![\"Collage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Midweek-Cafecito-_-WMC.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNew Times talks to Junior Sanchez and David Ireland at WMC 2026. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNew Times talks to Junior Sanchez and David Ireland at WMC 2026. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Photo by Castro Zambrano<\/p>\n
The eyes of the electronic music world converge on South Florida each March as Winter Music Conference<\/a> and Ultra Music Festival<\/a> take over Downtown Miami. On this week\u2019s episode of Midweek Cafecito<\/a>, New Times\u2019 culture<\/a> and music<\/a> podcast, we speak with two figures whose histories with the conference \u2014 and the dance music scene at large \u2014 run deep.<\/p>\n First, music editor Flor Franceschetti<\/a> interviews Junior Sanchez, a DJ and prolific remixer known for his work with Gorillaz<\/a>, Madonna, and Shakira<\/a>, among many, many others. He tells us about his proudest moment in music (remixing Gorillaz\u2019s \u201cDare\u201d) and the pain of parting with part of his vinyl collection. Here are some highlights:<\/p>\n On turning down remixes for artists he loves:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to only work with artists I respect and admire. I\u2019ve said no to a lot of projects\u2026Certain things shouldn\u2019t be remixed.\u201d<\/p>\n On the remix he had to turn down:<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a request for me to do \u2018J\u00f3ga.\u2019 I\u2019d always wanted to remix Bj\u00f6rk. It was a passion of mine\u2026For me to touch that song would be a dishonor for me. I don\u2019t know how to reinterpret perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n On Remixing Gorillaz\u2019s \u201cDare\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cThe version I did was the actual version that was played in the United States as the commercial release.\u201d<\/p>\n In the episode\u2019s second interview, culture editor Celia Almeida<\/a> chats with WeGroup\u2019s David Ireland about WMC\u2019s return, its future ambitions, and where the industry at large is headed next.<\/p>\n On his earliest WMC memories:<\/p>\n \u201cI was so broke I couldn\u2019t even get into WMC.\u201d<\/p>\n On moving the conference to Downtown Miami:<\/p>\n \u201cThe struggle with [Miami] Beach for us was that it was kind of out of the way \u2014 the nightclubs on the Beach that used to be there just kind of started disappearing, so the whole culture that was driving WMC on the Beach started moving to the other side of the Causeway.\u201d<\/p>\n On tackling AI at WMC:<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to stay away from it as, like, prompting to create music, but more about how you use it as a tool, because you can frame AI in a really negative way, and it\u2019s a controversial topic.\u201d<\/p>\n This episode was recorded at the Kimpton Epic Hotel in Downtown Miami during Winter Music Conference on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Grab a cafecito and watch it now on YouTube (below), or listen on the go with Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Times talks to Junior Sanchez and David Ireland at WMC 2026. Photo by Castro Zambrano The eyes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[19943,1943,225,227,226,2310,25484,87990],"class_list":["post-209598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-edm","tag-festivals","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-interviews","tag-podcasts","tag-ultra-music-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}