 Could you all introduce yourselves, say where you’re originally from and what you’re best known for? David Morales: I’m David Morales, president of Def Mix Productions, and I guess I’m best known for being me: Def Mix 1! Frankie Knuckles: My name is Frankie Knuckles and I’m Def Mix 3. 1 and 2 can argue among themselves but I’ll always be 3! I’m from the Boogie Down, from the big BX originally. I live in Chicago now, and I think I’m known as the Godfather of house music. DM: I forgot to say I’m from Brooklyn. Hector Romero: Hello hello! I’m Hector Romero. If you’ve known me that long you can still call me Baby Hack. I’m from the Bronx as well, and what am I best known for? For being a stubborn pain in the ass, and for always having a smile on my face, why not? Satoshi Tomiie: Ok my turn? Hi, it’s Satoshi Tomie here. I’m originally from Tokyo and I’m best known for, hmm, not sure. I’m a little slow today so I’ll pass on that. DM: I’ll answer that one for him! He’s a DJ, producer extraordinaire!
Have you all taken influences from each other?
HR: Always. For me as a DJ, I take a little bit from each one of them. That’s how I play music, and they’re like big brothers who I look up to. DM: The most important thing for us is that there’re never any egos. We’ve always supported each other, you know, like I was talking about Satoshi ages ago before anyone had ever heard of him. Before they even knew how to pronounce his name! Same goes for Hector. FK: It was great when Satoshi first came to New York, because everyone had already heard his song and they wanted to know who he was. Just to hear all these local people talking so much about someone they hadn’t met was great, for me that was thrill. It was an opportunity to add another element to what we were doing. We were playing the track everywhere and everyone was just going ape, ga-ga over it. DM: Satoshi used to come and play live keyboard at my sets. We used to do live remixes together. Drum units, effects, reel-to-reel; it’s how we arrived at ‘a sound’ We were each doing our own thing, but there were a bit of each other in all of our songs.
20 years down the line, are you still learning?
DM: I don’t think you ever stop evolving. FK: You never stop learning. It’s funny; Hector and I were just talking about gadgets and how he wants to get the new i-Phone and Satoshi comes in with ‘Wait for the second generation, never go with the first’ And he always knows best! Just being around each other and learning little things like that and keeping on top of what’s going on. At least it keeps me on top of it! Technologically I’m not the greatest, and these guys keep he updated with stuff that helps me out when I have to go work on something. Could each of you pinpoint a high and low point of the last 20 years? DM: Obviously winning a Grammy for sure. FK: I would say it’s one of them. Not the highest point but for sure it’s up there. DM: For me, having the 4 year birthday party in Mikonos, and having everyone together for that. FK: There are more high points than low ones believe me. DM: Between ourselves there are no lows. The only thing that I can think of that’s more of a general thing is the state of music. FK: For me personally, the highest point that we have is the fact that we made it 20 years. 20 years! There’s no way that 20 years ago I would have believed we’d be where we are now, being as close as we were if not closer. I’d already been playing for 15 years before I even started with these guys. It doesn’t get any better than this…unless it’s 25 years! Where are the Def Mix residencies around the world? DM: I have Stereo (Montreal)) which is a club that I own. Then there’s Pacha in Ibiza which I think we’ve been doing for 7 years. Grease in Italy which we’ve been doing for 10 or 15 years. There are other places where we don’t have residencies but we go and play at the same time once or twice a year. Fast-forward 10 years to Def Mix 30th anniversary; what’s in store? FK: We’re still trying to grasp the concept of 30 years! DM: Yeah, I think my kids are going to have to carry that torch. FK: There’s always something left to achieve. I think at this particular point we’re all still raising the bar for ourselves. I’d like to think we will still all continue to play. Hopefully things will come back around to how they were. HR: For me I hope to contribute more to this industry as a label manager and make a dent in dance music. DM: I don’t think I’ll be playing in 10 years, but I definitely want to be making music, producing tracks. Work towards developing artists, writing songs. I’d like to grow more in a more mainstream market. If each of you had a motto or a message that you would like to get across or that’s driven you, what would that be? DM: I think the most important thing is to stay grounded. I’ve been fortunate to have someone in my life, my partner, to keep me grounded, because being a superstar DJ, producer, whatever you want to call it, it’s easy to lose yourself. I think it’s important to have someone to let you know when you’re crap stinks, when you need to reinforce yourself, because the regular tag-alongs would never tell you that your sound is stale. So I would stay be humble and stay grounded. FK: I would agree with that. And love what you do, first and foremost. 
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