Tell me about your relationship with Ron.

Ronnie kind of took me under his wing. He asked me, "What are you doing here, little boy? Aren't you supposed to be going to school tomorrow?" No, I'm about to DJ. "You're about to DJ?! Well then, I have to see this myself. Tonight, I'm going to open up for you!" Ron Hardy opened up for me!

I was shaking and fidgeting. I didn't realize before that there were thousands of people coming to these parties. Here I am, 15 years old, a little bitty stack of records that I just learned how to play, I'm playing for 3,000 people and I really don't know the formula. I've got nerves, I've got the jitters - and then I've got this guy right here, considered one of the best DJs that there ever was! He put pressure on me, and I was really nervous. It was a little rocky and a little scary, obviously.

Even though Ron is gone, he's still here through my influence, since I was his apprentice. At the same time, I still want to keep that vibe going and let everyone know how much he meant to me and how much he meant to House Music. He was a DJ and didn't make too many records. But just think where he'd be right now if he were alive! Obviously, I don't think he got the credit that he deserved.

What was it like to work such an intense mentor when you were just a kid?

It was hard on me, to be sure. I hung around Frankie and we'd play together when I was in New York, and he'd play here on Sundays. But Frankie would spoil me. He'd give me everything. It was more like, "Here you go!" [Gene picks up a small stack of vinyl nearby and hands it to me.]

Ron made me earn it. Louis was hard on me too. I hung around all of those guys, but Ron Hardy was the guy that really made me earn everything. He put pressure on me. "That record is eight minutes long. Play the damn record - don't rush it out. You're not a hot mixer. You're an underground disc jockey. Play that music and let them hear it."

What do you think made you stand out?

There were a few things that separated me from the other DJs. We had the reel-to-reel with pitch control on it and we had the cassette deck. Most of my music was on tape and on reel-to-reel, so I would turn the turntables off and go from tapedeck to reel-to-reel all night.

No DJ coming through the ranks now is going to know what it's like to mix off a reel-to-reel - it's got to be considered a lost art. How did that work compared to turntables?

It's a totally different situation. You had to pull the tape out, run it through a lead, cue it up and find the right spot. It was a little more intricate than just putting your record on a platter and cueing it up with your hand. It was a lot more technical but the sound quality was a lot more immense. And you got a chance to play a lot of things that the other guys didn't have.

Back then, I also had a drum machine, and I'd toy around and make these really abstract tracks. They call that "Techno" now, obviously, but back in that era it wasn't called Techno. I'd call it Disco because that's where it all came from. A lot of people don't know that Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson used to come to the Music Box. When Ron Hardy and I spun at the Music Box, they brought us "Strings of Life".

The music been split up into all of these particles when it comes from one solid base. It's all a 4/4 form of music. I've heard Disco records that are 140 beats per minute. I've heard Disco records that are 110 beats per minute. These days, people feel like anything past 127 beats per minute isn't House Music. You can't define that. Music is your interpretation of what you feel. It was just music to us - just some funky ass tracks!

The percussion on your original productions isn't just snare-hat-snare-hat... You have some sounds that I've never heard on record before.

I use so many different elements. I'll put five different snares together and then put an effect behind it which gives it a totally different pattern. I'll grab natural sounds from the elements from being out, being at the museum, hearing a sound when I'm at home. I'll grab different sounds and put them together so as to contrast them and then run them through a processor which gives me a different sound altogether. If I did things in a normal way, I'd have a normal sound.