True House Stories® Youtube & Spotify Video Podcast
TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ BURRELL BROTHERS
Burrell Brothers interview podcast hosted by Lenny Fontana # 123 - True House Stories®
The development of deep house into a global force during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s also owes much to a pair of near-identical twins from New Jersey, Reginald (AKA Rheji) and Ronald (aka Rhano) Burrell. Talented musicians who had been playing in bands since they were 12 years old, the Burrell twins released an unbelievable amount of music between 1988 and 1993.
While their output was varied (they had strong links to New York’s new jack swing, R&B and hip-hop communities, and were often employed as producers or beat-makers), Rheji and Rhano became best known for a trademark style of polished, musically rich deep house that drew just as much inspiration from New Jersey garage, soul and jazz-funk as it did from the work of Larry Heard and his Chicago contemporaries.
In this episode they explain the working environment and the upstart of NuGroove Records. Its one of the very few interviews where the brothers spoke speak about there rise to fame in the R&B and Hip Hop World with many huge hits to back them up. The brothers are extremely talented and are trailblazers in many ways.
Biography Burrell Brothers
Rheji Burrell is an American dance musician and music producer. With his twin brother Ronald (or Rhano), Burrell was responsible for creating experimental, deep house music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Much of Burrell’s house music output was on the Nu Groove record label, which the brothers founded, often under various aliases, such as ‘New York House’n Authority’, ‘Tech Trax Inc’ and ‘Utopia Project’.
The brothers had a background in gospel music, and joined the group Inner Spirit as 13-year-olds. They won first place for four consecutive years in the New Jersey Teen Arts Festival, and developed their technical and playing skills on a four-track recorder. The duo earned their first recording deal with Virgin Records in the late 80s. In the early 90s, the Burrell Brothers co-founded the Nu Groove record label, responsible for inspiring and launching the careers of several major DJs, re-mixers, and dance music artists.
In the mid 1990s, the Burrell Brothers became successful producers of Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B and Pop music. Today the twins continue recording, and have branched out into film making and “Indie” record releases by working with undiscovered talent.
Rheji Burrell is a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammy Awards) as well as a RIAA certified Multi-Platinum Songwriter and Producer.
Rheji Burrell has written and produced hits for major label and independent artists since 1988 to present. He has worked with Diddy: Total & Ma$e, Dame Dash: Rell, Aaliyah, Heavy D: Soul For Real & Monifah, Foxy Brown, Montell Jordan, Jo Jo, Toni Braxton, Brandy, Big L., Louie Vega, Todd Terry, Jaz-O, Vincent Herbert: Lady Gaga and Enrique Iglesias ft. Ciara… to name a very few.
