Roger Sanchez

In Roger Sanchez’s eyes, music is cyclical. It’s about “drawing influences from the past and re-imagining it in a completely different way.” Hence why his forthcoming album will be called Roots. Sanchez’s musical roots go back to the mid ‘80s, when the then-teenage breakdancer started DJing, and became fascinated with the new house music making its way to his hometown of New York from Chicago. “At that time, the dominant forms of dance music in New York were freestyle and hip-hop, and house was almost the return of disco,” he says. “It was stripped down and four-to-the-floor, but there was something really magical about it, and it drew me in.” He quickly moved on to producing — his early releases came out under the name Roger S. — and promoting. Many of Sanchez’s