New York house music legend Victor Simonelli looks back at The Early Years

NEW YORK house music royalty Victor Simonelli touches down in the UK this weekend for a very special show.

The producer/remixer, songwriter, record label owner and DJ legend will be behind the decks at Love Vinyl in London to mark the release of his double vinyl compilation, Victor Simonelli: The Early Years Volumes 1 and 2.

Victor is one of the early kings of NYC sampling In house music. The real deal – Victor danced at the legendary David Mancuso’s Loft sessions and developed a serious appreciation for good music. He interned for Arthur Baker at his renowned Shakedown Studios (where Arthur worked with the iconic Afrika Bambatta on the seminal dance floor ’Planet Rock’ track) and went on to release hugely influential releases on seminal NYC labels 4th Floor and Nu Groove. Victor’s music was championed by the celebrated iconic House Music DJ pioneers, Larry Levan and Tony Humphries at Paradise Garage and Zanzibar/WBLS/Kiss FM respectively and is still played out by leading DJs like Honey Dijon, Jayda G, Sam Divine. His disco-infused early house sound reflects the raw energy and buzz of the New York House scene and continues to influence and get people dancing.

The intimate session in Dalston at Love Vinyl takes place tomorrow between 2pm and 6.30pm to mark the release of his double vinyl, Victor Simonelli: The Early Years Vol 1 which is out now. Victor will also be signing copies of the album. Head HERE for more information and to read a fantastic interview with Victor ahead of the show.

Fans won’t have to wait long for volume 2, it’s due on May 26. We caught up with Victor and asked him to compile a playlist to give us a flavour of the early years. Listen to his selection below and read what he had to say about his choices.

“Do You Want Me Baby’ by Cloud 9

It was early ’92 that I made my first trip to England as ‘Do You Want Me Baby’ had just been licensed by JM Easy for the “Cultural House” compilation album in the UK, and he wanted to bring me over to play some parties, and promote it. I was inspired by a song titled ‘Falling In Love’ by Surface, from the early ‘80s, which was a really sweet song. I associate it with good memories from my teenage years, and I wanted to capture the sweetness there,  and bring that over into an up tempo track and this was the result.

“Wanna Be With You” by Instant Exposure

I’ve been a big fan of Paul Simpson and  Winston Jones since the early/mid 80’s. Those guys produced tracks like Colonel Abrams ‘Music is the Answer’ and Subject ’The Magic the Moment’  and so many others. The vocal ad-lib line in ‘Wanna Be With You’ is from something Paul Simpson did back in the mid 80’s called ‘Gotta See You Tonight’ with the vocalist Barbara Roy, who’s such a great singer. Talent runs in her family as Barbara is actually Jocelyn Brown’s aunt and she was originally in the Group Ecstasy, Passion and Pain.

The track came together in a room I had that was just full of records. I was inspired by artist names on the records, and digging through various tracks, finding artists like Double Exposure and then having fun with words haha :-)That’s how Instant Exposure came to be.

Also at that time there were some great great Italo House tracks around and some of the piano riffs and bass you hear on the track was definitely influenced by the Italo House sound.

“Feels So Right” by Solution

On “Feels So Right” I had really pre-planned so when I went into the studio, I already had the elements in mind for the track. But the arrangements were just done on the fly. So if you go to a point in the tune, where you’re hearing all or the majority of the elements happening all at the same time, that’s basically what was occurring via the sequencer from the start until the end of the tune, six or seven minutes. The only reason you’re hearing it grow and break down and build and drop is because those are live mutes on the board that are being recorded live! Countless records have lifted this groove and still are, lol..:-)

“You’re My Only Man” TMVS Mix by Raiana Paige

Tommy Musto and I’d been working together and we were really starting to produce collaboratively as TMVS. I think it’s the third T.M.V.S Remix and Tommy had just moved to a studio downtown on Broadway with these really huge monitors that sounded so great.  I remember we really had it pumping when we were doing that mix haha! Again that track is all mixed down live straight off the board with live mutes, We’d let all the elements run top to bottom, on the desk for the most part, and with four hands between us, we’d just bring things in and out of the mix and record the track live!

“Don’t You Feel It “by Sixth Sense

By the time we got to doing “Don’t You Feel It”, Tommy and I were really in a flow, banging out track after track after track and this is an original production

I remember Jnr Boys Own being an influence on us around that time for this, which us reflected in this track with more of a harder edge. We picked out this great kick drum with a harder edge that really made the track. The stab chords sounds were from a Juno 106, you can just create any sound you want with the Juno, and we were in full flow of making a track and then releasing it, making a track and then releasing it…we didn’t stop to think at all, we were just doing haha!

“Did It All For Love” by EZ Al

Glenn ‘Sweety G’ Toby and I were friends and we had the bones for a tune called “You Are” with Tafuri and Gordon M. We went out to Glenn’s studio in Queens, and ended up writing  “You Are” all together  and just after, Glenn and I did this record with Ez-Al.

