For the third consecutive year, I sit down with legendary Argentinian DJ Hernan Cattaneo to discuss his favorite headphones, his enduring friendship with Nick Warren, and some stories about the history of house music in Argentina.
Originally aired on April 24, 2024. Transcribed by James Wright.
Super Progressive: Super Progressive, what is good? It’s Miami Music Week, so you know what that means. We are on the Set Underground boat with the man himself, Hernán Cattáneo. Hernán, how are you doing?
Hernán Cattáneo: Good. Good to see you. How are you?
Super Progressive: I’m doing great. So every year you seem to kick off your Miami Music Week with this Set Underground boat party with your good friend Nick Warren. Why do you guys continue to do this each year?
Hernán Cattáneo: Well, I think it’s a tradition. We do this interview every year on the boat. I like traditions and that keeps our community close. The boat is a special party because it’s not like any other show that we may be playing for thousands of people and on a big stage that people can reach. Here is more like a meet and greet kind because it’s a very easy going party, not much production stuff, just a boat sail In Miami, we play music since we play back to back, three and three, so we always have time to chat with people, take pictures, pick up pen drives from producers, you get to know other people that normally follow you during the year but you don’t get to see them personally here as face-to-face. You have some producers, you meet these guys that have been doing these amazing tracks but you never saw them so ‘Hey, how are you? Finally, I can thank you enough for making all this beautiful music’, stuff like that. We’ve been doing, honestly, I don’t know how many years, but it’s been more than 10 for sure. Before that I used to come and play with John at his boat or with all the guys so it’s always been like a tradition. The Miami boat party, whether it’s with us or with all this, but it’s always been part of the Conference. Then ADE before it was, I was going to say this, back in the day, the first boats, it was more about nerds of the music. It was mostly boys, the boats, but that was when Winter Music Conference was the strongest event for the music industry then Ultra took over and became more like a festival season party and all the industry moved more to ADE and that’s where all the nerds, but also the boats are happening. But this still stayed as something that most clubbers like and as I said has that special ingredient which is being very close. If you want to meet your your favourite DJ, you can come to the boat and there’s no way you’re not going to see them face to face.
Super Progressive: The other thing for me as a fan of this music is it’s a meet and greet not only with you and the DJs, but with fans around the world that we talk to online of course and you build friendships online. Miami’s greatly located where it’s close enough to Argentina, it’s accessible from the United States. You have people from Europe coming over to this party, it’s everybody who loves this music. People I’ve had relationships with online, now we get to get together.
Hernán Cattáneo: It’s amazing. I mean you must be meeting a lot of people because the last three years you went from a newcomer to everybody knows you now and I’m sure everybody wants to say hello to talk to you and show you what they’re doing or whatever, show you different things, different music, different promotions or whatever, they want to meet you. So I think it’s a perfect situation. Miami in general is really fun. We all do showcases, little parties, big parties. Normally we do with Nick, Space, which is a big show. Then we each do one. He does The Soundgarden showcase, I do my showcase tomorrow – Sudbeat, and then we do the boat together. But many of the labels, many other DJs from all over the world, they’re here in Miami this weekend and it is the place to be.
Super Progressive: Yeah, definitely. So I saw you come on the boat and every gig I see you come to you have a little bag with you and I was wondering if you could share with us what’s in that bag that’s sitting down there right there.
Hernán Cattáneo: My Sudbeat bag, a present from a friend and I have my Technics DJ1200 headphones.
Super Progressive: Can you tell us about your headphones and why you choose these ones? It’s something really interesting to me and as you said, unique to every DJ.
