Las Vegas Weekly

Dynamic dance-music duo: Louie Vega and Anane

Louie Vega and Anane

Photo: Karl Giant Photography

He’s a legendary house music producer. She’s a sultry singer. Together they make beautiful music.

Little Louie Vega and his wife, Anané, are on tour in support of her new album and bringing soulful flavor to the club for 3 a.m. Afterhours at Privé Saturday night. Before they take control of the turntables and Anané grabs the mic for a live performance, we caught up with the dynamic dance music duo to hear about a new album, touring as a twosome and how it feels to be compared to Miles Davis.

Anané’s next album is going to be out February 16. What can we look forward to on the CD and will we hear any of that at Privé’s 3 a.m. Afterhours?

Anané: I think we’ll definitely play a couple of the songs off of the album. The album’s titled Ananésworld and it’s being released on Nervous Records. The album consists of a mesh of all the music that I listen to, appreciate and love and wanted to convey in my album. It’s definitely a musical journey where it’s dance, a little bit of alternative, a little rock and roll, R&B, reggae, and then of course my roots and where I’m from, which is the Cape Verde Islands. It was really important to keep that element also in the album.

Usually in Vegas when there is a singer performing in a club, it’s typically three songs. Is that the plan for Saturday?

Anané: It’ll be that way as well because it is a lot to perform and then to DJ and be in that head, so three seems to be a good number. But then again, you never know. Depending on the crowd and the feeling and how it’s going, it may go more.

Since both of you DJ, have you ever done a tag-team set together?

Vega: We do in some places, since there are a lot of little gadgets you can use. You can have an effects unit or the Isolators. So sometimes she’ll be mixing and I’ll be on the Isolator. It all depends on the vibe of the room. It can turn into that and it has before.

Louie, one of the things that keeps popping up when people talk about you is a reference that you’re “the Miles Davis of dance music.” Are you comfortable with that title?

Vega: That’s a heavy shoe to fill. Someone said that and it kind of stuck. I was going to change that line but it’s really a hard shoe to fill. Miles Davis is super-legendary and a pioneer. I know in our scene I’ve definitely had a lot to do with house music and dance music in general for the last over 20 years and stuff, but definitely I’m not worthy of the Miles Davis line (laughing).

Anané: Not yet, at least (laughing).

Do you two always tour together now?

Vega: For her album we are. It’s a 20-city tour and we’re actually starting this weekend, so the second stop for her tour and us together is going to be in Vegas. We did tour last summer and do some touring over in Europe, the Mediterranean, we did everywhere from Greece to Italy. We’ve definitely done our share. When she was in the band as well; she was part of Elements of Life, which is one of my big album live projects.

You mentioned Elements of Life. Tiësto also has an album by the same name that came out after yours. Does that bother you at all?

Vega: In the beginning I was like, “Wow. Okay. How did that happen?” But we’re in two totally different worlds. I’ve met him a few times in the past, but it’s just a matter of the same name. It happened to have the same name that I’ve had for over 10 years. Elements of Life I formed back in ’98. But I guess in a way it’s a little flattering that the name that we came up with and our group is in people’s heads.

What else do either of you have in the works production-wise? Louie, are you doing anything with Masters at Work?

Vega: Right now I’m working on the Elements of Life 2 album, which is going to be released in the summertime. That’s a double album. It’s a collage of these wonderful women coming together singing songs and Anané is in it as well as Lisa Fischer and Cindy Mizelle. I’m talking to Eryka Badu now and Ursula Rucker the poet. The album is paying homage to strong, powerful women.

Anané: I’ve launched a label as well, which will be a year in March actually. It’s called Nulu Music and it’s given me the opportunity to put talent out there that usually doesn’t have a way to get their music out. I’m signing a lot of music from Africa, from Brazil. ... I’ve also written a screenplay that’s kind of in motion and in talks, so we’ll see. It’s a biographical story.

Louie, when you got your start, you played a lot of legendary New York clubs, Studio 54 being one of them. Have you ever seen our Studio 54 at the MGM?

Vega: I didn’t even know there was one! (laughing) Maybe I’ll take a run around 1 in the morning and check some stuff out if there’s time. ... It’ll be interesting to see what’s going on out there.

What are some of the advantages — or challenges — of spinning and performing at an afterhours party like you two will be doing Saturday night, technically early Sunday morning?

Vega: Well, it’s going to be interesting because we’ve never done that before in Las Vegas. When they told us 3 a.m. it starts, I was like, “Wow. Okay, cool.” So we’re really looking forward to it. It’s something new for us in Vegas.