In the Amsterdams music scene, there is no way not to get in touch with him. He is a unique character and has committed himself with heart and soul to the music. He is also part of the inner circle of the record store and label Rush Hour: San Proper.

Mr. San Proper

Professor San Proper, S to the A to the N space (he then spells PROPER in dutch). My DJ name is San Proper (and then he spells his name again), same name, born and raised with that.

Nice to meet you San! We are here in Amsterdam and we just met a few minutes ago, so this will get very spontaneous...

Yeah we're in the smoking area of the Volkshotel close to the bar and the reception, just the way we like it.

That's really good yeah.

In case you wanna check in or check out or smoke on or smoke out or drink on or drink down wuuhuu yeah man...

Ok...

My name is Dr. professor San Proper once again, professor San Proper, House DJ but my roots are all about blues, rock steady, dubwise, roots-reggae music, hip hop, funk, soul and all of that shit, Rock'n'Roll, techno, electro, house music baby!

Really nice, so tell me a little bit about you about your life and how did you come to music?

Yeah yeah yeah let me spread this... let me lay this out for you as quickly as I can. I'm playing the guitar since I was about 8 or 9 years old. My brother used to collect a lot of music whats actually got me into that. My first records which I actually owned were straight-up theft from his collection and it includes Peter Tosh, Mama Africa with the album specials and a couple of tapes with Sam Cook, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Lou Reid, Transformer and The Stranglers. I actually have every picture disc, every album and every 12" of The Stranglers.

I've been quite militant for years about black music, and you know, when I say black music I'm talking bout The Coasters, Howlin' Wolf you know R'n'B from back in the days. Blues from the delta era. I'm talking about straight-up disco, p-funk, I'm talking about Hip-Hop like, yeah, Schoolly D. So it is from all over the place and that's the way I've been working with music since I was not even in my teens.

Then at one point after being apposed with all the electronics. I discovered the likes of DJ Food, Aphex Twin, Mille Plateaux, even the first stuff Jeff Mills put out and a lot of crazy variety of electronic music. Then at one point, I rediscovered a lot of disco and funk music which got sampled for house music with the filter-french-funk-wave but also like the Chicago stuff and the old Detroit stuff you know the straight-up samples with the fucking electronic drum computer beat.

Yeah, the good stuff.

And this kind of moved it together what people now refer to with San Proper sound. Me in Amsterdam, I've been pissed and spat upon for many many many years but for some reason since the last decade, I actually get some respect from the people here in Holland. And since I started putting out records at Rush Hour, the record label slash record store, on an international base I also got some love and respect.

This is making me tour the world. From Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro. From London, Paris, Berlin back to Amsterdam. A lot of Italian gigs, a lot of French gigs, a lot of German gigs. I try to keep it close to home but the States, South America, Asia, and Australia it's all over the place now. And just because they love this cheeky little live sound I bring.

I love to produce records where I fuse electronics and live segments, like my vocals, my guitar play, my bass style, my live percussion, the drums and the electronics, the synths, the Junos, the fucking 808, 909, all of 'em, it's all up in there. To fuse electronic and acoustics it's a kind of life in a nutshell, what Dr San Proper is about. And I'm just lucky because I've been struggling for years, keeping my fist up and you know, maintaining to do what I do and since the last decade suddenly people actually like to accept it.

So you're just a stand-up man, you never fall and if you fall you just get on?

Mhm... I crawl, even if people put a cut in my fucking knee cap. I still go on.

So you're just doing your thing showing people...

You know I've been raised by the likes of The Coasters, Howling Wolf and people like this. They have been struggling. They told me how to do and that's how I do it. I'm sorry to say this, but this is the way I work.

That's how you should do it! You should never listen to what people tell you. You just have to do your own stuff.

I do have to admit that this isn't coming without a price, because most of my relationships, you know, blow up in my face because of this stubbornness. You know being stubborn is not really the way.

It's not the nicest thing but the best is, in the end, you can look in the mirror and say: look that's my way, I did it, that's my way!

Exactly!

(Wants to ask something but San Proper somehow knew the question and goes on....)

And I'm not even trying to be rebellious anymore. It's just my nature. When people tell me no, I wanna say yes. When people tell me yes, I wanna say no. It's not the best way to work but it's my way and I just have to step back and embrace it. I fucked up many many many many many relations cause of this shit attitude but I still, you know, tend to keep myself happy.