Hernán Cattáneo: I’ve been a DJ for many, many years and I’ve been using different kinds of headphones. When I was a kid it used to be more Sennheisers and then in 1996, Technics who was always the daddy of the turntables and different equipment, they came with these ones, not exactly these ones, but it was the first DJ1200s and I really, really liked them because back in that time the sound was really good but what I really liked was the size and the mobility. They are very, for me and probably for many DJs, when you DJ in a club with all the sound and all the noise and all that, you don’t need HiFi in your ears because you just need to hear the beat to mix properly, right? You’re beat matching live, so you need to hear the beat properly, but it’s not a studio headphones, right? But for me, if you’re going to play six hours with your headphones on, they have to be comfortable, very comfortable. These ones, in my opinion, are the most, that’s of course very subjective. Well the DJs going to say no, no, I like Pioneer or Sennheiser or whatever. For me, Pioneers for example, they sound better than this but they’re too big in my opinion, I don’t feel comfortable. The sound is not as good as the Pioneers, but they are the perfect size and they have all this mobility, so for me it’s better this way. Also, in the last few years they’ve improved a little bit that they put the cable that you can change it in and out and then the part that is close to your body is like a normal cable and there is a telephone cable close to the mixer because you don’t want this telephone cable here (on your shoulders) because it’s heavy, while this part (telephone cable) is hanging near the mixer and this part (normal cable) which is less heavy is in your shoulders. So everything is being thought out properly over the years. The first model, it wasn’t like this, it was only this cable but very short so it had to be all the time staying close to the mixer or take the headphones out. Then they came with another model where it was a telephone cable all the way, which was bothering you all the time here (shoulders), very heavy. I think now they find a way to do the perfect size, which is the perfect idea, which is like thin here and telephone later. Again, the sound of these headphones can be challenged easily, yes, of course, but for me it’s more about feeling comfortable with them and when I want a much better sound for headphones, like at home, Sony monitors, which are even, they’re from the nineties, but they are still amazing, very light, very comfortable for me.
Super Progressive: Oh thanks for sharing that with us.
Hernán Cattáneo: Of course, I also have a little bag with four pen drives. I always carry four pen drives. They’re the same, four copies of the same. Each pen drive can carry 10,000 tracks, but you never can be too careful about what may happen with one CDJ or one pen drive. So just in case I carry four and you’re never going to be out of music with that.
Super Progressive: It’s like one thing you gave me advice about DJing, at minimum with three CDJs because if one fails you need to be able to at least use your two.
Hernán Cattáneo: Man, I see that all the time. Sometimes when I see DJs, not very big DJs, but let’s say medium-sized DJs that they are playing in front of a big crowd playing with two CDJs and I always ask the same question, what about if one breaks? And they go like, I never thought about that. But it happens. It’s not that it happens all the time – Pioneer products are very reliable, but still it may happen. And what are you going to say to the 3000 people that come to pay a ticket to see you? Oh I’m sorry, one CDJ broke and we don’t have another one. No, no, you have to have three minimum, maybe four. It’s better to have loops and CDJs music in. We talk about this all the time. Normally I have the music in the central two and the loops on the outside. That’s up to any DJ but three minimum you have to have.
Super Progressive:
Oh, so interesting. I want to talk a little bit about your radio show. We were having a really cool conversation because I think the one thing I focused with Super Progressive so much recently is helping platform or put a spotlight on up-and-coming producers and Resident, your radio show does an unbelievable job about that. One thing we were talking about Stacks last week was it makes all of these young producers, especially the ones from Argentina, it’s a dream come true for them to be featured on your radio show. You told me it’s not always just about the music, that you feature an up-and-coming artist on your radio show for a few different reasons.
