went from being very Deep House. To us DJs from back in the day, Deep House was more emotional and something that gave you goosebumps with the chord changes, progression, the vocals, lyrics, the content. Today, people might consider Deep House something that’s a lot of instrumentals and mainly electronic music. So it’s a loaded question, but what I can tell you about Paradise Garage and Warehouse, which I’ve never been to, but because I’m so familiar with the history of House and living the Paradise Garage for a good several years… I mean my membership started in 1980. Larry and Frankie Knuckles were in New York in the early days and friends, and I think what Larry brought to the Garage and what Frankie brought to the Warehouse as well, of course Ron Hardy, who I’ve not met, but there was that similar scenario, because back then there wasn’t the amount of music that we have today. It was like you get a thousand records a week over here in 2021, maybe more so back then you had your staples, they were usually for the Garage and that style was pre-disco, disco, post-disco era, but of the soulful kind. So it was usually like the Jocelyn Brown songs, Chaka Khan songs, the labels like Prelude and West End, and I could mention so many, but I think you know what I mean. But the roots, as I might’ve mentioned earlier, to me witnessing it was nothing short of a foot stomping church gospel kind of vibe. Like these people really got down and just expressed themselves with their bodies just freely. People just gyrating and jumping, and not everybody, but a good amount of them had that energy. But within the context of each song brought out a different emotion. So today, how do we have crescendos? Usually with snare-roll drum builds, the effects on the mixer, Ableton, whatever people are bringing into the booth, we can create crescendos. But back then the natural crescendo was within the song and written that way. And I guess, I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but probably the most comprehensible way of referring to a song that people could understand what I’m saying to the nature of a natural crescendo, a great example is ‘Love Sensation’ by Loleatta Holloway, written by Dan Hartman. And so the song is doing its thing, beautiful, amazing singer, and towards the end when it starts saying, “And I won’t take my love,” then it goes away and you would see everybody’s hand in the air. That was the build. And a lot of records are like that. I could name many, many songs, even some corny disco records, but that was the nature of the composition, to take you on that journey. Another part of this journey was the way DJs use the sound system, as you mentioned I did the other night. I know when its pulled back. I know the song and what it’s about to do. So I’m not saying just me, a lot of DJs know, but I really do study the music, including the techno tracks. I play like, okay, it’s about to go boom on its own. It doesn’t need me to touch any other knob right now. So the other half of it, which is completely unrelated to techno of today, of what I’m just describing to you from the Paradise Garage, and I’m certain the Warehouse in Chicago with these songs, was the participation in singing along. So that’s the part of what I was mentioning earlier about what I really learned the most from Larry was to make the people feel what I’m feeling. Even if it’s techno today, somehow it comes through, but nothing could shine through more than lowering the volume as the song is progressing. Even the one I just mentioned, Love Sensation, but a great, great example would be Keep On by D Train. And he’s kind of like testifying now. He said, ‘Keep On’ is a motivational song. And then it gets into this latter half where it’s really about to break down and he’s saying, “I Can’t Let Nobody Keep Me From Reaching The Top. Don’t you give up on no one.” So he’s telling you to keep on reaching for your dreams. You’re almost there if you have a goal set. Larry used to slowly, slowly turn down the volume and the whole room would sing it. I’m getting goosebumps. Look at that. You can’t get that today. And that’s what’s absent. That’s how it was. And how could you not feel what he was feeling? He was playing the role of the artist and the singer through that song. He was feeling it and he was feeling the message and he was sending those messages to the people, to the speakers, and we all got it week after week after week.
Super Progressive: Wow.
Danny Tenaglia: And back then, you would go back anticipating hearing that song again. Now every DJ plays something that no other DJ is playing on the same bill. Back then, we could play the same song twice, just because it was so massive that four hours later, you bring it on again. It was just like the first time it played, you wanted to hear it twice. And in similar fashion, it goes for the live shows. Back then we were known to have the artists come out and sing their hit songs, but the Paradise Garage was more unique because it would bring on those artists that had songs that were massive at the club. Many Larry may have remixed, Gwen Guthrie and so on. And I’ve witnessed so many live performances there, where it was… I can’t even describe it… like the eruption, the sound of the crowd in the room. It’s like I could close my eyes and just put myself there again and say, wow, this is why I’m still doing this at 60. I can’t imagine doing anything else, even though we don’t have that anymore. I’m not going to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage Jocelyn Brown singing Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” That ain’t going to happen. And then the people showing love and appreciation with stomping, some people bring a tambourine. It just was like going to church. Not that you were praising the DJ instead of God, there was God inside all of us. But this was just a different way of us worshiping and an extension of Gospel’s truth.
Super Progressive: That’s really cool.
Danny Tenaglia: Yeah, it’s so deep, isn’t it?