That's the best part of it.

Strangely so, yes.

So you're a producer.

Yeah, I'm a producer but I'm a DJ and I actually bring them both into the right perspective. Some people say like: "Ah you're a producer then you probably less of a DJ" or "Ah, you're a DJ then you are probably less of a producer". But it doesn't work that way with me.

What's your favourite track you ever did? Do you have one?

I'm also not really into sports that much. Although I'm trying to get into sports that's why I'm doing Tai Chi. And I've been recording a video about me being a boxer and I'm really into boxing, shadow boxing, kung-fu, samurais, the sword style and the Tai Chi sword style. But it's, I'm very very very unskilled when it comes to that you know because I love to drink. And this for some reason seems to kind of sabotage my sports career. You know there's much more to it and I think some sports are like art and some other artisan styles are like that as well. And me, when I produce together, I do make a lot of collaborations in the studios, but I always bring a Tupperware of food because I think food and music work well together.

I can agree with that.

And painting and music work very well together and so on, you know. Wait hold on for a second...

(Now San Propers phone rings.)

Ey Antal the lord of lords of Rush Hour where you at man?

(He then proceeds in Dutch for two sentences and ends the phone call.)

We'll have to wrap this up soon. This was Antal from Rush Hour the Big Kahuna, the Kingpin of Rush Hour and he's in the car with his girls.

Waiting for you?

Yes with his little, with his children.

Just one more question from my site. If you could do a festival and you can make the line-up, what would that look like?

Hm, hold up! Let me first come back to the last question you asked me about my favourite blabidibla, and what I was about to say is that it is not a competition there is no match. It's not sports. That's why I brought up sports into the mix. But I think I can appreciate any place I've played at, any organisation and any label! I know how to recognize what it's about instead of making a comparison you know?

I know what you mean.

And the same thing goes for my favourite track, favourite club, favourite country and favourite city. That's all bullshit! You know this city is beautiful from this perspective and this city is beautiful from that perspective. Zurich, Lausanne, Geneva I love all of these cities and that's just Switzerland you know what I mean? We don't have to choose! I'm Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim and I even love Jesus Christ but that's just because I actually think that it's me.

So you see no borders?

I don't wanna see the borders...

So if there are no borders...

The borders are the ugly side of every fucking aspect, of every country, city, government or people. You know there are so many ugly sides to every story, even to my fucking personality there's an ugly side but I don't wanna stretch that out all the time. It's about focusing on the right stuff, you know unless you are a rapist, or a paedophile or a terrorist. Keep it positive and motivate each other and keep each other up instead of putting each other down. It's yin yang.

It's ying-yang, yes. So one more question...

I actually didn't answer the last one did I?

You did. You said there are no borders to you and everything is good on one side and bad on the other.

Alright. So let's do one more and then I get myself a drink to go for some quality time with the kids.

Perfect. So back to the festival question. If you could do your own line-up?

I would leave it up to my boys from Dekmantel, cause they actually run the best festival in Europe right now. They prove to show how small and intimate you can keep a festival with only a couple of stages. They prove to present a festival with only good artists performing and they also showed us that you can actually run a festival without just having dirty fries and cheap-ass meat being served, you know? The people who are at this festival are cleaning up the territory all the time. Only vegetarian food. Only good artists performing. The location is perfect, it's just solid! Not too many stages, good food and quality people. I used to do parties and present club nights but I realized that each is its own.

(He then talks to Antal again on the phone but apparently Antal cant hear him.)

So one more question, quickly because I have to go.

When someone comes to Amsterdam. Do they have a location they should go visit?

The location they should have gone to is just across the street, it's Trouw. But it's over. And now we have like many many locations we try to live up to that feel. And they have been schooled and they changed, for the better, but it's still different. Nobody can live with what happened across the street. Now, I'd suggest if Swiss people can get their pocket money together and come to Amsterdam they should come to this hotel. It's funky and it was cheap. But they should definitely come out to Studio80 to ProperCult because that's my Label Night.*

So thank you very much! It was nice to meet you!

Likewise my friend!

*Unfortunately the Studio80 had its closing. (We hope San will find a new home for his ProperCult Night..)

Interview by Dominik André.