This is a transcript of the Beyond the Decks Podcast 003 with Saliva Commandos. The timestamps in the transcript are clickable links that take you directly to that point in the main video. Please note that the transcript is machine generated, and may have errors. Here are some useful links:
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Table of Contents
00:00:00 – Introduction and George’s Background
00:02:28 – Early Musical Influences and Beginnings in the Bronx
00:06:42 – First Interaction with DJ Equipment and Early DJing Experiences
00:09:22 – Transition from DJing to Music Production
00:28:08 – Challenges and Persistence in Learning Production Techniques
00:32:30 – Developing His Unique Sound and the Creation of Serve
00:34:22 – First Record Deal and Breakthrough
00:41:52 – Technological Evolution and Its Impact on Production
00:45:31 – The Importance of Maintaining Artistic Integrity
00:52:33 – Founding of In Command Records
01:00:31 – Resilience and the Turning Point in His Career
Introduction and George’s Background
Robert Simoes
Welcome back, everybody to the Beyond the Decks podcast, your guide to mastering the art and business of the electronic music and deejay industry. And today I am incredibly thrilled. I’m always thrilled. But today I am super thrilled to be speaking with this gentleman, George Aponte. I hope, I hope I pronounce that correctly, also known as, his, you know, stage name, the Saliva Commandos. And George is a real veteran in the house music industry. He’s born and raised in New York, in the Bronx, with a Puerto Rica background, which I can’t wait to dive a little bit into. And he serves as the commander in chief of In Command, records, his own record label with his own unique sound that has really kind of been growing a lot in the global awareness, as George has managed to get tons of influential people playing his records and connecting, and it’s not hard to see why. Given, you know, some of the sounds in the groove, his first record, released in 1996 under the moniker G-Bravo.
(00:01:10)
Robert Simoes
With Miss Fernando, Serve on Progressive High in 1996. And it wasn’t until, You know, three years later where he acquired this moniker of the Saliva Commandos. In 1999 with the white label release of Zero Buff. and since then, George has gone on to, you know, hone in and build his sound of this really tribal, thundering drum, which I’ve come to appreciate a lot in my sets. And so super thrilled to have you today on the podcast, Commander in Chief, Saliva Commandos. George, welcome to the podcast.
(00:01:41)
Saliva Commandos
Thank you. It’s me, me and my coffee. Yeah, thanks. Thank you for having me. I’m honored.
(00:01:47)
Robert Simoes
I love it. Yeah, I know, I mean, the honor is totally all mine. Like I said, you know, when I reached out to you, George, the biggest thing that I found with with your sound.
(00:01:57)
Robert Simoes
First you hear some of your tracks and it’s it’s such a distinctive thundering drums. And it’s crazy because I watched some even just huge DJs, Roger Sanchez, David Morales, and they all talk about how you’ve come and created and curated your own sound.
(00:02:10)
Robert Simoes
And that’s been, you know, quite an experience, right? For you. Like I mentioned, you’ve been doing this for, I think it’d be like, what, 30 years at this point or just a little shy of 30 years?
(00:02:19)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah, I know I don’t think about the number. I just keep going. I put my head down and go straight. Hahahahahahaha. You know, I.
(00:02:26)
Robert Simoes
Love that.
Early Musical Influences and Beginnings in the Bronx
(00:02:28)
Robert Simoes
But to start, you know, let’s go to the beginning. Because I always like to try to go to the beginning with everybody. Bring on the podcast. Right. So you’re born and raised in the Bronx in New York, that is a tough place to live, from my understanding. And you’ve also mentioned, you know, some of those times that you spent in your childhood in the Bronx have influenced, you know, your sound today. So take us through George’s first interaction with music and getting acquainted with this sound and seeing himself as potentially, you know, becoming a DJ.
(00:02:59)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. You know, well, you know, coming from a Latino background, my dad used to play. My dad used to play guitar. He didn’t read music, but he would just play, like, as a hobby. He would get along, you know, get together with his friends and play guitar. So music was always in my house. And he would buy records so that my sister, my older sister would buy records. But as a child, you know, I, I’m a product of, of like the 70s early, you know, like mid 70s, late 70s and 80s. That’s when this whole DJ thing, the hip hop thing was coming of age. So I was right there in the South Bronx. So when they would throw parties like I was my, where we lived, we lived in a railroad apartment on Avenue Saint John’s in the Bronx. You can look right through the back window and see the schoolyard. That’s where they would throw the street jams. Now, I wasn’t allowed, but I can see right through the window.
(00:03:53)
Saliva Commandos
So I was watching. It was like a movie for me, and that’s where I would see the breakdancing and the DJs. And the big thing for me was that my neighbors had DJ equipment, which was insane. We’re talking about 1978. They had they had DJ equipment. And at the time I used to I, you know, I was into like whatever hip hop was out at the time, like enjoy records. I don’t think Sugarhill Gang was around yet. I think they came out like a year later. But so whatever those records were, I actually they were they were around whatever those records were, I would listen to and I thought I was a rapper, you know, I would want to emulate that. So they would bring me over. They would knock on my on my, my parents door and they would be like, hey, can George come over so he can rap? And I would go over there and I would have all these like, raps that I would copy from the records, but I wasn’t.
(00:04:45)
Saliva Commandos
For me, it wasn’t about that. I was watching them DJ and they would cut tracks in good time, because that was one of the breaks that they would do so that I remember watching them over and over and I couldn’t stop thinking about that. I was I wasn’t into sports or any of that. That was what I was into, you know. So that was kind of the beginnings for me. You know, that was the little spark. Plus, you know, my, my, my musical, the, the real musical influence comes from home. You know, my dad buying records and my sister buying records, playing the records. And that’s how you get influenced, you know, I didn’t know I’m, you know, back then you listen to the radio. There was no Sirius XM satellite radio. So you listen to whatever’s on the radio station. And they were not playing house music. One, it wasn’t around. They weren’t playing disco because that was super underground. They weren’t playing hip hop because it was at its birth, you know? So it was just like pop music.
(00:05:41)
Saliva Commandos
So that’s what I would listen to. But like the disco stuff, it was my sister who would go and she would go whenever she would get out to the clubs or hear something. She would buy those records. And you know, when you only have like 5 or 6 records, that’s all you listen to. So after a while, you, you learn those records, you know. So that’s, that’s my, my influence in kind of my beginnings and introduction to the DJ. Seeing it visually, not doing it yet but actually visually seeing it and, and just the, the records that my sister would buy that this goes up. I didn’t know anything about that wasn’t on the radio. My sister would buy them, bring them home and play them, and I would be like, oh, this is cool. You know, as a child, you know, eight, nine years old, you don’t know any different. But that’s what they’re teaching you. So I’m very fortunate for that, you know.
(00:06:28)
Saliva Commandos
So that’s you know, that’s kind of, you know, just a quick rundown, you know, of, of that, you know.
(00:06:35)
Robert Simoes
And did they ever like let you I don’t know your neighbors like you ever go like touch the touch the equipment. I’m assuming there’s like belt driven turntables or something.
First Interaction with DJ Equipment and Early DJing Experiences
(00:06:42)
Saliva Commandos
Oh, no. As a matter of fact, like across the building, there was a building we used to call. It’s obviously call 920 Avenue, Saint John’s. We just call the 920 as kids. There were other DJs there as well, and they would play music and we as kids would, like, hang out by the door and they would open the door and let us listen. You know, we weren’t able to look inside where we just hang out in the hallway. And then we just opened the door and, and, you know, it was more like a community, different time, you know, so the neighbors didn’t mind, you know, they saw the kids staying out of trouble, just hanging out, listening to music.
(00:07:16)
Saliva Commandos
So, yeah, that was kind of cool. But no, never touched any of it. That’s later. Later. No one. No one let me touch no one. Let me touch a turntable. Their records, none of that stuff.
(00:07:28)
Robert Simoes
When was the first time you got your hands on a turntable, then?
(00:07:32)
Saliva Commandos
Oh, that’s in the 80s. I was actually, you know, in New York City. You know, I come from my my family background, like we had we had nothing. We had, you know, you have no money. You know, you Puerto Ricans, my mom, my parents, by the way. this interview, I have animals, so I have dogs. So if my dog is barking right now, I hope you don’t hear it. So, so, you know, as, in the mid 80s, I got a summer job in New York City. Like I was saying, my family, we come from no money. So the New York City, I don’t know if they still do this in New York.
(00:08:06)
Saliva Commandos
They used to have government jobs for young teens. So you would work and they would have a stipend that you would get. You couldn’t get any more than that. It was just a stipend. And you work and you would get a paycheck like every 2 or 3 weeks. So I decided that summer I would save all my money. It was probably like 600 bucks, and I bought belt drive turntables that didn’t match. They didn’t match because that’s all they had. I wanted to deejay, I bought that, I bought this huge, massive I mean, I knew nothing and they probably saw me coming. I was just so young. They sold me anything. I bought this massive I mean, Mixer. I think I have a picture of it. I mean, it was massive, but I was able to plug in the two turntables and it was with that I kind of started to practice, but I was already starting to buy records because I knew I was going to be a DJ. So I was I was going to the store, I bought planet Rock, I bought stuff by Malcolm McLaren.
(00:09:03)
Saliva Commandos
I was buying all these records. I was into hip hop, so I was already starting my music collection before I bought my turntable. So we’re talking about 1986. That’s kind of when I first bought my, my, my turntables. And they weren’t technique 1200s. We’ll get into that later. They weren’t. You know.
Transition from DJing to Music Production
(00:09:22)
Robert Simoes
I feel like for teachers it’s a lot like that though, right. We do start. There’s something about the mind of DJing where it’s I describe them as like collectors. Right. I think there’s a difference between the producer mindset and the DJ mindset, and the DJ mindset is like a collecting mindset. It’s like, gotta have that one guy have that one.
(00:09:39)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
(00:09:40)
Robert Simoes
And so you said, you know, you’re starting to collect these records, but you you had a feeling. Did you already know that you wanted to be a DJ? Was it something in your consciousness or.
