“Moombahton gets the women shaking and I’m a man, so I love women.” Sazon Booya
If there was ever a night to be in Modesto, California, it would have to have been on October 5th. Friday saw the first set of Sazon Booya’s IMPACTO! Tour which was absolutely astounding, with unreleased moombah anthems being dropped, as well as classics and even some hardstyle. The NY duo, consisting of Stephen Alex Vasquez (DJ SAV) and Joshua Vega (Mr. Vega) have had some busy years as of late, becoming one of the top moombahton acts in the business. Since moombahton is still a relatively new genre, it is still progressing, which is fully understood by the duo, who have a very unique central style that is constantly being infused with new ideas and developments from the genre.
Their love for what they do is ever so apparent, with the two of them enthusiastically dancing and jumping around for the entirety of their two hour set, while even interacting with the crowd and myself. Never before have I seen two individuals work together in unison so fluidly, with each understanding what they want to accomplish for not only themselves, but for the genre as a whole. Moombahton is a lifestyle for Sazon, allowing them to mesh their Latin roots with a sexy modern take on things. Make sure to stay up to date with these guys because they have a prosperous future ahead that will forever blossom with the evolution of moombah.
I met up with the guys before their performance for a wonderful interview. Here it is, along with a track to listen:
Major Lazer – Original Don (Sazon Booya Edit) : Direct Download
Moombroton: It’s the first night of the IMPACTO! Tour, are you guys excited to get it started out here in Modesto?
Vega: Hell yea. We’ve never been to Modesto before, so we are definitely looking forward to this.
SAV: Yea, we have done shows in California before, like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, but never here in Modesto. I’m excited to kick things off.
Moombroton: I know you guys met because of the ‘Electro Wars’ films, so can you tell us a little about what that was and what prompted the beginning of Sazon Booya?
SAV: I was premiering the ‘Electro Wars’ film in New York and it was a very special night. It was actually the first time they were screening a film at the Jackson Triplex, which is a theatre I used to frequent as a kid. This guy basically remodeled the whole theatre and premiered the movie and that day was when I met Vega. I had been a fan of Mr. Vega for a long time. I had seen his name pop up on the blogs and downloaded a lot of his remixes and original stuff. At the time I was already shooting the ‘Electro Wars 2′ and I had asked him if he wanted to be a part of it. So we were trying to set up an interview, but in the midst of all that, I was brainstorming a new project that I wanted to start. Since I hadn’t been experienced in production, I asked Vega if he wanted to help me out, so that’s kinda how it all came about.
Moombroton: In your own mind, what appeal does moombahton have that other genres necessarily don’t have?
Vega: I think of all the dance music genres, moombahton is the sexiest. I think it gets women moving more than house music. You can only do so much with house music and dubstep. To me, the dancing to most dubstep is kinda awkward, even though to other people its something they enjoy. Moombahton gets the women shaking and I’m a man, so I love women. I like to make women move and they run the world, so moombahton fits.
SAV: I toured a lot with some of the dubstep artists and I grew fond of the genre. With dubstep it all depends on the producer. Certain guys really have a way of invoking certain feelings through their production and there’s other guys that don’t. The ones that don’t, it’s just like crazy robot sounds, which is cool too, but that’s something that is just more of an acquired taste. I grew up listening to a lot of the songs that we are now sampling actually. So for me it was really awesome to be able to take records that I grew up with and mesh them with this new genre, to infuse electronic sounds with reggaeton and cumbia. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Moombroton: You guys recently released your IMPACTO! EP and this the tour for it, so what does this whole project mean for your guys in terms of career development or milestones?
Vega: The IMPACTO! EP was the first EP we had released in about 6 months. For us, it was just to show people that we haven’t stopped making music. For the last 6 months and probably even before the EP with Heartbreak came out, we had been working on our first full moombahton album. So this whole time we have been working on the album, video ideas and trying to get our label to put out the album, which is stuff we’ve been doing behind the scenes and hadn’t really released any music. The IMPACTO! EP was just to show people that we’re still here and trying different things. We wanted it to express the fact that we are still relevant to the genre and to show off what we can for the time being.
Moombroton: You guys shot the music video for IMPACTO! recently. How was that?
