According to Ferrer, the "crew" will both DJ and produce as a team. Friends of the family like Kerri Chandler and Andre Hommen will occasionally join in on the fun, but Ferrer and the Martinez Brothers are the core NeuWave Renegades. The outfit already has a 12-inch in the pipeline for later this year, will play their first round of gigs under the new banner this weekend in Italy, Switzerland and Amsterdam, followed by a party in Miami next month during Ultra week. Chatting just minutes after checking into his hotel in Milan, Ferrer gave us the rest of the scoop over the phone this morning:
Give me a rundown of the idea behind Neuwave Renegades.
Well, I grew up in the B-boy kinda days. I saw all these crews in the scene, and I wanted to do a crew. Right now, everyone in our camp is like a family. So we thought, "look, we should make a whole crew, make it something kinda interesting." It's like a hip-hop crew, but house. It's a collective.
What makes the group work?
We've got youth, and we've got experience. It's a nice combination. The boys [Martinez Brothers] are young, they bring a young crowd. I'm a bit older, I bring a different crowd. So that's what makes it interesting–in one big place we've got everybody. It's not just teenagers or just 40-year-olds. When you're 18, you don't wanna hang out in a club with 40-year-olds, it's just whack, no matter how people try to portray it, it's whack. So yeah, we wanna get everybody together and just hang.
I saw Anthony Parasole and DJ Qu are playing your party in Miami. How are they involved in this?
Anthony and Dj Qu are a different crew, they got their own thing going on, but I think they fit with what we're doing. They're not part of Neuwave Renegades, but they make a good addition. It's rare in New York to find other people feeling the same way we do, as far as bigger DJs go.
What can you tell me about the residency in Ibiza?
It's gonna be incredible, I don't know if I can really discuss that though. [laughs]
What's behind the name Neuwave Renegades?
It kinda reminded me of the Planet Rock days, when you had Planet Patrol, Renegade Soundwave... in New York I feel like we're kinda the renegades. We're not the usual suspects in New York. We're not full on techno, or the full on soulful crowd, we're neither nor, we're in the middle. We're kind of a new wave, but not "new wave" like the punk rock thing, so I decided to give tribute to the German band Neu, and made it Neuwave. We're not trying to fit into anybody's mold, we're just Neu!
Will you guys make records as Neuwave Renegades?
Yeah, Neuwave Renegades is gonna be a moniker for recordings too. It's a full-on project.
So will each record be you, the Martinez Brothers, Kerri and Andre?
It'll be whoever is available at the time. It's interchangeable–that's the cool thing about it. At the parties, it might be the brothers, it might be me, you don't know what the fuck you're gonna get. It's not about the individual, its about the concept, kinda like Body and Soul, you know, back in the day. Or like Underground Resistance, with them you never knew who the fuck was gonna be there that night, it's just UR!
What's the first release going to be?
We got one we're working on called 40 Deuce, and some other shit... there are no titles yet but the hard drive is fuckin' full.