(00:09:49)
Saliva Commandos
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, and I say this all the time.
(00:09:53)
Saliva Commandos
My family laughs about it now, but I remember saying it and my sister made fun of me. I’ll never forget. My family made fun of me. They were like, what? You’re going to do what? I was like, I’m buying these records because I’m going to become a DJ. And and they laughed. It’s funny because now they all laugh. They’re like, oh yeah, you were right. I go, yeah, I kind of, you know, that’s what I wanted to do. So I had like, I knew, I just knew. It’s like, you know what? This is the way I can make people relate. It’s like a young athlete. Right. He’s like when I’m going to be like a young Derek Jeter. Not that I’m at that level. But Jeter knew as a kid he’s like, I want to play for the New York Yankees and I’m I will play baseball. He knew, I knew I didn’t want to play sports. I was terrible at sports.
(00:10:37)
Saliva Commandos
And I, I knew that if I started to deejay. I said, I’m going to be very good at this because I was already mixing in my head. I was like, that record should mix with that record, and if I would go to a party, it’s funny, you go to like the sweet 16 or whatever when you’re young. And I would say, why is he that doesn’t match? I would never put those two records together. So I already knew, like my thinking was already way ahead. You know, I didn’t know that at the time. That’s just the way my mind was working. So, yeah, you know, I knew early on like that’s what I wanted to do. Was it just the.
(00:11:10)
Robert Simoes
Experimentation mindset or or that drew you to it? Was it the ability to create something that wasn’t before, but with using two records, what was it that you think really drew you? Because it sounds like you had this like internal fire, internal passion for this, desire to be a DJ.
(00:11:31)
Saliva Commandos
I’ve always been creative. I used to draw. Like I said, I’m. I wasn’t really into sports. I was into film making TV shows, drawing and and music, you know, that’s what. And just being creative. So and the influence of of where I grew up, that was something in the inner cities, this whole new hip hop deejaying thing. This wasn’t something that everyone, you know, it’s not like today, it’s 2024 where kids create. They don’t want the guitars, they want the pioneer. You know, that’s that’s what. And we’ll get into that part too. It’s like they don’t want guitars anymore. So back then that didn’t exist. So it was part of of my environment like how I grew up and me being creative. That was the influence. You know, I wasn’t watching sports on T.V., I we followed the Yankees because I’m in the Bronx and that’s what you do when you’re in the Bronx. You know, you follow the New York Yankees.
(00:12:30)
Saliva Commandos
But it was yeah, I think it’s more my environment, my home and just me having a creative outlet. I was always drawing and I wanted to do something, and I think I transposed that into the deejaying and being creative and wanting to match certain songs, you know.
(00:12:49)
Robert Simoes
I read one of these points. It was like the DJ is like the postmodern artist because they, they sort of make songs from other people’s songs, but they don’t have like any of their own substance, so to speak. There’s something really interesting about that. Do you have, like, any influences you would say with like other art forms, like is there you still draw, for example, or do you do film making? Does that inspire you to want to make music? Because it feels like even in DJ culture, right. The concept of a remix is a derivative product of something that exists. So what in your world are you experimenting? I guess in terms of like creative practices that kind of keep you influenced or keep the juices going?
(00:13:32)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah, for for me, it’s always been visual arts.
(00:13:35)
Saliva Commandos
I have, I have a bachelor’s in, in filmmaking, film production. So I studied at Hunter College, and I was always that was the other side, the visual side, the filmmaking, studying the filmmaking, always wanting to make a film. You know, I was always into trying to put something together. It was like I was trying to piece things together similar to the deejaying, because you’re trying to piece the songs together. So I was always trying to piece the things and, and, so I studied at Hunter College, the filmmaking, but at the same time I’m doing the filmmaking, I’m doing the DJ, and I’m doing them both. And the filmmaking has inspired the deejaying because, for example, if I watch a film and this is right up to this day, I can watch a film and hear a certain dialogue or hear a certain song, I go, oh, I haven’t heard that before. I’ll Shazam it, I’ll find it. I’ll listen to it. If I can’t Shazam it,
(00:14:31)
Saliva Commandos
I’ll go right into IMDb. I start researching and I’ll find the song and I’ll listen to it and I go, oh, I like that. I like that sample. I think I’m going to try to use this sample, and that’s the way my mind works. So yeah, it’s the visual arts, big time. Huge, huge in my deejaying. Yeah, 100%.
(00:14:49)
Robert Simoes
And even the I guess you even have the painting back there for people looking at the video here with the. Yeah, you know, I don’t know who the artist is that the or the inspiration.
(00:14:57)
Saliva Commandos
That’s, that’s that’s, Keith Haring.
(00:15:02)
Robert Simoes
A great, great little photo.
(00:15:04)
Saliva Commandos
Oh, for the people watching and are new into this industry, he was the one. If you don’t know about a club in New York City called the Paradise Garage. It was around in the late 70s and 80s and into the early 90s. I was never allowed to go.
(00:15:19)
Saliva Commandos
I was too young, but Larry Levan was the DJ and he was the guy. Like he inspired all the DJs, the old school DJs, like he inspired them, the club, the clubs, artwork was done by that guy. So in the 80s, you know, you have this collective of things coming together, the beginning of house music, of hip hop, up the street art, you know, you know, graffiti turning into kind of getting into, art galleries. Right? But this guy used to go to this club and was friends with Larry Levan, and they and they hired him to to curate the wall, you know? It was pretty dope. You know, this is stuff. You can research this stuff on the internet. But anyway, that was a we went a little sideways.
(00:16:03)
Robert Simoes
No, no, I mean, I think a it’s great History to know.
(00:16:05)
Robert Simoes
It’s incredible too, because I think that the more that you study the history of these things, you see, like from the outset where we are today, sometimes it seems like it’s there was like a master plan or something or like, oh, how all this got created.
(00:16:18)
Robert Simoes
But a lot of times it’s like just serendipitous, you know, interactions, you know, and and even in my own experiences, I’ve found that when it comes to like finding gigs or meeting people, it’s like you just meet up with one person and one location, and it’s just a serendipitous interaction and it fosters into something completely new.
(00:16:36)
Saliva Commandos
Absolutely. And you never and you never know. That’s why sometimes you have to be at certain places. Like I always say, if you can’t win the game, if you’re not playing it, so you have to be at certain places and you just never know who you’re going to meet that person two years later, how maybe they it comes back full circle that they’re doing something, or they call you to do a remix or, you know, so absolutely. But that era was such a special era. I wish that I was, you know, inspired by those guys. But you know what? My inspiration just comes differently, that’s all. I wasn’t part of that era, you know?
(00:17:13)
Robert Simoes
Where would you say that? I guess a lot of that inspiration come. Would you say some of it is from your time in childhood in the Bronx? Is there a particular art modality or something that inspires you that.
(00:17:25)
Saliva Commandos
It’s back to the filmmaking graffiti. But as far as like super inspirations. Like for DJs. Like the first DJs that I followed were hip hop DJs Molly Maule, Mr. Magic, you know, they had these radio stations, they had these radio shows in New York City in the 80s and into not really the 90s, but kind of throughout the 80s. Mr. Magic Molly Mall, they had a mr. magic rap attack every Friday. So at late nights, because hip hop was only played at late nights, they had like two hours and they would play all this hip hop. So everyone in the neighborhood would listen. You know, everyone had radios and you would listen outside because we were hanging out outside in the summers. Then you have other DJs like DJ Red alert.
(00:18:09)
Saliva Commandos
Then you had the Latin Rascals in New York City. Then you get into the Louis Vega’s when Louie Vega starts playing the nightclubs, because Louis Vega wasn’t doing the radio shows yet. You know, he’s playing, he’s starting to play the Devil’s Nest. He moves from the Devil’s Nest to heartthrob. So when I started getting into Latin freestyle and moved on into, Into house music. He was the guy, and he’s always been the guy. Like, that’s the guy you want to. If you want to follow a DJ, a DJ, someone who’s like, technical. He’s the guy. So I followed him. I was like, cause he was the one that I felt that was at that level doing freestyle. And he would be open format as sometimes as well. He’ll probably watch this interview and go with it. What what is this guy talking about. So he would do open format as well. But he was doing Latin Latin freestyle and he moved into house in the 90s. So that’s the guy.
(00:19:02)
Saliva Commandos
That’s where I got my inspiration from. And of course that opens up to other DJs as well. You know, but hip hop as far as like Latin freestyle and going and going into house music was always Louie Vega, especially that I was from the Bronx, you know, and he was the guy in the Bronx that moved out. You know, it’s always like, your hometown guy becomes like, you know, he moves into the city, into Manhattan. That was Louie Vega. You know, he was very popular in the 80s and had a huge following already in the 80s at the Devils Nest, and he moved on to turn 18, so on and so forth. And, you know, that’s it. You know, Louie Vega becomes Louie Vega, you know. But yeah, Louie Vega, as far as jazz and inspiration at the time, Marley Mall, DJ Red alert, Chuck Chillout and the Latin Rascals, those are the guys I would listen to on the radio.
(00:19:51)
Robert Simoes
You know, I find it so interesting because I feel like today, like I’m always trying to study the metagame.
(00:19:57)
Robert Simoes
I don’t know if that’s just part of like the DJ mindset is you’re always trying to be on the edge of like, what is the not trendy, so to speak, but where is the sound going? And I feel like we’re in a in a state where a lot of Latin stuff is really been heating up, especially like Afro House over the past couple of years, has grown to this huge level, which it’s changed a lot too, but it’s for some reason, I’m finding it so intriguing that Latin stuff has become so popular. And then going back to your Latino background, I find it fascinating how many DJs are from, like, either Puerto Rico or any. Yeah. What what do you think is the connection there? Is it what? Tell me, tell me Geoorge, like, what do you think is.
(00:20:41)
Saliva Commandos
The connection, man? It’s in the blood. It’s in the roots. It’s in the. It’s like it’s it’s in there.
