I met Sami Dee a few days ago, at the prestigious Hôtel Intercontinental in Paris. One of the few French DJ’s to have known the golden age of NYC club scene, cofounder of Better Days (a mythic house & garage radio show on NRJ), DJ, producer and now label owner, he is without a doubt one of French house music key figures. Action !

Could you first introduce yourself ?

I'm first and foremost a DJ, I've always wanted to do that. I may produce tracks, remixes, but I think of myself as a DJ. I started this way and I'll never stop. So I would define myself as an … excellent DJ !

How would you define the music you're playing ? House, garage ?

That's such a strange question … because if you had asked it ten years ago to my fathers, be it Frankie Knuckles, David Morales or Kenny Carpenter, they would have answered that they play dance music, music for clubs; there wasn't really a name for it, there was no label … For the last ten years people have put labels on everything, and now there are countless rock sub-genres, countless house sub-genres … I would say that I play a music for the clubs, supposedly called house is, in the broadest acceptation. Deep house, garage, techno; I like my set to evolve all night long. I also like to play songs with strong lyrics, because I play with words too, as they do in New York. And I prefer 5 or 6 hour sets, because it gives me the opportunity to play all that I like, and to play with people mood.

Your definition of a good DJ ?

The one who lives intensely what he's playing! I'm very eccentric, and some people blame me for it. They blame me for my attitude, my cigars, my pink hat, the fact that I'm bare-chested during my gigs … I don't care ! That something I've always done. The good DJ is also the one who's paying attention to the dancefloor expectations, and who's playing the right song at the right time. It has nothing to do with technique. I would even be able to create an atmosphere with only one turntable! The difficult thing is to adapt to the dancefloor, to understand the audience … It's useless to try to "educate people", people don't want to be educated, they just want to have a good time ! We are here to entertain them, and a lot of deejays miss the point about that ! What is more, if people see that the deejay himself is having a good time, they're going to have a good time too. Why do they go to the club ? To release themselves, to forget their everyday life ! But a lot of people, clubbers and deejays, have forgotten this in Paris …

How do you explain that ?

It's just French people mentality! Never satisfied… It seems like some people go to the club to criticize everything, and to be bored. As if I went to the cinema and if, in the middle of the movie, I stood up and complained that there isn't enough light to read my book …And the point is that, without good clubbers, there is no good deejay ! What we need is a special state of mind, the will to party. In Paris we used to find this state of mind in venues like Le Palace, or even Le Queen, at the beginning of the 90's. But it slowly fades away …

Tell us about your beginning …

It all started with the mythic 80’s French television broadcast, "Les Enfants du Rock". In the middle of a report on Michael Jackson, who had just released "Thriller", I saw Bruce Swedien, who is one of the best sound engineers on earth, and behind him a huge mixing desk. I remember saying to my mother : "I want to do that !". And this was the beginning of the end ! I was 13 … a few years later, another important step was the discovery of another broadcast, "More music less talk", which was RLP mixshow on Radio 7. Thanks to him I understood that I wanted to be a deejay. It also helped me discover Shep Pettibone, the Latin Rascals, Arthur Baker …And also a new name, a certain David Morales. But the most important thing occurred after my high school diploma, in 1989. I didn't want to go to the university, and my mother agreed, but only If I went to a foreign country to learn a new language. I chose the USA, and New York, because all my heroes lived here ! I wanted to meet Arthur Baker, to go to Shakedown studios …In fact I spent the first three months learning English language, working very hard. One night, a friend of mine proposed me to go out. I was homesick, didn't feel like going out, but finally she took me to a club, whose name Red Zone was. 3000 people, blacks, portoricans, great sound and lights… This was so good, I wanted to meet the core ; I waited til 5 A.M., and then I dare to talk to him. We had a little chat, and before leaving the place, I asked his name. He answered… David Morales. I stayed speechless, as If I had seen Jesus Christ himself ! I asked him for an autograph, I must have been the first person to do that, because he was at the beginning of his career … I went back to the Red Zone every week end, during one year. David put me on the guest list, and I became his assistant. He also took me to the studio, and I watched him producing all his classics… I was the only one allowed to be in the studio when he worked. The following year I went back to France, I met Bibi, and together we created the Better Days broadcast on NRJ Radio.

Let's talk about your broadcasts, Better Days on NRJ and now Butterfly on Radio FG. What do they mean to you ?

The ultimate nightclub ! It's all about dreaming. When I'm recording them, I remember when I was 16, listening to a Tony Humphries or RLP mixshow. That's why a radio broadcast has to be perfect, according to me. You've got to respect the listener ! He should be able to enter your world, your story, to feel your emotions. Even If there is only one person listening to your broadcast, if he's dreaming thanks to you, then you've reached the top ! A club is very impersonal, whereas on the radio, there are only two persons : you, and the listener.

In another interview you said that clubbing is perhaps not adapted anymore to our society …

Why do you go out ? To drink, and to chat up girls or boys …And perhaps to listen to a music you like. AIDS came. It made all this more difficult. And alcohol has become way too expensive … I’m not saying alcohol is necessary to have a good time, but it helps to liven things up ! How can a boy pay for the entrance, pay for his girlfriend, and so on, with such prices ? People drink less, and the atmosphere in the clubs is showing the effect ! Party promoters don't know how to entertain people.

Tell us a little about your new label, …

First I'm going to release a sampler with a track by each of my friends, Bibi, DJ Matt, including one by myself. Then I would like to release tracks by my old friend Kenny Carpenter, who is doing lots of them, but never releases them ! It's going to be mainly a house label, but I would like to open it to the new generation of producers.

Other projects ? An album for instance ?

I'd love to produce an entire album but I can't afford it ! It would not be a entire house album, there would also be reggae songs, or even ballads in it …Being a producer, not a true musician, I would like to afford the luxury to hire the best musicians. Because with such people things are much simpler, you've only got to get them together and tell : "Now play !"

As it was for your remix of Ophélie Winter's "Livin' In Me", on which people like Terry Burrus or Peter Schwartz worked …

My greatest work to date ! I content myself to sing the bass, the rhythm, and then I did the cuts on the SSL. Terry Burrus played the piano and the B3, Peter Schwartz did the keyboard arrangements, it was so easy ! But it doesn't cost nothing … And home studio technology has made people think that real musicians are useless. So nobody in the dance music business wants to pay for them.

The way you work and your source of inspiration ?

I remember things from the past, images of New York, and I imagine people having a good time, a backroom full of gays, or beautiful girls shaking their butt … and then I try to make it perceptible in my song !

The artists you would like to work with ?

Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Chaka Khan, Bono, because they have such a great voice …

The five songs you would take with you to the moon ?

1- Sinatra ‘’Fly Me To The Moon’’, 2- Mozart Requiem performed by The Berlin Philharmonic, and orchestrated by Herbert Von Karajan, 3- Love Committee "Just As Long As I've Got You" 4- U2 "With Or Without You" 5- Sounds Of Blackness "The Pressure" remixed by Frankie Knuckles and ... 6- Shawn Christopher "Don't Lose The Magic" remixed by David Morales.

An advice to be given to the apprentice DJ’s ?

I would ask him why he wants to become a deejay, ask him if he has the Faith, and I'd tell him a last thing : consider the present state of music, of the music business, and try to imagine how it will be in 15 years …

You can listen to Sami Dee weekly mixshow on Radio FG, each Monday 22:00 to 23:00 (ECT). Streaming available on radiofg.com .

More infos : samidee.com