I was snooping around the internet looking for dance/house music… spending hours and hours just sampling music, something I absolutely love to do. This particular day I was looking for house/dance music since I was dreaming about the summer and all the places I would go and dance the night away on my vacation, and I came across this piece…
Can you just picture yourself in the crowd, feeding off the energy of the people and mostly of the Dj? Who is none other than Dennis Ferrer, a talented, passionate soulful house music Dj from New York. I just absolutely love this promo video and absolutely love this song and how Dennis makes his work look so frickin’ cool. Can you imagine having so much passion like that at your job…sooo jealous.
I realize that most North Americans are not big fans of house music, you don’t have to like it but it goes beyond what you are hearing and what you experience and feel when you are listening to something as great as this piece. It is a matter of putting yourself in the moment and being free…the moment you forget whats going on around the exterior world is when you become free. And this is something that is very hard to do as we grow older.
For example, as a child in dance class there were many opportunities for freedom and creativity for that hour I was away from my schoolwork, friends and parents. My teachers always taught us to leave your problems and your worries at the door, which was really hard sometimes, but oh how much better you felt though after that hour break of freedom. It makes you mentally stronger and able to see things clearer. I am sure that any sport or activity children engage in exercises this, and it is sad as adults how easily we forget to take a moment to ourselves.
When I used to teach dance to little kids around the age of 4 and 5 I was in University and I used to get so angry and upset when I didn’t get the grades that I wanted or needed, but I would go teach my class and I would look into the children’s eyes and forget everything that was bothering me because it didn’t matter. It was therapy that I was getting paid to do. How lucky to have this experience and appreciate those moments.
As adults most of us have attempted Yoga, which also practices quieting the mind, and boy is it hard laying in the corpse pose for the beginning of the class, you fidget you squirm your mind doesn’t shut off because we fight it, our motor neurons won’t rest. But that is why we practice and eventually we get it and we become good at it.
Dennis Ferrer is not my favourite Dj overall, but believe that his stuff he creates and mixes is getting better and better over time. And when you have watched this video of him in action it is clear that he will continue to rise to the top as many other Dj’s have. Most recently David Guetta has crossed over that European house/dance music and mixed it with popular artists in North America and become an instant hit here, hence all the nominations at the Grammy’s.
And I do have my hesitations about this crossover from Europe. One of the main reasons I love travelling to Europe is to discover new house music songs in a country that is so talented at producing and presenting it!! Presentation is everything and so is the scenery and the ambiance. You go to a lounge, club or party on a yacht and hear all this dance music and you dance and you socialize and meet new people. It is Europe romanticizing everything, you fall in love with the music. My favourite part is then looking for all those fun songs I heard and making a cd so that those experiences can live on forever through music. So it makes me a little sad and selfish to see it become mainstream in North America where it will become over- commercialized and over- endorsed by Disney where no one will ever know it existed. I realize the business end of it too, more money.
So in conclusion this is a shout out to all the Dj’s who are doing their thing and making it big….Never stop showing passion for what you do and thank you for showing us through your music.
I loved the song. I think all musicians, including Dj’s who produce their own music, always love their songs no matter how often they perform them, and still put everything into their performances. I bet Ferrer will be rocking out to this tune even after playing it hunderds of times. It sounds like the vocals are either Duffy or Florence and the Machine. What do you think?
Here is what Dennis had to say about his song:So here it is….the record is called Hey Hey!! I wrote this about the first time someone meets someone that piques your interest in the street. You walk by and someone grabs your attention. Most of the time you don’t want it but occasionally you’ll entertain someone and if the stars align right…well you hook up. Sometimes it turns out bad and you reflect and you tell yourself…DAMN! why’d i do that in the first place. That’s the thought that went into this when i wrote it. I had a difficult time looking for the right person to sing this song as it wasn’t the generic vox record of old. I needed an edge. Someone who’s voice had personality. I think I found it with this artist. Chorus voxes was Me, Vivien Goldman (the wonderful professor of post-punk at NYU who also wrote and performed the 1981 post-punk classic “Launderette”) and Dominique Keegan of The Glass.