(00:20:48)
Saliva Commandos
You can’t get rid of it, you know, especially like, you know, especially like, especially when you’re from New York, like when you’re from New York because New York is remember, it’s a melting pot, you know, so, so like in the Bronx, like I’m growing up, I’m listening to cars go by, listening to hip hop and then freestyle music or reggae or someone’s walking by with a radio. You Spanish music, merengue, salsa. You’re listening to everything. So it’s all there and and it’s percussive, you know, it’s it’s not just a kick in a hat, you know, it’s percussive. So but, you know, I think that it just runs in the blood, you know, it runs in the blood. And and just to be clear, like, I wasn’t born in Puerto Rico. I was born in New York, you know, but my parents are Puerto Rican. So that’s I learned I learned speaking Spanish at home. Yeah. You know, so I speak Spanish thanks to my mom and dad.
(00:21:43)
Saliva Commandos
You know, that’s why I speak Spanish. But that influence for me, and I’m quite sure a lot of the Latin jazz from my era, you know, we’ll say the same thing. Home, the neighborhood where you’re from is, you know, you’re always a product of your environment. So that’s what I feel. But as far as Latinos, man, it’s in the veins that blood runs through there, man. That blood runs through there, man. Always percussive, you know, it’s like, you know.
(00:22:08)
Robert Simoes
But even like dancing, you know, that’s the one thing I found fascinating too. I was speaking to a Colombian gentleman and he was I was my question was like, how you know, where in the culture how is it that everybody is such a good dancer in Colombia doing salsa dancing like you’re two years old, you’re dancing with your grandma, right? Doing salsa. So it’s it’s so embedded in some way in the culture. And I wonder if maybe that’s part of the connection too, is what did you do a lot of dancing like in your immediate family and your family?
(00:22:35)
Saliva Commandos
We had listen and we had parties every day.
(00:22:40)
Saliva Commandos
We just had parties. It’s you just play music and people dance. That’s it. It’s just it’s normal. It’s nothing that, you know. You look around, you go, why are we doing this now? You don’t think about it. You just do it, you know? Because it’s what we did. So you’ll play a record. No one is really deejaying. You just play records, you play a record, and people just dance. You dance with each other, you have a good time. And then remember, there was also breakdancing in the 80s too. So we did that as well. You know, the young teens, because I always remember my, my mother saying, what are you doing?
(00:23:12)
Robert Simoes
Like, did you, did you get out and you just a breakdancing?
(00:23:15)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah, I did breakdancing as well. I did breakdancing and I was more. I would do like the electric boogie. That was more my thing because I was embedded in this hip hop thing. I did graffiti, remember I used to I used to do artwork.
(00:23:28)
Saliva Commandos
So I did the whole graffiti thing, not on people’s property, on a black book and, and, yeah. So it’s, it’s, I think it’s just a product of, you know, where you’re from. And that’s how I grew up. But as far as the Latino thing that’s listen, I’m speaking for Puerto Ricans, like, that’s what we do. I’m quite sure, like, you know, right now we’re older, so we’re not always getting together and throwing these parties. But when we were young, we did that every weekend, man. Every day. Just play some records and let’s go. Haha I love you know. And it’s a great thing man. It’s awesome. It’s just awesome.
(00:24:04)
Robert Simoes
Well even the community too right? I think that’s that’s the other side of it as well. You know you’re a product of the environment you’re surrounding yourself with, right? So if you’re surrounding yourself with this community, which is like minded, you know, wants to go out, wants to have fun because that’s that is functionally what is happening with the DJ, right? We’re creating these spaces for us to get together, to belong, to feel like we can dance and be free.
(00:24:26)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. No, absolutely. And I think it’s also, you know, it’s it’s spiritual. It’s a way for you to express yourself. You know, it’s strange when, when if you step out and you just look in and you go, what? The DJ is playing other people’s music and you guys, what is going on here? You guys, you guys are dancing? Yeah. It’s tribal. And I don’t mean tribal in the sense. I mean like a community, you know, because when people dance, you hope that you lose yourself, right? In those moments. So. Yeah, that’s what I feel like it’s, you know, it’s a way to express yourself, you know? And that’s the same thing. Like when we would do parties, as you know, in my house, you know, it’s the same thing. There’s no judgment. You just, you know, just be who you are. And that’s how we did it. So. But I’m quite sure a lot of families are like that.
(00:25:16)
Saliva Commandos
And I’m speaking for the Latinos, you know, because I’m quite sure Colombians and Cubans are likewise, you know, in Dominicans as well.
(00:25:25)
Robert Simoes
So then let’s fast forward so you, you know, you get exposed to this record, your sister indoctrinated you with a bit of disco and you decided okay George wants to be a DJ. At what point do you start producing your own your own tracks. I mean, we have your first release at 1996, but are you making music before that? How did you get into that?
(00:25:44)
Saliva Commandos
I used to, Well, first I was at the radio station at at, Hunter College. I was one of the DJs there, so I built my name there. The other DJ that was there that was actually leaving because he was building his name was DJ disciple from Brooklyn. So I was there at the radio station. This is the beginnings of Masters at Work. So that’s that influence is starting up now. People are making music like, oh, these guys are making records and they sound great because remember, Kenny Dope was doing the hip hop portion of it, and Louis was doing the house portion of it, and it was just right down my alley.
(00:26:19)
Saliva Commandos
I go there doing hip hop in house. Great. You know? So I was like, I used to record shop, like all the DJs. And there was a record store in the Bronx called DJ specialty. I would shop there all the time, and at the time I was like, oh, we’d like to work here. It’d be great. So I remember asking the owner, you know, when I went there one time to buy, I said, hey, listen, you guys have any openings here? And he was like, no, whatever. The guy who was the house DJ there, this is the way the world connects in this community was Hector Romero. Wow. Yeah, yeah. See this connection? A lot of people don’t know this. Well, you know, Hector and I always laugh about this. We laugh about this. He was the guy that was there. He left because his career was taken off and he was going on with David Morales mix. Now they needed someone.
(00:27:10)
Saliva Commandos
So when I showed up again, the guy was like, hey, you’re still looking for a job? I was like, absolutely. So Hector moved on and I stepped in. So now I’m at this record store, my second university, because this is where I’m learning about the owners, all the producers. Who are these guys? Like when Armand first showed up on the scene, like, I’m learning because I’m there reading the records. I’m physically looking. I’m ordering the records now. Now I know who the producers are. Don’t know them personally, but I’m starting to know. Oh, Louie. Kenny, the master’s at work now. Oh, there’s Armand Van Helden, you know, David Morales. So that was my university. So now I’m saying, what’s my next step? I have to make music out. So I’m following their footsteps. They’re they’re laying the path. Louie, Kenny, almond David. They’re making music. So they went from being the DJ to making music. So now there was another producer that used to produce freestyle music.
Challenges and Persistence in Learning Production Techniques
(00:28:08)
Saliva Commandos
His name was MG. He was the manager Michael Kidd Gomez. And there was another DJ that used to that did the hip hop portion. His name was DJ de Demo. He was the DJ for a rap group from like the late 80s, early 90s, nice and smooth and if you guys know. But he was their DJ, so he would tour with them. When he would tour, I would do the hip hop as well. So now I’m deejaying eight hours a day, like, that’s what I’m doing now. I’m going to Hunter College and then I’m coming there for like three days and I’m just like all day playing music, learning. So I remember Mike, Mike Gomez, the guy who managed the store will always people will come in that he knew other people in the industry, and they always talk about music production and this and that. So I started to pick his brain. I was like, so if you want to start like, how do you like, what do you do? And he was the one that introduced me to Midi.
(00:28:58)
Saliva Commandos
He was like, well, you would need this piece and you need that piece and they would have to connect together. You need a sequencer. You need something to make the beats. You need a sampler. That’s how I started. So what I would do is I bought I bought a Casio first I bought an SL1 that had like six seconds. I had no idea what I was doing. I just went and bought this machine, and I bought a little keyboard I found at a flea market that had Midi I told I was looking for, I believe me, I had no knowledge, there’s no internet, so I’m just going asking people. So I go, I connect this thing. And and I remember bringing it to the job and I showed one of the other DJs and he laughed. He goes, where’d you get this? This is the toy. I go, but it works. You know, I, I could trigger the sounds. But then I noticed when I was making the drums there wasn’t enough time, sampling time.
(00:29:45)
Saliva Commandos
So I went and I speaking to my Gomez, he was like, well, you should try to get yourself a Casio FZ one. And it’s an older machine, but it has floppy disk and I think it had like a maybe like 30s or almost to a minute if you added memory to it. So I bought that piece. I bought an Alesis, which was my sequencer, and I bought a DAT machine. So I invested in those three pieces and that’s all I needed at the time. And that’s how I started. It’s like DJing. You have to practice. You have to practice. So I would practice all the time. Record the cassettes, bring them to the job, not tell anyone. I would just play it and then people would be like, oh, what’s that? I was like, well, that’s something I did. And once you tell them, they start to criticize it, oh, well, you know, you should do this. So they do that, it sounds like it’s empty.
(00:30:37)
Saliva Commandos
It needs this. And he’s that I was okay, okay. I took all the criticism, you know, and I just continue to build to build. Then they hired Fernando which is this Fernando. See this is how the world works. It’s insane. So Fernando was listening to what I was doing, and I was like, doing all these, like. I mean, here. I think about it now, but they were like, so dry the drums. I was just copying everyone else. I was trying to be like Armand. I was trying to be like Kenny Dope. I was trying to be like Louie, you know? So I’m just copying what they’re doing. But he heard something in what I was doing and he was like, listen, he goes, I have a great idea for a song. He goes, if I pay for the studio time you produce it, I’ll do the vocals and then we’ll be like an act, you know? I was like, I’m in. So what I did was I created all the all all the drums at at my house.