Hernán Cattáneo:
Yes, I started the radio show a long time ago. The first one where it was called Hernán Life from London when I used to live in London in 2001. Then it’s been evolving until, which is Resident now, but it’s been like 24 years, 22 because there were two years that I didn’t do it. So 22 years of doing every week trying to showcase new music from all over the world, which is what I do now. Originally the intention, similar with Sudbeat was to show Argentinian producers. Then I say music is not about that, it’s about universal culture, so let’s push anyone. But I was always very aware of the help I had to become who I am from bigger DJs like Paul Oakenfold and everybody knows the story, but many others as well. So I always thought, okay, whatever I can do to help the new kids, I must do it because Paul, he doesn’t need me to give him back. He lives in Hollywood Hills, he is super happy with his life, his career. So what can I do for him? Nothing. But for those kids, they really need my help the same way I needed his help. So radio show, the label are great ideas and going strictly to your question all the time, you get these kids that they’re starting, they’re full of doubts, they don’t even know for sure if they’re good or bad, if they’re going to go somewhere with the music or not and a little push like being part of a radio show along with other producers that on a bigger level that gives that encouragement so sometimes I hear for example tracks that the sound are not really good, but I can see there is a good idea on that. Or the guy that writes me the email, I read him very passionate about progressing, improving and get to some level or sometimes they just say things that ring a bell about, oh wow, come on, this guy doesn’t know exactly how to sound properly but he has very interesting musical ideas, right? I remember for example, back in the day, very early days of James Holden, he was sounding completely different than other producers and maybe you could have said, well he’s all over the place? No, no, no. He knew what he was doing, he was creating his own sound. So these kids, they need your help. So sometimes I play tracks that they may not necessarily sound amazing, but the main idea of having that track on the show is that the guy seeing his track on the show and saying, okay, I’m on a good path. I’m going to keep going this way. And the same with labels and stuff, like the same way. For example, I help kids from all over the world to get to the place then a label from Scandinavia may hear my show and call the guy and sign and then three months later they call me and say, oh man, you put that track on the radio show and now I’m signing to some label, which is amazing. We all know this is a long career, it takes time, sometimes takes forever to get to where you want to be, but it’s a process and this is at the beginning of the process. It’s a good thing for the kids to be part of you know? It’s very rewarding for me to feel that I can do something for them the same way other people did things for me.
Super Progressive: It’s like what Uncle Ben told Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility.
Hernán Cattáneo: Yeah, you have to, not everybody does, but I feel super comfortable that way. I feel like you have to deserve what you get, right? And one way sometimes is just sharing the knowledge and sharing the position where you are.
Super Progressive: Yeah, definitely. Let’s talk about, you just came from Sunset Strip. How many people in the audience there?
Hernán Cattáneo: 40,000.
Super Progressive: In Argentina, the progressive underground scene is the scene. 40,000 people. My question to you is when there’s 40,000 people, when there’s huge festival-like stages, there’s a lot of money being poured into the event and into the surrounding stuff. Since it’s an underground culture and underground music, even with the presence of a lot of money, how is it retaining underground values and not becoming too commercial, too much of a money-making opportunity?
Hernán Cattáneo: That’s a very good question. I think I’ve been lucky to be working with the right people because we, DJs, especially the ones that we’ve been in the long run, we know how it is. You get big, you get exposure, and then always the music starts being less important. We saw that in all the DJs, I saw this happening many times. I always been very curious about how all the DJs develop in their careers and what they do well, what they do wrong. I saw many times what you say, this is becoming bigger, and actually I think that normally when a DJ is very, very big, normally the music suffers. But in the sense you are talking about, I’ve been very, very lucky to partner with promoters since when I came back, because it’s not always been like that about Argentina. When I came back from living 15 years in Europe, the state of the scene, it wasn’t in great shape. There was a very bad image about the scene, a lot of problems going on and some tragedies that took lives of kids, it was kind of out of control. So for a few years I didn’t play in Argentina even when I was living there and I was suffering like why can’t I play in my own country? But it wasn’t until I partnered, I worked with three companies in Argentina in those big, big shows. One is called Buena, the other one is called Buenas Noches Producciones, the one that they do, the big Forja shows, and the other one is the Mendoza show, which is also Sunset Strip now. I got lucky to partner with these people that they really understand that the best show is the show where not the one you make more money, but the show where everybody goes crazy about how good it was – that will bring money because it’s nothing wrong on promoters, they’re businessman, they work to get some, how you say benefits. But all these people I work with, they understand perfectly that the best show is the one that you invest a lot of money. I don’t need to tell you if it’s like how I think, it’s just the proof. We did the first Sunset Strip, 10,000 people, then 15, then 20, then 40, and if you ask me what these guys did or the same forecast, first forecast, 7, 14, 15, 25, always like that. And you go to me, you ask me why? What did these people, they spent a ton of money on the show. Instead of thinking how I’m going to make more profit, no, how I’m going to make the show so good that next year more people are going to come. Even the tickets are expensive and Argentina is always living in an economic crisis. So it’s a bit difficult for the kids to go, but they still, they know the show is going to be so good that this is worth it and the way to give back is that okay, they sell all these tickets, which is a lot of money, with this let’s make a production that they will never forget that. That’s the basic idea of how we keep a good level of underground music and good level of production. Honestly, do you say, when they ask me how do you do this? It’s all about how much money you’re going to invest or how much money you want to take for you. If you invest more, of course the show is going to be much better.
