This Saturday night at Mansion, Armand Pena will introduce his new, slick-as-hell house compilation for Nervous Records, Nervous Nitelife: Miami 2009. The disc features a number of Pena's own original productions and remixes, in addition to tracks from current "it" boy Chris Lake, Joi Cardwell, Tom "Superchumbo" Stephan, the Cube Guys, and others.
Pena, already an enthusiastic guy, has a lot in the works to jump up and down about this year. That includes his first artist album, coming this summer, which he describes as a fusion of pop and dance. He believes that's where it's at these days: "You have pop going to that 4/4 up-tempo beat," he says. "All the latest up-tempo pop is dance-influenced." As for the Miami scene, he thinks it has recently taken a step backward to regroup. "House music has come back in a big way. I'm feeling like it's going back to that funky, tech, chuggy groove influence, almost back to its roots."