(00:31:35)
Saliva Commandos
I brought the cassette to the studio. He booked like an hour. We did all this in an hour. He he he he he I brought the tape in the cassette. I told the guy, this is what I want to do. I know exactly what I want to do. We don’t want to waste any time. I said, I need this kind of drum. I’m going to play everything. I know what the bass line is, Fernando. What? What the vocals were. I literally laid the entire song out in like ten minutes because I’ve been practicing this thing over and over. We laid the entire thing out. Fernando went in their closet. It was somewhere in the Bronx. They had a little studio in the apartment. He went in their closet. But the guys were very good. They were very high end and recorded the vocals. And then we were like, okay, you know, I think we’re done. We did everything. I did a couple of passes, I did a couple of basslines, I chopped up the vocals, did a couple of vocal adlibs, you know, and then I was like, okay, I think we’re done.
Developing His Unique Sound and the Creation of Serve
(00:32:30)
Saliva Commandos
Can we do like, I think we wanted to do an instrumental. We did that. We did a couple of passes and then we took the cassette. I do remember them laughing and going, I don’t think anyone’s going to sign this, but you know, you got to be careful what you say to people. And I was like, no, there’s I think someone’s going to sign this, you know? But that’s how naive I was. You know, I was very not I was very naive because, you know, it’s like ignorance is bliss. If you don’t know, you don’t know. right. So I. All I knew was like, oh no, this is like just like everyone else. I’m going to get my opportunity as well. So I’m just going to continue. I’m just going to go into the story. So we make this song, we get the demo it’s called, the song is called serve. So now I have the demo, I make tons of copies. I have a magazine, the magazine was called DMA and in that magazine it had all the addresses and the A&R people in New York City.
(00:33:25)
Saliva Commandos
Now, I’m not mailing anything out. I have my messenger bag. I have like maybe ten cassettes, I have addresses, I jump on the train from the Bronx to Manhattan, and all these offices are either in the same building or like blocks away. So I’m not going that far. I’m literally one train stop and start. You start to knock on the doors. Wow. Hit up Strictly. You know you hit up strictly rhythm. And I remember this, I say this now I laugh, they don’t even. They open the door this much for you. Can I help you? I’m like, yeah, I want to drop this off. Got it. Thanks. Close the door. I’m like, you know. So that was literally it. Then the last stop. It’s always the last stop was Northcott, which was Progressive High. Northcott distributed Progressive High and Henry Street, which is, where Kenny Dope was on that label as well. So I’m I’m there for Henry Street, you know, I want to be like, you know, The Bucket Heads, you know, Kenny Dope.
First Record Deal and Breakthrough
(00:34:22)
Saliva Commandos
I want to Armand Van Helden. And that’s where I want to be on. So I the guy who opened the door, his name was Jack Dee Elliott. He had a label called Progressive High. I didn’t know I didn’t know who he was. I just gave it to him. I go, this is for Kenny Dope, the label that Kenny Henry Street. So. So they he. Yeah, he he takes it. Thank you. By the time I get home back to the Bronx, my mother tells me someone named Jack called for you. Here’s the number out. So I called, and he’s like, hey, George, this is Jack. I heard your song. I want to sign it for my label, Progressive High. And that was it. That’s all it took was one, and it was.
(00:35:05)
Saliva Commandos
In that Moment. Oh, my God, you have no idea how excited I was. I had no idea what I was doing signing a contract.
(00:35:11)
Saliva Commandos
Please. I know I was like, where do I sign, you know? but that was that’s how I started making music. I was practicing at home just like DJ, and it’s just like anything else. You need the repetition, you need to do it and you need to study other producers. So my, my, my second university was the record store. I’m studying everyone. I’m there eight hours longer than that, sometimes listening to everyone, the breakdowns. How do they start their song? How far do they go before so so now we fast forward to, you know, you go into a song like Serial Buff, right? You what I did was I took a song and this is so old school and I did this. No one taught me how to do this. This was the only way I could do it. And I started the song from the beginning. And I had a piece of paper, and I wrote every time a drum would come in, every time a pattern would change, I would wrote it.
(00:36:07)
Saliva Commandos
I wrote it two minutes, one minute of the first drum, second drum, hi hat comes in and I had a whole list. And then that’s how I that’s how I sequence above. I use that I had no ideas. 16 bars, eight bars, four bars. I didn’t know any of that. I have no music knowledge and even to this day I can’t read music. I just go by my heart and my instincts, you know? But those were like, that’s how I was starting to make music, you know? It’s like, out of necessity comes creativity, right? So that was I had nothing. So I didn’t have a big studio, you know, no one was teaching me. It was rare for someone to take you in under the wing and say, oh, this is how you do it. So I asked a hundred questions. I annoyed tons of people asking the same questions over and over because I couldn’t take them home and be like, do this for me. I know why no one’s coming to my house to do that.
(00:37:00)
Saliva Commandos
They’re older. They were doing their own thing. So at the record store, I would ask the DJs that would come in. I would ask them a hundred questions, and then I would go home and just reps, practice, practice, practice. But that’s how I got my first record. And that, let me tell you, that was the stepping stone, because all you need is one to kind of get going, you know, because once that record comes out now, it goes out to the world. You know, at that point it was more like just New York City, but it came out to New York City, you know, and now people start to get to know you. They didn’t know who you were before. And now they might they might buy your record. And the record did okay. And that’s how I started to build my name. I love how the soundtrack of my dogs barking. It’s okay.
(00:37:45)
Robert Simoes
You’ll sample it later. Yeah, yeah. Well, I find that you know what I find, you know, incredible about that is today, I would say, and I also want to talk to you about this, because you’re a big advocate of technology and the power of technology.
(00:38:01)
Robert Simoes
And, but I find, you know, the fact that you had so limited constraints that you could even pull out the piece of paper and like, literally, whereas today I feel like when even as a, you know, producing and continuing to learn how to produce myself, like you’re almost overwhelmed with the number of resources you have available to you. Like the last thing I would think is like, put a vinyl record and then start with a piece of paper.
(00:38:24)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. When you have nothing, you have to get creative, you know, and I, I would let me tell you, I wanted to make music so bad that I had to go to those levels. You have to literally the record from beginning to end. And that was a process because I would have to stop it and go back and go, okay, this is the time, and do it again and go, okay, here it comes here. And I would count the beats insane. But you know, I think back now, I go, oh man, that’s crazy because it’s so tedious, you know? But when you want to get something done.
(00:38:54)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. And you have such a passion, you just get it done. You don’t even think about it. At that time, I didn’t care how tedious it was. I didn’t see it as that. I saw it as I’m going to make a song. Yeah. So.
(00:39:05)
Robert Simoes
Well do you? So then that leads me to an interesting question, you know, about the comparisons of production environment today versus back then. Are there parts of the older production workflow that you miss compared to today, like you mentioned? I mean, sometimes it feels like we’re because we there’s so much productivity gains with, you know, Ableton or Logic or any of these different, digital audio workstations that it’s almost like there’s an expectation of a higher velocity to put out tracks. And maybe that’s a good thing because you have lots of different ideas. But, how do you how do you see that as influencing the workflow? Because it’s not like you’re I don’t know how much time you spent on that track, but I imagine you might have spent just hours and hours drilling into that track.
(00:39:46)
Saliva Commandos
Oh, yeah. Well, here, here. The first. The first version of it was sequenced through the paper. Now, this is the difference between now and back then. So what? So the dub versions, if you listen to serial, but there’s a dub version that’s an actual live version that’s live. All I did was press play and I had sequences already laid out on the MTA, so if I hit a certain number, it would switch over, right? And now all the sounds are coming out. I have 16 drum sounds and samples coming out through a mixing console. I had a mackie, so now you can punch in the sounds right? So now I have a piece of tape with with every drum sound, every sample, so I can press the sequencer. I wrote the numbers down what numbers to press, if I wanted to get to the baseline, if I wanted to get to a certain part where the samples are, then I can just punch them in and out.
(00:40:46)
Saliva Commandos
So all I did for that dub is press play on the DAT and use my DJ instincts, and I was punching in and out, moving around. So if you really listen to it, it’s not traditional. 816 eight not at all. I had no idea what that was. I learned that later, I learned that later I had no idea. So I’m just having fun. So that song that I always appreciate that song for that it’s a real DJ song. It’s just vibing. I’m just vibing like a DJ dropping in and out, and I said, I’ll do 7 minutes or 8 minutes and that was the dub. So doing that, that organic feel is that there’s something, satisfying about that because this has, it’s it’s connected to the DJ world. Right. Like you’re organically mixing songs and oh, I can remix this live. That kind of vibe now working, you know, fast forward working with technology. I love technology because once you learn it and AI and you have the foundation of how to kind of make music, then you can do anything you want.
Technological Evolution and Its Impact on Production
(00:41:52)
Saliva Commandos
I mean, it’s limitless, you know? So for me, like the technology now I’m a big advocate of Logic Pro X because that’s what I learned. I’ve been using it since 2006 and I mastered it, so I don’t want to learn anything else. I don’t want to learn Pro Tools, Ableton. I don’t want to learn any of that. I have no interest in it. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. So I just work off logic. I’ve mastered it. I can get anything done there. If I have any idea I can lay it down. I don’t. I don’t need to rely on anyone. I don’t need to text anyone and say, how do you do this? I have my best university online YouTube. Just go around on YouTube and say, how do you time stretch this? You know, and that’s it and you get it. But I love that for that, the flexibility and the workflow. I can work on something. I don’t have to leave a piece of tape or whatever.
(00:42:40)
Saliva Commandos
I just saved the files. Come back to it. I can have three songs working at the same time. Just go in and out. And once you learn all these tools, you can really get creative. And I feel that if you listen to Serial Boss from 98 and then you listen to something new that I’ve done, now you hear, oh, you hear the growth, the musical growth. Because I also have the tools, you know, now I have the tools. I have some musical knowledge. Now come back then to now still can’t read music, but I have I understand the concept, you know. So yeah, I think that, you know, I listen I’m such a big advocate for technology. But now, just to be clear, just because it’s it’s easier to make music doesn’t mean the music is coming out good. You know, I just want to be clear, okay? Everyone can make music now, but that doesn’t mean the music is good, you know, because people are just pumping them out, you know? So and I, you know, obviously I do the same, but I’m very conscious of of what I’m releasing.
