By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
A Del Rio 12-year-old released her first house album Saturday morning.
Nyanna Moreno, the daughter of Junior and Jeanette Moreno, released her album “Cairo 2021 Edition compiled by: DJNY” on her 12th birthday.
House music is defined by Wikipedia as a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 to 130 beats per minute. Nyanna’s label identifies the album as minimal house/technical house, a sub genre of house music.
Her dad, known in electronic music circles as Junior ‘eM and CEO of local Abracadabra Records, has been mentoring her on the turntables since she was two years old.
“I was practicing on the decks (turntables) and she’d been watching me,” Junior said. “When I stepped away, she climbed up and it was clear she knew what she was doing. So, I just started teaching her as she was ready.”
First song released
By the time she was 5-years-old, she was cutting vocals for labels. “I was talking to this record executive from Chicago and she heard her in the background saying house of Jack,” Junior said. “So, she asked me if she was saying House of Jack.” House of Jack is a song by Chuck Roberts and is known as the National Anthem of House Music.
The record executive asked for a track of her vocals singing it. After a series of miscues from several labels, the track went from Del Rio to Chicago, then went to New York and finally ended up in a Miami label’s catalog. “House of Jack” ended up being Abracadabra Records’ best-selling download ever.
Album struggles
For Nyanna, aka DJNY, going from making a single-track to laboring over a full-blown album that took several months in her dad’s studio was a tough
transition.
“It was hard in the beginning because I felt very unmotivated,” she said. “But once I started, I didn’t want to stop anymore.”
When she woke up on her birthday and looked online and saw her album sitting in cyberland, waiting for house and electronic music aficionados to come and purchase, it was an overwhelming feeling.
“I really felt like I’d accomplished something,” she said.
Despite her accomplishments, she said classmates at San Felipe Memorial Middle School don’t believe she’s a house music star.
“I’ve shown them my songs online and they don’t believe it’s me,” she said. (You can see her online in this 15-second video. (180) DJ NY – Cairo 2021 Edition – YouTube)
The record can be found on several platforms:
The writer can be reached at joelalangton@gmail.com .
