The Ascension of Tony Moran
If you’ve ever danced on one of Tony Moran’s packed floors-let’s say at one of his after-hours sets at Arabian Nights for Gay Disney, or at Cameo in South Beach during White Party or Winter Party, or at Black Party at Roseland-there most probably comes a point when you look around and feel as if you’re living inside the world evoked in the video of Janet Jackson’s "Rhythm Nation" (itself a riff on Fritz Lang’s 1927 futuristic film Metropolis)-a world marked by futuristic glamour and high-tech spectacle. With his propensity for romantic, hook-laden, hands-in-the-air house-take a listen to his hit "Put Your Hands Up"-Moran’s sets are equally haunted by a Blade Runner-esque pursuit of Elysium. All of which is to say that as the man behind the music, Tony Moran’s personal journey has direct relevance to those of us working it out on his floor. And if you think you know all there is to know about Tony...
EDGE: Not so long ago, we came across some "long-lost" footage (1988!!!) on YouTube... You realize, Tony, that some people probably don’t know that you were one half of the Latin Rascals. Which means they haven’t seen how you work that crowd! That video of you is dynamic! Move over, Justin! Shove aside, Usher!
Tony: [laughing] Thank God, [Justin and Usher] weren’t born yet or else Albert [Cabrera] and I [would have had] to compete with them! [But that said], I never really notice that time has gone by because I have always looked at what was ahead for me.
EDGE: Beautiful attitude.
Tony: I’m honored to have such wonderful sets [as a kind of] retrospective [on YouTube].
EDGE: You’ve been lucky with the musical partners in your life. You seem to have forged a working partnership with Warren Rigg, not unlike that which you shared with Albert Cabrera. What’s the process by which you and Warren create such hits-for example, your reworking of Kaci Battaglia’s "Crazy Possessive"?
Tony: I have always been drawn to creativity, whether it’s raw or experienced. Warren Rigg is a partner who shares the same passion and willingness to apply a standard of doing the best that you can. We see Kaci Battaglia as a future superstar.
EDGE: Recently, we came across an online forum where people were debating their favorite Tony Moran mixes. You know what their favorites were?
Tony: I haven’t seen that forum, but I’d be happy if you shared those titles with me.
EDGE: Alright, let’s take a look at some of those crowd favorites: "Easy as Life," "Unfaithful," "Take A Bow," "The Promise," "The Wings (Theme from Brokeback)," "Freedom," "Put Your Hands Up," "Walk Away," "Surrender Me." Would you say there’s any thematic quality-or musical tone-that connects them?
Tony: Is there a common denominator? More than likely, but I don’t see that as a formula.
EDGE: Exactly. Not at all formulaic, but perhaps they each reveal some aspect of you?
Tony: I make them as I feel them and I live them as I make them.
EDGE: That’s a lovely creative mantra: I make them as I feel them and I live them as I make them. We should put that on a fridge magnet.
Tony: Each one has been its own journey.
EDGE: One of your biggest-and best-loved-hits is your work with Deborah Cox on "Easy as Life." We know so many boyz who live-still-for that song. There’s something of your signature sound in that. How would you describe that sound?
Tony: HOT!
Ascension :: hottest party of the summer!
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EDGE: You’re not getting any argument from us on that! You’ve worked with Deborah, Rihanna, Mariah, Kristine, Janet, Michael-just to name a few. Anybody missing, anyone you’re craving?
Tony: I’ve been blessed to collaborate with many on my sacred wish list. That wish list is ever expanding and George Michael has always been on it.
EDGE: Speaking of beautiful vocalists, one year at a party, you sang "The Promise" live-and everyone was thrilled, even while there were some who had no idea you were a singer. Do you consider yourself a vocalist still?
Tony: The vocalist road has not come to an end for me. Had I felt that way, "The Promise" would not have come out fifteen years after "Arabian Nights." By the time that this interview comes out, I will be approaching the completion of my latest labor of love.
EDGE: Oh, you have to give us something, Tony. C’mon, reveal.
Tony: It’s what I feel is my most artistic album to date, my beats, my vocals, and a unified vision with my partners, team and collaborators. You can be sure to hear some of it at ASCENSION.
EDGE: You’ll be playing the Fund in the Sun Foundation’s ASCENSION party on Fire Island-Pines for the first time this August. This is the fourth year for this 4,000-person fundraiser for the Task Force and the Fund in the Sun Foundation. Have you been before?
Tony: Fire Island has been like a second home to me for much of my adult life. I have been a supporter of ASCENSION since its inception. I have attended this particular event every year and I look forward to performing at the ASCENSION beach party.
EDGE: A couple or three years ago, you played the Task Force’s Winter Party Beach Party. Why do you enjoy playing a day party? Is there something a day party gives you that a night party does not?
Tony: A day party gives me the opportunity to showcase a different variety of selections that are guided by the environment: the sky and the daylight. [But] at every party I do my best to put smiles on people’s faces and their hands in the air.
Forward Thinking
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EDGE: Let’s talk a few minutes about how it is that you’ve gotten to this place in your career. How did you break into the music business as a kid? Were you one of those child prodigies?
Tony: I grew up within a melting pot of multiple cultures expressing themselves musically, yet all fitting into the same neighborhood. My earliest memories as a kid were finding a passion that would evolve into a career.
EDGE: Wow, even then you were forward thinking.
Tony: [By the time] I had my first summer job and was able to buy music, [I started] deejaying on the streets playing on a sound system that I built from scraps of other people’s junk.
EDGE: That’s very cool, kind of like a metaphor for your remixing work: taking pieces from various sources and making something that’s entirely your own.
Tony: Making people dance on the streets directed my interest toward investigating what properties of music came together to bring so many people such joy.
EDGE: Firsthand empirical research.
Tony: My deejaying on the streets [led] to a job at the #1 radio station in NYC and the creating of an identity with my Latino colleague Albert Cabrera, hence the birth of the Latin Rascals.
