Robbie: It's got a huge breakdown, it's awesome, you're going to love it. But it's different, like the first time you got Hum Melody or Funkatron, you've got to find the right time to play it. I like doing tracks like that, not like every other track out there.
Ron: How long have you been doing the residency at Crobar?
Robbie: That residency lasted for like five months, it ended like eight months ago.
Ron: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that.
Robbie: I then switched over to Maze in South Beach which is an awesome club, very, very nice. Now I start my new residency at Envy which is right next door to Space, and I start this Saturday.
Ron: So you'd be playing every once a month at Envy?
Robbie: Yes, once a month.
Ron: How is playing to a US crowd different than playing to a crowd in Europe?
Robbie: For me it is the same.
Ron: It's the same?
Robbie: I get this question a lot and to tell you the truth, lately the US crowd for me has been rocking more.
Ron: Really?
Robbie: Yes. Yes, I've being getting really, really good vibes and lots of fans in the US. A lot of people say that the club industry is wack and not doing well, but when I play the place is packed and it's crazy, so I'm happy.
Ron: In the US, have you played a city and when you went in there it's like, I can't believe they're dancing to the music here? Like some small city in the US maybe?
Robbie: No, not yet, but I've played at some clubs in the US that you're like damn, I'm playing here? I played this club in New Jersey on the beach, and it was just a little bar and I was like damn, this is a party? It turned out to be like one of the best gigs this year for me. It got really jam-packed and it was so crazy that I had so much fun. So you never know what you're going to get in some of these little clubs in little cities. I'm looking forward playing new places, like I've never played in New Orleans, Arizona, and Salt Lake City. But on the West Coast I've never played, so this Wicked tour that I start next week, it's going all over the place.
Ron: Very cool. So back to Wicked, why did you start your own label Juicy, what was the inspiration for actually starting the label?
Robbie: Because when I do a track and I show it to labels and they didn't like it because, I don't know why, I like it so I want to release it. I'm a DJ and when I do a track I'm basically doing it because I know the way people react to certain styles of music and when I do it I know it's going to work and I play it in my sets also. When I shop it to a label and they don't like it, I'm going to release it.
Ron: And if they want they can buy it from you then?
Robbie: Yes. Well that's why my goal now is to release everything on my label. That way I keep control of it, make all the money and ten years from now or whatever I will have a catalogue and I own everything.
Ron: Publishing, that's where the money's at.
Robbie: Yes.
Ron: Is there anything you want to say to the people out there?
Robbie: Buy Wicked CDs, they're the shit.
Ron: One other general question, how do you think the whole mp3 digital downloading has affected you?
Robbie: It's pissed me off a lot, I mean it's really brought down the sales of vinyl which is not cool. A lot of DJs are DJing with CDs and I personally DJ with CDs a lot now too, but I love buying vinyl. But yes, everybody is downloading this music, but I don't know why, because some of it sounds wack. I DJed this summer in Athens, Greece and I told the DJ, here is my new record and he said that he had already downloaded it. I was like how did you get this? He said that he had recorded it from one of my sets from Winter Music Conference on Radio One and made his own edit so I could play it. I was like damn, awesome, but you know, you can buy the vinyl. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know I'm going to start selling all my music online on my web site.
Ron: Are your going through iTunes or are you doing it through your own site?
Robbie: Well, we've approached iTunes already just to try and speak, it's not that easy because we're an independent label. They're planning to do something for independent labels, some type of section. Because when you download a song, when people search on iTunes, dance music people search for different dance tunes and stuff like that. Generally a lot of dance tunes that you hear in a club are really underground and from small labels you can't get anywhere, that regular people can't buy it anywhere. So they're actually going to have a way for them that you can listen to them and search for it because it's very hard. But I'm also going to put everything on my web site eventually.
Ron: So you can click and buy it from you directly?
Robbie: Yes, buy it for a buck or two bucks, stuff like that.
Ron: It sounds like it's the way to go.
Robbie: Yes man, why not?
Special thanks to Lainie Copicotto of Aurelia Entertainment for arranging this interview.