Super Progressive: Amazing. You had mentioned in that answer that the Argentinian scene had not always been what it is now?
Hernán Cattáneo: I mean in terms of festivals and promotion and all that, and I mean the events, the music scene, the people’s taste in the music, yes – it’s always been the same. We are great for, we talked about this with you once. We are Latinos, with a European spirit. It is a strange mixture, but it works really well. So we really like music. We are very passionate people. We create amazing atmospheres, not just for club music, also every big rock or pop band, they want to go and play in Argentina because they know they’re going to have a show that is incredible. But what has been changing in the last 7/8 years is the level of production and the care and attention promoters put into the shows.
Super Progressive: Can you talk about in the early days the importance of underground progressive music being played on the radio in Argentina and where you got inspiration to help make that happen?
Hernán Cattáneo: Well, I learned that from coming to the US and going to England in the mid-90s. I started travelling because that’s when I knew, or I could find out that there was a way bigger world of club music outside my country. I thought it was just clubs and DJs and then I came to New York and then I went to London and to Liverpool – Cream and all that and I discovered people queuing three hours to get into a club. That kind of fanaticism, we didn’t have that. We have the enthusiasm but not the fanaticism and we really wanted that. One of the things I realised was that every major city has a radio station that could play club music Saturday night, it would be the soundtrack of the weekend, right? Either the BBC Radio One with Pete Tong and the Essential Mix, John doing Kiss FM every Saturday night, you would hear underground DJs, not commercial music, underground DJs playing club music. For me it was incredible, and then talking with Dave Seaman, with Paul Oakenfold, with all the DJs going to Argentina, they were all telling us, you need a radio station, you need a radio station. That’s where we started knocking doors in Argentina to let us to have some small spaces because it was not easy at the beginning, but they gave us, let’s say, ‘Ok, ok, you can play Tuesday at 2am.’ ‘Ok, it doesn’t matter, let’s do it, yes.’ We would have these little radio shows and all that and we start pushing and pushing and of course it is not that we invented anything, it gave us the result it had in Europe or the US and it was, I wouldn’t say an instant hit, but going through the times, it really pushed the scene more and more and more. DJs went to radio shows, more radio stations started opening and then I ended up having now 25 years of Saturday nights in Argentina with Resident and stuff – it’s a classic, but then all the radios have all the DJs. It’s not just me, but we learnt a lot. Again, from all during the 90s when I was working at Pacha, all these UK and US DJs were coming and I was like a sponge, trying to learn everything I could from them, everything from the way they mix, from the headphones they use, from how they carry the vinyl, from how they labelled, learning, learning, learning. Because each one were different, and then, I dunno, one day it was in a bar, Dave Seaman teaching me on a napkin how to mix in key for example. Then another day it was Danny Rampling telling me how he had a radio show called the Love Groove Dance Party in the 90s in England where he would play the first hour house music like Frankie Knuckles American house music and then the 2nd hour he would go to trance and he would expose all that music. Things that we couldn’t believe were possible but they were. There were two things that helped us a lot, which was we were stubborn and we were very enthusiastic and passionate about it, and so with that it empowered us to go farther and keep going, even when, again, as I said at the beginning, it wasn’t that easy. It’s not that we were successful, we weren’t, but we were so happy and enthusiastic that we kept going, kept going until more people started getting into and then the rest is history.
Super Progressive: DJing has changed so much over the past 30 years. What’s one thing, a timeless piece of advice that you could give that you did 30 years ago that you still do today that allows you to be the best DJ that you can be?