(00:43:43)
Saliva Commandos
You know, I want to make sure that I stand by my work. You know, so I always put I want make sure that every song that I work on, whether it’s a remix or anything that I do that I finish, I finish everything. There’s nothing that really goes unfinished unless I’m working on it and I’m going, there’s no way to to go here. Done. Move to the side. But I might save the drums, you know, use them for something else. I might be like, oh, remix. Oh, let me get these drums. That would be perfect for this, you know? But yeah, you know, but technology is, you know, it’s like that’s the like the good and the bad, right? It’s like it’s good because you can really make music as fast as you want and do what you want, but it doesn’t mean the quality is going to be good. You know, you know, you, you know, you can have quantity but the quality is going to suffer.
(00:44:29)
Saliva Commandos
Now that’s very important.
(00:44:31)
Robert Simoes
Oh sorry I was just going to ask. So when you’re making these tracks right. You have this point that you mentioned around. You know, you want to make sure that you stand by your work. What are those internal criteria you’re using in order to judge whether this is a Saliva Commandos In Command. And we’re going to get there, you know, level relief versus something that, you know, you’re not going to put out. Because I feel like sometimes I have a book, it’s not visible here, but it’s, Julie Cameron, the, the artist, path, I think that talks about just focusing on the cycle and process and improving. And sometimes as an artist, I feel like we can get pretty afraid to release our work. Right? Because there is that will never will anybody like it. Right. And sometimes I feel like that’s almost the test of the artist is you have to put it out into the world, because otherwise you’re just it’ll just stay in there and then you just keep modifying it, right? You’re like, I’ll just tweak the compressor 3 or 4 more.
The Importance of Maintaining Artistic Integrity
(00:45:25)
Robert Simoes
So what are those internal criteria that you use in order to decide whether something’s ready for release?
(00:45:31)
Saliva Commandos
Well, the first thing I wanted to comment on when you were talking about, like, you know, the fear of, you know, the fear of, like releasing something. Fear will stop you and moving forward. I always say that to people. You have to. Okay? It’s okay to have fear, but you got to move forward. You know, you have to do the actions. So with me is like, I’ll. I’ll produce when I’m making the song. I’m looking at the dance floor literally in my mind. I’m going, man, to drop here. This is what this is what’s going to happen here with this drop. I can see it. So I try to visualize that part. You know, I always try to make sure that my, my songs have that, that I can sit down and be like, okay, will I play this? That’s big for me, you know, because I make music that I want to play.
(00:46:16)
Saliva Commandos
You guys, listen, you guys are just. I open the door so you guys can look in. That’s the way I do it. I’m making music for me, you know? And I’m going, okay, as a DJ, I’m going to play this and I’ll make people dance. But I like this. This is what I like, you know, this is what the way I want it to sound. So with that said, part of the criteria is that. And what I’m going to say is insane. It might be blasphemous to to some people. I don’t want people listening to it. I don’t I don’t want you saying change this, because that thing that you said change. This might have been the best part of the song, because remember, what’s good for you might not be good for the other person. So I’m always conscious of that, you know? And that’s just a life thing, you know? I’m like, oh, you know, too many chefs in the kitchen.
(00:47:05)
Saliva Commandos
So what I do and I learned this, you know, in my in my early stages that was happening to me. I didn’t know where to go. I was like, oh, so what am I going to do? You know, how do I go this way? Then I start sounding like this person. So there was 11. in my life where I said, done, I’m going to do this. I don’t care who likes it, who does. I’m not letting anyone listen to it and I’m going to release it. Or better yet, this is even better. You play a gig. Don’t tell anyone what it is. Don’t tell them it’s yours. Just play it. And if they like it, the other DJs and the crowd, they’re going to let you know. And I’ve had those moments. I’ve had those moments where you play something and you’re like, perfect. Then they ask you, who’s that? Oh that’s me. Oh that’s dope. There it is. You know, so sometimes what happens is that without knowing, you influence people by telling them, oh, I just did this because they’re all all of a sudden their trigger to critique is ready to go.
(00:48:02)
Saliva Commandos
Let me tell you what’s wrong with it. So I avoid that. That’s big for me. I’m like, I’m not sharing. You know, I don’t share with anyone when it’s ready, you. I’ll send it to you. And you know what? It might not be for you. You might be like, oh, this is dope, but this is not like saliva. I like your other stuff. Cool. Then there’s another DJ like, yo, this is my favorite song, you see. So. And I learned that, like, in the last seven years, I’m like, okay, I see how this works. I didn’t know that before, and now I know that. So now listen, man, I make the music for me. And then I let everyone else in. I let the world in. I let all the DJs in. And then I go, here, guys, if you like it, I love it, you know? But as far as, like when I’m going to release something, I always make sure like that it has the saliva standard and that it has everything that I do in the song.
(00:48:54)
Saliva Commandos
And I’ll listen to it in my car over and over, and then I’ll listen to it at the gym. But I like listening while I drive, just listening. And I go, I know what it’s missing, I forgot this is this. It needs this. There’s a crash that I need the heart to build up is not right. I need the sound, you know what I’m saying? So those are the things that I work in my head to make sure. Then I’ll listen to it over and over and over again, and then I’ll know I go, this is done, this is done. So I’ll just move it over to a folder and I’ll make another one. It’s like a conveyor belt. It’s the saliva command whose conveyor belt of the songs. I have so many, it’s insane. And I just keep moving them along. But I make sure that they’re finished, you know? And I for me, in my mind, they’re all great. You know, someone else might be like, I don’t like that.
(00:49:41)
Saliva Commandos
As you learn when you’re shopping to to labels, they’re like, this is good, but it’s not for us because not everything is for everyone, you know? So yeah, that’s that’s kind of how I, I don’t know if I answered your question, but that’s kind of that’s kind of how I work my criteria, how I make music, you know, literally it’s just for me, you know, I let everyone else in.
(00:50:04)
Robert Simoes
Even on that point. I want to I want to touch on the Saliva Commando standard, because I was listening to one of your interviews, and I do if I if I understood correctly, you did have a song where you sampled a pair of spoons, and I wanted I wanted to talk about that track, and I wanted to ask, where did that intuition or desire to sample the spoons come from? Because I find that basket.
(00:50:25)
Saliva Commandos
That was that was a fun time. That well, that was the okay, how I got to that point was that before that, it was exactly what I was telling you.
(00:50:35)
Saliva Commandos
It’s like you make these songs and you share them with people and they’re like, this is not finished. You need this, that. And I just got I got done with sending things out and nobody was interested. And everyone, everyone always has a comment or that everyone always has a critique. So I got done with it. So I, I sat down and I said to myself, okay, I’m gonna make a song. And this might not be the right attitude, but this is the attitude that I had. I’m going to make a song better than everyone else. There’s no such thing. But that was my mindset. I’m going to make a song better than everyone else. So I started to make the song have some ideas and I said, oh, you know what? This would need some original sounds. I said, what if I got some spoons? Because they sounded cool? I would clack them together, I said. So I went in my closet and I set up my microphone, not even on a stand.
(00:51:28)
Saliva Commandos
I think I just set it up weirdly so nothing else touches it. And I had headphones on so I could listen to the song, and I just hit the spoons the way I want it. And all you need is a four bar loop. That’s what you need. So I did a bunch of takes, and then I just make sure that I got the right loop and the song is called off for murder. So when you listen to that song and you hear the clacking kakak, those are spoons. Those are two spoons clacking, because I just wanted to get creative, you know? But that song with the spoons is what opened up the sound that I was going to create, that I had no idea that I was going to start to create. It evolved to what the sound is now. Yeah, yeah. Just trying to be creative, you know? Yeah.
(00:52:14)
Robert Simoes
And that leads really well into, you know, the next stop in in the adventure of your history, which is in command, you know, and so as I mentioned, you are, I guess, the founder, owner, creator of In Command.
(00:52:26)
Robert Simoes
Where did the genesis of that label come from for you? Why did you want to start a label?
Founding of In Command Records
(00:52:33)
Saliva Commandos
Well, I you know, if you go back to before track source and the technology that we have now, I couldn’t afford a record label. You know, you have to print vinyl. I didn’t have the funds for that. So I can’t, like, go, you know, spend money a thousand, 2 to $3000. The overhead was crazy, you know, to, you know, get the pressing, the test pressing. But when this technology came that you can have a record label where it’s all digital and you can do it out of your house. So, oh, I want to do this because now I don’t have to rely on anyone. I don’t I don’t need a record label. I’m the guy. So whatever I want to make, I’ll release. I don’t need anyone saying now that’s not good. You see? So I said, all right, commandos, I’m taking control in command.
(00:53:23)
Saliva Commandos
I’m in command of what I’m doing. It was just. It was simple. It was simple. I go, perfect, I’m gonna like, I’m gonna name the record label in command because I’m going to be a one man show. I’m going to make this record label just to release my music. That’s it. And that’s why I created. That’s the genesis of it. Now, at the beginning stages, I did something with some artists, and I was trying to sign other people, and I found that became a headache. I don’t need extra people, you know, only people emailing me about when is this? When I just want to make music and release my music. That’s why I created the label. So I removed that portion of it, which is only a small, a small, a small moment in time. And I said, I’m just going to release my songs how I want, when I want. I was able to get a distributor and I hire someone to create the logo.
(00:54:13)
Saliva Commandos
I had the idea already of like kind of music revolution, the red star. I go being in command. The colors black and red. So I share that with the designer. He came up with the logo, I loved it. and I ran with it and, and just started to release music. But prior to that, I didn’t know about mastering. So I go, oh, mastering. So I found a mastering company that was cheap, not like back in the day. So now my overhead, I’m going, okay, I can manage this, I can manage this. And as long as you have good quality music that people can connect to, then you’re good. And that’s so that’s where I am right now. And that’s kind of the genesis. Just the label was created just for me. So if you, you know, if people that are watching this interview, if you go into In Command on track source, Apple Music or Beatport, there’s only one artist, Silver Commandos. That’s it.
