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Dave Nada, Creator of Moombahton: Interview + MP3s

• story Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

DJ Ayres sent us this little interview with Dave Nada explaining the TOTALLY amazing origins of “Moombahton,” which is essentially Dutch house screwed down to sound like reggaeton’s weird little cousin. Check the interview after the jump (hint: involves ditching high school!), and download all the Moombahton tracks here.

Ayres: How did you come up with Moombahton? It’s such a weird idea, usually dance producers take slower songs and speed them up, not the other way around. I’m imagining you playing an Afrojack 12″ on 33 rpm instead of 45, by accident.

I probably shouldn’t tell this story, but here goes. Lo ciento Tia Sona! My little cousin Jean-Pierre is a huge Nadastrom fan and he’s about to graduate from high school. Him and his boy Mike are notorious for throwing these wild skipping parties. For those that don’t know, “skipping parties” are when you throw a house party mid school day and you tell all your friends that morning, and everyone who knows about the party skips school to go wild out. Word of mouth only too, no internet/paper trail. Anyhow, around their homecoming last fall they asked if I could DJ one of their skipping parties, and I, being the supportive/bad seed cousin that I am, agreed. They had a beat up system, but like 329439 speakers all over Mike’s basement so it sounded huge. They told me it would last about an hour because cops usually bust it up. The house/neighborhood was right by the woods so it was convenient to bounce and hide if need be. Anyhow, so here we are at Mike’s empty house around 11:30AM and everything is set up. Kids start pouring in around noon and the music starts. Mike and JP are dropping bachata and moving into reggaeton. This shit was getting crazy. Twenty minutes in and the place is PACKED, all Latin kids and everyone is fuuuucked up. Haha! I was gettin mad nervous (oldest dude there) and JP was like, “Yo you gotta go on soon primo!” and I’m thinking, fuck I cant play house/techno shit, I’ll get jumped. So I had the idea of slowing down some of the tropical/Dutch house stuff I had on CDs. Afrojack’s “Moombah Remix” being the biggest tune, I said fuck it and turned that shit down to 108 bpm. JP told all his people about me so bamas started cheering when I went on. And that’s when shit popped the fuck off. The minute that T-t-t-t-turn up the bass! part came in and dropped the place went insane! I played it all the way til the end and then did the same to Sidney Samson’s “Riverside” and EVERYONE is yelling the “Riverside motherfucker!” part and shit was just too much. I was losin’ it and told myself, I need to make some edits of this shit! And thus, Moombahton was born. Long story short, neighbors complained a good 15 minutes into my set and threatened to call the cops. Half the party started to bounce and then a few minutes later Mike yells, “Cops on the way!” and like clockwork this party was done. All in about an hour. I parked down the street and drove both my cousin JP and Mike back to school so they could catch the end of their classes as if nothing ever happened.

Have you played these songs in the club? What kind of response have you gotten?
Well, after that experience, I had to try this in the club and I’ve played a few edits here and there at Taxlo in Baltimore to huge reactions. Then I did an entire set of Moombahton at a gig at the Olympics in Vancouver last month. This Moombahton shit was also inspired by Bersa Discos (#6) who make some amazing bugged out mixes of cumbia/reggaeton/Latin jams, so I like to mix Moombahton with that. Canadians are gettin wild with it now. I gave Moombahton edits to several of my DJ cousins who DJ Latin parties and clubs in DC and it pops off like mad.

Are you going to be producing official Moombahton remixes, or just keeping it bootlegs all the way?
Both! Be on the lookout for Steve Starks, “Lydia (Nadastrom Moombahton Remix).”

Other producers are already picking up on the style, doing their own Moombahton edits. Are you at all concerned this will be your crowning achievement? On your tombstone it will say “Dave Nada. Creator of Moombahton.”
Ha! I don’t know about all of that. But I do know that Moombahton sounds funky as hell on a system, at a party, at a club, at a function, by the beach, etc. so why not? As long as I can keep the floor moving, I’m good.

Can you give us your top five new dance tracks and also your all time top five slept on reggaeton tracks?
Right now it’s all about Doble-T & El Crok’s “Pepe” courtesy of Catchdini, that joint is FIRE. Also Interprete Desconocido, “Pista 2.” My dude A-Mac did a fantastic Moombahton edit of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll” and DJ Neoterico did a wild Moombahton mix called “Hey Got Lines.” I also gotta big up “La Gata” Moombahton edit I did. As for five slept on reggaeton tracks? 1) Lorna, “Papi Chulo” 2) Tito El Bambino, “Tu Cintura” 3) Tego Calderon, “Guasa Guasa” 4) Ce’Cile, “Hot Like We” 5) the OG Moombahton joint Style of Eye, “The Big Kazoo (Nacho Lovers Limb By Limb Edit).”

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• posted on Mar 5, 2010 in MP3 / STREAMS, MUSIC INTERVIEWS
• tags Dave Nada, DJ Ayres, Dutch house, electronic/dance, Moombahton, Q+A, reggaeton