T.H.E Interview – Rodolfo Espinoza

Hailing from Chicago in the United States, a city well known as a breeding ground for emerging talent – Rodolfo Espinoza welcomes in the Spring season & drops his brand new single ‘Fever’ and two track Groova EP.

We caught up with Rodolfo to find out a little more about his latest studio output, musical influences & plans for the future!

T.H.E – Welcome to T.H.E – Music Essentials, Rodolfo & how’s Spring looking in the US so far?

Rodolfo Espinoza – What’s going on? It’s starting to warm up here in Chicago, the weekends are buzzing now. If you’ve never been to Chicago, it’s such a great city you can’t beat the spring and summer seasons here. I think we have one of the best summers in the U.S. The non-stop street and music festivals, the scene on Lakeshore, the weather, and everyone just out and about. I always look forward to showing people around the city when they come to visit.

T.H.E – With the recent release of both ‘Fever’ & your ‘Groova’ EP, when did you first begin production on each?

Rodolfo Espinoza – I started all of those right after the new year. Probably finished both projects at the end of January and honestly, I think I may have even finished all three of those tracks within the span of a week/week and a half. What’s even funnier is they both got signed within a week of each other and released one week after the other as well. Those happened quicker than I expected as my plan was to stack a bunch of finished tracks before sending them out but I’ll definitely take the quick signings.

T.H.E – When it comes to musical influences, are there any specific artists who inspire you?

Rodolfo Espinoza – Ah man, I can go all over the place with this. I started listening to house music when I was 12 and at the time, it was trance and euro-dance that gave me that introduction. I’m a fan of all music but I mainly keep it house music these days. That said, my two main inspirations have been Laidback Luke and Franky Rizardo. I was a huge Luke fan towards the end of high school solely from his remix catalogue and DJing. He’s also great to follow for music production and industry tips. And then Franky is just one of my favorites right now. I think the dude is in a league of his own. I always find myself shazam-ing songs from his FLOW radio sets, and the music currently coming out of his LTF record label have been on point. I got to see him live in DC last summer and it was a great show. The DUTCH really got it.

T.H.E – Coming from Chicago & with its legendary underground scene, what clubs are really happening in the city right now?

Rodolfo Espinoza – You have the legendary Spybar. They just made some updates to their spot going into this season. Radius is dope but I don’t know if I’d call it underground. I also like what House Calls is doing right now, they’ve had some dope events. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but for the birthplace of house music, we could be doing more. Obviously not a club, but we have the ARC Music Festival that happens every Labor Day weekend. I’ve gone the last two years and both years have been great.

T.H.E – Being a DJ too, is there a particular show you’ve played that stands out more than the rest?

Rodolfo Espinoza – My first one ever which was at the Ocean Drive Rooftop Skybar in Ibiza. It was an introduction to just learning everything from being early, doing soundcheck, getting a feel for the environment and working through the nerves. Some of the best DJs in the world have played there but it was cool to just even have my first gig be in Ibiza and having this sick sunset and marina backdrop. I haven’t been putting myself out here locally here in Chicago though. I’ve just learned from others with experience that it can be a rat race and I’m just focused on hammering production right now. I have other plans in mind that I believe would be enjoyable avenues to getting the shows I want to play and open for. I do; however, spin live every Wednesday night for a radio show out in the UK, that’s been my main djing at the moment.

T.H.E – And finally, any other exclusive future release news you can share with our readers?

Rodolfo Espinoza – Yeah for sure. I’m currently working on an edit pack (will be about 5-6 tracks) that I’ll release on Bandcamp this summer. I’m also working on an EP collab right now. I also have this edit for a specific label to release. So all of that amongst my own tracks that I’m currently trying to find homes for. At some point though, I will have plenty in the vault ready to go for when I think it’s the right time to launch my label. In the short time I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen the potential, and got the feedback and reassurance I need to go ahead and really take matters into my own hands. Just stay tuned.