True House Stories® Youtube & Spotify Video Podcast
TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ HIPPIE TORRALES
Hippie Torrales interviewed by Lenny Fontana for True House Stories® # 044
Part 1
Hippie Torrales joins True House Stories to share with us the behind the scenes of making his way into the dj world. He starts from buying a Marvin Gaye Record and from there makes his way through grade and middle school and becomes in charge of the audio and video projectors.
The journey starts at him being able to go to his first disco in Newark back in the early 1970’s and the quest begins to learn how to play records from watching another dj from back in the day. The chance opens up for him to play his first NYC residency at the original Limelight in New York City.
Listen to Hippie explain how it was to play on Thorens Turntables and witness hearing DJ Richie Kaczor at Hollywood’s Discoteque in NYC.
Part 2
Hippie Torrales becomes one of the most sought out DJ’s in New Jersey as he really starts to become a well-known DJ because of Club Dock’s in the late 1970’s. His famous trick was to let two records mix for long periods without touching them. He is brought in to open the Famous Club Zanzibar in 1979 that was formerly known as Abe’s Disco in Newark New Jersey.
As his career spans into the 1980’s he begins his remix career and helps make The Clark Sisters Song called “Sunshine” a huge hit through his remix.
He later hooks up with another label called Music Village Recordings and produces a song that he wrote and sang on called “Your Gonna Miss Me When I am Gone” which went on to sell millions of copies overseas. He is responsible for helping Rosie Gaines have a huge house hit and tours the world and is still going strong today.
Hippie Torrales YouTube Video Part 1
Hippie Torrales YouTube Video Part 2
Biography Hippie Torrales
Hippie Torrales began DJing at the age of 15. He came into recognition in NJ and NY after opening “Docks” with co-partner Nelson “Butchie” Nieves. After establishing himself as an innovative and creative jock, Hippie was recognized and hired to work at Abe’s Disco, which was the forerunner for Club Zanzibar. On Friday, August 29, 1979, opening night at Club Zanzibar.
– Hippie became the resident DJ and opening jock for the club. During his tenure at Club Zanzibar, Hippie won the prestigious Billboard Disco Forum 8 Award for the best disc jockey in the State of New Jersey.
– in the same year Larry Levan won the award for New York. It was the last time those Billboard Awards were held. After his resident at Club Zanzibar, Hippie went on to play all the Jersey Shore night clubs. In addition to the club gigs, Hippie worked on music production and remixing. Some of his most notable mixes of that period were Jimmy Ross’ – “Fall Into A Trance” and The Clark Sister’s – “You Brought The Sunshine”, which garnered them a 1 record of New York’s local radio station WBLS and also garnered them a Grammy nomination that year for Best Gospel.
In 1988, Hippie was approached by local record store owner, Joe Rodriguez from Music Village Records and asked Hippie to produce his own record. Hippie thought about the opportunity and went home, borrowed equipment from a friend and began working on his very first original production. He wrote, performed and produced “You’re Gonna Miss Me” by The Turntable Orchestra, which became a club classic in Europe and has sold over 2 million copies.
It was from this moment on that Hippie began traveling overseas and DJing at international clubs and began writing a music column for Discoid Magazine, which was called “What Is Hip.” Hippie’s remixing career took off when he partnered with Mark Mendoza and created MenTor Productions. They did numerous remixes which included such artists as Lisa Stansfield, Evelyn King, D’Lacy, and most notable Rosie Gaines. In 1997, Hippie and Mark produced Rosie Gaines’ – “Closer Than Close”, which went top 5 in the British Pop Charts and has sold over 8 million units worldwide.
To date, Hippie continues to DJ overseas and currently does an internet radio show on Tuesdays, on cyberjamz.com. He now lives in South Carolina and has recently collaborated on his new album with Jose Burgos and Jerrell Battle called Always released in 2009. His new single called Never Quite The Same by Hippie Torrales feat Rosie Gaines was released in September of 2010 on MN2S.
Which went to number 1 on Traxsource Top 10. And another single called Wastelands by Hippie Torrales & (George Mena- RIP) present Robin Reed was also released in 2010 on Universe Media. In 2011 Hippie started his new label Called What Is Hip and has so far released two singles. First being called If You Need A Man in which Hippie was the featured vocal artist.
In the same year Hippie released a second single called You’re For Me by Hippie Torrales ft. Steve Luxe. Currently Hippie has remixed singles for such artist as Roland Clark, Sunlightsquare, DJ Pope and Dolls Combers. He is still very active in all aspects of music.