LABOR OF LOVE
Feb 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Chris Gill
“It's amazing how far DJing has come,” says “Little Louie” Vega, who, since 1990, has worked with Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez under the banner Masters at Work, perhaps the most prolific remixing team in dance music. “I remember playing clubs and getting paid $100. I never, ever imagined that we were going to be traveling all over the world and doing the things that we've done.”
Although DJing has turned into a lucrative business venture in recent years — with top-name talent getting paid five-figure sums to spin records for a couple of hours — few house-music producers have come as far as Masters at Work. Gonzalez and Vega have remixed or produced an awe-inspiring variety of artists, from the top pop acts and dance divas to respected jazz musicians and today's underground heroes. With a resumé that includes more than 1,000 remixes, they've worked on tunes for Björk, Chic, MJ Cole, Daft Punk, Everything but the Girl, 4 Hero, Grooverider, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Jamiroquai, Madonna, Roni Size and Reprazent, St. Etienne, Donna Summer and many others. Production credits include respected artists such as George Benson, Luther Vandross and BeBe Winans.
But perhaps the most impressive accomplishments are their own productions, particularly their new Tommy Boy album, appropriately titled Our Time Is Coming. The duo's third full-length effort and their second under the Masters at Work moniker (Gonzalez and Vega's last effort was the 1997 Nuyorican Soul project), the album features a distinctive blend of live instruments and electronic production meeting a cross-section of old-school legends (Patti Austin, Roy Ayers, James Ingram, Stephanie Mills) and up-and-coming talent (Lynae, Puppah Nas-T & Denise).
“With this album, we're giving people a nice range of music from African to R&B to a Latin-soul thing,” Vega says. “The inspiration comes from all over. We're pretty open-minded when it comes to music. These days people like a lot of variety and different types of songs.”
Our Time Is Coming is only one of a handful of projects that Masters at Work have completed recently. Before releasing the album, Gonzalez and Vega put finishing touches on an ambitious double-mixed CD celebrating the 25th anniversary of New York's legendary West End Records, one of the leading independent dance-music labels going back to the dawn of the disco era. “We redid the EQ on 13 songs, remixed eight songs and DJ-mixed everything together,” Vega explains. “It's not just your regular mixed CD. We took it to a whole new level. We also put out all of the remixes we did on vinyl in a box set.”
Also coming up is a mix CD for Jennifer Lopez, an EP of remixes for Jill Scott and a record for their own MAW label that the duo is producing for Los Amigos Invisibles. Gonzalez and Vega are already at work on a new Nuyorican Soul album as well as the next Masters at Work project, which they say will have more of an electronic edge than their current releases. Masters at Work indeed.
“We really want to concentrate on releasing albums from now on,” says Gonzalez. “We want to establish the Masters at Work name.”
“When opportunities come along like doing the J. Lo thing, it's cool because we're going to expose the Masters at Work name to a whole other crowd,” adds Vega. “We love what we do. I don't have multi-Platinum records, but I've been playing and making records for a really long time. I'm happy. I can make any type of music that I want to. I don't have to worry about following any rules when it comes to making a record.”
With a schedule like this, it's no wonder that Masters at Work have managed to not only maintain a prolific career but also remain at the top of their game for more than a decade. Remix caught up with Gonzalez and Vega during an all-too-rare break when the duo wasn't in the studio or behind the decks in a club.
You've worked with an incredible variety of artists, probably more than any other dance-music producers.
Vega: A lot of that has to do with our musical tastes. Growing up in New York City really influenced us musically. We grew up with Latin, jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop, R&B and disco, and a lot of that comes out in our productions. Our musical tastes are really broad — we listen to a lot of records that were made a long time ago, and we've worked hard on putting together our record collection. That is a big part of our education because we learned who played on what records, who made what, and how they played it. We followed the careers of different musicians, artists and producers.
Do you give your collaborators a lot of freedom, or do you tend to guide them?
Gonzalez: We know what we want to hear. Once the songwriter does a rough sketch, we're able to figure out what we like and don't like and want to change. A lot of times, we'll have a song in our head, and we'll lay down the basic chords and bass line. Once that basic foundation is done, we'll let the musicians add their own flavor to it.
Vega: Doing sessions with George Benson or with James Ingram and Patti Austin on the new album, were amazing. They made us feel really confident, and they really trusted us and understood what we wanted to do. A lot of artists we've worked with were that way. Tito Puente was amazing. We've been lucky that we've been able to work with all these legends and learn from them.
How did you develop your studio skills?