(00:55:09)
Saliva Commandos
That’s all. And then of course, I, I venture off onto other record labels like, Rogers label able stealth and Mike nervous nervous records malaise label you know so I’ll I’ll do that. But I try to hold all the good stuff for my label.
(00:55:27)
Robert Simoes
And so tactically speaking though, I mean when you, when you went out to to go start that like I just I’m trying to imagine like did you ever like, do I need to go talk to a lawyer? Like, how do I set up a label? How do I get distribution? How did you answer those questions for yourself?
(00:55:41)
Saliva Commandos
Well, I had I’m fortunate. I had other friends that were had labels already, so they told me, this is what you need to do. You have to make sure you register. You register the label, you know, all the legal stuff. They were like, this is how you do it. You do this, then you need a distributor. Here’s a list, you know, and and the first, you know, I was very fortunate that I got in in the early stages, you know, so I got in with label works.
(00:56:05)
Saliva Commandos
They don’t take anyone anymore. That’s it. They’re done because I have friends who tried and label works is like, no, we don’t, we’re done. We don’t take any more record labels. So I got in early, you know, they accepted. They accepted the terms with me. My dog is walking under and shaking the camera. Shaking the chair. Thirsty. He’s going to go drink water. So yeah. So I was very fortunate that I got in early and that had a couple of friends that already had labels. They have they are connected to different distributors. But I was fortunate that label works cut me a good deal, and they’ve been good to me and I’ve been releasing my music with them and they, you know, they put it everywhere. Track source Beatport, Apple Music, Spotify. You know. So yeah, that’s that’s kind of, you know, just make sure you get all your legal stuff done, you know, register the names and and that’s it. And I have I’m full owner of the label.
(00:56:57)
Saliva Commandos
I’m full owner of the masters of the publishing and the record label. And it’s just one artist, one artist I record to one artist, you know.
(00:57:09)
Robert Simoes
And what kind of I’m curious, what kind of challenges do you find, you know, being that sole owner and runner? Because I know that the whole landscape of, you know, music marketing and music production and releasing has changed so much in the past couple of years. What kind of challenges do you face or or opportunities do you see for being in your position?
(00:57:30)
Saliva Commandos
one is that, there’s no money in streaming. That’s the big one. So if I had this label, if I had this label 15 years ago, I’d be a millionaire. But, you know, there’s like, no, there’s really no money in streaming. So, you know, you really have to, you know, have like an enormous amount of, of downloads, you know, to, to see a good return. I’ve seen decent returns, but I just want to be clear with people, you know.
(00:57:59)
Saliva Commandos
You know, it’s like this is passion for me. And, you know, not only is it passion for me, but the upside for me is that it allows me to get D.J. work making music, because that’s kind of where we are now, right? You have people. People tell DJs, you gotta make music first. That’s what they do now. Promoters go make music, get a couple of songs out there, make sure they’re like hits, and then come back and we’ll book you, you know, get a name. That’s what promoters do now. So which is weird or weird?
(00:58:30)
Robert Simoes
Very weird.
(00:58:31)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. Weird. Oh, by the way. Oh, you want to be a DJ? Go learn how to make music first. Very strange, but that’s, you know, you know, the challenge is that you know, that, you know, the hope that you want to sell. You know, even if you sold a million streams, you got a million streams that you would see $1 million.
(00:58:49)
Saliva Commandos
It doesn’t work that way. But, you know, the upside is that, the financial part does come through my bookings, you know, my DJ booking. So that’s a good thing. Yeah. You know.
(00:58:59)
Robert Simoes
And I want to, it didn’t quite come up in our, in our story, but I do want to highlight it because you had this moment, I recall I was listening to some of your, your work where you said it was like this inflection point for you. You were right about to quit on making music, and I can’t recall if it was prior to setting up in command or if it was setting up a command. Can you tell us a little bit about at that point of your journey? Because I think it was a really inspiring point to hear about.
(00:59:24)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. You know, I used to live in the Bronx. I no longer live there. So I had access to the city and at the time to go record shop. Right. But then digital technology took over.
(00:59:39)
Saliva Commandos
So that of me going, oh, you know, I can’t go into the city to buy records all the time. I can’t do that. I’m not driving an hour, you know, just to get records and come back. So I was like, okay, so the industry and just the industry, not my passion for it, started to kind of separate. You know, I’m like, oh, here. It’s happening over there. The internet is really it’s out there, but it’s not really, you know, there’s no track source. There’s no Beatport yet. This is predates that. So. So now when now now you have the digital era comes in. So now I’m like you know I’m on logic now I’m like okay I can make music and send the files. I don’t have to send go to the city, give someone a cassette. So now you can start mailing stuff. But I got to a point where I was like, okay, this is not going to happen for me.
Resilience and the Turning Point in His Career
(01:00:31)
Saliva Commandos
This was prior to me making the label. I was like, this, I’m done, I’m done. This is not it’s obviously not in my cards. Literally said that to myself. This is not in my cards. So I had you know, you come to that point where you really have to, be honest with yourself. And I had to be honest with myself. I’m like, all right, I did it all these years. This this is the end of the road. You know, it never really happened, but I remember. Oh, this is this is wild. The way life works. I had sent Gladys Pizarro. She used to be the A&R of Strictly Rhythm. At the time, I think Strictly Rhythm was purchased by BMG. So she was no longer there, you know? But she was starting her own label and was looking for music. So I remember I had hit her up, because I thought at the time through Facebook, I thought at the time, this is the early stages of Facebook.
(01:01:26)
Saliva Commandos
I thought at the time that, she was still at Strictly Rhythm. So I sent her some songs, you know, and, and she hit me up, like, a year later. Weird. I’m like, I’m on my way out of this thing. She was like, hey. And I’m like, I got a message from Gladys Pizarro. She’s like, Hi, George. You know, I knew you sent me some songs a while ago. I’m starting a label. I really like these songs. It’s like, really? She’s like, yeah, like some of these songs. Her label was going to be distributed by BMG. So she had like a, you know, she had a corporation behind her. So, I was like, wow, this is great. So as I’m throwing in the towel, she’s stepping in. So she signed some songs and got a Mr. V remix for me. I didn’t know Mr. V, but she got him to remix it.
(01:02:15)
Saliva Commandos
She, you know, hired and paid him. She knows Victor hired him. I didn’t know him at the time. And he did a remix for me and the song did well. Kind of started a small relationship with Mr. V, because people now were like all of a sudden, like Saliva Commandos. People didn’t know the name or like, oh, who is this dude? And then people who knew cereal. But now remember there was a huge separation from when I did cereal. Back to that moment with Gladys. They were like, oh, this guy is back. He’s still around and stuff is still good. So I was like, oh, so all of a sudden I’m on SoundCloud. Oscar G puts my song that she released on his mix. I was like, oh, this is dope. Oscar G’s playing my stuff already. This is great. So I had a good moment with Gladys. We had a good run for about a year and then it stopped again. That’s where the record label came in.
(01:03:11)
Saliva Commandos
That’s where. Okay, I’m done with this. I need to control this. I can’t have people trying to control what I’m doing. I can’t do it because they obviously don’t understand my vision. And every time people want to change your vision, I got, you know, and if you. One thing we’ve learned from history and artists is that, I’ll give you a good example. Alanis Morissette, She’s Canadian, isn’t she? Alanis Morissette, she. I watched the documentary and she was like, oh, I dropped my first album with the record label and it flopped. It flopped because the record label made the album, not me. When she said, I’m done with this, I’m going to do what I want, how I want, write the songs I want, produce it how I want with the people I want. Then it’s her. That’s why that album was so successful and I think that’s what happened to me. I just got done. I’m done with everyone else. I said, I’m just going to do this how I want.
(01:04:02)
Saliva Commandos
Which leads into the evolution of the saliva sound, because I’m just doing what I love, how I love it, and it’s slowly. I wasn’t trying to create a sound. I don’t know if you had this question, but I’ll I’ll let the audience know. I wasn’t trying to create a sound. Not at all. I’m just making music how I like. And it it came to that, that the first time I was told that was Roger Sanchez. He’s like, do you have a sound like, I know your sound, I hear it, or you have a sound. I was like, really? And then I started to hear it. When I would go out to parties, they were like, yo, I love your sound, man. Your sound is unique. I’m like, wait, I have a sound. I was like, I don’t even know. I’m just making organic music. And then I start to listen. I go, oh, I see, I see the shakers, the drums, the way I put my drums together.
(01:04:49)
Saliva Commandos
I’m just making it from my heart, you know? So. Yeah. So that’s, when I wanted to throw in the towel. I don’t know if I answered your question, but no.
(01:04:58)
Robert Simoes
I mean.
(01:04:58)
Saliva Commandos
I’m trying to.
(01:05:00)
Robert Simoes
Know, you know, I think it’s it’s fascinating because like you said, it’s this, like serendipitous or like, just like intervention that just sort of like, picked you up and kind of pushed you a little bit into your right direction. And even the way that you’re describing how you like, you know, some artists say that the oh, it’s like you hone in and you figure out what your sound is, but it sounds like you sort of you just like, stumbled upon it. Right? It’s like you didn’t even I didn’t.
(01:05:25)
Saliva Commandos
Even know I was doing it until people started, you know, Roger mentioned it to me and and I was like, okay, bro. Roger says, you know, Roger is like, you know, Roger, Roger. Roger says, I have a son.
(01:05:35)
Saliva Commandos
I guess I must have a sound. But then, then when people start telling me people will want on going, by the way, that’s hard to do. It’s hard to get a sound. Not everyone has a sound. So then I was told this. You have a sound like Louie Vega has a sound. Can he don’t pass the sound on. When I hear the songs, I know it’s dumb. When I hear your song, I know it’s you. I was like, oh, that’s wild. I was like, okay, now when we go back to Young George, that’s why I always wanted that. But I was trying to be those guys. I was trying to be Tori. I was trying, so I had no sound. When I stopped trying to do that, it came. It just slowly came. It evolved. It was all organic. But I’m like, listen, I’m very blessed for it. I wasn’t trying to do it in. And now people try to copy me.
