It’s taken a few years, but Louie Vega has a story to tell
|||Helen Herimbi
Throughout his illustrious career, American house music veteran, Louie Vega, has made a name for himself as a master collaborator. He has produced songs for the most talented vocalists under the Little Louie Vega moniker. He has also been a part of the influential Masters At Work, Freestyle Orchestra and Hardrive.
Following three albums under the Elements of Life brand, Vega has finally released an album under his own name.
Louie Vega Starring… XXVIII is his latest offering. When asked about the insistence of using his name, the veteran said (via a video conference call): “‘Little Louie Vega’ was a childhood name from before I was DJ-ing. Then when I got to doing Elements of Life, that’s when I dropped the ‘Little.’ It was time to grow up.”
This album sees the producer collaborating with 25 artists from the global house world to make 28 songs on a double disc. Featured artists include Monique Bingham, The Winans Brothers, Kaylow, Vikter Duplaix, Caron Wheeler, N’Dea Davenport, Bucie, Adeva and his wife, Anané.
“When I started with the album,” Vega said, “I started with the family. Everyone has this special thing about them. It was about whatever felt good to me.”
But 28 songs is quite a lot of material to disseminate to the world in one go.
“Everyone was like: ‘Twenty-eight songs? Why so many?’” he laughed. “But I needed that many to tell the story.” He also said: “I’m a perfectionist. I know what I want so when (the artists) came in, they knew what to expect from me. But I also gave them space to do their thing.”
He shared a story about how A New Day, which is “starring” (the word he uses instead of “featuring”) the legendary Caron Wheeler came about.
He and Soul II Soul were booked to play at a show and as he explained: “I started talking to them during soundcheck. I said: ‘Why have we never worked together?” So A New Day was born and a remix with Jazzie B performing some spoken word will be released.
Louie Vega Starring… XXVIII is, in true Vega style, a soulful feast for those with good taste in dance music. There are vocal elements of gospel and even, as is his signature, a Latin twist. Although some songs have been “on the shelf for six years,” Vega put in a solid couple of years to make sure the album would come out exactly how he wanted it to.
“The past two years (is when) it got deep and dirty,” he shared. “I went from travelling and working hard to coming home and then going right into the studio. I’m hoping if you hear it 10 years from now, it will still sound good. In making this album, it is my experiences in life.”
Aside from the next single off the album, people have speculated if the tracks Vega made with Uhuru will ever see the light of day.
“It was a great experience to work with Uhuru,” Vega said. “Maphorisa and those guys are so talented. But we had different ideas and it just didn’t work out.”
Vega will still promote Louie Vega Starring… XXVIII and said that he and the Elements of Life band will perform at DStv’s Delicious Music and Food Festival this year.
Louie Vega Starring… XXVIII is in stores and on iTunes.