Super Progressive: Yeah. There’s just a whole nother level that when you peel it back and we get the privilege of talking to someone like you, we really learn what this music is all about.
Danny Tenaglia: This is not just Paradise Garage and Warehouse. They definitely are staples, but it does go back to David Mancuso at the Loft, Nicky Siano at the Gallery. These were the early years of playing funky-ish, soulful music that made you feel something, and then it developed into the word disco. But how could we deny the history of Studio 54 and what that did to the world, even though it wasn’t the Garage?
Super Progressive: When you start talking about Larry Levan, what does his influence mean to you? In your style of DJing, but also just who you are as a person and your spirit?
Danny Tenaglia: Well, I never really got to know Larry super personally. We did know each other and I was in the main record pool that everybody else was in at that time. DJs on the scene, it was called for the Record, and it was because of being a member of that record pool gave me a privilege to go in the booth, which was a very large mezzanine kind of boot. So Larry was on one side and then there was a sofa and you could overlook the crowd. So he knew we would wave, and then a couple of times we spoke but didn’t really get to know each other well. But the impact that he made on me and so many other people was that I don’t think if it was for the Paradise Garage, I’d probably still be doing this the way I am because it lit a flame inside of me that made it certain that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. It made me realize what he’s doing. I already knew that I wanted to do it before I even heard of him, I was DJing at a young age or wanting to, so I didn’t hear about Larry until about 1978, 1979, but I was already working in a club in 19776. Then that just elevated it to the highest of heights. I think I made a joke the other night. I was talking with the driver that brought me to the venue. He was very interested in the culture of it all and he had listened to my interview with Tiga that very day and we were talking about that. So he brought up Larry and we’re talking about the Garage and we’re about to get out of the car and about to go in and play this set. I said, “Larry, forgive me. You might be rolling in your grave tonight for what I’m about to do, but I think you’ll be proud.” Even though it was strong mental techno, I still delivered it in a way that the way I would deliver a deep house set.
Super Progressive: Let’s jump ahead now. We kind of took that fork in the road at Global Underground starting, but we didn’t want to forget to talk about the Paradise Garage, so now I want to talk about those Global Underground mixes. I read it or I heard in an interview that you don’t do a lot of mix compilation albums, but when you do you like to base them on a residency, or at least that’s what I read in the Global Underground album notes.
Danny Tenaglia: Well, yeah. I guess there would be no denying that because of the residencies that I did hold and because I was able to play the whole night or share with another DJ, so I had a long night of playing a minimum of eight hours. So I was able to tell it a story, take people on a journey, and that’s what a compilation is to me, although it’s within the context of 90 minutes on a CD or maybe a double CD. But I still wanted to tell a story and not just start with a kick drum track and end with a kick drum track. So I always felt like there should be an introduction, get people’s attention and emotion and slowly build it up. At a residency, you would have your peak tracks and always end with something that makes sense to be the finale. So it’s nothing short of theater. You get your introduction, you have your, what would you call it in a theater setting when you go to a Broadway play… First act, second act, third act, and then you have your finale. Then the curtain goes down and you have your encore. So it’s like going to an amazing restaurant and having an appetizer, an entree, and then a dessert. It’s dramatic.
Super Progressive: Did those two mixes for Global Underground play a big role in bringing the New York club sound to a global audience, or did the world kind of already know about what was coming out of New York at the time?
Danny Tenaglia: It’s hard to say because I don’t think that if my mind digs deep into the selections that I chose for those two CDs that it was very New York as far as the songs that I was playing, I think a lot of them were from different parts of Europe. A great part of it was, and I think maybe because when I think of New York house music, I think of Todd Terry or the harder Tunnel era, hard drums, tribalish kind of New York. But I don’t think I ventured too much into that on my Global Underground CDs. And I do think that maybe some of the confusion with the Global Underground albums and the residencies were related to my residencies at Twilo and Tunnel, but it was also part of the touring. So the first one was Athens. It was based around my gigs in Greece, but I was taking a break from my residency to go perform in Greece, and then the second one was London.
Super Progressive: Some DJs say the host city has no effect on how I’m going to mix because I’m coming to showcase my sound, while other DJs say, I am making this mix in the spirit of this city, and the location actually really influences the type of mix. So it’s just really interesting talking to different DJs and hearing how they approach the GU mix compilation because everyone thinks about it in different ways.
