I understand you're part of two live acts, Galaxy to Galaxy and There After Dark. What comes first for you, live music, DJing or production, or all they all arms from the same body?
They are all apart of the same body. I have a working jazz trio here in LA and we play all the time. Thee Afterdark plays when we have a chance to get together as we are all really busy. I try to get into the studio pretty regularly, but before anything I was a DJ first. I guess you can say my first instrument was the turntable.
You also have several aliases, including ICAN and El Coyote, which are your collaborative efforts, as well as Esteban Adame. How far apart would you say these sounds are, and why did you decide to go ahead with an album under your solo guise?
ICAN is a partnership and a label with Santiago Salazar. El Coyote is also a collaboration with my boy DJ Dex aka Nomadico from UR. Both ICAN and El Coyote are heavily rooted in the UR tradition of “electrifying your roots.” Recently I have worked under the Frequencia alias, which is different from anything else I have done. As Frequencia I try to get as edgy and experimental as possible. With ICAN, we always keep the dancer in mind. Why I decided to go under my own name? I felt it was time. From my first releases I was either collaborating with someone or acting as a sideman, and I felt it was time for me to do a project under my own name.
Can you tell us more about your forthcoming album, "Day Labor"?
It is a collection of tracks that were made when my studio was in a friends warehouse. I was driving an hour everyday to get to the studio, taking lunch breaks and coffee breaks. I was on a schedule; it felt like I was going to work. The commute was a bit of a grind, but once I got to the studio everything really flowed, I really enjoyed the process. The warehouse was next to a hardware store where day labourers would gather to try to get construction jobs. I became friends with some of them and was inspired by their stories. They risked so much leaving their home country that it made me realize that I have nothing to complain about when I whine about my “first world” problems.
That’s quite a provocative title. Why "Day Labor"?
Given the way I went about putting the album together was really blue collar, I wanted to name the album something along those lines. And just calling it blue collar was a little lame. [Laughs] From being in the warehouse to meeting the labourers it just made sense. “Day Labor” seemed to work. Since I was a kid I had always seen day labourers outside hardware stores and even some of my family worked as a day labourers when they came over from Mexico. So “Day Labor” has always been around me. It is also dedicated to all people who leave home in search for a better life for them and their families.
Finally, now that the album is all but wrapped up, what are your plans heading into the first part of 2014?
We are in the process of booking some shows and I am working on a live show of the album. We have one more single coming out on EPM that drops after the album, which has a killer Anthony Parasole and Phil Moffa Remix. I also have a Thee Afterdark album that we are all excited about, as well as an EP on Jordan Peak’s Rogue Society, with two very special remixes by two very special producers. Looking to have one more ICAN release this year, as well as planning to launch a new label.
Esteban Adame’s ‘Home Sick’ is out now and features a remix by MGUN, followed by his “Day Labor” album, released 5th May on EPM Music www.epm-music.com