Vega: We've been remixing for a long time. When you've remixed over 1,000 records, you're definitely getting some practice in producing and developing producing skills. But I've also always been involved with producing vocalists and musicians, which is different than producing music that you make yourself. I've always kept those chops up because I love doing it, and I've always brought it into our music. A couple of years ago, nobody was really able to use a lot of live musicians, and they weren't even trying to. We were always using musicians and vocalists in our remixes, whether it was a bass player here, a sax player there or whatever musician we thought would lend to the remix. Once we finished the Nuyorican Soul project, we felt that we influenced the dance-music scene into bringing in more live musicians.
Lately you've been using a lot of organic sounds.
Vega: I love playing Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos as well as acoustic pianos. But I love keyboard and synth sounds, as well. On our next album, we're going to go for more electronic sounds with an alternative-rock edge. But right now, our sound is more organic. For the last four or five years, we've done a lot of records that had a live sound, like “To Be in Love,” but we never did an album project that brought all those things together. That's why we did Our Time Is Coming. A lot of people need to hear this stuff. They've only heard singles from us.
Gonzalez: Nobody takes the music seriously when you're just singles-driven. We decided to take the five joints that we already had, record a couple new ones and put an album out. From now on, we just want to release albums. We're still going to do [12-inches] for the DJs, but they are going to fit into the concept for the album that we're working on.
Vega: We still have our label to put out our singles, but it's important for us to gather up all the music that we've done and put it out on albums so people can hear our work as a whole. Our Time Is Coming sounds more like a whole project. Now it gives people an opportunity to buy CDs with our music on it. Before, you could only get our singles on vinyl. We want to move on to the next level but still keep our street credibility with all the vinyl buyers and DJs. We want to get both worlds to feel us because they've never had a chance to.
A lot of the vocal-based songs and organic instrumentation heard in deep-house music recently seems influenced by what you were doing years ago.
Vega: I've always felt that we've been before our time. People are now doing a lot of things that we were doing two or three years ago. The grooves, feel and sound are similar. Now we're on to the next thing. It's important for us to do what we do, because some people consider us leaders and pioneers in the scene. I can't make a record that's based on a hit that's out now. It's hard for me to do that.
If anything, you seem to be influenced by overlooked jewels from the past.
Vega: Definitely. We've always had that, but then we've also had that side where we make records like “It's Alright, I Feel It,” which has nothing to do with the past. With us, you never know where it's going to be. It's all about what's going on at the time and what we're feeling. That's not necessarily what's going on musically. It could be something spiritual or something we've experienced while traveling around the world.
How do you keep that tight dance-floor feel when you work with live musicians?
Gonzalez: We're DJs first, before anything. We've got to make sure that the record is going to knock. It's hard to do. There's a long process involved with recording live sounds, especially when it comes to drums. They never seem to sound big enough. I'm making the rough beat, and whoever is playing drums has to play to my beat, and it has to be tight. I don't mind doing it because it gives it a different feel. But it takes a lot of work to get it to sound right.
Vega: It's good to combine those sounds. It definitely can work. You can hear it on a lot of Goldie records, where there will be guitars and vocals, or Roni Size's records where he uses upright bass. A lot of people know us for what we've been doing the past couple of years, mixing our sound with live musicians, but we've also used a lot of electronic sounds. We have a huge collection of keyboards, from vintage sounds to all the new stuff. A lot of people don't see that side of us because the live stuff is at the forefront. Our next album will have more keyboards, drum machine and electronic sounds but will not be so electronic that people won't be able to recognize us.
How does your music-creation process begin?
Vega: When Kenny and I go into the studio, we lay down the foundation of the track — the rhythm section, bass, drums, chords and some kind of movement or feel. Then we bring in the musicians, and they take it to another level, combining their flavor with the vibe that we put down. You already have a basic rhythm track, bass line, chords, groove and beat. From there, they take off from where we were. We're not going to just let them loose and play whatever they want; we're guiding them in all kinds of ways. We work very close with the musicians, and we know what we want.
Gonzalez: Basically, I've got every old-school drum machine there is. I've got all of the sounds going from the '80s on up. I have tons of records. Every time it's different. Sometimes I'll use just an MPC3000 for a few months; Other times, I'll use the MPC2000 or the SP-1200. When I get bored, I move on to something else.
Vega: The ideas come about in all different kinds of ways. Sometimes I may get inspired by something and say, “Kenny, I want you to do a Brazilian type of beat.” Or he might tell me that he hears a certain bass line or chords. It depends on what we're feeling when we go into the studio. We could be influenced by the music we were listening to the night before. One of us might have a direction in mind, and we'll take it from there.
Gonzalez: Louie might have an idea about a certain chord progression that he wants to use. Once I hear that, I'll create rhythms around it. Sometimes I come up with the groove first, and he'll add to it. Sometimes we'll do a rough beat and make the song around it. Once I hear all the music around it, the beat may not fit, and I'll hear something totally different, so we'll remix our own track.
