Harry Choo Choo Romero Interview

Harry 'Choo Choo' Romero Interview!

Harry Choo Choo Romero Interview photo Clubbing UK catch up with Columbian born, 30 year old DJ & Producer Harry 'Choo Choo' Romero. As someone jointly responsible (alongside Erick Morillo) for establishing Subliminal Records as one of the leading dance music outlets, he's also set up his own label, Bambossa Records. Obviously there was quite a bit to discuss, not to mention the incident at an Airport that got him locked up in Ireland recently! Seconds away, round 1!

What have been up to recently?
"Just really in the studio man, I had a long summer I was doing a lot of gigs, you know - I got back finally from my last gig it would have been, maybe two weeks ago, I was in France I believe, yeah. So I’m taking a couple of months off, a couple of gigs here and there but taking a couple of months off and just back in the studio and just seeing what happens."

What's happening with the album?
"Album is finished it’s called ‘Thatbeat’, it was finished last December. It has not been released yet, it’s actually one of the things tackle when I get to the studio is the release date."

How and where did you’re story start off?
"As a result mostly by DJing, you know you start hearing the quality of the records and think ‘you know what I could do this’, so with the help of my parents I brought my first sampler and brought my own computer and I just started experimenting, just taking sounds and seeing what happens, a year later Gladis Carlton from Strictly Rhythm picks up my record and that’s really where it kicked off. I started buying equipment in ’94 - 9 years ago."

When did you know this would your chosen profession?
"Actually at the time I was at university, I was getting my bachelors in Fine Arts, I’m actually an artist, I come from an artist background, sculpture and paintings, and I was studying Graphic Design and at the time I was at university was when I started messing around with music, so for me it just started out as a hobby if I finished something and someone put it out - great, if not I’ll keep trying. I never thought I’d make a profession out of it."

How come they call you ‘Choo Choo’?
"When I was a kid I used to wear this train conductors cap, it’s actually like a childhood nickname, it’s not like a music business thing, it’s just my name!"

Out of all the tracks you’d made, which is your favourite & why?
"I would like to give you one answer for that, but I’d have to give you two, it would have to be ‘Night Of The Black’, well three actually ‘Tania’ and ‘I Go Back’. ‘Night Of The Black’, because of just the way it sounds man, it’s an amazing record, every time I hear that record I’m like ‘wow - what was I on?’ and ‘Tania’ would have to be for the simplicity of it, it really was five tracks and they were just the right elements, it was very simple - it’s just a dope ass groove. And the Robert Owens because of it’s Robert Owens, the record was just perfect man you know what I mean. Yeah it was great man, he’s a nice guy, very personable, very humble you know what I mean."

Out of all the tunes you’ve remixed, which is your favourite & why?
"I’ll have to think I haven’t done remixing in such a while, remix would probably be Basement Jaxx a record called ‘Bingo Bango’, if you go back and listen to it you’ll hear why I’m saying I like it so much, it was doing things at the time that I didn’t even realise what I was doing, it kinda set the pace from what I did then to what I do now, a while ago - 3 years ago probably."

Was that the most challenging one & why?
"Night Of The Black’ was actually very challenging for me because I was having problems with computer at the time, and I didn’t know I was having problems with my computer, I thought it was something else. The beats were going off beat a lot, weren’t staying in time, so I racked my brain re-installing software, de-installing software, fragmenting, de-fragmenting the hard drive, realised my midi-interface that was the problem (it’s just studio jargon), the midi-interface was fucked up so as a result of that I went out brought a brand new computer and this and that, I didn’t realise it was just the midi-interface, it was kinda a pain but in the end it came out good."

How did your links with Subliminal start up?
"I’ve known Erick since 1992-93, I’ve known Erick a long time, he used to DJ at a nightclub in Jersey over around my way, cause Erick was about 40 minutes north, the was a club round here when Erick was touring with Real2Real, this was a local show, before ‘I Like To Move It’, before Erick blew up as a household name sort of thing. We just hit it off man, we had a mutual friend his name was Keith Lipman and when Keith would go up there to work in the studio I’d just tag along. Slowly but surely, Erick’s on my drive, my desire to really do something with the music. He took me in - like a stray dog!"

Why not release ‘Calling Me’ on your own label, how do you chose which outlets to release your productions?
"Well because that’s part of my album, as being as the album’s coming out on Subliminal, It would only be right to have it come with Subliminal. Pushing it forward, Erick’s always been there for me, and I’ve always been taking ‘I wanna do an album, I wanna do an album’, he said ‘Harry go for it man, you got me over here, we’ll put it out. Don’t worry about it" that’s really the reason, Subliminal’s a great label."

It features your lovely wife Jessica, how do you get on when you work together? Does it cause added problems or help get more resolved?
"Oh man - It’s a big fight! I say that in a caring way because it’s hard to separate the husband and wife thing, you’re singing it wrong or we need to redo this part or it sounds great, it’s funny actually, at the end of it we just sit down and laugh, because we listen to the final outcome and we’re like ‘yo, this is dope’, what ever we did, whatever curse words you said to me, made it what it was."

