The Checkup (@thecheckupmusic) returns to his own Heattraxx imprint with Aguas Congas, a collaborative EP with Italian house mainstay Tuccillo, which just dropped today, May 8, with a remix from Reboot. The release pairs two artists who clearly understand club movement, arrangement, and the small details that help a record sit properly in a DJ set.
The title track opens with shuffling drums, bass movement, and understated vocals, while Snare Love eases into a looser house feel and Free My Soul pushes into a quicker deep house lane.
That broader context fits the conversation with The Checkup here, because the interview centers on creative relationships, long-term community, and the people who help expand an artist’s path. His own work through Heattraxx has always been shaped by collaboration, from signing artists to building with producers across different shades of house.
A project with Tuccillo makes sense inside that frame, especially with Reboot adding an Extra Picante Remix that extends the release into a different club lane.
The conversation below gets into Brazil, house music partnerships, the role of Heattraxx, and how collaboration can sharpen an artist’s identity without pulling them away from their own direction. He keeps returning to the dancefloor as the deciding point, which gives the piece a useful throughline: relationships matter, community matters, and the record still has to work in a room.
Interview With The Checkup
Was there a connection or collaboration that meaningfully expanded your path?
One of my best friends, Leo Janeiro, was an incredible meeting for me in my path as a DJ in Brazil. I got to discover a culture I love, make new connections and friends, and play in the best clubs and festivals of the country. It’s an incredible gift and I am truly grateful as I started a long-lasting relationship with Brazil and plan to continue for as long as I can. I allowed myself to showcase my music to a whole other level of gigs.
Fortunately for me, I’ve had a few of these incredible connections in my DJ and production career, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.
What qualities matter most to you when choosing collaborators or creative partners?
I think that the mutual love for house music and understanding that we are making music for the dancefloor. I don’t really think too much about where I will release the music, and in the collaborations, we just want to make a meaningful impact on any given dancefloor through our love of house music.
I think that understanding the dancefloor means you are a good DJ, and that, in turn, can lead you to understand how to write a record and especially how to arrange it properly.
How do you recognize when a circle, crew, or community still aligns with where you want to be going?
Usually, when I see that the crew or community is doing it for the right reasons, for the love of music, creativity, and passion for what we do.
I’ve never liked it when I’m surrounded by people who only think about business and moving ahead. I learned a long time ago that you should just stick to your craft and passion, and that if you surround yourself with people who believe in you and also want the same thing as you, then you can only move forward. I’ve been super fortunate to meet a lot of people like that, and to this day still.
In what ways have your creative relationships shaped how others perceive your work?
I think that through the music and artists I have signed to my label, Heattraxx, people can really understand my vision and the music that I truly like. Not to repeat myself, but I really sign music that I think will have a real impact on a dancefloor.
An emotion, a hypnotic groove, and definitely something I would play. I’ve also collaborated with many different artists like Ale Castro, Dj Merci, Tuccillo, Dj Meme, Deeleegenz, Elisa, or Yass and you can see that they are all in the shades of house, but quite often very different from one another, which can lead to showing that I like to do different things and show different colors while remaining in the realm of House. I love collaborating with artists because it’s more fun together and very motivating.
I obviously like to do my own music and I’ve released on Kerri Chandlers, Riva Starr, Johna Acquaviva’s and my own label to name a few.
How do you maintain independence and individuality while staying connected to, and building, a community around your music?
Personally don’t really think too much about this. I just go with the flow and sometimes solo, and other times collaborate. I mostly DJ alone and sometimes do B2Bs, but I think that, through seeing me play, it’s easy to see the vibe I go for, which I think is unique to myself.
Lately, I’ve done less solo work because I was finishing a lot of collaborations with friends, but I will slowly get back to making my own music so I can fully express myself and kind of see all the cool things I learned and how I evolved over the years as a producer and as a DJ.
I often like to play my own music, so it needs to fit my sets, and therefore, I go for a certain vibe, and this is something I’ll mostly get making music on my own. I also do a lot of remixes because I really enjoy putting my flavour to other tracks.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