Hernán Cattáneo: I think it’s kind of a cliché these days because most DJs say the same, but there’s one thing that didn’t change the same way. For example, it changed social media, it changed the technology, it changed CDJs, but your identity, your personality as a DJ and the passion, the hours you put into it that you cannot replace. You always have to know where you want to go, what you want to do. You are in charge. Don’t let people be in charge. Don’t let your friends be in charge. Don’t let anyone tell you what you’re going to play. You play what you really feel and obviously when you play what you are really passionate about, that’s the best version of yourself and that’s the way things evolve way easier. Let’s say, for example last Saturday, Danny was playing with Chris Liebing, right? I played Friday. Let’s say Danny could tell me, Hernán, can you come as well and play some techno records? Of course I can, but am I going to be as happy or as passionate when I’m playing the music I’m not an expert in, no, because I have experience, I can do that but it is never going to be the best me, right? Ok, that applies for anyone. It is like you are proving to be a super nice journalist. Everybody likes you, you talk nice, everybody understands what you saw your passion about. But if you start doing a show about music that you don’t like, everybody would notice, right? The one thing everybody likes about you is your passion. Everybody say, oh Will is so passionate about it. And that’s why we like it because we can relate to that. In many ways, sometimes I see you and I see myself when I was a kid asking DJs every five minutes, everything, probably poor Dave Seaman or poor Satoshi or poor John or poor Sasha, I was saying, how do you do this, how do that? And then looking at them, I told everybody I was going to some factory and queuing to be the first one because there was only one chance to be just one metre away from Frankie Knuckles for six hours and that for me was the world and that passion and with that smile it’s like we have now.
Super Progressive: That’s awesome. Two more questions for you. You platform up-and-coming artists with your Resident radio show, you also have your label Sudbeat. Let’s talk a little bit about what people perceive Sudbeat to be versus the actual identity of it because I think some people are equipped to associate it with the Argentinian sound or whatever, but you have artists like Mike Isai from deep in New York with his tracks Exit and Tunnel paying homage to New York culture. That’s a kid from New York on your label. Can you talk about in your opinion what the identity of Sudbeat is?
Hernán Cattáneo:I think similar to the radio show originally when I thought about, because I’m Argentinian and we always are a country of struggles, I thought, ok, I need to help my people. But then quickly I realised this is not right because that’s not our language of music and then the same way other labels sign Argentinian producers, why I am not going to sign international producers since in the end this thing about between DJs or labels or radio show is never a competition. We are all in the same boat trying to sail the same way. It can be Nick with Soundgarden, Guy J with Lost and Found, John with Bedrock, Sasha with Last Night On Earth, any other label, and so all my friends, they all have labels. Each one tried to push the scene further, it doesn’t matter where the producer is from. We try to find with Graziano and with John, interesting music from all over the place and luckily or not, I mean sometimes luckily, sometimes it’s a bit too much, but we get way more than the one we can put. So sometimes the only struggle is to say, ok, we have these 20 great tracks, which ones are we going to put out this year because we put only one release every two weeks. But the main idea is to push the sounds we like, we believe and the producers we respect. And that respect may come from many different ways because it can be somebody new that as again, like you said, you see something special about it. Mike’s been sending us really, really great tracks and it’s a sound that I grew up with, the New York sound and that kind of dark shit they used to called it. It was super popular even in Miami here in the early 2000s from Danny and even Merck Boys(?) and all those kind of producers and Tribal America, that was a massive sound in the 90s so I’m very related to that. Graziano comes from Italy and he has different influences, but there’s a lot of common denominators within what he likes and what I like. And then as again, like you said, for example now next week Yunji is coming from Korea but she lives in Canada. She’s recently from Stereo, super young, super talented girl, she plays instruments. She’s such a fresh new face in the scene and we are super happy to have them. And then sometimes we have Ian O’Donovan, who is not a newcomer at all, he’s a super respected techno producer who’s in the hands of Laurent Garnier to Carl Cox to John Digweed and then he’s also with us and if you like is probably in many ways totally opposite to Mike Isai but it’s still part of what we believe we need to push.
Super Progressive: Amazing.
Hernán Cattáneo: That answer the question, yeah?
Super Progressive: Absolutely.
Hernán Cattáneo: Or not I, talk a lot!
Super Progressive: No, it’s great. It’s so insightful and I’m just so excited for your fans to be able to listen to these insights.
Hernán Cattáneo: No, it’s good to share the word.