(01:06:26)
Saliva Commandos
It’s like, it’s funny, I hear it. I go, hey, that’s kind of sounds like me. That’s it’s cool, you know?
(01:06:31)
Robert Simoes
So even even because we touched a little bit on this earlier. Right. But like this, there’s the Afro house kind of sound which has, you know, it’s grown a lot and it’s changed in a lot of ways too. But I know that some, you know, some places there are some online distributors with categories categorize you under Afro House. I don’t know how you categorize your own sound. I don’t know if that’s something artists like to do, but.
(01:06:53)
Saliva Commandos
Well, Excuse me. I always said that my sound was percussive. It’s just percussive. And I come from, like, tribal, because at the time, in the 90s, that was the sound tribal. So I just wanted. I like to do really good drums. always focus is very interesting. People focus on melodies. I focus on the drum first. I’m doing drums before bassline.
(01:07:14)
Saliva Commandos
I’m not. I’m not traditional. I’m very different from everyone else. But I guess that’s what makes me different, you know, and unique in that way. So I just focus on drums, drums, drums, drums, drums make people dance, you know? So that’s the way I see it. So anyway, so yeah, so I’m more percussive and at the time I went into the genre of tribal because that’s the, the genre. Then this Afro thing showed up. I go, well, there’s no tribal here in on track source. And Beatport didn’t have Afro House yet, so I had to go into Afro House. I don’t make Afro house. I really don’t, you know, kudos to those guys who really focus on that sound, that style, the black coffees, the Pablo fires, those guys, you know, that’s their sound. Like I always felt. I just make house that’s percussive and it’s very sample heavy, disco influenced, hip hop influenced. So it’s really house music, but sometimes there’s no category for me.
(01:08:13)
Saliva Commandos
So I was just going to Afro House and I’m and I’m sure the Afro House guys go do this is not Afro house. I go, there’s no space for me. But here’s the crazy part. The crazy part is that all the Afro House guys love my sound, so it’s wild. I’m like, all right, so I played this party in San Francisco and, and and the guys are like, Afro house. Afro house. We do a house party. That’s why we brought you in. I’m like, great, but I’m really. I just do percussive stuff. I guess that falls into Afro House, you know? And they laugh. You know, I go, really? You know, I’m just curious, you guys, but. and here’s the other thing with that, I don’t want to be put into that box. So that’s why if you look at my stuff, like my latest release, Watch the Sun Go Down, that’s out now, you know, it’s on track source.
(01:09:02)
Saliva Commandos
It’s house music. You know, I, I’ve done techno. I’ve, I’ve, you know, do Afro, I do disco house and then the percussive stuff that falls on the Afro house, you know. So I just and and what other genres I think a lot. I fall into a lot of disco house as well. I just like to do what I like, but it’s always percussive because I always start with the drums first, so it’s always percussive. So for me, I, you know, I just, I just like I had a song five years ago, I just call it House. That’s how I like to do it, you know.
(01:09:38)
Robert Simoes
Yeah. Well, even like I think of one of your tracks, I think it’s remember or remember in 1984 might have been the other one. And they do. They have like that disco, but you’re just like, okay, but this is like a really thundering drill.
(01:09:50)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah, well, I make it like I said, you know the melody for me.
(01:09:54)
Saliva Commandos
I’m. I’m telling you, this is so blasphemous, man, but I just don’t care. For me, the melody is second. It’s strange. People are like, what? No, you need them. I go, no, it’s second for me. And it works for me. Because once I have the dope as hard as drums, then I could add the sample. That’s how I work. The sample is second I go, I have dope drums. Now, if I can get a dope sample that’s going to work with this, we’re good. And that’s how I build a lot of my songs, you know.
(01:10:22)
Robert Simoes
And so you mentioned this point around sampling. And actually, it’s funny because we we talked a bit about this, I think your track and why gospel on nervous. Right. And I listened back to it and I was like, oh my gosh. He sampled this old I think it was the 70s, like funk, gospel. Can You Lose By Following God? Right.
(01:10:41)
Robert Simoes
And I was like, whoa, I didn’t think anybody would turn that into like a house track.
(01:10:46)
Robert Simoes
So you know, sampling is so fundamental to house music. How are you in your workflow? How are you finding and identifying new samples? Because it seems, I’ve had some conversations with DJs and artists, and it seems like a lot of times we’re there’s these kind of huge, what would you say epicenters of samples. Right. Like Carie Lewis – Dance With Me. Right. That sample.
(01:11:07)
Saliva Commandos
Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(01:11:08)
Robert Simoes
Any of these things that are just like you hear them and instantly you’re like, okay, I know that. I’ve heard that like a bajillion times. How is an artist? Are you finding unique and fresh samples? What? Where are you digging for tracks? Are you looking in vinyl record stores? Are you in your closet messing with more spoons and percussions and other stuff?
(01:11:28)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah, I’m in my closet playing with the spoons. You know, I, I, I do, it’s the DJ thing, you know, I research this is the best advice I can give people that are starting in this industry.
(01:11:44)
Saliva Commandos
Do your research, research the history of house music. How important would that be? Right? If you like, learn the history before you’re like, I bought a controller, now I’m going to play all these parties, you know, you know, at least know the history. So for me, I come from that. I come from that cloth of history, researching. So I researched music. And not only that goes back to my filmmaking, that part. I’m influenced by everything. If I hear something, I want to find that song, you know? So I start searching everywhere until I find it and I go, I’m gonna sample this. And if I can’t sample, if it doesn’t work, it’s okay. But I’m always looking. And if I use the sample that someone else used, I do it all the time. I can find a song that are mine, the Bassman, Jack’s, Fatboy Slim that they’ve used, and I’ll use it, but I’ll flip it. You have to.
(01:12:37)
Saliva Commandos
If you’re going to sample something, you can’t do the same thing that they did. You can use it and it could be recognizable, but you have to flip the sample. And I’ve been and I’m always focused on that. I’m making sure that I flip the sample. And if the sample sounds too close to how they did it, then I’m like, all right, I have to change it. It’s not going to work for me, because the last thing I want to do is remake someone else’s song. But for me, finding a good sample, it’s about, researching and listening to the song and, and hearing it. I’ve just been fortunate like my years here I go. Oh that’s the sample. Then I throw it into my workstation, I’ll loop it and listen to it. Listen to it over drums I go oh yeah this is going to work. Create a bassline out of it. I go over and then get the vocal, use the vocal parts I can create from the vocal parts.
(01:13:27)
Saliva Commandos
I can create a chorus and a verse, the verses, the sample. Then I use the vocals, you know, as, as the, the, the verse, you know. And so I’ll use a small portion of the song and break it into two parts and make a chorus in a verse, You know. So. Listen, I’m all about research is so important, you know, but I’m not. One thing I won’t do is I won’t give away my secrets.
(01:13:53)
Robert Simoes
Okay? Fair enough.
(01:13:54)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah. I’m not I’m not going to be like, hey, this is how I do it. Then there’ll be there’ll be a hundred saliva. The two.
(01:14:00)
Robert Simoes
Minutes. Yeah.
(01:14:01)
Saliva Commandos
We can have 100 Salivas.
(01:14:05)
Robert Simoes
Incredible.
(01:14:05)
Saliva Commandos
Just, you know. So I’ll tell you every time I talk to other DJs. Here’s the question. How do you. What do you do? How do you get those shakers like that? I go, really, I go, so I’m going to tell you my secret.
(01:14:18)
Saliva Commandos
So then you can do exactly what I’m doing. I said, just listen to my song. If you want to try to copy it, copy it, you know. Yeah, but I get I get that asked a lot. I don’t give any of my secrets away.
(01:14:30)
Robert Simoes
And you know, rightfully so. Right. And or did it could, can you know, create and curate that sound. I’m always just so fascinated how, how is it like Going back to what we were talking about at the. Before you, before we started the recording, you know that. Samples are you know, they’re everywhere. And even you did a, you did some work with, the street players or I guess what most people know is the bomb. We were talking about this, right? And then you said, you know, I didn’t want to do it the same way that Kenny Dope did it. I wanted to flip it. I wanted to create something else. And I mentioned to you, I said, I heard that at, Sunnyside Pavilion here in Toronto with Mark Knight playing.
(01:15:08)
Robert Simoes
And I was like. I was like, going bananas. I was like, what is this? Right? It was just that horn over and over again.
(01:15:14)
Saliva Commandos
Yeah, I love that horn. Well, thanks to Kenny Dope, I mean, he’s the guy who he he c this goes back to research and being a crate digger he found that sample. He without. It’s funny I’m going to give this guy props Kenny dope without Kenny dope using that sample. There is no Pitbull using that sample. You see how that works? Pitbull doesn’t know about that sample. He knows because Kenny Dope used it. You know so it’s it’s it’s that you know it’s that thing. You know it wasn’t like I would never take credit like oh I found this sample. No that’s Kenny Dope you know. And he used it well and some other producer used it as well. I don’t know their name so I’m not going to shout them out, but. And I just wanted to do my version of what, like the saliva commandos feel would be to it.
(01:16:02)
Saliva Commandos
So that’s why I made that, you know? So I’m glad you like it.
(01:16:06)
Robert Simoes
Oh, no, I was I mean, like I said, I was, I was in the crowd. I was just like, sweating. And I was just like, this is incredible.
(01:16:14)
Robert Simoes
How do you how as, like, I guess my perspective is, like I mentioned to you, I learned so much from you old school DJs because I feel like you have such a passion and appreciation for the history, the whole perspective, the long tail, knowing that Frankie Knuckles was in New York, then he went to, you know, then he went to Chicago, then he started the house music. Then it came back, you know, all over. How do you look at, I guess, today’s industry? Because nowadays it is so much easier to get started as a DJ and a producer. And even what you mentioned, there’s some of these kind of paradoxes where it’s like, well, go produce music before you start deejaying.
(01:16:48)
Robert Simoes
It’s like, but I want to learn how to deejay.
