Tucked away in a cozy, dimly lit office
nestled within the contemporary confines of J Records’
swanky Fifth Avenue headquarters sits a man whose name you
might not recognize. That is, of course, unless you’re
intimately involved in the music business or happen to be
a devoted dance music aficionado.
His employer calls him Vice President
of A&R, GlobalDance.net once ranked him as the #1 most
influential person in U.S. dance music (alongside his former
Arista Records colleague Danny Coniglio), and artists like
Christina Aguilera, Annie Lennox and Deborah Cox rely on him
to take their records to the top of Billboard’s dance
charts. His name is Hosh Gureli, and you can thank him for
helping keep dance music relevant in America. Some might even
call him dance music’s messiah.
IN THE BEGINNING
Born and raised in Middletown, New York, Gureli earned his
first paycheck as a clerk at Record World when he was 16.
While later working post-college in Boston at a “stupid
job putting pieces into computer chip boards,” Gureli
kept his sanity by DJing one night a week. Once he built up
his weekly DJ gigs -- which included a coveted residency at
the Metro (now Avalon) -- Gureli shed the computer geek thing
and quickly became the hottest commodity on Boston’s
burgeoning club scene. Not believing at the time that a DJ
could sustain a lucrative career (who did in the early 80s?),
he moved to San Francisco where he landed a high-profile five-year
stint as KMEL’s music director.
“I feel comfortable saying that
I kind of brought house music to San Francisco,” boasts
Gureli, referring to his impact on radio and in the club scene
via his live sets at the Bay Area’s largest gay dance
venue, Colossus (now 1015 Folsom). Despite his professional
success, though, Gureli was homesick. “I felt that I
really made a nice impact on San Francisco, and I had the
best time,” he recalls. “But I grew up in the
New York area, so I wanted to return home.”
Back in New York, It was ultimately Arista
Records guru Clive Davis (now of J Records/RCA Music Group)
who recruited him into A&R in 1993, right at the beginning
of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”
madness -- an artist with whom he would later forge a mutually
beneficial bond.
LET THERE BE REMIXES
“My love of dance music just naturally [led] me to start
doing dance mixes,” Gureli remembers of his early days
in A&R. “I did things differently than other labels
[at the time]. I looked at each remix as a regular production,
and just got in there with different talents and all my energy
trying to make a hit record.”
His efforts paid off. When Gureli hired Chris Cox and Barry
Harris of Thunderpuss to remix “It’s Not Right,
But It’s Okay” in 1999, not only did he launch
their careers into the stratosphere, but he also helped Houston
score one of the biggest dance records of her career. (He
later brought in Junior Vasquez to restyle another of her
powerhouse anthems, “I Learned From the Best.”)
And then there’s the diva’s surprise performance
at the 1998 Pier Dance on Gay Pride Weekend which Gureli coordinated
(and still refers to as “one of the highlights of my
life”)?
Speaking of divas, Gureli used to fly
back to New York every couple months while living in San Francisco
specifically to attend Vasquez’s legendary parties at
Sound Factory. When the infamous DJ approached him one night
at Miami’s Warsaw Ballroom to ask about doing an Annie
Lennox remix, Gureli considered it an honor. “No More
I Love You’s” resulted from the encounter, and
a long-standing (albeit at times turbulent) relationship was
born. “He’s definitely the toughest critic,”
Vasquez reveals. “Sometimes he drives me crazy flip-flopping
with all sorts of comments and ‘recalls,’ but
he’s definitely the best in his league.”
Deborah Cox agrees (at least about the
last part), adding that Gureli’s “incredible instincts
for the feel of a record” and his “connection
to the pulse of the music” are key to his numerous accomplishments.
“It really is nice working with someone who is open
to new ideas and setting trends,” says mother-to-be
Cox. “We’ve had incredible success together in
dance music, and I know I couldn’t have done it without
his help.”
Gureli enjoys a very close relationship with Cox that -- thanks
to remixes he’s commissioned from Hex Hector, Vasquez,
Hani, Johnny Vicious and others -- has so far yielded seven
#1 Billboard dance hits. Gureli’s also spearheading
a Deborah Cox remix album that will feature fresh interpretations
of all her hits continuously mixed in reverse chronological
order (beginning with her latest, a cover of Phil Collins’
“Something Happened on the Way to Heaven”). Al
B. Rich (aka WKTU’s “DJ Riddler”) has been
recruited to mix the CD, which is slated for release on July
22nd.
In addition to the Deborah Cox remix project,
Gureli is still basking in the glory of Peter Rauhofer’s
destined-to-be-classic version of Christina Aguilera’s
“Beautiful.” He’s also scored well with
promotional remixes for Deborah Cox’s “Play Your
Part” and Scumfrog’s retooling of Monica’s
“So Gone,” both of which are in the Top 5 on this
week’s Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Gureli
also just gave the green light on Norty Cotto’s new
remix of Lisa Stansfield’s “Been Around the World”
and Heather Headley’s “I Wish I Wasn’t”
maxi-single.
The ambitious A&R exec is also quite
pleased that the version of Annie Lennox’s new single,
“Pavement Cracks,” that he did with Mac Quayle
is going straight to Top 40. But he’s even more excited
that QED’s cover of Def Leppard’s “Love
Bites” has moved into power rotation on Miami’s
Party 93.1 WPYM. After all, QED is one of Gureli’s discoveries,
and this record is the first release on his own label, Siren
Entertainment, a side venture he is pursuing with his employer’s
blessing.
THE PROPHESY
If Hosh Gureli’s track record and current releases were
the sole indicators, one might think that the U.S. dance music
industry is thriving. But the truth is that the genre has
always struggled to some degree for acceptance in America.
And technology continues to far outpace the industry’s
response to it. Yet Gureli is optimistic.
“We’re going through some
rough times right now,” he admits. “You can’t
stop technology. You’ve just got to figure out a way
to profit from it. We’ve got to stick together. And
don’t just look at dance music as a small, narrow category.
Look at the big picture. I really believe dance music has
a good future.”
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