DJ Ron Slomowicz: Let's start with your recent mixed compilation, Anthems Two. What was the inspiration to separate the vocalists by genders on there?
Junior Vasquez: I had a lot of remixes that were in the can but hadn't been released. Originally it was going to be one CD, but I had so many songs. I decided to double it up and it put females on one and males on the other.
RS: That's cool. How do you program your show on KTU, is it different than you do at club nights?
Junior Vasquez: For an album?
RS: Well like, like when you do something like your mixshow for KTU, versus a live set…
Junior Vasquez: Oh yes, yes, yes. Well normally I have to play more radio-friendly stuff sometimes, so I put on a lot of new stuff that's a bit different that when I play live. I record all the time when I play, so there's lots of times when I'll cut up the shows from a live show from a night and then I'll put it together that way. But usually I cut out a lot of the tribal or the hard house and try to make it a little bit more radio-friendly.
RS: Great. Where did the idea for starting your own label come from?
Junior Vasquez: Desperation, I suppose. I first started it because I wanted to put out things that I had done track-wise and I thought about doing just one-offs. I didn't particularly want to start a label, I just wanted to put stuff out that wouldn't normally be able to be sold to a company or anything like that. I ended up incorporating maybe a year after the start. Originally it was mostly my stuff as a hobby kind of thing, then it became where I'm licensing things and it's a full-fledged label now.
RS: Do you think having a label has affected you as a producer or a DJ?
Junior Vasquez: No, not really. This year Vernessa Mitchell "Took My Life" was the number one dance single for the year.
RS: Congratulations.
Junior Vasquez: So that, for an independent label, that's excellent for me and my team.
RS: Speaking about the JVM artists, how did you discover Jason Walker?
Junior Vasquez: Jason sent a demo to Jerome at the office. He was working with these guys I work in Connecticut, writing songs and cutting vocals. One of the programmers I work with is in Connecticut, so that's how we kind of found out about him. We heard his demo and he had no deal or anything, so we decided to do one single. We then signed up him for an album.
