Sidney Samson Electric Zoo Interview

Sidney Samson: How are you?
MusikBeats: I’m good! How are you?
Sidney Samson: I’m okay. Where are you from?
MusikBeats: Miami.
Sidney Samson: Miami? I was just there!
MusikBeats: Yeah?
Sidney Samson: Yeah, like a couple weeks ago. Really cool.

MusikBeats: I actually saw you down in Miami for DayGlow!
Sidney Samson: Ooooh really! That’s a nice show! Oh, wow.

MusikBeats: Yeah! Actually, that’s my first question. How did you like performing for DayGlow?
Sidney Samson: Yeah, great! Just a couple weeks ago, I did another show with them in San Diego, and I will do a couple more like in Philadelphia and some other cities. I love DayGlow. I really do, the organization is tight. The parties are sold out. The sound is great. The organization, you know, there’s a guy called Tim and a guy called Sebastian. They are really great and sweet guys, I love them. And Tim, he looks like the dog whisperer. He picked me up from the airport and I was like, “What? You are Cesar Milan!” and he was like, “Yeah, yeah, I know”, haha.

MusikBeats: So, how have your hip hop roots influenced your music today?
Sidney Samson: Hip hop, you know what it is? I started out with hip hop, and still today, in my music, because it is all house music, it is hard but there is still a hip hop touch in my music, always. Maybe the way I mix the record, or I always have a short intro. Yeah, I don’t know, hip hop is always in my heart and when I play on stage I always play one hip hop track or old school soul track. Like today I played the acapella of Marvin Gaye, you know, you always just need to be in touch with that sound. I still love it, and yeah, house music took over.

MusikBeats: How was owning your own label helped you business wise and music wise?
Sidney Samson: The only reason why I started my own label was really, really, really not about the money. It’s because when I produce tracks, well you know I’m in the club always and perform all over for alot of clubs, and I see, if I made a record, I see what works or not. And when I go to a record label with that record, and they’re like “I don’t know, I don’t know about this.” I was like, “Dude, I played it, it works!” and I don’t want to talk about it. If I know it works, I just want to release it, no discussion, let’s go. That is the reason why I have my own label, and I’m releasing a new track every month. The label is called Rock The Houze and every month we have a release from myself or Rock The Houze Records and I hope you like it!

MusikBeats: Well, we’ll definitly be on the look out for those. So, what inspired “Riverside”?
Sidney Samson: Okay, I will tell you the story, the story, real short. I was producing, and I was like, “I’m going to look for a really cool vocal.” I was really lucky I came across the part where Tupac says “Riverside”, you know? I recorded it and I was like maybe someday I’ll make a record out of it. Two weeks later, I made Riverside, as you know it now and I was like, “Wow, this sound is cool but I want a vocal over it” and I was like, “Hey! I got that Riverside vocal”. So, I just based it into the track and it never changed, so yeah, really lucky!

MusikBeats: What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring producers and DJ’s?
Sidney Samson: Okay, well, what I did and still am doing, I look up to guys like David Guetta maybe not the way he DJ’s because he has his way of DJ’ing and I have my way. But I really respect his way of doing business and working hard, and just killing it every time. I want to do what he does and then do it my own way. Yeah, so for the new kids on the block, my advice is to look look at somebody who you think is really cool and who you’d want to be, do it like them but then do it your own way. I think that is great, because if you just copy somebody then you will always be the copy cat. But be inspired by the energy, and the drive, and the hard work somebody is putting in to his career and the love. Alot of people are saying that DJing is not a real career, you just are playing music and having fun, you get all the girls, and traveling. I’m like, no, its really hard work and people don’t realize it. It’s really hard work, you have to make records, you have to be social, you have to do these, the interviews, you have to do alot of stuff. People only see the part of you behind the decks. But everything around it, takes alot more time. I’m from Amsterdam, I am in New York. I am, like, 8 hours away from home, to play here for one hour. So, yeah, that’s what I want to say.

MusikBeats: Great! Thank you so much!
Sidney Samson: Thank you.

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