What's in your studio?
Vega: The Yamaha Motif has inspired me to write new songs and come up with new sounds. Between the ARP 2600 and the Yamaha Motif, we have almost everything. It depends on what the project calls for. We can go live on you with a Rhodes, a [Hammond] B-3 organ or whatever. We also use the Akai MPC3000 and 2000 as well as an E-mu SP-1200 when we want to go back to the old feel, but the MPCs are the main thing.
What system do you use for remixing?
Vega: We use a Pro Tools rig. When we want to make a song a different tempo, we'll always put it in the computer because you can move around a lot faster. If the song is 110 bpm and we want to speed it up to 127, we'll have it time-stretched. We'll use the Pro Tools rig to rearrange the song. We lay down new keyboards, drums or whatever we think it needs. Basically, we'll take an a cappella and build new music underneath it.
We're doing a project for Jill Scott where we're going to remix six of her songs for release on an EP in Europe and Japan. A lot of times, we'll ask the artist to come in and record the vocals again to make it sound more natural. I definitely want to do that with her because I think she'll give a new feel to the tracks that we come up with. Sometimes when you time-stretch a record, the vocalist ends up sounding like a cartoon character because it's too far from the original tempo. We end up of producing a lot the remixes that we do. A perfect example is when we did Kenny Lattimore's record. The reason it sounded and felt so good was because he came in and sang the song again over our tracks. We started creating new parts and it became this whole other animal.
Gonzalez: Pro Tools is the most flexible system we're using right now. There's so much you can do with it. I personally still love tape, but there are a lot of restrictions in working with that. We'll record the musicians live to Pro Tools to capture their feel, and then we'll edit the tracks. If we're in a mix and the intro isn't long enough, we can always edit that at the last minute. We use a lot of the plug-ins. They're easy to use and flexible. It makes our lives easier. We came into the remix game a long time ago, back in '88 or '89. The way we did remixes back then compared to what we can do now, forget it. It's crazy. We don't waste as much time as we did back in the day.
I've noticed that you work with a variety of engineers.
Vega: We have an all-star cast that we work with. Steven Barkan has been working with me for 11 years, and I've been working with Dave Darlington since 1986. They're great at engineering records, and they're great with sounds. I used them on the whole Nuyorican Soul project. I have a relationship with a lot of good people who are incredible programmers and can work that Pro Tools rig up and down. I have other guys I work with when I do really big live sessions. I use Jon Fausty when I do some of the Latin stuff. He is the engineer of engineers when it comes to Latin jazz and salsa music. He's done all the Fania records. He recorded a lot of records by my uncle, Hector Lavoe, who was one of the biggest salsa singers of all time. He recorded records by Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Willie Colon, Ray Baretto — you name it, he's worked with them. I learned a lot from all of these guys. We have Yaz, who's been with us for many, many years. Everything they put into it is part of what we do.
Gonzalez: Steve Barkan does everything — Pro Tools, recording live instruments and mixing. He's the effects king, especially with outboard gear. He can make any effect we imagine. Half the time, nobody even notices it, but it makes it sound better. We won't just take a keyboard and use the sounds. We like to alter it and try different things. We used Commissioner Gordon on an Aaliyah mix. He does more hip-hop, and he gave us a different sound on that. We're going to do more records with him.
Your productions are more ambitious than most dance-music efforts.
Vega: How you record a record is the most important thing. The ultimate for me was working on remixes of Michael Jackson's “Rock With You” and “Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough.” That was a Quincy Jones production — he's definitely my top man. I've listened to everything he's done over the years. When we were listening to the mixes, we put every fader on the board to 0. All we had to do was put Michael's vocals up a little louder and put a little reverb on him, and it sounded exactly like the record. It's amazing how well those sessions were recorded. Because I come from a background where I've listened to and learned from a lot of producers like Quincy, I think we have a great feel for different styles of music.
What was your most challenging production?
Gonzalez: Every remix we do is a challenge. We approach each one individually. We're going to do this remix for Anastacia, and I don't know how we're going to do it. It's real poppy. But we always seem to come through. We're probably going to approach it more on the tribal side and see if it feels right. If it does, we'll add some keyboards to it. But I don't want to make it too dark and deep, because I'd like to get the record played on radio. That would make everybody happy. We're trying to give it an edge but keep it in the pop world.
You play a wide variety of records when you DJ, from the latest tracks to classic dance records. How do you choose a cartridge that provides a consistent sound?
Vega: I use the Stanton 680. I've been using Stanton cartridges for a long time — since the late '80s. They give me a warmer sound and enough volume. I'm working with them on a new stylus that will give me an even warmer sound on the records that I play.
