Nicky Siano: “Unfortunately, DJing has become a dying art form

Nicky Siano (Photo: Jonathan Forsythe) 

Jan Lankisch: Welcome to my show, The Cologne Affair.
I first met Nicky Siano last summer here in New York. Then, I invited him to Week-End Fest in Cologne, where he came to DJ, held an artist talk, and also remixed a track. But first of all, thank you so much, Nicky, for your time and for being the first guest on my show.

Nicky Siano: The first guest! Thank you for asking me.

Arriving in New York City, I can literally feel the history all around me, so let’s rewind a bit and explore your roots. Everyone who listens to your music—or has heard you play—knows how influential you’ve been in this city, but could you tell us…

Nicky Siano: You want to encapsulate it? Sure.

I’m one of the few DJs still alive who was actually playing records in the early 1970s. I started in 1971, at age sixteen, at a venue called The Roundtable. A year later, when I was seventeen, I opened a club called The Gallery with my brother—who was ten years older than me. He’d just received a $10,000 lawsuit settlement, which financed our venture. The Gallery went on to become the template for every club that followed, including The Paradise Garage and Studio 54.

Larry Levan—later the legendary DJ at The Paradise Garage—began his career as my balloon blower; he didn’t initially want to be a DJ, but rather a designer. His best friend, Frankie Knuckles, was my other balloon blower. We spent that first year inflating balloons and talking music before Larry decided to pick up the turntables. Around the same time, I worked at Steve Rubell’s first club, Enchanted Garden, and he in turn came to The Gallery every Saturday night, standing under my booth to study my three‑tiered lighting rig—designed to shoot beams up into the ceiling—and later recreated it at Studio 54.

I was also among the very first to play tracks that went on to define an era: “TSOP” (the Soul Train theme), “Turn the Beat Around,” “Love Hangover,” “The Boss,” “I Feel Love,” and countless others. Everyone came to The Gallery to hear what I was spinning, and those records soon spread to every other DJ. Occasionally I’d discover something new elsewhere and bring it back—so inspiration flowed both ways. It wasn’t about competition but about community and sharing. Without that rivalry, artistic growth exploded. Even when Larry began covering his record labels to hide his selections, I never felt threatened; I believe you can copy a song, but you’ll never copy someone’s unique talent for digging and sequencing.

As friends say, I’m not merely a DJ—I’m an artist. And unfortunately, DJing has become a dying art form. Today’s scene relies heavily on drum machines and software, which often force you to lock into a fixed tempo. I don’t begrudge technology, but I want the freedom to shift from 124 BPM down to 110 or even 105—something most programs resist. In contrast, many DJs stick around 126 BPM all night, maybe varying by two beats. I vary by twenty. A great night should feel like a roller coaster: dips, climbs, highs, lows—yet too many sets plateau and deprive audiences of slower, funkier tracks. In my world, if it’s danceable, it belongs on the floor—at any tempo.

Legendary DJ (Photo: Jonathan Forsythe)

I was very happy that I was able to celebrate your 70th birthday with you at your one‑off “A Night at The Gallery” event on March 22, 2025, at the Eldorado Disco Bumper Cars (1216 Surf Avenue) in Coney Island, New York.
Again: Happy birthday, Nicky!

Nicky Siano: Thank you.

If someone would ask me and say you’re 70 – and I am sitting in front of you – I’m like, are you kidding me?

Nicky Siano: (laughs)

I must say, I was struck for days—and I still feel the energy you brought that night at your 70th birthday party just two weeks ago. I wasn’t there in 1971, but I definitely felt the magic in the room that night. With guests ranging from twenty to seventy-seven, it was fascinating to see so many generations dancing and celebrating together, sharing in that energy and joy. I sometimes feel like that kind of joy had disappeared from the dance floor.

Nicky Siano: Yeah, didn’t it?

A lot of times you don’t see people laughing anymore. The music is often too fast and you wonder if they really feel it still. Like, is this how people have sex too.