On your label Bambossa Records (2001) have you faced any difficulties?
"No not at all man, I started the label 3 years ago and at the time I guess I had really good production, it seemed like the most logical thing to do the schedule became much tighter, I’m sitting on these really good records that I believe in, I need to put them out - I can’t wait for a free spot in the schedule, start a label and it really worked out, we sold a lot of records."

"I just put out a record about 3 months ago, I’m putting another one out this month, the one coming out this month is called ‘Air Rage’ on the B-side is a record called 'The Spell’, the artists is one of my alias’ Robin Thieves."

Anything currently happening with either Constipated Monkeys / Ministers de La Funk?
"Actually Jose and I are in the process of getting back in the studio, maybe we’ll use the name Constipated Monkeys or whatever just for nostalgic reasons, I wanna start collaborating again with the fellas, it got to a point were we just kinda all went our own direction because we always worked with each other, fuck it lets do something on our own. Now we’re back at the place where we miss each other, we wanna collaborate again so I’m really excited about that!"

Out of all the cities you’ve visited on your lengthy world travels, what would you say are the best 3 clubbing cities in the world and why?
"That’s real tough man, because some of these clubs that really kick off are in the UK aren’t even cities, they’re small little towns. I really enjoy going to Barcelona for various reasons, I have really good friends there and they’re just up for it man, and the food is fantastic - the food in Barcelona is amazing, I go on hunger strike when I go to the UK, you got ketchup and prawn flavoured crisps, what’s that all about?"

Is it true you were recently nicked for punching someone at an airport?
"Oh yeah I was locked up for a month in Ireland, I broke a guy’s nose on the airplane. How come is because apparently his companion, his lady said that I bumped in to her when I grabbing my over head luggage and she started being really offensive in the words she was saying. So basically I said "What’s up your arse lady?" I turned around to de-board the plane, and the guy grabbed me from behind, I turned around and cracked him in the nose man. It cost me a lot of money too. I’m an American citizen - I did get bail, I wasn’t locked for a month, I had to stay in the country for a month, so I did a few nights in jail/prison and then I got out on bail, I’m an automatic flight risk just cause of the fact that I have a passport and I’m not from that country, that’s kinda why they let me have it - they stuck it to me, as we say.

Will you ever return there?
"I was actually back there a week after I got out of the whole situation, I was playing right in Dublin, a few blocks from where I was held. Ironically enough."

Anywhere you’ve never got a gig that’ you’d really like to play?
"Columbia, my home country - I’m from Columbia, South America. That dream is actually becoming a reality for New Years Eve, I’m actually playing @ Cartagena."

What would you describe as your biggest achievement to date and secondly anything ambitions left?
"Staying sane in this fucking crazy business man. It’s one crazy business, there’s so many temptations, staying focused and staying sane. Another ambition was to get in to the TV and the movie industry at some point. I haven’t started trying to make that a reality yet, not right now - it’s something I aspire to be doing when I’m in my 40’s, I can’t be on the road for the rest of my life, that’s nuts."

The recent DJ Mag Top 100 poll has been hailed as the most respected DJ chart - what do you make of it all?
"I would be selfish to say, well they’re not my favourite DJ’s! But apparently people are voting for them, so there’s got to be a lot of people out there that like these DJ’s and that’s great. Part of me like’s 'Yo , what the hell’s that all about?', the other part’s like, you know what - there’s actually a lot of people that like these DJ’s, and actually spend money and look forward to going out and hearing these people play."

If you were to name a number one DJ, who would it be?
"Besides Erick Morillo would have to be Derrick Carter, he’s a legend but he’s just inspiring man, when I go hear him play I’m actually inspired to go back home in the studio and make something, that’s my gauge for a DJ - if you can inspire me to leave a club early and go home and work, you’re the man in my book."

On your soon to be released album, ‘Thatbeat’ - how long did it take & was it your debut artist album?
"It was a two year process, the process for me was - I used to make a lot of grooves, I’d make grooves put them on a DAT, put them away, and say I’ll come back to them and write lyrics for them yarda, yarda, yarda. After the two years passed I went back and listened to all of the material I had, and I didn’t know where I was at when I made those tracks so I kind of lost the energy that I originally had when I initially done the track - I can’t fucking do this shit, I can’t remember where my head was at, I’m not even feeling this shit right now. At that point, which would have been last September, I said "I’m starting a new album" and I did 16 tracks in 2 months, I went on a roll at the time. I just did everything from scratch."

What else is in the pipeline for Harry ‘Choo Choo’
"I’m doing Subliminal Sessions Volume 6, that’s coming out in February and I’ll be touring in support of that, I’m just doing a lot of singles for Bambosa and you know, just eating some good food. Look out for me in the up and coming year!"