20 Questions With Roger Sanchez: ‘The Greatest Currency You Have Is Your Time’
Categoria: Musica
The legendary house producer's newest project, Spectrum Refracted, it out today (Oct. 16.)
Por Billboard | 16/10/2026
There is a timeline in which Roger Sanchez might have been an architect. Growing up in New York, this was the career path Sanchez was pursuing until house music came knocking on his door. His decision to pivot to music proved prescient: it wasn’t long before Sanchez was commanding dancefloors across Europe, doing official remixes for titans of the era including Michael Jackson (“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Dangerous”), Janet Jackson (“Love Will Never Do (Without You)”) and others like Jamiroquai, Daft Punk and No Doubt. His remix of the latter act’s “Hella Good” won him a Grammy for best remixed recording in 2003. Meanwhile his own track “Another Chance” became a massive dance world hit upon its release in 2001, going No. 1 on the U.K. Singles chart. He clocked another No. 1 in 2006 with “Lost,” which reached the apex of Billboard ‘s Dance Club Songs listing. Through it all, Sanchez has been a nightclub king, presiding over dance floors from New York to Miami to Ibiza, where he was the resident DJ at Pacha’s Flower Power party this season, and where he’s at when he joins Billboard over Zoom to talk about his life and career. The reason for the chat is Spectrum, Refracted , a collection of remixes of his third studio album Spectrum, released in June, along with a new song. The six-track project features collaborations with Mel C, his wife Kristen Knight and an edit from fellow house maestro David Morales, all of it dripping with the house, disco and Latin flavors that have been Sanchez’s signatures over his three-decade career. Here, Sanchez talks about time as the most valuable currency, Tom Hardy’s skills as a rapper and why he’s optimistic about dance music. 1. Where are you in the world right now, and what is the setting like? I’m in my apartment in Ibiza. It’s kind of tail end of my summer tour, and right now I’m just working on some new music. 2. What’s the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium? The first piece of music that I bought for myself was a 12-inch vinyl of First Choice’s “ Let No Man Put Asunder .” 3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you do for a living now? My father is an engineer. My mother raisined us. She also worked at a watch factory called Bulova for a period, but she basically spent a lot of time in the church. They separated when I was a lot younger. Interestingly enough, my father was the one, as I was in college deciding whether I wanted to continue studying architecture or completely dive into music, who encouraged me to follow my heart and what was calling to me. That was a pivotal point for me to kind of just dive in. Before that, I think my mom thought it was the devil’s music, but she understood. My parents were always a bit con