Nicky Siano: Yeah, and when you look at people on the dance floor, they give you that bad look—like, ‘What are you looking at?’ But that Saturday night two weeks ago, all you got was a smile, a big smile. You look at someone, you get a smile—that’s what you should get. It should be inviting and fun, and yeah, we’ve really lost that; we’ve taken it away.

“I think the progress of technology in music is one of the main reasons for this problem. Music production has come so far that it’s been perfected in a way where you miss the breath of the instruments, or the warmth of an amp, or something organic. Now, everything feels so cold and flat

Nicky Siano: Yeah—sanitized and computer-controlled. I think when the first drum machine came out, it kicked off this trend of perfecting everything. While that can sound nice sometimes, you still want some human interaction in the music. It can—and should—be both.

You asked me about technology—I think its use has been abused and overused. It’s not exciting when a track never varies: the tempo stays locked, there’s no scratching, it’s just bang-on the beat. It lacks the energy that live musicians bring—and that energy is called excitement. That’s what you want in a song: excitement.

I’m really into this new artist, Chappell Roan. If you listen to her music, you’ll hear a drum pattern in the background produced electronically, but she layers all live instruments over it. And it works—really well.

“I think there’s a new understanding with younger people, and they’re experiencing it again. They’re finding something in that music from the time you grew up with—something that got lost in recent years. They’re trying to recreate it, to rediscover that feeling, and bring it back to the music

Nicky Siano: One thing that makes me think of MFSB (Mother Father Sister Brother) is the orchestra that played on any of the Philly International records—everything from ‘Love Train’ and ‘The Love I Lost’ to ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now.’ All of The O’Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, anything on the Philly International label, Billy Paul—they were all MFSB, and it was an orchestra.

That orchestra played in a big room with a lot of microphones set up throughout. When that happens, there’s this interaction between the musicians that makes it more exciting. The drummer might look at the bass player, and they’ll adjust the tempo, bringing it up just a little, and the whole room shifts. Everyone goes with it. There’s a real excitement that comes from working with other musicians, collaborating like that—something that doesn’t happen with electronics. It just doesn’t work the same way.

Now, I’d love for our listeners to hear what we’re talking about. I asked you to choose three songs that you would describe as the soundtrack of your life—songs that helped kick off your career or had a deep impact on you.

Nicky Siano: Well, first of all, the first one I picked is by Eddie Kendricks, who was a member of The Temptations before he went solo. It’s called ‘Girl, You Need a Change of Mind,’ and it’s considered one of the biggest disco records ever. It was the number one record on dance floors from 1971 to 1977—anytime, anywhere. You could put that record on in any club, and the dance floor would fill up. It starts off slow, then builds and builds to a climax. So, do you want to hear it?
Yes, I would love to hear it

Nicky Siano: Okay here we go.

You said you never met him in person, but do you think he ever noticed, in his lifetime, that he had a peak or rising interest in the disco scene?

Nicky Siano: “Everybody notices when you’re faced with the sales of your last project. I mean, you get a gold or platinum record for one, and then nothing for the next. Of course, you notice. But a lot of his stuff got lost because, and I have to say this, Motown wasn’t really good at giving their artists exposure. They didn’t care—they had the top artists and felt like they could just put it out and it would go where it needed to go. But that’s not how things worked when clubs started opening and labels started focusing specifically on the club scene. Suddenly, you had all this new, great product, but if you didn’t promote your song, you’d get lost in the sauce. You’d get lost in the competition.

Do you remember the time when Motown realized they had to invest more in DJs, giving them promos and test pressings?

Nicky Siano: I think it happened with Diana Ross, specifically with the album that ‘Love Hangover’ was on. There was a hit on it that was a slow song—I’m forgetting the name now—but they were pushing that slow song. Of course, I get the album, and I hear ‘Love Hangover.’ I played it 10 times. There was a line outside the record store Sunday morning when people left The Gallery, all asking for ‘Love Hangover.’ It wasn’t out yet, but it came out the next week. So, Motown quickly realized they couldn’t hold back this trend. They went with a whole album. Her next album, ‘The Boss,’ written by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, had tracks built for the dance floor. They gave into it, building a whole album around that sound. And that became her biggest album, ‘The Boss.’ So, at a point, yes, they gave in and embraced the trend. But they held out for as long as they could. With their other artists, they just didn’t care. Diana Ross had a lot of influence at the company, so she got what she wanted.

