Kenny Dope Gonzales- I Love New York's Smoking Ban

"It's annoying when you're in a restaurant trying to enjoy your food and you get someone smoking from the back, it's the most disgusting thing ever. I think the smoking ban it's the best thing that ever happened, if you really want to know my opinion."

Latin/jazz/ house fusionist Kenny Dope Gonzalez remains best known for his Masters At Work collaborative duo with Lil Louis Vega, though as a solo artist and producer, he's equally well respected and admired. Hailing from the 'it's-all-about-the-music' school of club culture, he's a no nonsense, straight-talking New Yorker whose loathing of tobacco smoke contrasts with his abiding commitment to House.

"I'll always be associated with house music, house music got me where I am today, I've met amazing people through it and I don't intend to drop it," he told Benedetta Skrufff.

"House has exposed me to production, to working with top singers, great musicians… things that I wouldn't have had the chance to learn if I would have come straight from hip hop."

In fact, hip hop, Latin and jazz have also contributed to a career that's developed to the point where he's now one of America's most respected and influential serious house players.

"The American music industry doesn't take house seriously anymore, it's at a standstill," he complains.

"Compilations do well instead because they're good value for money, kids are more inclined to spend on a CD featuring 10 or 15 of their favourite tracks rather than a CD with just one track they actually like."

And certainly good value for money is Kenny's new triple mix CD In The House, coming out on UK label Defected. Including cuts from jazz greats Nina Simone and Tito Puente alongside contemporary songstresses like Ultra Nate and Neneh Cherry it's a heavily vocal and richly soulful selection of a style of music that in the 90s would have been called garage, though Kenny would disagree.

"I can't stand all these labels," he says.

I've got two styles of music, good and bad."


Skrufff: What was your approach in mixing the new Defected CD, what were you trying to achieve-

Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales: "I wanted to make a mix CD the way I used to make them in the past with lots of records playing simultaneously. So it combines lots of soulful house overdubs with more aggressive tunes, and some classics together with acappellas, different beats from different songs, and so on."

Skrufff: The press release for the CD says you're keen to revive your solo career; how different is it working on your own, instead of with Louis as Masters At Work-

Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales: "It is different working on my own because we're two different people, so my whole approach is different. Of course we've made some incredible records together, and we'll continue to do so, but we're at a point where we also want to develop our own careers and Louis has just finished his own album too. Personally, I haven't been able to concentrate on my solo projects, partially because I didn't want to let our fans down, but I also didn't want to dilute my energy when I was fully involved in a partnership. I didn't want to jeopardise the hype and the momentum we had, though now I feel there's room for me to concentrate on myself and that's what I'm doing."

Skrufff: Do the two of you disagree much or ever have huge rows-

Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales: "No, we've only had one disagreement in the 13 years we've been working together and it had nothing to do with our business, so we have an incredible relationship, it's a marriage now. We're very open with each other, if we don't like something when we're in the studio, we'll just say it and move on. We don't take things personally, we trust each other's judgement, because we both know we have each other's best interest at heart. And that to me is what Masters At Work is about. We understood that from the beginning, that's why we are where we are and that's why there's no jealousy inter Tags

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