Vega: We actually shot that when we were doing two tour dates with Nadastrom. We played Albany and Worcester, so we were shooting it on the road. We got Nadastrom to be in it and it was good times.
SAV: We just got a bunch of fans to help post-show. We just asked if they wanted to be extras in the video. We had tried to do it the legit way, cause I had sent out emails and we posted a status on Facebook and a bunch of actresses hit us up, but they never showed up. So it was kind like, “Damn, what are we gunna do?”. We decided to just ask the fans. It was very organic, the whole thing.
Moombroton: How do you guys work together in your live shows, as far as equipment and DJing as a duo?
Vega: I just now switched to CDJs. I had been using Traktor forever and SAV was actually on Serato first and then he switched to solely CDJs. Last week was when I made the switch to CDJs. When we perform we just feed off of each other’s energy and we have certain routines that we have done that we know work very well. If he has anything new, then he just lets me know that he wants to try it and then we go back and forth. It just flows and happens, organic.
Moombroton: You guys have done previous interviews and music blog involvement, so what makes you guys so open to taking your time to do these things?
Vega: We’re very much about talking to people and giving back. We never want to be perceived as unapproachable. I’ve met so many artists that I looked up to and they’re total dicks once you meet them. I never want to be looked at like that. So we almost never turn down interviews, unless we really don’t have the time to do it. We love to interact with the fans and we’re on Twitter and Facebook a lot, trying to respond to everything possible. No matter how big we get, or whatever tour we’re on, whatever show we do, we still want to keep that line of connection with the fans who support us. If nobody was interested in us, then what would we be doing, ya know? We wouldn’t be here. We do this full time. This is our job
SAV: It’s really cool because we really have a healthy fan base. What I mean by that is a lot of our fans love what we do and I find that, with bigger artists, they tend to have a lot of haters that post on their walls and tweet at them negative messages. Luckily we haven’t encountered that.
Vega: We don’t wanna have that situation where someone’s like “Yo you guys are dicks because you don’t respond to us, or you ignored me at your show”. We don’t ever want to have a negative reaction because of something we did.
SAV: If our music has changed or evolved in a way where someone doesn’t understand it as much, then that’s just something that happens. It’s not necessarily our own fault there.
Moombroton: Have you guys been doing any work outside of the EDM scene?
Vega: I run Rot10 Music and we release everything from Hip-Hop, EDM and we’re working on some pop stuff. I also produce for an artist, Otis Clapp, who is now coming into the EDM world. We’re working on a project with some dubstep, trap and moombahton. We’re trying to take all these genres and fuse them into one thing.
SAV: I still have my production company. A lot of the projects I was developing about a year ago have kind of been put on the backburner, cause doing the Sazon stuff really takes up a lot of time. I have partners that are still doing it, like Jason Ano, who does Riff Raff’s videos right now. I’m still involved, just not at the forefront anymore, as much as I want to be. I still develop the video content for Sazon Booya as well.
Moombroton: Can you name a few people, from any genres, that you would want to collaborate with?
Vega: I would love to work with Adele, because the remix we did for her came out really good. I’d love to create some original content with her. Whenever somebody asks me this I always say Calvin Harris. I really really wanna work with Calvin Harris. As far as Hip-Hop, I’d like to work with Kanye and Big Sean.
SAV: I’d like to work with people like Sean Paul, Sammy Gold, Rye Rye. People that are very forward thinking, that like to go against the grain. Maybe down the line, like an actual Salsa band, with live percussion, trumpets, stuff like that.
Moombroton: The end of the year is going well for you guys, are you going to end it with anything special, or are you saving new stuff for 2013?
Vega: We’re hoping to end the year with the first single off of our album. We’re actually going to start a tour with Lazerdisk Party Sex, which is set to start November 21st and will run until pretty much the end of the year. Hopefully we can give people a taste of what we have been working on for the past 8 or 9 months. We’re looking forward to everything we have in store for you guys.
MUST DIE! & Sazon Booya – Dropper : Direct Download
Here are the tour dates for the rest of the IMPACTO! tour
[...] Also, Moombroton has recently caught up with our boys while they were down in Cali last week on the Impacto! Tour. Here is the link to the interview! [...]