[New York, USA. October 16th, 2009] -- Blasting out the wayside of the UQ crew, New York City’s raw house wonder DJ Qu (Ramon Lisandro Quezada) was asked to lay down his own rendition of chopped up beats for this mlat podcast. Recognized for his physical connection to the dance floor (he used to travel as a dancer/instructor with Brian "Footwork" Green and friend Joey Anderson), he has only recently taken this physical relationship with music into production. Qu has recently produced some of the most intriguing, stripped down raw music to come out the underground in the past few years, with clearly recognizable influence from other masterminds, such as Jus-Ed, AntonZap, Black Jazz Consortium, and Levon Vincent. Listen to everything in the man's catalog and look forward to a fistful of releases/remixes about to drop, including some through his own house label, Strength Music). Mlat wanted to give him a proper platform to broadcast himself, and share his experience of music.

In any interview that blows the door open into an artist’s sensibilities (no one has yet taken the time to sit you down and pick your brain, and post the discussion), I of course wanted to ask you about your influences. How would you describe your “musical context?” Things such as, where did you grow up and what did you grow up around?

Well, I was born and raised in New Jersey. Been living there all my life. Jersey is what I know. Musically, Jersey has been the home of alot of great talents. There has been great producers even in the music we call “House”. A lot that NJ has contributed to the music generally gets credited to the whole NY scene but that’s sort of a misconception. You have producers and djs like Tony Humphries, Blaze, Kerri Chandler and the list goes on. When I was a younger growing up in Jersey, I was into sports (Baseball especially). Hangin out was playing Baseball or Basketball after school. There was an institution around my way named the “Boys Club”that created different recreational activities for the youth to keep them off the streets since it was so easy to get caught up in the wrong surroundings at the time. Hip-Hop was the sound of the culture and House Music started creepin in at the end of the 80’s. House started replacing Hip-Hop to the point that it was all you heard everywhere you went. We listen to a lot of tracks coming out of Chicago and then started hearing tracks from different NY/NJ and Detroitproducers. All the Deep House and what they consider Techno today since we even called Techno – Deep House back then influnced me in my sound and even the way I lived my life. Once House got a grip of me—it’s like it never let go of me til this day. It’s definitely not like that today but hopefully the era will relive again. Gotta keep putting the work in!

I have read a few references mentioning (and have seen your 12” collaborations) with Joey Anderson. You and Joey have always big dancers, having taught classes and even traveled around the world performing. Could you talk more about you and dancing, the communities in which your engagement with dance flowers, and what sort of creative inspiration that you draw from physically engaging/interpreting music?

Yeah. I did the Dance thing for many years in the NJ/NY house clubs With a good friend of mine named Dominique. It was our hobby. It’s what we did for fun but had a lot of love for it. Coming up in the club scene is where I met Joey Anderson. It was apparent that we shared the same passion.

We danced in the same club scene for years before we actually met. We both also came up and learned from other great Dancers by the name of Brian Footwork green, Shan S.Caleaf, Ejoe, Sekou, Marjory... and the list goes on. In the early 2000’s, Joey was a big influencer when it came to the house club dance scene. He had many people diggin and tryin to learn his style. He has a very large Japanese market. Joey Came up under Caleaf and then developed a very unigue way of movement that inspired a lot of heads. Everyone did it for the love but then the asian market stepped in(mostly from Japan) and the Underground House/Hip-Hop dance scene took off to the point that today, It is a global thing. There’s been many different styles of dance all across the U.S when it came to House but the NY House dance scene definitely surpassed all other states as far as a global influence. Big respect to the ny dance scene!


As far as production goes, you have really established a nice run of releases over the past year. While moody and groovy, cerebral, deep and vibrant like so many quality house tunes are, your recent productions have had a very advanced sound signature. There are complex rhythmic syncopations, layerings, and a lively variance. I was just curious if you were aware of any particular “headspace” that you step into when making tunes. A song like “Rainy Dayz” is a good example (and an indicative title) for some of the gems you have put out. Or like in “The Zones,” “Be Who You Want,” and a few others, there is this pittering and pattering of hi-hats and chords, along with subtle, thunderous basslines, and a retracting into these depths that you build.

Nah, not really aware of any head space. I basically creat my tracks from feeling and influences of the past music and even some new music that I encounter or certain situations that life brings. There is also thinking involed but feeling comes first. If I’m not feeling a session- than the session must come to an end but if I am feeling a session then that allows for some thinking room. I can listen to the feeling I created and then think about what direction I want the composition to go. There’s really not much more than that except for learning how to use different functions on what I choose to create with that day or practice different musical patterns.

Where is the main vocal on “Be Who You Want” come from?

The main extended male vocal is actually the voice of the great NYHouse producer “Basil”. If your not familiar with Basil then theres another artist you can search or maybe interview cause I’m sure he has a lot of stories to tell about this music and he’s my elder when it comes to the ny dance scene. Basil’s history in the clubs go back to the Garage and the Loft. I was way to young for those clubs.

NY has of course started to be re-recognized as an epicenter for dance music, currently housing some of the most provocative minds in production. Aside from you Underground Quality teammates, is there anything/anyone that you are particularly proud of or intrigued by at home or abroad?

Defintely. You got the whole Exchange Place crew that I’m excited about. There’s still members who’s music is still in the cluthches waitin to be heard!

Looking forward, what have you been working on lately and what would you like to see have happen in the near/distant future?

Right now, just working on different releases and remixes for other labels. Also, working on the next few releases on Strength Music Recordings. We have The “Secret Place” ep which is a solo release on Strength along with the “Semesters2” ep. And look out for the next “Exchange Place” release ready to drop and Hopefully… A DJ QU album. Defintely a lot of things happening! Big Love to the whole UQ family!


QU MYSPACE STRENGTH MUSIC







  1. Still Phill - Bey un Bey (Mkl vs. Soysos remix) [Natural Resources]
  2. DJ QU - Untitled [Unreleased]
  3. Leron Carson - The Unknown (with special Qu-apella) [Sound Signature]
  4. Joey Anderson - The Analysis [Strength Music]
  5. Nicuri - Untitled [Unreleased]
  6. Sin Palabras - Yemaya (Krills remix) [Yoruba]
  7. Theo Parrish - Space Station [Sound Signature]
  8. Ron Trent - Intoxicate [Future Vision]
  9. Nina Kraviz – Free [Underground Quality]
10. Africans with Mainframes - Zodiac Rhythms [Mathematics]
11. DJ Bone - Change [Subject Detroit]

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