At the young age of 22, Pauly Raffaele has already supported the biggest DJs in the world – like Erick Morillo, Josh Wink, Sander Kleinenberg, Benny Benassi, and the Swedish House Mafia – on one of house music’s biggest stages, the city of New York. He’s played at Winter Music Conference in Miami, become a regular name on Pacha New York’s flyers, and even taken it down and deeper at international house haven Cielo (in addition to countless other NY venues).
But it takes more than just persistence to infiltrate insular Big Apple clubland. It takes talent, and even more than that, it takes heart. And that’s what the New York native’s got in spades.
“I was no different than all the rest of them until 2006, when I first hear Ben Watt in Miami,” he
says. “That completely changed my outlook on music and what a DJ should be.”
Using the creative and nuanced Buzzin’ Fly boss as his stylistic guide – along with similarly varied DJs like Danny Krivit, Danny Tenaglia, and Danny Howells – Raffaele, also a trained graphic artist, started to broaden his sonic palette. Soon he was drinking up classic disco as readily as new sounds from The Idjut Boys & InFlagranti, adding them to his underground New York roots to create his own sensibility, which also combined aural and visual. “I very much love and am inspired by the Defected/Strictly Rhythm brand: The music especially, but it also the aura it creates with its artwork,” he says.
It was this passionate appreciation for the past, coupled with a fresh view of the future, that got the eyes and ears of NYC’s biggest promoters, including Rob Fernandez (Pacha, Dance.Here.Now) and Benny Soto (Cielo, 718 Sessions), who were the first to give him gigs.
The young DJ now maintains his own blog of photography, music, writing, set lists, reviews of his nights, and more, at www.paulyraffaele.com. He also has a radio show on GiantStep Radio, and is starting to produce his own music.
“I’m young and never got to experience Vinyl, Twilo, Tunnel,” he admits. “I never danced the night away to any DJ week after week and been totally influenced by them. It’s a shame!” But maybe it’s a blessing: Because by taking a broader view of dance music, this new talent is opening up himself, and his audience, to a new sonic democracy, where all styles are created equal. Hail to the Chief.
