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MIKE ROACH Interview With A Vampire By: Cara Bruscia
On a cold, rainy Wednesday night, I got together with my friend Mike who was in town for a hot second. Sitting at a corner table at the Chip Shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn we lazily threw back a couple of pints and some comfort food. Mike begins to tell me about this weird party he went to in Dublin which was one of the stops on tour with Eric Morillo. This party was particularly interesting because Mike was seemingly the only straight guy in the room. He’s not a homophobe, but after a long night of sound tweeking for Eric amongst other things, pounding back pints of Guiness with a pack of lads speaking Gaelic was some what surreal. 28 year old Mike Roach is the Tour Manager for Eric Morillo, a platinum selling artists and superstar DJ who is most known for producing Reel 2 Reel’s hit “I like to move it move it.” We all have at one point, shook our tail feathers to this one. He is also the founder of Subliminal Records, a label that consistently churns out the talent. Eric is a busy man which makes Mike just as busy. I felt compelled to interview Mike because he is the man behind the man. I think his job just straight up rules. He travels the world at the speed of light and gets to party while he works. He is a veritable vampire spending his nights and early morning days in dark beat worthy clubs. He is the butter that allows Eric to smoothly put on his legendary shows. Mike is touring constantly but I had the chance to catch up with him before they started their U.S. tour.
C: So what does your job entail exactly? M: I’m the Tour Manager so I handle anything on the Road to flights, hotels, gig sound, transportation and I organize his CD’s and records.
C: So would you say you have a big part in his track list for his shows? M: Oh definitely. I listen to every promo he gets in the mail every week and the stuff I think he likes, I’ll pass it on to him. C: you’re kind of like the filter in his ear? M: Yeah. C: So do you do the sound before and during the shows? M: I’m pretty much the go-to guy. People don’t talk to Eric, they talk to me.
C: How did you get into this? M: I used to be a sound engineer in theatre in Upstate NY, Cooperstown for the Glimmerglass Opera. Then I became the sound engineer for Hartford Stage in CT. I moved to the city and started working for the public theatre and numerous theatres throughout the city. C: So how did you get approached by Eric? M: I started working at clubs in NYC…at Vinyl or Arc now. I did the sound for Danny Tenaglia and his people knew Eric’s booking agent and they saw how I worked with D.T. and thought I would be good for Eric. I thought if I could do the same thing in clubs but travel the world, it would be great.
C: What is the biggest challenge with this job? M: Well, sometimes I have to come into a gig and shut down and implement new equipment while the show is going on but still keep things running smoothly.
C: What do you like most and least about your job? M: I love meeting new people and going to new places. I love the challenge. Least? Trying to hold a normal life. I travel every weekend and live in Europe from early June through October. I have 250 gigs per year so there is no time for friends or family or any sort of relationship. I’m looking to tone it down a bit. C: So it’s hard to develop longstanding relationships? M: I have great friends! I’ve made some really great friends but the giddiness of the job wears off. It gets old. You have to realize you’re only there for 12 hours so you take what you can get out of it. If you want a girlfriend, it’s a bad job. I have a busy schedule with old friends when I am home though.
C: So what’s the craziest thing you have seen on tour? M: It was actually in Moscow . Russians are always up for a party. It’s amazing. Everything is really new with the capitalist system so it’s making young people there rich. The parties are out of control. There’s strippers and everyone drives Aston Martins. The bar had loads of vodka, caviar…the spread was amazing. Everything was just decadent. I drank an entire bottle of Jack that night. The Russians were like, “We like you.”
C: What would you say was the best night out at a club? M: D.T. and Carl Cox….Twilo. It just seemed like a time when dance music and NYC came to a head. It was the most energy a NYC crowd ever had.
C: Where do you think electronic music is going? What do you think about the culture of dance music? M: It’s difficult to say. We’re in a lull but the cream is
rising to the top. Quality DJ’s will continue to keep working.
They can do nothing but grow. We had a lot of rock mixes and I’m
seeing a lot of hip hop enter the genre like Lil John and Usher. Almost
half the music out there is going this way and it’s pushing itself
forward as its own genre. (In response do dance culture) Sooner or later
everybody needs to dance. In Europe, clubbing is nothing special. It’s
natural.
C: What is it like to work with Eric? M: It’s an amazing experience! Let’s face it. He is one of the top DJ’s in the world. “I like to move it,” had a lot of reach and helped mold beginnings. His work ethic is amazing and we’re on the road constantly. I’m really happy to work with him. The contacts I have made will hopefully have me working for the rest of my life. Actually, no Tour Mgr has lasted with Eric for more than four months.
C: Do you ever get tired of his sets? M: He will get me dancing at least once a night. As long as that happens, I can keep on with this job.
C: Where are you jetting off to next? M: Chicago , LA and Vegas at the end of the month. February we kick off in Amsterdam and Venice.
C: What is most important to you? M: My family. I get to visit them more now. Frequent flyer miles.
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