There is very little, in the world of entertainment, that the talented Erick Morillo has not turned his hand to. He is a platinum selling artist and has topped the charts worldwide as the producer behind Reel 2 Reel’s hit “I Like To Move It”.He has remixed everyone from Whitney Houston to Basement Jaxx, from the Sneaker Pimps to Macy Gray. He runs the legendary Subliminal Records empire and has collaborated with the likes of Puff Daddy, Boy George, The Audio Bullys many more.

As a high profile DJ, Erick is currently one of the most in-demand and instantly recognisable in the world. From the climb-the-walls success of his weekly ‘Sessions’ parties in New York, to hosting events like the annual road-blocking Subliminal Sessions parties in Miami for the Winter Music Conference, to his coveted residency at Ministry of Sound (one of the few US DJs to ever hold one) and of course his now legendary Subliminal Sessions parties at Pacha, Ibiza. His prolific DJing schedule has seen him crisscrossing the globe playing up to a whopping 30 gigs a month, along the way scooping up endless awards such as “Best International DJ 2002” and “Best House DJ 1999 / 2001”. We caught up with Erick in Miami to ask him about his thoughts on the Electronic Dance Music scene in the USA and his plans for the up coming Summadayze tour here in Australia.

You’ve got a strong bond with Australia, are you looking forward to coming out?
Oh yeah, I always do. I love coming out to Australia, if it weren’t so far away I would go all the time. I’ve worked with a lot of people down there so i love Australia, I have a lot of great relationships down there, you know it’s such a great vibe. It’s the world’s best-kept secret. Because it’s so far away, people don’t understand how wonderful Australia really is.

How do you feel now with the success of EDM in America especially since you have been a pioneer of the scene for so long?
I can’t believe it’s finally happened! (laughs)
I think it’s amazing, I’m so happy that it’s finally happened here in America. I’m just really ecstatic that finally the pendulum has swung and dance music has blown up in America after all these years. Its funny cause I’ve always had to travel outside of America, go to Europe and everywhere else to DJ, and now all the European DJs are coming to America to work, it’s like everybody’s moving to America. All the big pop artists here are now doing dance music, everybody’s calling to do records, it’s awesome! I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone.

Are you still involved with Pacha in New York?
Absolutely yeah, we’ve got our anniversary in December. I’m really excited. Yeah! I mean, we’re the biggest club in NY, the best club in NY. We’re packed every Friday and Saturday, it’s one of the best clubs in America, no doubt about it, all the biggest DJs play there.

And you’re also doing a residency in Las Vegas?
Absolutely. I play once a month in Marquee at the Cosmopolitan, and then I do Memorial Day Sunday and Labor Day Sunday at Tao. Vegas has become like Ibiza in the sense that it’s seven days a week, but it’s ALL year round so all the biggest DJs are playing. At any given weekend there’ll be six or seven of the top DJs of the world playing Vegas, it’s unbelievable.

Sounds like heaven….
I was there for Halloween and they had Afrojack playing one club with 7500 people, you had Kaskade at another club with 6500 people, and every club is PACKED! It’s unbelievable the amount of people in America, and Vegas is the dance Mecca/capital of the US.

Are people travelling from all over the USA?
Oh, absolutely, it’s crazy.

So it really is like Ibiza, without the sea?
Yeah, at least in Ibiza you’ve got the beach, here you only go to gamble and go to clubs! But it’s great, it’s really amazing what’s going on in Las Vegas, what’s going on in the US in general. In LA, New York, Chicago and here in Miami, it’s just unbelievable. I mean, LIV are doing big DJs every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday, and they’re PACKED EVERY NIGHT! That’s our running joke, Dave the guy that runs it says he’s putting people in rehab cause they’re out getting fucking drunk every night! It’s crazy, people just LOVE the music.

It doesn’t matter if you have four DJs playing back to back in one weekend. You couldn’t do that before, you’d have to space them out, you’d have one DJ on a Saturday and you wouldn’t bring somebody else that same weekend, now it’s every night and its fine, people will be out! There’s so many people that love the music now, it’s just become popular. It used to be that it was only the one clique of people that just loved this music, now it’s just everybody, you know, it’s the culture. Dance music is the culture, hip hop has pretty much gone out the window, it’s become a purely urban thing.

So is dance music getting played on daytime radio and stuff now in the States?
Oh yeah, dance music, it’s all over daytime radio. MTV’s playing dance videos- that’s unheard of!

It crazy when you look back at how long you’ve been doing it since the days of 'Reel to Reel', did you ever envisage this?
In 20 YEARS! It’s never happened! This is the first time in my twenty years, and it’s always been something I wanted to accomplish but wasn’t sure if it’d ever happen. Then it just kinda popped, with the Black Eyed Peas and David Guetta, it just kinda all exploded. It just went… ape shit!

