Richard Grant's Sound Factory has always had a reputation for two things: great sound and great DJ's. When the Factory was originally on 27th Street in Manhattan, it was world reknown for having the best sound system in the world; with the best DJs running it. Grammy Award-winning Frankie Knuckles used to play there, so did David DePino and also Roger Sanchez for a time but the space was best remembered for its long-time resident DJ Junior Vasquez who knew what to play and when to play it.
Unfortunately, when the city forced the shuttering of the Factory's 27th street doors, Junior did not want to follow Grant onto his next endeavor. Grant promised to the clubbers of New York that the Sound Factory was like "the Phoenix" and that it would "rise again." Sure enough it did -- 29 blocks uptown on 46th street.
Now, since Junior was off doing his own thing at his Arena night at Palladium, Grant needed to find himself another DJ who could carry on the legacy. Someone who could open up and close the night; and play the peak hours too. Enter Jonathan Peters, a DJ who had made his name for himself playing in some of the greatest to the not so greatest spots all over Manhattan as well as on the remix and production circuit through remixes for Chaka Khan, Jocelyn Enriquez and Amber and his Deeper Rekords, NYC label. What qualified Jonathan for this spot was his ability to rock crowds for long hours at a time. "I was always the crowd pleaser. I played all kinds of dance music; old disco to new dance records -- that was the format in a lot of the clubs I worked in, so I did it."Jonathan didn't mind, he loved music and DJing was his chance to share it with the masses.
Jonathan Peters is a native New Yorker. He was born there. He grew up there. He felt the music in his blood at an early age just from being there and that led him to want to play records for a living. His first gig was at Cafe Iguana on 19th and Park. It was basically a restaurant that had dancing after hours. Jonathan was able to bridge the format between people finishing up their dinner with the crowd who were out for a night on the town. It was a fun gig for him and he didn't compromise anything to work there. "I was just a person who really loved music who just played records. I couldn't say I was a DJ; because I knew what I loved and I played what I loved. But people seemed to have the same ears for music that I did -- especially in the late environment where they were out getting fucked up they were like 'yo, I love that record, I love every record you play!' So much for humble beginnings.
Since then, Peters has not looked back. Having spent that last 12 years of weekends inside numerous Manhattan DJ booths, he's always been aiming to better and further his spinning situation. Once he became well versed in the world of DJing from his Cafe Iguana gig, Peters got in with the right promoters and began to spin in more credible spots. But none were like his current job. "I basically spent the first 11 years of DJing paying my dues," he notes. Not that playing at places like Roxy, Palladium and Save The Robots were not good mentally stimulating jobs, it's just that Jonathan feels that it takes more than great music and mixing ability to make a great DJ. "A big part of being a great DJ is having a great club -- bottom line. I've worked in lots of big name clubs, but the way they were operated, no one cared. Back then I was doing Save the Robots Friday afterhours thinking it was the best job in the world, playing my heart out -- it really wasn't. The sound system wasn't that great, and the owners didn't give a fuck."