Super Progressive: Definitely. What does Yoda say, pass on what you’ve learned? Doesn’t Master Yoda say that to Luke?
Hernán Cattáneo: No, I always say that. Yeah, it has been my motto and especially, listen, it is interesting because that resonated a lot to me when I was a kid, when I had nothing to share at that time. But still I found it interesting. And then I think the first moment was when I started travelling to New York and hearing DJs. I was coming back to Argentina and sharing all that saying, do you know they cut the bass to enter the next track? We didn’t do that back in Argentina. We just mixed the full on and I was learning, or Frankie, he’s playing from open reads, how he does that, oh it’s amazing. And then all the things or I would go to a record shop and buy five copies of vinyl to bring to my friends. That was sharing the world for me, all what I was learning in the US or in the UK. I remember the excitement in Argentina was always a very rock music country in popular terms. Most people would hear Latin rock or English rock and then the first time I went to London in 1991, I enter HMV, the music store, it was like a supermarket. We never had something as big in Argentina and dance music was in the main floor and rock was in the basement like wow, we are respected here. All the DJ music is in the main floor at the centre of the stage and that gave us a lot of encouragement because you have to understand that back then we were struggling to, I mean we never doubt, but if you ask me, there were no victories for us at any side. It took us years, but all these little things gave us the confidence to say, no, no, no, it may be not yet the time here in Argentina, but all over the world, this is the thing so let’s keep doing it.
Super Progressive: It’s amazing. Last question for you. Something on my mind as I’ve kind of gotten into this progressive house history and specifically the pioneering generation of DJs, where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
Hernán Cattáneo: 5 years. Well, I’ll tell you something funny, in Argentina, since I’m most well known kind of, I go sometimes to big shows like big radio shows or television and that and there’s this journalist called Mathias Martin, who is very famous because also he’s into football, sports so he is very famous nationwide. When I was 40, so 19 years ago, he asked me the same question, how long you going to keep playing? And I say, this is on the internet, right? And I say, hey Mathias, I dunno, maybe three or four more years, 19 years ago. Then five years later I went again to the show and he asked me, he said, five years ago you said four years and then you’re still around. And I said, well, I dunno what to say. Let’s say another three or four. So I dunno, honestly for me, the same way I told you earlier, this is not a competition. I don’t try to convince anyone. I play the music for the people they really enjoy and the way I do. If let’s say I start realising that I’m playing and playing and people are not having a good time or people are not happy or they tell me, or a show that they used to go to and a lot of people now nobody wants to sell the tickets or stuff like that, then I’m going to start thinking maybe, ok, maybe it’s about time to slow down or do other things. So I really cannot answer with some kind of information let’s say because it’s not that I have planned something, I don’t have any plans about that. My intention is keep going until it flows. It has to flow, right? I don’t want to force anything and I don’t need to. Also because I have a lot of plans for the next life, which is the day I stopped travelling all the time, I want to have a internet studio in my house and do shows, radio shows, talk about music all the time without the pressure of if there is an audience or not. I can do it for three people, here’s always going to be three or four willing to hear me, right? No, I really don’t know. I’m going to keep doing it as far as I feel good and the only thing is interesting and maybe I’m curious about your opinion about this – this is something I think about all the time. What I would like to do is maybe play a little less so because my diary, my agenda, I mean not mine, any DJ of this level, global DJ, people see us having fun in the club playing music, but it’s hard, it’s hard, especially at my age and with family, kids and all that. So sometimes I’m thinking, ok, I should slow down, but at the same time, the first thing that comes to my mind is you cannot keep the level of your efficiency as a DJ if you play less. Because in my opinion, part of how you do the things the way you do is because you are always ongoing, working. I do like, I dunno, I used to do 120 gigs, then I took 100, now I’m doing 80. Would I want to do 60? Yes, I would want to, but I’m not sure that I can do 60 gigs a year and still be consistent as a DJ like I am now. I know I’m a consistent DJ now and I wouldn’t risk that. I wouldn’t say, ok, I am going to play less to have more free time, but then my DJing is going to suffer. I don’t want that, if that’s the case, then I stay home. I quit. So to finish, answer the question I think it’s a mixture of how things evolve in terms of keeping the level. That’s the number one important thing. The moment I feel I don’t play as good as people think I am, then I go home. I’m already super rewarded for all this DJ life so it’s not that no, I cannot say no, no, you need to wait till I need to one day play at the A freight tower(?), no, I don’t have things like that and I’m easily happy to pass the torch to the next generation any moment, I just really like what I do and if it’s not this, it’s going to be radio shows or always passing the knowledge to other kids.
