Morel's Groove is a name under which you've danced to tracks from George Morel. The New York native, now based in Miami, travels the world bringing his hands-in-the air thumping and tech-house sounds to packed dancefloors. For 2008, he's planning a major reboot to his label Groove On with monthly releases of new music and rereleases of back catalog.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: What are you working on these days?
George Morel: I'm actually working at the moment on a remix for
Ashlee Simpson with Roland Clark. I'm working on new releases for
Groove On, trying to bring some of that old house sound back a little
bit, with some of the new sounds of today, as well as the Morel
Grooves for 2008.
RS: You're touring a lot all over Europe. When you play sets over
there, what kind of sound are you playing?
George Morel: They call me 'magic hands' over there because my sets
are normally between one and four in the morning. Most clubs are open
until around five or six (in the morning). There are a few after-hours
left, but not as many as before. I go into the room ready for it
pretty much to explode, so I'm playing more of the thumping house, the
tech house, and a bit of the – I don't know if it's the correct name –
tech minimal, just minimal with a groove pumping through it. Not too
much of the deep minimal, because it kind of brings the room down, but
more like a hands-up-in-the-air type of sound.
RS: What were your big records of last year?
George Morel: Well, there a several. Off the top of my head I could
think of the Mark Knight records and some of the Murk stuff. There's a
lot. I don't have my CD case in front of me now so I cannot tell you
off the top of my head, but of course "Exceeder," as far as the
commercial sort of feel. Then there's some underground stuff that are
on CDR that I've been playing.
RS: So what have you remixed this year?
George Morel: I worked on a project for MN2S, but I've been mainly
focused on getting things ready for January of 2008 and forward..
We're looking to release at least two records a month on Groove On
Records, all new stuff and some of the old catalogue as well. We're
working on the database to get it ready so that the music gets in the
right hands for publicity and promotion, so when we launch, we launch
correctly.
RS: You're spinning on CD and not vinyl, correct?
George Morel: It's more like CD downloads and more internet distribution.
RS: Have you made the move to laptop DJing at all?
George Morel: No, not at all. Three years ago, maybe, I made the
move from vinyl to CD. That was a major step for me because I was so
attached to vinyl and the sound of it. The move to the laptop, I think
it's going to take a while. I have a few incidents in the past that my
hard drive has crashed, and I lost lots of valuable information and
sounds. So I'm very afraid of playing live and all of a sudden my hard
drive goes, or I forget to plug-in my laptop, or God knows what can
happen. So having CDs – I feel more comfortable, because if one CD's
broken, there's always many others I could play from. If your laptop
goes, everything goes.
RS: Very true. When you're in the studio working on music, what
programs do you work on?
George Morel: I've been working with Logic since pretty much day one.
RS: Speaking about day one, some of your earliest tracks were
with with David Cole of C & C Music Factory. How did you meet up with
him?
George Morel: I used to work at Trax, New York City, and David Cole
used to come by and ask me if I could test some of the stuff he worked
on. The first time, I didn't know who he was and he gave me something
on DAT by 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican . Do you
remember that name?
RS: The track "Do It Properly?"
George Morel: From that track was where "Do It Properly" was
actually born. Before that, he gave me a track sampling Adonis. When
David gave me that, and I was like, 'Wow, this sounds awesome,' and I
played it. That was that, and then he came back with Do It Properly,
and in-between Do It Properly and the Adonis sample, he came with a
couple of sounds and they were always great. I remember saying to him
one day, 'Hey, you're going to be really, really big, you've really
got it narrowed down to the 'T.' He kind of laughed about it. From
there on, we've been friends.
I used to ask him questions—'how did you do this, how did you do that?' and he was my mentor. I didn't know the difference between a black key and a white one on a piano, on a keyboard. He guided me in the right direction, and we became very good friends. The next thing you know, he got me involved. He helped me with my first record, Dee Holloway "Our Love (It's Over)." I loved what I was doing and the way it came out. The next thing you know, I popped out with Wiggle It and he led me into working with C & C, and I was in. I am who I am today because of his push and his mentoring and everything he did for me.
