DJ Ron Slomowicz: So let's start at the beginning, how did you get started playing with dance music?
Tom Stephan: I got into dance music when I moved to London towards the very end of the whole rave scene and I started going to the parties. Then on a trip home to New York, a friend of mine dragged me to the Sound Factory and that was my awakening to house music. It was the first time that I ever paid any attention to DJs - Junior Vasquez. The first time I went there was a major experience.
RS: What about Junior Vasquez's music made you get into house music so much?
Tom Stephan: I'd been into music all my life really and I was kind of against DJs for a long time because I thought they were just playing other peoples' records, that kind of attitude.
Then when I heard Junior, it was the first time that I'd ever heard anyone do so much manipulation of the music and have so much control over a room of people. I mean he picked you up and put you down, and pissed you off and made you happy. I never saw somebody who was so amazing before that. In fact, I'm not sure how many times I've ever seen people have so much control of a room since then either, I mean he really could just have everyone there eating out of his hand.
RS: So this is what inspired you to start DJing or producing electronic dance music?
Tom Stephan: Yes, I fell in love with the music that was coming out of New York at the time and it wasn't the same kind of music that was popular over here in the UK. So every time I went back to New York I started buying the records that I heard and bringing them back here. Pretty soon, I had quite a record collection. Also, I was really annoyed because I could never find anyone here playing that kind of music except for when somebody from New York like Danny Tenaglia came over. I saw the plan of the future, it just seemed like the obvious thing to do so I thought I'd start DJing. For a long time, it was quite difficult for anyone to give me a chance because I was playing something that no one else was playing. Looking back, I think it worked in my favor because playing a different style of music gave me a kind of an angle.
RS: Give me an example of what was being played in New York versus what was played in the UK.
Tom Stephan: At the time New York was the sound that I think of as the New York/X-Beat sound, kind of tribal and very dark. Although at the time there was a lot of things like Mark Kinchen which were really big as well. Over here it was the end of the rave thing and the sound was more kind of handbag house as I remember.
RS: So the UK DJs were playing the K-Klass, Loveland, M People stuff versus like the New York DJs playing the X-Beat sound?
Tom Stephan: Totally, totally. UK DJ Phil Perry played the Junior Vasquez track "X" when it came out and I was blown away that anyone over here was playing it. Actually, there was a lot of crossover as well with artists like X-Press 2 being possibly bigger in New York than over here.
