Who is Kenny Dope & what is he to us ? One half of worldwide reknown pair, MAW tells IDMW.Com about his present, past and future ; from the way he sees the current condition of the record industry to the numerous projects he's working on, via his relations with his long time partner, Louie Vega…

Interviews with Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez have long time been something of rare. Could it be that our man felt too shy for this til now, leaving this specific things in the hands of his partner ? Knowing the boys for quite a while now, I don't remember having anything from him on my files regarding an interview with Masters At Work or Nuyorican Soul ! Not to mention the fact that I've always personaly felt easier to have a conv with Louie that him, til now…

Times are changing, we would say. And people too, seing Louie and Kenny embarked on respective aside projects as if, apart from their mutual work, they've felt the need to prove themselves that they were able to deal with the conception of their own work, thus enabling them to increase their need for each other for future material in common…

Sitting comfortably on a sofa at Parisian gig promoter, Pure, prior to the release of the volume 2 of the eponym serie that he's done for them as a CD-mix, Kenny looks cool, calm and somehow collected, not to say sure of his things…

"The new generations are not familiar with vinyls. CD's being often too expensive leave them searching for downloads. This meaning the dematerialization of the current formats…"

Louie providing us with Soul Heaven, you doin' the second volume of the Pure series. Looks like you're currently everywhere…

In fact, I wanted to do some more comps. This exercise is a sort of medium in itself, allowing to increase the exposure of music, should it be already released or awaited to be released. I wanted to enlarge the possibilities of expressing myself and go further than what I've done in the house field so far, knowing that I'd been away from it for quite a while now.

It's the first of a long series to come. It brings me back in the daze when I was doin' mixtapes. I love dit and that's what brought me to who I am today. It's also something that allows you to do a bit more than putting a record onto the precedding one. I like to tell myself that everything can happen like rearranging the rhythm part of a track, or put an a cappella over a different beat.

This meaning a post-production work while mixing !

Not necessary. I'd rather say some spontaneous work. That stuff that comes to mind instantly like when I was doin' mixtapes. This said, I'm working with a small digital record – the 16-80 – that allows you to make overdubs an dit may take some time depending on the complexity of the things that you add.

A way of putting your trademark over the music that you're spreading…

Exactly. I want to leave my own input, unlike these too numerous mixes leavin' you with the feeling that it's the same record from the beginning til the end. On top of it, it's supposed to expect what I want to hear while listening to mixes. I mean, new rhythm lines, special F-X. Well, something happening at the end of the day…

How would depict the current state of house music ?

Hmm ! Strange, I would say…

I mean, all these bad news concerning the disappearing of labels X or Y…

I would say that it's nothing but what's currently happening in the record industry and if house seems to suffer a bit more, it's rather due to the fact that it's a far smaller niche.

How come has it been able to reach a higher level after all these years ?

I guess, we may say that some house tracks have become pop successes in Europe, but what about the other places in the world ? I think It has a lot to do with the current period. There are not so many producers and very few new faces. Added to this, the fact, that there are may be not so many tunes with instant effects as in the past. A lot has been done already, so that DJ's in search of newies are in some state of starvation. This said, we're not anymore leaders the way we were at the time, and the arrival of people coming from different countries – France amongst others – is up to give us some more energy one day or another.

Isn't that also a question of promotion, notoriously with the strong increase of the mailing costs ?

I would say that the main question is currently Internet. A lot of people do not buy their records the way they used to do before. Because of Internet.

You can find there anything you want. So that people please themselves while exchanging files. Not to mention the fact that more and more DJ's are working with CD's.So that we can ask ourselves what's the vinyl promo copy for ?

Times are changing. They've already changed and we need to adapt ourselves to this situation. This is why we've developped our site very much recently.

How come the Frenchies are not so numerous on US labels ?

Just a question of sending us material. Gregory's doin' a lot of post-production work for us. We're not the kind of people saying no to anyone coming at us. Alas, everyone has his own label today. So why go and sign with us when you can release your stuff on your label ? This said, if anyone sends us something hot, we'll release the material.

Is Internet the future ?

We've had long conversations about this in the past months and the answer is yes without a single doubt. Let me tell you something. D'you know where I generally go for record shopping ? In London, coz' they don't know how to sell in NY ! A part from that, you can do what you want while surfing on the web. You can go that whatever site you want, listen to the music at any time of the day, make your orders and go to another place. You may sometimes avoid buying records you would have while in the middle of people at a classic record shop. Got some securised payment system on top of it, records delivered to your door. On top of it, you may not have to face the attitudes of some sellers here or there or being disturbed by people while going out and that's about it.

Lots of people are doin' like this today, so we have to make ourselves ready to this evolution.

Do you yourself download mp3 files ?

Naaaah ! But we've talked recently about setting up a downloading section on our site.

The new generations are not familiar with vinyls. CD's being often too expensive leave them searching for downloads. This meaning the dematerialization of the current formats… We had to understand why and one of the main reasons is the fact that it usually costs 20 dollars to buy an album where you may only find one or two tracks worth to listen, meanwhile they'll be available for downloading for just a couple of dollars. This meaning that the current concept of an album is to be rethought in itself.

And if not, see the record indutsry keep on disappearing, labels after labels…

Internet, downloading… The problem is that the labels are not currently ready for this, as it has already gone too far…

Knowing on top of that that you don't necessary need a record company for selling your music on the web…

Exactly, and see on real time, what may become a priority from the results of your sales. Say you've got a basis of fan, you may sell from 10 to 15,000 records at 10 $ per unit at no artwork & manufacturing cost !

This said, I'm a purist and I want the thing. I want the artwork and I want the redits in order to know who's done what, how and where. Like I said, Kids haven't been brought up with vinyls, not to say 7inches. They've come along with computers and don't give a sh** about all of this as long as they get the track.

Are you amongst those working with the Final Scratch or some stuff like this ?

Not at all.Never seen this kinda thing in my life. Been approached conerning the latest version, but it's nothing of interest for me.

Do you prefer carrying your records?

The only reason why I work with CD's is that they're not so heavy and I can carry them with me in the cabins while traveling. This is much safer than taking vinyls as you have to get thezm on the trunk with the risk of seing them b roken if not stolen as it often happens nowadays.

What can we expect from the MAW clan in Miami ?

I can't exactly tell you. We've done so much over there in the passed years. Remember last year, we've had four gigs. We had a huge success with the MAW Electro Party and the Elements Of Life wasn't bad neither with all these live musicians and Blaze. Anyway, we're gonna be there.

Elements Of Life, let's talk about it. I mean, the album…

It's Louie's thing. He has financed everything and no one can talk about it but him. He said to me that he had some fear at the beginning, but he wanted to do it, as I'm currently doing mine today. He knows me as a perfectionnist, so that I've decided not to make any comment while he was working on his project. Some people have thought we were on our way to disband. That's bullsh** ! We've just wanted to materialize some project of our own. We've been working together for 13 years now so why leavin' each other now ?

MFSB