Some of you may know of Thomas Spiegel. He was the owner of the deep house record label Deep Haven Records based in Miami Florida. He was also a good friend of mine.
Sadly, Thomas passed away on Sunday. What follows may be a bit long but I owe it to him to tell you about him. I first met Thomas, well, I can't recall what year or how long ago. I do know that I had heard stories of his legendary House Nation Under A Groove, Club Degenerate, and Hair Police parties from a mutual friend. Thomas was pretty much is solely responsible for introducing House music to the Minneapolis/St Paul area back in the 80s when the underground was underground. He was a dedicated House head - 100% and he tried to live his life in the true spirit of House. Without Thomas Spiegel there would be no Woody McBride/DJ ESP, no Zak Khutoretsky (Transmat), no Minneapolis house or possibly techno scene at all. Thomas brought his love for House music that he picked up in NYC in the 70s, moved back to Minneapolis and got together with local DJ Kevin Cole (who was more of a rock & roll guy) to start the House Nation Under A Groove parties. It was at one of these parties that Woody McBride was introduced to House music. Thomas told me how he used to see a teenage Woody hanging around the DJ booth to find out what records they were playing. Thomas was personally involved with and learned from the best of the best in the NYC underground House world: Tee Scott, DJ Mark Kamins (Danceteria), Afrika BamBattaa, Jose Borbon (Vinylmania), David Morales, Roger Sanchez, Tony Humphries and the Richard Long sound system at Club Zanzibar, Blaze, Vinylmania Records owner Charlie Grappone and Ed Cushions of West End Records. Thomas was the first to let Cushions know about how the West End releases were being sampled by new house music producers without his knowledge or permission. Thomas introduced me to his method and outlook via his House Nation Under A Groove parties here in Minneapolis. I'll forever remember the postage stamp sized 7th Street Entry room we used at the very rock orientated First Avenue Nightclub (made world famous by Prince and his Purple Rain movie). We would start early in the day of the event (or the day before) loading in all the sound system until there was very nearly no room to move across the room. Then we'd begin to arrange and stack the system - test and retest it - under Thomas' direction, until we had built his legendary Wall of Sound. Years later, Woody McBride would borrow the name for his Wall of Bass - but Thomas always insisted that he was after much more than just bass but a full spectrum of sound. He was chasing the infamous Richard Long sound, which Thomas called Mr Clean. Thomas was always trying to better himself and top, what he thought, were his highest achievements. I was involved with one such high point when we put together an afterhours party inside the June Lune Theatre in Minneapolis. The stage, with it's built in spring reaction for live theatre and dance, was turned into the dancefloor. At the far end Thomas decided to stack the entire soundsytem into, by far, the most massive wall of cabinets I've ever seen. As we went along testing the system for places where the soundwaves were coupling (Thomas didn't want any one area concentrated with sound) my friends and I walked around the stage acting as human flags for where the sound was stronger. We knew we hit the right areas because when we stood in those places our vision would become involuntarily unfocused and the bass waves would punch through your chest. This soundwave was heightened by the vibration coming through the stage. It was then that we realized that Thomas had chosen the theatre and planned ]to use the stage as a dancefloor because he had an idea that the stage itself would act like a giant subwoofer - sending the music soundwaves physically through your body. It was brilliant. We often recalled that night and Thomas would just shake his head in disbelief as if he was just a witness to it himself and not the man behind the plan. Thomas brought together people from all walks of life that otherwise would have never met. He created environments that everyone was welcome at - there was no attitude at House Nation Under A Groove. Well, the only attitude was for everyone, regardless of background, to join the House Nation family and dance and smile. I may have never seen other House Nation family outside of HNUG events but we'd easily pick it up when reunited. One of the last nights I saw him in Minneapolis, we discovered his immediate circle of Mpls friends were all wearing the House Nation t-shirts that he gave us at a previous party. Also, he had brought whistles, fans, handkerchiefs, and other items for us. Of course we all had our bags of baby powder for the floor. Talc powder was a standard feature of House Nation events. We were ready to move. Thomas was an incredibly sweet soul. He did amazing things for his friends and would go out of his way to bring House music to people he barely knew. For my birthday he brought Larry Heard in for a House Nation event in that tiny little 7th Street Entry room. He introduced me to Larry and arranged it so that I sat next to him during the dinner the night before (which Thomas paid for - had to have been ten or more people at one the swankiest restaurants in the city). Later I asked Larry to sign my copy of his Aliens LP, which he did while we talked about it being one of his own favorite recordings in his catalog. Thomas knew how much of a Larry Heard fan I was and he made this all happen for me. It was an incredible gesture of his friendship and there is no way I can ever return the favor. Thomas and I talked about it afterward and I can only hope that I expressed exactly what that night meant to me. Sadly, I began to lose touch with Thomas after he moved to Florida. However, I often checked in with his new endeavor - DeepHaven Music. His deep house record label, in partnership with Curtis Urbina, was going from strength to strength it seemed. He was always looking for new talent to bring to light. I'll forever miss him Michael