And they final get proper festivals like Electric Daisy in the US now?
Yeah, it’s crazy! 50 000 people and now next year they’re doing like twelve of them all round America, it’s incredible, and it’s just starting!
If you can remember what England, or even Australia was like in the 90’s- that’s what it feels like over here.
It’s like all the young kids are into it. People like Deadmau5 are going to NY and selling out Roseland 5 nights in a row! 5 nights! Then he’ll go to Boston and do, like 3 nights, in a row, SOLD OUT! Its unheard of, it’s like he’s a rock group, BUT he’s a DJ!

That’s great, and it’s a testament to guys like yourself who’ve been doing it for so long, stuck to your sound, and pushed it and pushed it.
No absolutely, I’m just happy that I still love what I do, and the fact that I’ve managed to stay relevant, and that for me is really important, and now I’m just excited that I get to revel in the fact that I’ve got all this new music coming out and I have my whole country to be able to promote it in. Having hit records in MY country is something I’ve always wanted and I’m happy that it’s finally here.

I know you spend every summer in Ibiza, I remember seeing you on the Space Terrace back when it didn’t have the roof, you were brilliant…always 2 or 3 acapellas going at once.
The good old days!

How do you think it’s changed over the years? Is it for better or worse?
Well, I love the fact that a lot of these younger guys have really adapted what I did, you know. With all the acapella’s if you listed to Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, they’ve all taken what I used to do and made it their own- they’ve made it their own style.
For me, it’s a great thing. You have all these young cats basically coming up on the scene, your Avicii’s, and Allesso’s and Afrojacks. I just love the fact that there’s just so many people having success and there’s room for it!
There’s no jealously, there’s no “that’s my piece of the pie”, it’s just like “we’re all in it together and were making a scene finally” where for so long, there was none. Everybody was segregated, if you were into techno, you couldn’t do house and now it’s all one big ass scene and everybody is coming up with their own sound and having hits, and I LOVE that.
It’s no longer that you have to be cool and have the most credible record that nobody knows. Now it’s about having a hit record and THAT is fucking amazing- I’m loving being a part of it.

So no, I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I don’t think its cheesy or anything like that, I just think that these kids are able to express themselves and we have an actual scene. You can still make underground records if you want, but you can really experiment, for me that’s what its all about.

You’re right though, the barriers between genres have gone…..
Exactly! It’s just out there. You go to buy the music and people still try to identify it through genre, but the good thing is that DJ’s will play a techno record and not care, there’s no “Oh look, he’s playing a techno record”, it’s all open and you can do whatever the fuck you want. As long as you’re doing what you’re doing well that’s all that matters.

And you are currently working on a new album, how are things coming along with that?
The new album for me, you know, is not all about house music, we experiment and do a lot of different things, I even play a little bit with Dubstep, but it’s the collaboration and the different artists that I’m working with that is really making it special.
For instance i have just done two records with Craig David. One is called “Only in Miami” and the other one is called “Drunked Up”, and he is such a talented individual, my goodness man, working with him has been such a pleasure. He just sits there and he comes up with these melodies and these harmonies and he is just WOW. He’s blown me away and I really enjoyed working with him.
He’s actually living here in Miami as well and we’ve built a friendship, I’m happy to call him a friend and I can’t wait for people to hear the stuff that we’ve done.

If you could collaborate with anybody who would it be?
Right now, for me, Prince is someone I still really wanna connect with, Lenny Kravitz is someone I wanna work with.
But Prince for sure. He’s someone I’ve loved ever since I was in High School, and you know, I put it out there all the time. I send messages and what have you (laughs) but he’s obviously someone I’d like to get into the studio and just go for it!

what music are you listening to currently?
I love listening to all different things, you know, for me its about staying open to all different music. I mean, last week I went to see Foster the People, I like going out to see bands cause you get inspired. You can’t get stuck in your own genre. You gotta go out, I always get ideas from listening to other DJs whether they’re techno DJs or hip hop DJs, whatever- I’m open to everything man.
To stay relevant you have to know what’s happening, you have to know who are the hot new groups. You fall in love with a record, do a little bootleg, play it out at a festival and people go fucking ape shit! That’s what its about.

So you’re going to be out here soon. Have you got any surprises up your sleeve?
Well, I’m bringing some really great music. It’s going to be about good energy, its about what I love to do. There will definitely be a lot of music people will be hearing for the first time, but I can promise you there’ll be some great energy, there’ll be hands up in the air and everybody will be dancing and sweating and doing their thing—I’m excited.   

Trademark Morillo! That’s the way we like it. Enjoy Miami and we look forward to seeing you out here soon.
Thank you very much. I definitely look forward to being out there! thank you for your time.

CATCH ERICK MORILLO ON THE SUMMADAYZE TOUR