Super Progressive: Totally. I think I speak for the greater underground clubland when I say, I’ll speak for myself, I just want to see you age gracefully because no one’s set out a path for you guys, the first generation to DJ forever. So I think balance is key. I think you doing it for reasons that make you feel great is at the centre of it. But also just at a rate where you’re always enjoying yourself, you’re always feeling balanced and enjoying it yourself. That’s what we want to see on the dance floor.
Hernán Cattáneo: Yes, exactly. But you didn’t answer what I asking you. How do you think about can a DJ slow down and keep the same level, I’m not sure about that. I am actually. I tend to think, no you can’t.
Super Progressive: I’m intended to think you can’t too. But I do think about this as if it’s about repetitions, right? And you have to be in flow. But maybe instead of being in flow 12 months a year, you’re in flow and it’s pretty serious for eight months, and then I know it’s kind of hard to…
Hernán Cattáneo: I can challenge that because you stop four months, amazing. You go on holiday, you spend the day whatever, when you come back, you’re not the same. You’re behind on the music, you’re behind on everything. Especially on the feeling. One key thing, we didn’t talk about this, but one key thing for a DJ, bigger than many other aspects that the people may think is how you feel in the DJ booth, how you feel like I’m in charge and I know these records and I’m going to give you a good time. If you are in doubt, if you feel insecure, you may have the best records ever and you can mix it like nobody. But if you don’t feel it, you don’t go anywhere. And people can tell that. But you find a DJ playing not the last records that came out today, but he is confident about what he’s doing and he’s going to be better than the other one. So that confidence in my opinion, or at least in me comes from playing week in, week out and I’m not sure about you. Let’s say you are a tennis player, you are the king of tennis. You already beat anyone. Say, ok, now I’m only going to play Wimbledon, the US Open, Roland-Garros, and I dunno, whatever, no, because if you are right to win, but you didn’t play the last two months, you are out of the group. You are not in your best and then you lose. Not because you are not good just because you are just not at your shape. You understand? So that’s part also of my question of how long, because sometimes I would like to work a little less. I could let’s say cut to less gigs. But I don’t think that’s an option for now. I think this level requires to stay this way. But I talk to this about all the DJs, some have different opinions – interesting.
Super Progressive: Well it’s cool to see how different, it’s cool being close to your generation of DJs and so interested in it. I get to see how Danny Tenaglia goes about it. I get to see how Dave Seaman goes about it. I get to see how you go about it.
Hernán Cattáneo: I don’t think anyone retired yet. That’s the thing.
Super Progressive: I mean John still going, Sasha still going.
Hernán Cattáneo: Yeah. No, no. But probably there are even older in the uk, there must be older DJs than us for sure and they keep going. That’s what I’m saying.
Super Progressive: Billy Nasty. He’s still DJing in Brighton.
Hernán Cattáneo: There must be. So there’s not like how you say something to relate to. You say, ok, this guy when he reached 65, he wasn’t good at. So we dunno. In a way, one of the most important aspects of being a DJ is the experience you have nd that of course the older you get, the more experience you have. But then there are all the things that you may, if you keep the will, the energy and stuff, I still have it. Maybe someday I won’t, but so far, so that’s what I’m saying, three more years and then we’ll see.
Super Progressive: We’ll see man.
Hernán Cattáneo: Okay.
Super Progressive: Always good to see you man. Thank you again, so much for your time.
Hernán Cattáneo: And that’s what I always say thank you for all what you’re doing for our music. It’s really, really appreciated from many, many people around the world.
Super Progressive: Well thank you for the support because it means the world to me.
Hernán Cattáneo: My pleasure.
Super Progressive: And I’ll continue. So thanks man.
