Sammy D has been in music for decades, as a prominent DJ, prolific organizer, booker and venue host in his native San Francisco. To the rest of the world he is however better known as a vocal part of Pillow Talk. Implicating also Mikey Tello and Ryan Williams, the combo was formed in 2011 to amalgamate a good dozen genres, in some cases incongruous, testing and pushing the limits of each outwards. The overlapping areas of those which did not explode under the increased experimental pressure coalesced into something else, a form unheard of and largely unanticipated.
The musicians now could claim the new sonic territory as exclusively their own domain. And so they built upon it – or rather were just getting helluva kick out of it sliding freely in all directions. "We grew up listening to what our parents listened to. But then you rebel and try to find your own identity and start to listen to whatever alginates your parents. So we went from classic rock, soul, funk, jazz, disco into hip-hop and punk rock; and further into new wave, industrial, acid house and techno..."
Paging through interviews, one may figure their loose method has been well hammered up by the wisdom of nihilism which demands the negation of all existing values and destruction of old paradigms. But it's clearly of a generative kind, which does not succumb to the nothingness that ensues. It annihilates blueprints and formulae in order to make space for new practices, meaning and appreciation. Wipe the slate clean and lay down your own interpretations: "We approach music from a non-genre perspective. If there is even a hint of genre we would destroy it. DAG which stands for "destroy all genres" is our motto..."
Reggae, dub, boogie, disco, house, pop… In the Pillow Talk signature production or in the mixes which Sammy D is dropping in clubs, one discovers references to all of that. But these are either epiphenomena or employed to break the continuity of a particular genre that tends, revamped (properly with a hammer), to take precedence in the sets.
Music is not the only source from which Sammy D is drawing his inspiration. Places, travels, everyday encounters, world current affairs, different climates, various environments, interpersonal relationships, the lack thereof… Berlin is one such source – Sam's base for years in the past: "In Berlin you can get away with way more… In California you will be ashamed at some point." Wonder why we are still finding him here today?
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