I recently read that Marvin Gaye hated Disco. That he only did this song “Got to Give It Up” in 1976 because motown wanted him to do it.

Nicky Siano: Yeah, Marvin didn’t like disco. And while this was a great song, he wasn’t into it. He wasn’t really a fan of the disco sound. But it ended up being a huge hit for him. He preferred doing slower songs, like ‘Sexual Healing’ and things like that. But you can only do so much of that, you know?

What other song is there, you think back of and have good memories of?

Nicky: Well, the other song I picked is by MFSB, the band I mentioned earlier that played all together in a big room. It’s the ‘Soul Train Theme’ (sings) ‘Soul Train… Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.’ That was a huge hit. On the flip side, there was this long, nine-minute track with a three-minute outro that had this groove that just made you want to dance. It challenged you to dance. I’d take two copies of the album and keep playing it over and over, and it became huge. It’s been remixed and re-edited more than any other dance classic from that era. ‘Love is the Message’ became the anthem for the 70s dance club movement, and it still holds that place.

I remember you played it the other week on Saturday night, and yeah it’s great, I mean not all the songs from that era – you would agree with me – stood the test of time where you can still listen to them like 50 years later but this one does

Nicky Siano: Yes, ‘Love is a Message’ really stands out. It absolutely does. The next song on the list, the reason I picked it, is because it was 1976, and we were at a point where we were playing R&B and soul. Then came a record that was unapologetically disco. It kind of broke the mold, saying, ‘We’re making dance music, and we don’t care who likes it or not.’ That track is ‘Turn the Beat Around’ by Vicki Sue Robinson. It was truly a club record.

When did it start that you were receiving records early from record labels?

Nicky Siano: “It started in 1974. We were going up to record labels—back then, we didn’t have a record pool like they do now. We’d go up to places like Buddha Records, Sony—well, actually, it was CBS at the time—then Warner Brothers, and South Soul Records. There were about seven stops we’d make on Thursdays, and they’d give us the new records for the week. This was all because we’d become friends with people at the companies. A lot of DJs weren’t getting records, but they knew that The Gallery was breaking records. My friend David Rodriguez worked at another club that was also breaking records, so they’d give us the records. Like that TSOP record—she told us, ‘Oh, I only have one copy.’ But she didn’t, she had about five. So we took another one, because David needed one, and I needed one. We didn’t have the highest standards back then, but what could you say? I was only 18 or 19 years old, I was an idiot. But honestly, they had no idea what was coming, what was happening. They didn’t know we were going to break that record, so your radio play was happening without having to pay off DJs. You didn’t have to do that anymore. And the radio DJs were mad. Ooh.

Okay, what’s the next track that you pick?

Nicky Siano: “The next track I’ve got on here is ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer. The guy from Casablanca Records came to The Gallery one night and handed me an acetate. An acetate is a really thick record that you press to test it out on a good system, just to make sure you want to go with that mix and mastering. So, he brings me Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and says, ‘Nicky, can you play it?’ I said, ‘Mark, I don’t just play things off the cuff like that—you’ve got to give it to me during the week, I need to hear it.’ But I listened through the headphones, and I heard something I’d never heard before—the electronic Giorgio sound. It was new, it was fresh. So I took a chance, mixed it in, and the crowd went crazy. I told him, ‘Mark, thank you for bringing this!’ But then he said, ‘Well, I need it back, I’m going to other clubs.’ I said, ‘WHAT?’ I gave it back to him and said, ‘DON’T EVER COME BACK HERE.’ – And then we kissed and made up a couple of weeks later. (Laughs) But I was so mad about that.

The great fact about this record is that it came from Germany, right?

Nicky Siano: Yeah, no wait “I Feel Love” didn’t come from Germany.

Wasn’t it produced in Munich?

Nicky Siano: No, that was “Love to Love You Baby”.

Ah, right, right, sorry, I mixed it up.