Danny Tenaglia: I think mine was just me displaying how I embraced music from different parts of the world and different styles. So here’s a great example, opening up a Global Underground album, one with ‘Absolute Reason’, which is extremely minimal. That was the birth of that genre. Not that specific song, but that’s 1996. That was a long time ago, and I know that it probably made a lot of people think, what is he playing? I’m sure a lot of people eventually loved it, but I think it wasn’t what you’d expect from a New York DJ, and I’m going to maybe start with something from Nervous or Strictly Rhythm, or those obvious things. And I went right for what I was embracing at the moment, and then it got into my tribal sound. I always embrace percussion and rhythms, and I think ultimately what came out of my Global Underground albums was people recognizing that I am able to bring these different styles together from deep house to tribal, to minimal, to progressive, and in a melodic kind of way on the borderline of trance, but not trance like fast and Goa, and manage to fuse it all in together carefully. I mean, when I listen to myself, I can’t say that I hear a sound, but I get it when people say that’s a Tenagllia record. And so yeah, it’s been an honor to do that series and be on the list of amazing DJs that have also been a part of it. It got me to play at Love Parade in Berlin, and I’ll never forget that. Yeah, I’m so grateful.
Super Progressive: I have two more things I’d like to touch on. One is your Be Yourself party at Vinyl. And the one thing I keep hearing about this party is that Twilo and Tunnel were these big clubs and Vinylwas more of an intimate atmosphere. Can you go into a little bit of the atmosphere you were trying to create at your party?
Danny Tenaglia: Well, first of all, there’s the history of vinyl. It was a famous avant-garde club in the eighties called Area. And it was kind of like a downtown Studio 54 kind of club, way downtown in Tribeca, maybe five miles apart. But they were big on decorations. They had window displays and they would change the windows. It was almost like walking down Fifth Avenue upon the entrance to the club and the dance floor. And again, it was like early club kids. It was a mixture of punk rock, goth, elite, the ropes outside, and special theme parties, invitation only. But it really came into play for DJs like myself. When Timmy Regisford and his partners took it over and called it the Shelter, that’s when it became a mini Garage, a mini Sound Factory, a mini Twilo. That’s really what it was. It wasn’t as large, but again, that was the concept. No liquor, six stacks. You’re surrounded by them. Any club that’s serious about the music should be just as serious about the sound because at the end of the day, if you are having a party and you stop the music, every single person is going to notice and they do notice when the sound is great and when it’s not so great. So that was really important to us. So Timmy developed Shelter and he was the main resident there for many years. And then it went on to become Vinyl, which was a nightclub while I was working at Twilo. And I remember the owner Nick always telling me, you got to come play for us and, I’m like “Nick, I work here, the politics, I can’t.” So when I stopped working at Twilo, I went down there and immediately I had a gig. Vinyl was NASA on Fridays, which is a total rave, breaks, drum and bass, kind of like a psychedelic kind of party. Sundays was Body & Soul, which was a spinoff of the Garage, Shelter, and many other clubs that I mentioned. Tony Humphreys and Zanzibar, that’s the Garage of New Jersey. Tee Scott at Better Days. There were a lot of clubs that emulated the Garage vibe and music. And because back then we had options seven nights a week to go out. So when Nick asked me to play at Vinyl, they had stopped the NASA parties, and it became myself on Fridays with my guest. Body & Soul on Sundays. And on Saturdays they started doing the global DJs, Danny Howells and Anthony Pappa, the Global Underground movement, if you will. And it was perfect. There was no liquor. We could go until noon. People that came there came there to dance and hear the music and more than anywhere, that was my favorite residency because it was very consistent and a lot of hours each week. And I could break songs there like nowhere else. That was my version of the Paradise Garage where I could play a song and have people participate in it and know that when they come back next week and you see those similar faces, you know that they’re kind of waiting for several songs or songs like it. What’s he going to play this week that’s new? But when you played those staple songs, there was magic in the air. And I don’t think anybody really gets to do that anymore if you don’t have the residency and the weekly, so many new songs come out, so many new tracks come out, that it’s like nobody’s ever really going to play a similar set and the people that are in attendance are pretty much going to be different too. So it’s apples and oranges, what we’re living in today compared to those residency years. And to end off on that Shelter situation in Vinyl, Vinyl in its last year or two became Arc. And my friend Mike Bindra partnered with Steve Dash, who was the guy from Phazon Sound System. So they brought in the Phazon Sound System, which was at Twilo and was the original Shelter and Body & Soul Sound System. I bought it. It’s in my basement. So I have that original system, those stacks, and partially from another sound system that’s even more modern. From Gary Stewart. Gary Stewart was like Steve Dash, and the guy that built the sound system at the Paradise Garage was Richard Long. So he deserves the credit for really and Larry for coming up with that first massive stack situation. And then I bought that sound system as well, which was the prototype and the last of its kind that Pioneer bought the rights to. That’s the one I have in my basement, combined with the Dhelter, Vinyl, and Body & Soul system. It’s not a big basement, but I do have it set up, and yeah, there’s so much history. I don’t know, man. I can talk about everything. What else you got?
