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DJ Super Dmitry | Dee-Lite, Nauti Siren & The Sound of a Life Lived in Music
This week on Once A DJ, Adam is joined by DJ Super Dmitry — one third of Dee-Lite, the group behind one of the most joyful and enduring records in dance music history. But Dmitry's story goes far beyond 'Groove Is in the Heart', and this conversation goes all the way back to the beginning.
Dmitry grew up in Soviet Ukraine as a third-generation musician. His grandmother — unable to afford a piano during the disruptions of the Russian Revolution, Civil War and World War Two — cut piano keys from paper so she could practise by hand. That love of music carried through the family, and Dmitry began lessons at five, was attending a conservatory music school by seven, and was already writing his own compositions in the style of Gershwin and Scott Joplin by eight.
Western music was tightly controlled. Records could only be obtained on the black market — for around $50 each — and were copied onto reel-to-reel before being traded on. A track from Jesus Christ Superstar introduced him to something funky he couldn't yet name, and the search for that sound would shape the rest of his life.
At 14, Dmitry and his family left the Soviet Union — the first in their town to do so, and treated as traitors for it. After periods in Austria and Italy, where he discovered punk (the Pistols, the Damned, X-Ray Spex, Iggy Pop), the family arrived in New York in 1978. On Halloween. In a Black neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Having never seen Black people before.
From a 50-cent bin in a record shop, he picked up 'The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein' by Parliament because the cover looked insane. That was the moment. 'There it is,' he thought. 'That's the sound I've been looking for.' He's been a funkateer ever since.
New York in the late 70s and early 80s was extraordinary — punk, disco, hip hop, and house all converging in the same sweaty rooms. Dmitry became an elevator operator at Danceteria, practising guitar in the lift between floors while Sisters of Mercy and the Sugar Hill Gang did soundchecks below. He ran into the pre-fame Beastie Boys regularly, worked at the Pyramid Club (run by drag queens, and a real education in showmanship), and played for Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash at block parties in Harlem and the Bronx.
Dee-Lite formed as a direct attempt to bridge the gap between house and funk. They built a following through monthly shows drawing up to 1,500 people, which caught the attention of a Billboard writer and eventually sparked a label bidding war. They signed to Elektra — choosing them because their A&R, Nancy Jeffries, had signed Iggy Pop and Bjork, and that felt like the right kind of open-mindedness.
Elektra didn't believe 'Groove Is in the Heart' had any traction. They let Dee-Lite do the video anyway, and Dmitry remembers the precise moment he knew it had crossed over: standing in a grocery store queue when it came on the radio and the cashier started dancing at her till. 'That's my jam,' she said. 'That's my jam.'
Q-Tip turned up to the studio, listened for 15 minutes, jotted notes, and nailed it in two takes. Bootsy Collins casually mentioned he had 'some friends' who might be able to play horns — those friends were Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, who arrived as near-strangers to each other after five years apart and immediately played like they'd never stopped.
Their first proper gig with a full live band was in front of 300,000 people at Rock in Rio. The second album was recorded expensively in a big studio; Dmitry considers it their weakest. The third, Dewdrops in the Garden, went back to basics and home recording, and he's proud of how well it still sounds.
The band broke up when Dmitry and Kier's relationship ended, and he eventually made his way to Berlin — partly drawn by its thriving club culture, partly pushed out of New York by Giuliani's crackdown on clubs. He played Tresor, won a Best Techno DJ award at Ibiza despite not really being a techno DJ, worked with Julie Cruz, remixed Chaka Khan and Ziggy Marley, and kept making music.
Then during the pandemic, a friend sent him a vocalist called Jessie Evans. He sent her some dub tracks that had been sitting on his computer for years. She recorded them one by one, sending back a finished song every couple of days from Brazil — while caring for two young children. Before they had ever met on video, they had an album's worth of material. That project became Nauti Siren. She moved to Germany, they got married, and they now have around five albums' worth of music ready to release. The first, 'Rising', is out now.
This is a remarkable conversation with someone who has lived inside the history of popular music for fifty years — and who still has plenty more to say.
Find DJ Super Dmitry:
Instagram: @superdjdmitry
Nauti Siren 'Rising' — out on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms
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