Al’s a great vocalist, but Glenn’s a great vocalist too. Glenn was a more experienced vocalist at the time, and was coaching Al in the studio that day. The part where it says, “Turn the lights out,” that’s actually Glenn’s voice!, and we did turn the lights out in the studio as he said it, and it added to the atmosphere even more.  The dub was the last version we did, and we just wanted to bring it down to simplicity. I saw Duane Harden in Ibiza a couple of years ago, and he told me that “Did It All For Love” was what inspired him to go to studio, and do his his first release, “You Don’t Know Me” with Armand Van Helden.

“Do You Feel Me” by NY’s Finest

The inspiration on the piano chords comes from “Moment of My Life” by Inner Life. There’s no music samples in this track…it’s all played Live. “Moment Of My Life”  is a beautiful song and really touched me in the early ’80s when it came out. Total respect and Love to Leroy Burgess and Sonny T Davenport, who wrote it and Jocelyn Brown, who sang on it. It’s still an all-time classic for me. There’s so many timeless tunes that I grew up with, and the feelings they gave me, I hoped to capture in my productions.

“Dirty Games” by Groove Committee 

Groove Committee’s ‘I Want You To Know’ had already come out and lots of people started to contact me interested in my music including Todd Terry who called me and said, ‘You really got something there Victor… here’s my advice, if you got something that works, stick with it, do it again and again…” I took that onboard and “Dirty Games” was kinda like a part 2 of “I Want You To Know”. Similarly “Feels So Right’ was also part of that little set of tracks that are all tightly connected and was kind of a part 3.

I remember playing ‘Feels so Right’ and “Dirty Games” to NuGroove Records’ Judy Russel (R.I.P.) and Frank Mendez, and I remember Judy picking “Dirty Games” over Feels Do Right haha!

These tracks were all done before computers, on little sequencers, with samplers and little mixing boards…I still have the mixing board that this was made on. The EQ’s on the little board we did that on were so sensitive, and you can really hear the grittiness in the track!

“Make It Thru The Night” by Street Players

When I did “Make It Through the Night” sample records weren’t very common. They were out there, and when I brought this to Emotive Records…David (co-owner), and Josh (co-owner) and Ted Patterson (A&R), they listened, looking at each other (and I could tell they were) thinking, “What the hell did this guy do?” Haha I was sure these three heads, thinking, “How in the world could that guy just take all these parts like this and put them together into making something new like this ?” And I could see that they were hesitating from saying, “Yeah, we want it,” although they were feeling it.  At the time these kind of tracks were pretty much new unchartered territory. It’s basically, “I Love Music” right?…the chords and the voice is Boyd Jarvis and Timmy’s Regisford’s awesome singer for Visual, Jason  Smith (R.I.P). All of those other tracks on there, done with samplers, just bits and pieces from here and there put together to make something new like this.My friend Marcie Allen calls me Puzzle Man till this day, for things like this, lol..

“I Know A Place” by Sound Of One

Musicians jamming together can get into a special groove and really have magic moments. I like to capture those  moments and build on them doing it from a DJ point of view. Looping certain parts gives a raw edge and a new twist. Focusing on one o those magic moments and building from there,  this came together quickly.

“I’ve Been Changed” by Inner Faith

I’d been regularly attending the church, Brooklyn Tabernacle, around that time, as I’m totally into Gospel music. I am a complete Believer and there’s nothing like the sound of of a gospel choir and their choir was amazing. One day my friend Dino  from Playtime Records called me and said  “Hey Vic I recorded this TV show which had a lot of great gospel music and artists on it, come over to my place and check some of this out”. So I went over and we listened and watched and there were so many amazing vocalists, songs and it was so uplifting

I thought this would make for a great Production so we picked out some parts and I took it to a studio Mac Quayle and Ben Nitze had in Manhattan off 14th St. I ended up mixing “I’ve Been Changed” and I really just wanted to capture the energy, spirit and love of a gospel choir and solo singers in church, with the rawness of a house music track. The mixing board that this was done on was previously at their Fibre studio in Brooklyn and it’s the same board that “I Want You To Know” , “Dirty Games” , “Feels So Right” and this were all mixed on. Shortly after doing this, I purchased this mixing board from them and I still have it! It was in storage until recently and I’m hoping to turn it back on this year.

“I Can’t Help Myself” by International Connection

I was going to David Mancuso’s The Loft space a lot around this time where he was the DJ. The Loft was essentially David Mancuso’s Loft Appartment home where he would host these amazing events. I spent a lot of time there and it really was a big influence on me. David played so many great tunes at his events and one track that particularly took me was Powerline “Double Journey”, which inspired some of “Can’t Help Myself”. “Double Journey” is from the early 80’s and I really wanted to capture that energy as best I could and update it in a more current house music style. Also around this time in Miami, the Winter Music Conference was getting established and I’d been attending WMC since around 1988 but it was really a very local event for the first few years. By around 92/93 it started to become more international and I met people from all over down there. I met Carlos who was distributing MURK Records at the time and he asked me if I had anything to put out on a new label he had at the time called Vibe Records. And so I gave him ”I Can’t  Help Myself” and influenced by the WMC I put it out as International Connection.