Gonzalez: I'm still using my old Pickerings that I've had for 15 years. They look like $10 needles, and they cost about $40. They're loud, I like the bass response, and they're sturdy. I'm doing an endorsement deal with them to relaunch the needle. They took it off the market for a while. When I found out that they were doing that, I bought a case of them. I don't like the Ortofons much; they're too clean. The Stanton 680 sounds good, but it doesn't have enough output. All the other needles fluctuate and move too much. The stems aren't stiff enough. I've tried a million needles, but I always go back to the Pickering.
Do you prefer classic Urei mixers like most New York house DJs?
Vega: My Urei is my first choice always. I have an endorsement deal with Rane, and I use their mixers everywhere I go all over the world. I really like the EQ processor that goes with the MP 2016 because you can EQ separate turntables and almost create an a cappella or do filter-type effects. You can isolate the bottom on a record and play it along with another record. There's a lot you can do creatively with the Rane mixer. You just have to be careful that you don't boost the EQs too much and distort things.
Gonzalez: I have a Urei at my house, but when I do house gigs, I use the Rane because clubs around the world don't have Ureis. Nothing is ever going to replace the Urei in terms of sound. One good thing about the Rane is that it has a crossfader. I do a lot of cutting and backspinning records. Rotary controls slow you down when you're doing that. When I'm in my mode, I like to keep going. It's cool, but I like having the option of flipping back and forth. When I'm mixing, I use the rotary controls, and when I want to cut things up, I go to the fader. When I play hip-hop, I'll use a Vextax 06 Pro.
How many records do you carry when you go on the road?
Vega: I take two crates and a smaller bag of CDs — about 250 records. The CDs contain a lot of unreleased tracks. A lot of things that you hear me play won't come out until a couple of months later. I like to carry a wide span of records with me — some new records, some classics and some recurrents, too. Just because a record is out doesn't mean I'm not going to play it anymore. A great record is a great record. My sets usually last four hours, so I like to give people a span of music. A lot depends on the crowd. It usually takes me awhile to feel out what's going on, and then I get into it and create an atmosphere. You might see a group of people that really knows music, and other people usually follow that group.
Gonzalez: I bring three boxes and a CD wallet. I used to make a lot of acetates, but I've stopped using them now that there's the new Pioneer CDJ-1000 CD player. I'm starting to think about leaving the records at home because it's becoming too much of a problem to travel with them. A few times, my records have not shown up or have been left in different cities. I'm over it. I've started recording a lot of my records to CD. By the middle of this year, I'll probably have half of my music in a couple of CD wallets. I like to be able to go in a lot of different directions while I'm playing. I play a lot of old school hip-hop, and it's hard to replace some of those original albums. My records are all marked up, and I have different versions of things — remixes, intros — that make it more fun when I'm playing. I can't perform right without my shit.
You recently signed a long-term deal with Tommy Boy. Why did you commit?
Vega: We're excited because now we finally have a label that is into marketing a record and making it happen. They can properly take it to the next level. The single “Work” came out first, and they did a video for it. It's tough in the U.S. to get records like this on the radio, but we're starting to get interest. We know how to work a record from the street and make it happen. There are plenty of records out there that haven't gotten much radio play but have gone Platinum. We're going to start with our base and just spread it from colleges to wherever people are interested in us. The important thing is that we get to make the music we love.
Masters at Work
Akai MPC3000
Akai MPC2000XL
AKG 414 mic
AKG C12 VR mic
Alesis MasterLink recorder
ARP 2600 synth
ARP String Ensemble
Avalon AD2022 mic preamp
Electrix Filter Factory
Empirical Labs Distressor
E-mu E64 sampler
E-mu Orbit
E-mu Planet Phatt
E-mu Proteus 2000
E-mu SP-1200
E-mu Vintage Keys
Eventide DSP 4000 Ultra-Harmonizer
Fender Rhodes electric piano
Focusrite compressors
Korg Triton
Kurzweil K2600
Lexicon 480
Lexicon PCM 42
Lexicon PCM 80
Lexicon PCM 90
Linn Electronics Linn 9000
Maestro Echoplex
Manley EQ
Minimoog
Mutron Bi-Phase
Mutronics Mutator
Neumann U 87 mic
Pro Tools|24 Mix Plus
Rane MP 2016 DJ mixer
Roland JV-2080 synth module
Roland R-8 drum machine
Roland RE-101 Space Echo
Roland RSS-10 3D Sound Space Processor
Roland VS-1680 studio workstation
Sherman Filterbank
Sony C800G mic
T.C. Electronic Fireworx
T.C. Electronic M3000
T.C. Electronic M5000
Tannoy System 215 studio monitors
Tube Tech
Wurlitzer electric piano
Yamaha Motif
Yamaha MS-202 monitors
Yamaha SPX 990 multi-effects processor
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
