Iván Romero on building UNDISCLOSED around music and community

Iván Romero is part of the team behind UNDISCLOSED, a Dominican Republic-based event and label project created around minimal, tech, and deep house. Built alongside his partner Joan, the concept connects intimate events with a platform designed to give local artists greater reach.
Photo credit: UNDISCLOSED – Instagram
UNDISCLOSED launched with an invitation-only format capped at 150 guests, placing sound, venue selection, and a focused audience at the center of its approach. