How was 2018 for you?
Junior Sanchez: 2018 was a phenomenal year for me — a lot of personal and professional growth. My productivity in 2018 was beyond even to my own expectations. I’ve been super focused and it’s reflected on all my releases this year on some amazing labels with The Smen (Roger Sanchez, DJ Sneak) reuniting and releasing music. Touring with them was monumental, and with the year ending with new agents, new management, new label distribution, basically a whole new team is making 2019 set up to be exceptional year with a new album and a lot of new music, collaborations and projects, I’m ready.
Highlights?
Reuniting with the Smen and debuting our project live at Southport Weekender was a super highlight. The vibe and energy was amazing. Also connecting with long-time friend Yousef and supporting all my new music led me to release my single “Strong Enough” on Circus to amazing reception from all sorts of DJs — everyone from Carl Craig to Carl Cox and everyone in between caught that vibe. That to me speaks volumes as I believe good music transcends and brings people together from all styles.
Lowlights?
To be very honest none, I take everything with such a positive mindset that I don’t see a negative. If there’s one thing that I see as destructive but also a tool I guess a necessary evil per se is social media. This whole smoke and mirrors perception is not really reality. Beyond that it’s all love …
Song of the year?
This is a hard one so many good tracks came out this year … from Nasser Baker’s “Say Something” to Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up” — that record is killer.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?
To keep my mind fresh and focused to be the best father, future husband to my fiancé, friend and person I can be and to create real emotional musical moments in house music. We need more of that.