Nicky Siano: Yeah. That song was a huge hit. “I Love to Love Your Baby” was huge. That was her first big hit.

It’s a little sad to know that she regretted all of that later in her life …

Nicky Siano: Yeah, a lot of the things she did, I mean, “Bad Girls”—that really made her. It was so good. “Bad Girls” was one of the best ones. I loved that song when it first came out, but now I can’t listen to it. If I hear it, ‘toot toot beep beep,’ I get a headache.”

Did you see that documentary about her? I watched it on the plane last year, and it was really good—really good. It’s kind of sad, though, because she had lost her way. And for the community, she lost a lot of respect.

Nicky Siano: Oh yeah, she lost. The gay community really made her, and then she, you know, turned her back on them. Yeah, she turned her back on them because it wasn’t in line with her faith. I just don’t understand people like that. God doesn’t make junk. People who are gay are born that way—trust me, I know.

So, the last record we’re going to talk about is yours. And as we were talking about 12-inch records getting pressed, I realized that your track, ‘Kiss Me Again,’ which we re-released on our label Week-End Records last year, was actually the first 12-inch record ever released on Sire Records

Nicky Siano: Yeah, ‘Kiss Me Again’ was Arthur Russell’s first big record. After that, he went on to do ‘Go Bang!’ and ‘Is It All Over My Face,’ but ‘Kiss Me Again’ was 13 minutes long—it was a mountain of music. It really was its own roller coaster ride. You didn’t need a whole night to experience it; it was a complete symphony. It was a symphony.

Did you have to convince Sire Records?

Nicky Siano: It was like this. “I don’t know you, Arthur, but I know Nicky, and if he’s involved, we’ll get involved.”

But you had to upfront all the money for production,right?

Nicky Siano: I produced it with my money first. Which was a lot back then: $10,000.

It’s insane. Some people do a full album with that budget.

Nicky Siano: Yeah, now you can. But back then, we recorded with 24-tracks, the tape alone was $400.

So maybe it’s a good moment to play that song now: “Kiss me Again” by Dinosaur.

Welcome back to the show, Nicky Siano. We’ve got one more track left, and it might be nice to tell a little story. I was in New York about a year ago, riding my Brompton folding bike. All my friends kind of laugh about it, but I get around really well with it. I remember being in Midtown, wearing my headphones—which, I know, I shouldn’t do, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. It’s definitely not the safest way to ride a bike. But here’s the thing—I felt guarded by disco. I was listening to a lot of classic disco tracks, and at one point, I was listening to ‘Kiss Me Again.’ That’s when I had the idea to see if there was any chance of re-releasing it. So, I emailed a guy I knew at Warner Music in Germany. The next stop I made, I checked my emails, and he had already replied, saying he’d forwarded my request to the office in the U.S.

The next stop on my bike ride was at the office of my dear friends at Luaka Bop, which is such a fantastic label here in New York. They’ve been putting out amazing records for over 35 years. When I walked into their office in the East Village, the first question they asked me was: “Who would you recommend to remix a track by one of our new artists: Annie & the Caldwellsit?” An easy choice: “I think Nicky Siano is still alive, so why not ask him?” – And a few months later, we were together  in Cologne, because I’d invited you to play at our festival.

I remember I sent you the music and I remember that you were very fond of the the bass line.

Nicky Siano: Oh yeah, the bassline is amazing. It really moves the track. In a dance song, you need your drums and your bass—that’s your foundation, your floor. That’s your one-two-three-four.

I remember hearing the track and thinking, it’s just one step ahead of disco—it just needs a little bit of flair, a spin. And you gave that spin to the song.

Nicky Siano: I think I did. I took it and—wow—I just felt like, this is what I want to be my entry back into the dance music scene. My signature track. And it really is a signature track for me. So here it is: ‘Wrong,’ my remix for Annie and the Caldwells.

“Thank you so much, Nicky, for your time and for coming down to East Village Radio. I’m really grateful we had the chance to have you here with us today.

That was the first hour of the Cologne Affair. Up next, we’ve got an exclusive one-hour mix from Nicky, featuring his favorite tracks from over 50 years in music.