It’s been eleven years since Brooklyn-based DJ/producer Nickodemus co-founded the Turntables on the Hudson party on the fringe of Manhattan’s Westside Highway. Now based on the East River in Queens, NY the party rages on weekly, while the host travels the planet in the constant quest of finding, and then presenting the best global, funky, and bass-laden beats.

After the success of his two previous releases on the ESL Music label, Endangered Species and Endangered Species Remixed, Nickodemus took his time crafting his latest foray into worldwide beatmaking, Sun People. Incorporating Balkan, Puerto Rican, Indian, African, Brazilian, and Jamaican sounds into one continuous barrage of bottom-heavy rhythms, it is easily one of the most danceable albums of 2009. Featuring an impressive roster of guests-including Quantic (with whom he created the iTunes commercial smash, “Mi Swing Es Tropical”), Brian Jay of the Pimps of Joytime, the NY Gyspy All-Stars, the Real Live Show, and Liliana Araujo-Nickodemus stays true to his roots, which at heart are communal. Only his community happens to be borderless, expressed through beats and dancing.

National Geographic: Who are the Sun People?

Nickodemus: Living in New York, you get really amped when the sun comes out, especially after this winter, which was really cold-you know, that whole idea of coming into brighter days. My main inspiration, personally and from what I noticed with a lot of people everywhere, was Obama being elected president. I saw the whole country coming out of the darkness, as well as the way we are viewed in the world. A lot of the songs were inspired by the sun as well. The lyrics are about upliftment, things like: I’ve been here, now I’m going to be there.

You are someone who actually travels to all the countries you borrow and play music from. Have you noticed an actual, palpable change in people’s attitudes towards America?

I’m someone who, when I travel, people generally open up to and discuss political and social ideas with. Perhaps it’s because I don’t particularly look American, and because I speak other languages. I’m also in places where Americans don’t really visit. I get to hear what people are thinking, without apologies, good or bad. And I heard a big shift in attitudes around the time when Obama became president. That gave a clear impression that America is part of the world again. Right now it doesn’t seem like that much is changing, though the subtle things are important. Maybe that will transform the larger issues over time.

What changed in your approach to making music between Endangered Species and Sun People?

If you line them up one next to one another, you wouldn’t notice much of a difference. I love the organic nature of the production; I don’t use presets or stock sounds. Sonically they are similar. Personally, my guidance towards a lot of the artists I collaborate with changed. I gave them more instruction, predominantly to be uplifting. I kept asking: how can we capture this moment in time? I didn’t give this sort of direction on Endangered Species. Not everything is political either. It’s more of a mood I’m trying to get across. I wanted more of continuity in the music than last time. Each song was a chapter within a novel, instead of just putting a few tracks together and calling it an album.

On Endangered Species, a few of the songs were older, making it feel like a compilation to those following your work. With Sun People, especially with the Balkan songs, there is a fuller sound, more like a full band playing than a producer with a beat adding elements.

This is the most focused I’ve ever been working on an album. With the last one, I had the concept for five years before it was released. With this one, I really zoned in. I’ve been getting parts as I’ve been traveling, recording musicians in Romania, New Zealand, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. I collected them for a while, and then spent two solid weeks without leaving my studio, only working on this record. It felt good to allow myself the opportunity to do that. I never gave myself the chance to just focus on more than one song at a time.

The list of collaborators on Sun People is impressive. How did you end up recording Taraf de Haïdouks?

I’ve been after them for a while. I’ve done a couple of gigs in Romania. I wasn’t able to record them there, but then I saw that we were performing at the same festival in New Zealand. When I arrived, I explained my situation, and told them how much I appreciate their music. It would have been hard to get everybody in on the recording, so I asked one of the elders who would be the best to record with. I wound up getting Roberto [Gheorghe] and Costel. They are like peanut butter and jelly together; they do everything together. We shut up in the hotel and went for it. I played them some beats and they jumped on them. The main Balkan tune, “Brookarest,” is their feature song. I have one more that’s unreleased, with the older accordion player, Marius [Marin Manole], that’s just brilliant. I’m going to release that later on.

And then there’s the toaster, Kwasi?

Kwasi is an emcee from Manchester. He’s the voice of Manchester. He’s been emceeing for over twenty years. He came out to emcee a bunch of our parties in New York, and he stayed at my place. He’s old school; there’s no pre-formed thought to his lyrics. He just gets to the mic and freestyles. I barely did any editing.

You also keep things local. Richard Shepherd, of the now-defunct Radio Mundial, appears on “La Lluvia.”

I ran into Richard right around here, near Park Slope, Brooklyn and told him about the concept of the album, being inspired by the sun and all that. Well he comes into the studio with a song called “The Rain” (laughs). Lyrically, he talked about how beautiful the rain is, how it washes away his pains, which is the same sort of concept, so it works: getting over things and coming into more positive times.

And the two tracks with Ismael Kouyate, which bookend the album, are both quite positive and upbeat…

I came across him with the Mandingo Ambassadors playing at Barbes, again right around the corner from here. I really loved them, and he was down to record. I’m recording with the entire band. Ismael is a natural.

With the depth and breadth of music on this album, we can think of Bucovina Club founder Shantel, who took his Balkan beats live on the road. Do you ever planning on creating a live band?

That’s the next thing: the Sun People band. It’s so hard to do it in New York. I already have three festival gigs lined up, and I don’t even have all the players lined up yet. In an ideal world, I’d have the NY Gypsy All-Stars meets Brazilian batacuda meets the Real Live Show and Ismael Kouyate. It would be twenty people, at least.