A little more back tracking into your personal career -- you're a DJ do you want to talk a little bit about your history in nightlife and places that you've played?I was a doorman for a quick second, but I got started when I was 13. I sold tickets, and it kind of ruined my life by giving me what at the time seemed like a lot of easy money. I never had a regular job... Fifteen years-old and other kids were going to work at these pizzerias, while we did our own thing.The funniest part of it was we were working at the clubs we didn't want to work at. They were "bridge and tunnel" clubs. My shift would be over at 2:30 [snaps fingers] and we would leave and go to Lotus, PM and Room Service or Butter sometimes. One day I said I wanted to become a DJ and that was it--I quit everything else. The only way I figured to get respect was to quit, and we quit promoting, I quit doing the door. I quit doing 4 nights a week, getting paid, doing everything. We quit. Completely shut ourselves out of "bridge and tunnel" nightlife.We knew to get respect downtown, you had to be a downtown person. So it's been a long, long road. It feels like it's been a longer road than it has. I've only been DJing for 5 years total, but if you listen to me I sound like an old man. [Laughs]But yeah now I’ve spun everywhere. All the quote-unquote cool clubs and a lot of the big venues. I love to do events, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, and a lot of big names in fashion.How old were you when you quit promoting?Around 20. We all would go to Chicken and Rice in midtown and have long conversations about how we were gonna quit and just be out of it. We knew we couldn't do both. It's not that we didn't want to do both, but we knew what the value of a brand was without even really understanding it. And we knew the DJ brand would always be dragged down by the other stuff. We knew that I couldn't be a doorman one day and a DJ the next day—that would be corny. So I just pulled the plug and poured myself into music and starting building a brand around who I am and what inspires me.Manero is my DJ name. Superficially I got my name because I guess I look a little like Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. But I'm actually from that same neighborhood. That's my pizzeria and everything, and I guess in a weird way I always connected with the duality shown in the movie—between living out in Brooklyn but wanting to connect with something bigger.Now I'm actually doing a remix album of Saturday Night Fever. I'm remixing the whole album. And we are starting a night called Saturday Night Fever at a club called Lil’ Charlies under Ken & Cook that has a really personal feel. That will be my new residency and it fits my brand, it fits me.Cool, when is that starting?It will probably start at the end of June. I went away from taking every single gig, and I took gigs that made sense. I want to do more events, I want to produce more music, I want to make more music. Last year I produced the music for Maria Cornejo's show, from start to finish. Then I played it for the show which was a trip—much more difficult than I expected, but a lot of fun.I want to continue to push a certain brand of music, a certain style of music. I want to do more fashion events. Clubs are your entrance. Once you play every club you realize that you need to do events, once you do events you realize that you need to start making music, or else you'll never really be the DJ that sells out a room.But DJing is an amazing, amazing outlet to do so much, and DJs are rockstars now, so it's fun!
A little more back tracking into your personal career -- you're a DJ do you want to talk a little bit about your history in nightlife and places that you've played?
I was a doorman for a quick second, but I got started when I was 13. I sold tickets, and it kind of ruined my life by giving me what at the time seemed like a lot of easy money. I never had a regular job... Fifteen years-old and other kids were going to work at these pizzerias, while we did our own thing.
The funniest part of it was we were working at the clubs we didn't want to work at. They were "bridge and tunnel" clubs. My shift would be over at 2:30 [snaps fingers] and we would leave and go to Lotus, PM and Room Service or Butter sometimes. One day I said I wanted to become a DJ and that was it--I quit everything else. The only way I figured to get respect was to quit, and we quit promoting, I quit doing the door. I quit doing 4 nights a week, getting paid, doing everything. We quit. Completely shut ourselves out of "bridge and tunnel" nightlife.
We knew to get respect downtown, you had to be a downtown person. So it's been a long, long road. It feels like it's been a longer road than it has. I've only been DJing for 5 years total, but if you listen to me I sound like an old man. [Laughs]
But yeah now I’ve spun everywhere. All the quote-unquote cool clubs and a lot of the big venues. I love to do events, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, and a lot of big names in fashion.
How old were you when you quit promoting?
Around 20. We all would go to Chicken and Rice in midtown and have long conversations about how we were gonna quit and just be out of it. We knew we couldn't do both. It's not that we didn't want to do both, but we knew what the value of a brand was without even really understanding it. And we knew the DJ brand would always be dragged down by the other stuff. We knew that I couldn't be a doorman one day and a DJ the next day—that would be corny. So I just pulled the plug and poured myself into music and starting building a brand around who I am and what inspires me.
Manero is my DJ name. Superficially I got my name because I guess I look a little like Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. But I'm actually from that same neighborhood. That's my pizzeria and everything, and I guess in a weird way I always connected with the duality shown in the movie—between living out in Brooklyn but wanting to connect with something bigger.
Now I'm actually doing a remix album of Saturday Night Fever. I'm remixing the whole album. And we are starting a night called Saturday Night Fever at a club called Lil’ Charlies under Ken & Cook that has a really personal feel. That will be my new residency and it fits my brand, it fits me.
Cool, when is that starting?
It will probably start at the end of June. I went away from taking every single gig, and I took gigs that made sense. I want to do more events, I want to produce more music, I want to make more music. Last year I produced the music for Maria Cornejo's show, from start to finish. Then I played it for the show which was a trip—much more difficult than I expected, but a lot of fun.
I want to continue to push a certain brand of music, a certain style of music. I want to do more fashion events. Clubs are your entrance. Once you play every club you realize that you need to do events, once you do events you realize that you need to start making music, or else you'll never really be the DJ that sells out a room.
But DJing is an amazing, amazing outlet to do so much, and DJs are rockstars now, so it's fun!
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