Roger Sanchez: The S-Man gets Another Chance

Roger Sanchez is a big name in house music, and we mean a big name. Towards the end of the nineties and through the early noughties, his sound was synonymous with good time, soulful music that crossed over perfectly from the radio to the clubs, especially the timeless sounding and once ubiquitous 'Another Chance', together with it’s memorable video (watch below).

Now, Sanchez operates out of Ibiza with a much feted residency at Pacha, with another foot in his home city of New York and wherever else he’s called worldwide.

Ahead of his upcoming set at Ministry of Sound on Saturday 15th November, a club with great heritage for Sanchez, we spoke to the S-Man about his underground renaissance, Ibiza now and then, and how military training might be the key to his restless longevity. 

It’s interesting in terms of what you do as Sanchez, more vocal tinged house, is big in chart terms and also in Ibiza, but you’ve been focusing on S-Man, which is of course more of a throwback to your earlier years, the dirtier club stuff. Why did you make that decision? 

The interesting thing is that even though I’ve been producing as Sanchez for many years, I also went through a period releasing as S-Man. And it’s always the counterpoint, as much as I like melodies and big tunes with some chart success, I’m a DJ, and I have a serious love for the more leftfield stuff.

And in the past few years, I’ve started pushing away from where dance music went, to the EDM stuff, because that’s not just me. So I wanted to focus on my background, sort of as a full circle sort of thing, but then I saw what was coming, so I thought, we’re going to back to deeper, melodic, underground house music, and that’s exactly what started happening.

And that’s why the S-Man is important to me, because as Roger Sanchez, a lot of people have a certain preconception about what it is that I do, but then as the S-Man, a lot of people that have been in the underground for years feel those tracks have always been their favourites, so it’s time to bring them out of the dungeon so to speak.

You live in Ibiza at the moment, but you’ve a rich heritage in New York. Do you get back there to play much and survey the scene as it were?

Yeah! I actually went back this year to play at Space, and that was really, really great, because that took me back to the vibe of the early days. And I feel the energy has really returned to the city.

You know, there was a period when New York was really dry in terms of house music, of dance music being at the forefront. When the EDM thing happened, dance music became prevalent, but a very different sound, whereas now the underground is very strong, and Brooklyn is seen as a great alternative destination for dance music especially.

In the eighties, your Father encouraged you to forego your work and studies in architecture to focus on house music. That must have been a big risk? Whereas now, house music almost does seem like a viable career option, back then, you had no way of knowing you’d be around as long as you have been.

Well, what’s interesting is he didn’t say, “Go forth and make house music!”, that wasn’t his caveat. But he just told me to follow what makes me happy, follow my heart and my dreams, and hey, “You might become the best DJ in the world.” So don’t half-step, give 100%, you know?

That conversation, that’s what allowed me to really refocus and say, “OK, this is what I want to do.”

What were the points where you were gifted with the confidence of knowing that you’d hopefully be playing for a long time? What party or set would you go back to when you knew that you’d made the right decision?

I’ve had many pivotal moments at events, and one of the first was when I played at Ministry of Sound, maybe 1994, and I headlined the main room and thought, “Wow, this could be something.” So I’d started going over to the UK, doing remixes, but that gig really fulfilled me, made me very happy. 

The next one was playing Space in Miami, maybe 1998, when I was playing one of my really early on long sets. And I realised the sort of animal I was as a DJ, to be able to play these long, tough sets, and that really gave me the confidence to the next transition which was when 'Another Chance' went to number one in the UK.

The video for 'Another Chance' is a complete classic too. Did that record’s success take you by surprise?

It all came together very organically, and that track is the last one I did for the album. The label went belly up and was taken over by Defected. And that was meant to be one more underground track for the album! It cracked me up! I wasn’t concerned with what it was going to do. And there’s an emotional quality, to that track…

Yeah, it’s got a real melancholy about it, and melancholy is pretty underrated in dance music.

Well, it’s melancholy, but at the same time it’s euphoric. I’d be lying if I said that was my master plan of design, or that I was so brilliantly creative that I intended it to be that way. But sometimes, God blesses me with things and I stand back and think, “How did that happen?” And it literally took off.

And I had these two weeks of intense press; one minutes I’m on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, next I’m on the evening news, and I’m sitting thinking, “What the hell is going on?” It just didn’t make sense. I’d gone from playing clubs like the Sound Shack in London, which was like a hole in the wall. It was dirty, it was grimy, it was brilliant, and then I went to that.