(01:16:50)
Saliva Commandos
So strange, strange, strange world.
(01:16:53)
Robert Simoes
Look at our look at our our our current climate. And what advice would you give for for DJs, prospective DJs and prospective music producers coming into that? Because I feel like it’s very easy to get sucked into this world where you’re like, okay, well, I need to focus on building a huge online platform and getting the best photo. And it’s maybe not necessarily about how great of a crate digger you are, but how great of a like photographer or like videography team you have. Yeah. What advice do you have for those for those people who are, you know, feeling kind of, demotivated perhaps, or like things that are against them or that all the headwinds.
(01:17:31)
Saliva Commandos
Well, the, the first thing is that I’ll say with anything that you do is that you never quit. You. You never stop. Because when you stop. You have no idea what was a year coming. You have no idea.
(01:17:44)
Saliva Commandos
What’s your track? Everyone’s on their own track, so you can’t stop. You don’t know when it’s going to happen for you. Just like my story, right? I. It took me forever and I. And then it happened and I was ready to give up. So that’s that’s the first thing you can’t give up. So whether it’s not working for you now, it doesn’t matter. You have to just continue. But, you know, I think that the paradigm is changing. You know, this whole how a DJ, you know what a DJ is now, you know, and I can’t one thing I will not do is say, well, this generation that’s irrelevant because this generation is a product of their time, you know, and their time is this technology. You know, now, I think it’s important to know your history. I think that it’s important to, if you’re a baseball player, you’re going to have old school baseball players that you followed a certain team that you like to follow, right? So it’s the same thing with deejaying.
(01:18:40)
Saliva Commandos
It’s an art form. So you should know. Yeah, there’s a new technology. Yes. There’s a sync button. Okay. But you should learn how to beat mics by ear. You know, you should learn these things. And if you want to use this thing for fun, so be it. Can you be creative? Can you make the people dance? Because at the end of the day, it’s not about you. It’s about the people that dance. And and when I was playing in San Francisco, you know, they were like, oh, that’s great. You know, such a great job. I said, listen, you guys pay me to make them dance. It’s not about me. It’s about them. Are they dancing? You know, can you can you learn the technique of this record is not working. How can I make these people dance? Or you’re just going to play for yourself and be like, no. Well, this is good. How can they not like it? It doesn’t work that way.
(01:19:28)
Saliva Commandos
It doesn’t work. The song is it’s good, how can you not like it just doesn’t work that way because you can play a song that you don’t like, but the crowd loves. I do it all the time. I play hostile online. I’m not a big fan of this song. I would never play this song. They love it and they’re dancing. I guess that’s all that matters right now, you know? So it’s just learn, learn your, you know, you have to learn the craft and the history and you need the reps. You gotta put in the work, you know. And that’s just a life lesson. You know, whatever you put in is what you get out. You know, you go discount, you get discount. You know, you have to you have to make sure that you put in the work. So that’s my advice. I don’t care how you do it. I don’t care if you just play with a laptop. But at least learn understand beat mixing, you know? Understand before you get to the sync button.
(01:20:16)
Saliva Commandos
Understand that. Understand the main players that came before you. Now you know this generation Gen Z might not go back to Larry Levin. They might not go back to Frankie Knuckles. Maybe you want to go back to Armand, you know, 90 or. You know what I’m saying? Maybe even Louis. You know, although Louis might be a little older, but, you know, because this Gen Z, they don’t know who those guys are. So then maybe go to Marc night. Marc night’s been around for a while. Marc. Night mixes by ear. You know. So sometimes you know this generation they might not want to go that far back. But at least those guys even from the late 90s and 2000, early 2000. These guys, they know their history because they were playing on vinyl. So they understand beat mixing. They understand what it is to curate a party, to curate a decent playlist. You know, they understand what it is to to play a party and have a playlist set and it’s not working.
(01:21:14)
Saliva Commandos
Time to get creative, right? So you have to understand that and that. And I say that because that happens all the time. I make a playlist, I go, okay, I’m gonna play this for this party, and then you start playing it. That’s not the crowd. You start playing, you go, okay, now they actually like this. I’ll go away from that abandoned ship. We’re going to play this because they’re dancing to this, and I’ll stick to that. And obviously that comes with time and repetition. So it’s about reps. And just if you if you’re learning the history then you respect the game. You’ve got to respect the DJ culture. You know. And for someone like me, man I love it. I have a passion for it. I know my history. I’m fortunate enough to be making my history, you know? So I never thought that would be happening for me. But I’m, you know, trying to make my mark in this industry. And, you know, I don’t wake up every morning saying, oh, I gotta make my mark.
(01:22:12)
Saliva Commandos
I just make music. And that in itself becomes organic and the world takes it on. And, you know, you guys own it. And I just keep making the music, you know, I put my head down and just work, you know? But yeah, that’s the advice. The advice is a lot of repetitions. Respect the game. You know, respect and know your history. Learn your craft. Because anyone could buy a controller and get on the sync button and go on YouTube and be like, okay, but then you don’t know how to curate a party. Those things are important. That’s that’s how I feel. That’s the DJ side. Now, as a producer, once again, if you want to make house music, learn that genre. If you want to make Afro house and learn the players, go to black coffee and listen to all his stuff, right? Go to Pablo Fierro, listen to all their stuff. You know, his stuff, you know? So learn whatever genre you want to get into.
(01:23:00)
Saliva Commandos
If you’re going to get into techno, learn those guys. The main dope guys were making dope music. Learn those guys. Don’t just start making random shit and think that, you know, you know that, oh my, my work is good, but you don’t even know who these main guys were that were making this music before you. That’s it. You know, just learn. And obviously, here’s one big key of advice for someone who’s going to produce music. Less is more. If you buy too much DJ, too much producer gear, this that, then you’re going to spend all your time learning it. You’re not going to make any music. Less is more. One simple machine. One simple DAW that you can learn. I’m an Apple guy, so an iMac, a laptop, decent speakers, decent keyboard, and then whatsoever in between the ears, I say get creative, you know? But less is always more. People go like, oh, I have a huge studio. You don’t need all that.
(01:23:56)
Saliva Commandos
You don’t need. I believe you, me, my I’m. When people follow me on Instagram, my fans, they look when I post the videos, I’m very minimal. I’m basic as it comes because I am just creative, you know, even. That’s my advice. What was that?
(01:24:12)
Robert Simoes
I was just going to say, you know, the advice less is more even in sound construction, right? Because some of the even the 90s house tracks that I love right there are so simple, You know, it’s an open high hat, a kick, a baseline, maybe a sample here and there and that’s it. But yeah but but.
(01:24:28)
Saliva Commandos
But like it it’s a DJ making that that. Remember always remember that the those producers were deejays. All of them. You start looking back. You start looking back. You’ll find you’ll find 1 or 2 who are rare like a kitchen rare. He wasn’t a DJ, he was just a producer and then kind of became a DJ. So he was more musically inclined in that sense.
(01:24:52)
Saliva Commandos
But it’s it’s always, you know, DJ first, then you make the music. Now 2024 make music, then DJ it’s it’s just crazy. But that’s the, you know, the paradigm shift. So yeah, this is where we are. You have to roll with it.
(01:25:08)
Robert Simoes
Incredible, incredible. Well we’re coming up to time here George. But I do want to ask, I guess this last section, I think I think I prepped you with it, but three tracks, under the radar on repeat. And your guilty pleasure. Okay.
(01:25:23)
Saliva Commandos
you mean like, three tracks? My favorite tracks. One.
(01:25:27)
Robert Simoes
Yeah, one track for each category.
(01:25:30)
Saliva Commandos
Oh, man. So, Off a murder. Off a murder. Because that song is the one that opened the gates for me in the Afro House world. that one. Rumba. it’s a song that was a little underrated. I held on to it for a while. send it out to a couple of big labels. You know who you are.
(01:25:57)
Saliva Commandos
And they said no. Then I send it to my boy Melly. He’s like, yo, I’ll take this. And then I released it. And then those labels were like, hey, why didn’t you send us that? I’m like, dude, come on, I send this to you. But, Yeah. Tracker Roomba and club band. And, of course, on my label, Promesa, which is, Brazilian Vibe with the vocalist Kelly Denise. Brazilian. And it was the first time I did something that had a Brazilian vocal on it. So there it is. I think you wanted three songs, right? I think.
(01:26:34)
Robert Simoes
Three tracks. Love it. There it is. Yeah.
(01:26:36)
Saliva Commandos
Three tracks. There it is.
(01:26:37)
Robert Simoes
Amazing. Well, thank you again so much, George, for for coming on and sharing all this wisdom and yeah, just like your authenticity as well as your story and just giving those inspiring points to those prospective DJs in producers who they do. You know, on one hand, yes, we maybe we can embrace a little bit more of the present day.
(01:26:56)
Robert Simoes
But I do think, like you said, we have to look at the culture because it’s so rich and it’s so much more than just, getting up on the decks and being the center stage. You know, there’s a whole, echelon of things you have to respect. And the more that you learn, the more that you’re like, oh, God, I can’t believe I did that.
(01:27:14)
Robert Simoes
Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
(01:27:16)
Saliva Commandos
Just, you know, respect the culture, learn your history, you know, use the sing button if you want. I don’t care, but, you know, be creative and learn how to curate a party, a playlist, a good playlist. Learn how to deviate if you have to. I thought it was important things, you know?
(01:27:33)
Robert Simoes
Incredible. Incredible. All right, well, this has been the Beyond the Decks podcast. Make sure that you tune in to all the different podcast providers that you listen to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, podcasts, and George, we were wishing you well with the sound and continual elevation of in command and your own sound.
(01:27:51)
Robert Simoes
And, maybe we’ll have you back on at some point on the podcast to see what’s the next level of Saliva Commandos. It’s like.
(01:27:57)
Saliva Commandos
Absolutely, I’m game. Thank you so much, Robert, for having me. Thank you. Peace out to everyone and follow your dreams. Remember, everyone, you got to follow your dreams. That’s what it’s about.
