We grabbed a few minutes with Argentinian beatmaker and DJ extraordinaire, Hernan Cattaneo, before his headline set at The Gallery on Friday 14th August

Argentina is a country known for its football, steak, wine, but not  it’s DJ’s. We had the opportunity to chat with legendary Argentinian DJ/Producer Hernan Cattaneo before his forthcoming label showcase at The Gallery. For a man who has been on the forefront of progressive music as long as he has we covered a plethora of topics including his relationship with Paul Oakenfold, DJing vs Producing, His beginnings in Buenos Aires, the FIFA World Cup, and much more.

 

MoS: You have had an extremely long career in dance music Hernan, many new adherents of dance music aren’t familiar with your early career. What are some aspects of the early days do you miss?

Hernan Cattaneo: I think each time has its own ups & downs. Back in the day there were fewer DJs and  less music, so a lot smaller scene, more romantic approach to the music and the DJ career. Now there are DJs in every corner, free music for everybody and if you are lazy even a sync button that will mix for you! You shouldn’t compare them anyway different times completely.

 

What can you tell us about your relationship with Paul Oakenfold and his record label Perfecto?

When I used to be a resident at Pacha in Argentina and he was the No.1 DJ worldwide, he went once to play in Buenos Aires and offered me to open his tours globally. such a privilege! At that time, that was a really exceptional situation for a South American DJ and changed my career by exposing me to all the international crowds. After that, his agent asked me to stay in Europe, sign to perfecto, and later became Cream resident in Liverpool & Ibiza I will always be extremely grateful to Paul, he opened all doors for me!

 

You have a far reaching discography but lack an artist album. Is this something that is in the pipeline for the future?

Someday I will do. I've always been a DJ first , so for me the touring is where my heart is, and that's why compilations for me were so important and luckily so successful.

 

You maintained a long residency at Clubland Pacha in Buenos Aires. Would you say this residency helped develop your DJ sets and cement your style?

Absolutely. Around that time I used to open & close the night and let the guest play the main hours so I had to play deep & slow at the beginning and end of the night stuff at 8am being a versatile DJ helps you a lot in your career, not to mention the experience of playing along all the top DJs in the world every Saturday for many years.

 

What are some exciting projects or collaborations you can tell us about that you are currently working on?

I'm putting a lot of time in Sudbeat, our record label. We've been growing a lot in the last two years and we planing to keep pushing lots of new artists. As well on my own production side, we are working on some hot remixes for my last singles which will be available soon.

 

How would you describe the current state of Progressive House as a genre? What about in Latin America?

For me, prog house is a way of playing music rather than a style. If you check my lists, you will find a musical collage including from deep house, house, melodic tech, techno and also what some people call prog however what it makes the whole set a prog set is the way you build and mix the tracks and yes, thats a very popular style in Latin America people like groove & melodies and not so much empty or too hard music.

 

Do you think Argentina could redeem themselves against Germany in a FIFA World Cup rematch?

I hope so! That game was very close and they only scored in the last five minutes of extra time I could have been for us as well. They are extremely good as a team and we have very good players and the best of all players :) so I guess it's always a close game.

 

If you woke up in a parallel universe where there was no such thing as electronic music (or music for that matter), what would Hernan Cattaneo do for a living?

No music at all? I'd rather not go there! Architecture been really growing on me in the last three years , so why not that?

 

If you were only allowed to DJ or Produce not both. Which would you pick and why?

DJ, no question.

 

Who is the most exciting artist in Progressive House that we should know about that we might not already?

The underground sound of Tel Aviv -   Sahar Z, Lonya, Chilcola , Khen, Audiojunkies, and many more.

 

Hernan Cattaneo will be headlining The Gallery on Friday 14th August.