Do you still play Another Chance much in your sets?

You know, I’ve got so many different remixes of it, but I have yet to remix it. I play some other peoples remixes, but I play it in my sets only as people will not let me not play it. It’s tougher not to play it. If I go to see my favourite band, and they don’t play their biggest hit, I’m going to be mad.

You’re a busy guy, but you maintain a collection of around 20000 records. Do you still get much opportunity to dig for music?

Oh yes, absolutely.

Do you get to do much of that physically, nowadays, and where do you if so? Who or what do you look to as a good source for music, given that there’s so much coming through?

Oh, there’s so much, so much. Well, I get a lot sent to me physically, and I have a team that listens through the absolute rubbish. But then I’ll sit and take at least three to six hours every week to go through Beatport, through Traxsource.

I listen to all the major portals, and the blog portals, I check out what other DJs are playing, just to look for things that might appeal to me that I don’t yet have. 

And obviously you have a regular radio show that’s very popular (above), which keeps you on your toes. You seem like a very focused guy, as in you don’t really drink or take drugs or indulge in much other stereotypical DJ behaviour.  

Well, I’ve done plenty of stupid stuff before that, but I’ve always avoided drink and drugs. It’s just part of my nature, you know? I grew up in a very Christian household, and that was more like family core values. I’m not really somebody who likes to lose control of their faculties, I like to remain in control.

Then I did a stint in a military academy, and that really ingrained in me this need to be aware of what’s going on around me at all times. So it really just doesn’t appeal to me.

Well, that sort of answers our next question, which was how do you develop that level of focus and control, but also, can we possibly have some?

Honestly, I think it needs to be inculcated from an early age. My father was very disciplinarian with me in terms of my school work, and then just pushed me to try harder. And my time at the military academy took that further, where it’s not a competition, but your focus needs to be laser precise. 

You seem like a very positive person with a very strong ethic and love in regards to the power of house music. Being there at such important points in New York, then over at Ministry and Ibiza, and seeing money and careers get bigger, when you look at young guys coming through now, is there anything you feel you had to deal with for the better back when you were coming up?

In terms of Ibiza, the whole feel of the island is different. When I first started, in 1995, it was a very promoter driven environment, but then, the DJs themselves became the stars. The DJs had their own followings, and I was one of them, doing my own night.

Now, I feel it has become overcrowded, and there are a few more venues, but not so many spots. The money was not as big as it is now. When Ushuaia opened, they changed the game, refocusing from the daytime to the nighttime, but now, daytime parties are back. What’s good about it now is there’s room for both the underground and the very mainstream DJs to have both of their type of nights. 

The bad thing about is was that their was a culture of developing nights, whereas now there’s not that level of discovery, everything is cut and dry and now people know exactly where they’re going and when before they get there. And that’s what happens when a scene grows exponentially, is that the people making money harness it, and there’s just not enough room for discovery. Or, there is, but it’s not as prevalent, it’s not home-grown any more.

What have been the highlights of Ibiza and beyond this year in terms of DJing?

I just played at ADE with Oliver $ and Jesse Rose, and I really like what those guys are doing. I did some stuff with Man Without a Clue, with Huxley, too. There are a lot of producers I’m really into.

Huxley seemed like a good hook up, not one you’d think of, but then it seems obvious in retrospect. How did that come about?

I work with a guy named Aaron Ross, who used to work at Defected, and he recommended Huxley. I’ve known about him for a while, I really loved his headspace and what he was doing. And I said I’d love to do something with him, and they were really up for it.

We actually did most of the tune online, digitally, but then we hooked up when he came to Ibiza to play back to back, but we hit it off, he’s a really nice guy.

And you recently played in Dubai. What’s the experience of DJing there like for you? We know it’s not a particularly underground venue.

I’ve played there before many times. And I've played many types of events, I've played for 12000 people on a beach the past few New Years, for example, but Dubai is interesting in that it’s very commercially driven and EDM is very big there.

I happen to have a particular core audience who because of the crossover records I have, know what I play, which is house music, with a lot of soul and energy. I can’t play as deep as in some places, but give it a year or so until there are proper underground nights, as well as the mainstream venues.

Tickets are no longer available for this event