Benny Soto interviewed by Lenny Fontana for True House Stories # 088 (Part 1)

TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ BENNY SOTO # 088 - PART 1
For Benny Soto, it began, as it has for many New York club land veterans, with a visit to 84 King Street in downtown Manhattan. He says, “I had already been going out, but the first clubbing experience that really mattered was the Paradise Garage…just walking in there, it looked different, it sounded different, it felt different. As soon as I walked in, I knew I was home.” For Soto, then a poor kid from the South Bronx, the Garage opened up a whole new world. It was through the club that he met, and befriended, the late Keith Haring, eventually serving as the iconic artist’s studio assistant. It also expanded his aural horizons: “Because of the way that Larry Levan played,” Soto says, “I became more musically open-minded.” But perhaps importantly, the Garage provided an avenue for escape. “Back then, I didn’t have much joy in my life,” he admits, ‘Clubbing gave me a way to get away. Places like the Garage, though they were primarily gay, were so inclusive; it didn’t really matter who you were, what mattered was the freedom that you could find there.” And that feeling—that passion for freedom, both musically and personally—would set Soto on a path that has led to a lifetime in club land. He had no idea that it would also lead to a career, but even in those early days, he recalls, “I was very curious. If I was at a club, I would be checking out the sound and looking at the lights, trying to see how it all comes together -it was like a Broadway show, except the show was the crowd itself.” Eventually he secured a gig doing odd jobs at another iconic address, 6 Hubert Street, only blocks away from the Garage. The spot had once housed Area and Club Shelter; during Soto’s time there, it was Vinyl, home to the iconic Body & Soul. It was Body & Soul resident Danny Krivit who convinced Soto to take the next step. “He said to me, ‘I think you should be a promoter. People like you, and you have great energy. You’d be good at it.’ Of course,” Soto adds, “I had no idea what ‘being a promoter’ even meant!” Listen to him tell you what he learned and how you should be..

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