Super Progressive: I think the last thing that I just want to learn about is the Winter Music Conference in Miami, because me personally, in some weird twisted way, the Winter Music Conference is kind of why I’ve learned that I’m here interviewing you today. Because it was my older cousin, Ned Shepherd, who got me into this world. Ned performs with this DJ named Sultan. Ned’s actually a New York City kid, and he used to go see you DJ in New York. Sultan had a Nubreed on Global Underground. And so the story that they shared with me was that Sharam from Deep Dish actually met up with them at the Winter Music Conference and that’s where they shared their first records with him, and Sharam eventually signed him on the spot and that started their whole journey. Flash forward 20 years, Ned gifted me his whole Global Underground collection, which got me on this whole history of house music journey I’m on. So I wanted to ask you, how did you become the person that this conference kind of revolved around when people talk about your sets at the Winter Music Conference?
Danny Tenaglia: Well, I’m honored to hear you say that. I mean, I knew that what I was doing there was definitely influential, and it definitely was special. And I guess what I can tell you briefly because it could be in depth was that I moved to Miami in 1985. I stayed for five years. I became a resident at a nightclub called Cheers. I worked three, sometimes four nights a week. And when the Winter Music Conference started in the year 1985, I missed that very first year, but in 1986, I participated and our club, one of many, would host performances. So we would have artists come and sing their hits, songs similar to the Garage. And then when the artist was done with their two three songs, the DJ would go back on. The thing that got me recognized was that I was starting to become known in the industry because I became a reporter for Billboard Music Magazine. I was a DJ reporter, giving my charts, not necessarily editorial. And because I was originally a New York person, some of the people I knew that were coming to Miami for the conference, all the delegates and record labels like Warner and Mercury, and they would give the dance department budgets to go to Florida and participate in the Winter Music Conference, which was a legitimate conference where you’d register, get badges, go to the conference rooms, and hear the different topics and panels of discussion. But with me, it originally started at Cheers because our club had an after hour license, and nobody else really did. We could go to 7:00 AM, so anything that had to close at 3:00 AM, people came to us afterward and it became a go-to party because it was starting to be talked about and people were writing about it and dance music report magazines mentioned the show. And then next year and next year, maybe England’s writing about it now and other people. Then it developed into something more serious once it moved to Miami Beach because I was in South Miami near the university at Cheers. Then I started playing at a club called Groovejet, which is now called Treehouse. Once it made its way to Miami Beach, it was more centrally located to where all the hotels are and where most of the delegates were staying. But now that we were getting a lot of hype, my name and Tribal Records, Twisted Records, the labels that I was associated with, it started becoming like the place to go, not just for everybody, but whoever could fit in this small place, the industry clientele. So when I say that, I mean everybody from Deep Dish to Sasha, Digweed, Carl Cox, Pete Tong, Masters At Work, Mood II Swing, Todd Terry. It was almost like an extension of the conference being one of the panels where everybody was going. This became the talked about party to go to, Danny at Groovejet, and you knew you were going to have a good time and see a lot of the familiar faces. So it became like an industry standard. The second part of that was the marathons. It’s almost impossible to stop me, not saying that I disrespect the club owners. They tell me it’s time to stop, I stop. But if there’s no stop time, it’s like, I just won’t stop. And it’s crazy. I’m sure a lot of DJs feel that same exact way. I know for a fact many do, but back then it really had meaning because I was bringing that Paradise Garage influence, the entertaining part of it, the songs, breaking songs that people were hearing for the first time, and sometimes not being shy to say, lower the music a little bit, say “This is Deep Dish’s new track.” And people would be like, because we industry people, you could see the look on their faces, like what is this? So it became very successful for me. And then it moved on to Space in the year 2000. So I had a good run there from 1992, let’s say. That’s the year I could remember it, starting at Groovejet for a good 10 years. By then the Ultra Festival started and the industry started to change and everything evolved. But I still live it in my present gigs. I’m still that same guy.
Super Progressive: Well, I just want to thank you. This conversation and learning from you is all about learning about the roots of dance music, the roots of house music, so we can go out and appreciate it more and go with a new perspective. So just thank you very much.
Danny Tenaglia: My pleasure, William. I’m nervous, by the way. I still get butterflies before every gig and things like this because it just brings up a lot of emotion for me. It’s like there’s still this flame inside of me. The same as when I was this little kid and knew I loved music, wanted to play piano, wanted to play guitar. It was just like, what’s inside the speaker? Who are these people? Where’s the music coming from? I was always so infatuated with instruments and once I start talking about it, or once I get in a DJ booth, boom, it comes right back to me. It’s like there’s no age.
Super Progressive: Definitely, man. Thank you.
