Tag Archives: The Gallery

  • NICKY SIANO INTERVIEW BY DENNIS KANE

    nickysiano

    A true pioneer of the art of DJing, Nicky Siano started young and burned brightly. His party, the Gallery, along with David Mancuso’s the Loft, set a template for what an underground dance music party could be. Created in a Manhattan loft space, the Gallery was an environment designed and built by Nicky and his brother Joe, an architectural engineer. It was there that Nicky pioneered beat-matching, blending and EQing to create new levels of sonic drama, and he did it on three Thorens turntables and a Bozak mixer (that means no backspinning and limited pitch control). He started going out at an early age and was by his own admission a “music fiend.”

    “I was listening to Montavani,” recalls Nicky. “He was this composer and orchestra leader [who] had very lush arrangements. I was obsessed by his palette of sounds. I was also getting schooled by my brothers in the world of rock music. Laura Nyro’s compositions became a big deal for me.”

    Nicky got his first major gig at a club in midtown called the Roundtable, where he would often DJ five to seven nights a week. [Read More]

  • INTERVIEWS: NICKY SIANO

    by Alex R. Mayer – EDGE 

    “I never thought of myself as just playing records, but creating atmosphere.” – Nicky Siano

    Think of today’s biggest DJs, the ones that everyone watches and listens to; the DJs of DJing if you will. Think about their tricks and techniques, the way they select and mix their records, and the energy and atmosphere they create on their dancefloors. Now, think about the DJs who came before them, such as Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan. Those DJs who influenced today’s
    spinners, were guided musically and philosophically by a man who pioneered the art of mixing on three turntables, who first got audiences to sing records back to the DJ and who made everyone stop dancing and look up at the DJ booth of Studio 54.

    Nicky Siano heard and saw something in the music and nightlife of the early 1970s that transcended the accepted norms of that time. The dance music community had come together out of a need for expression, and a declaration of their rights. The music reflected the many intense social and political issues of the time, including the Vietnam War and the Stonewall uprising. When people came together to dance, it was a safe haven, if only for the night. It was also a way to communicate collectively, something which DJs such as Siano and David Mancuso realized early on. [Read More]