House music DJ Roger Sanchez, playing at Pacha Macau, does his gambling on the business – not craps tables
Part of Pacha Macau’s Summer Love Pool Party, the legendary DJ and producer explains how he stays fresh in an era where everyone has the same tracks and how studying as an architect gave his music a boost
This will be his first time in Macau, where he’ll be performing along with fellow US house DJ and producer Harry Romero. But he has played in Hong Kong plenty of times, where he says the crowds “have always been really receptive”.
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He will not, however, be indulging in Macau’s favourite pastime: “I tend to try and keep my gambling in my business dealings, and not on the craps table.”
Sanchez started to DJ seriously in the late 1980s, after performing as a breakdancer and graffiti artist at parties in New York. The music played there at the time inspired him to get behind the decks – a combination of disco, hip hop, funk, breaks and Latin sounds, traces of which are all still there in his music today. But then house music reached New York from Chicago, he says, and everything changed.
Sanchez got caught right in the middle of the ’90s house explosion. Starting in New York, he soon developed a global following – particularly in the UK and, of course, Ibiza, where he bases himself during the summer. A technical groundbreaker, he was one of the DJs of that era who took turntablist techniques from hip hop to create new sounds at the decks. He uses a four-deck set-up to this day.
Of his own music, you’re most likely to know 2001’s Another Chance, an uplifting house anthem based on part of a song by American rock band Toto which made it to No. 1 in the UK. He has also remixed the work of Michael Jackson, Daft Punk, Frankie Knuckles, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Depeche Mode and No Doubt, among others, winning a Grammy for his 2003 work on the latter’s Hella Good.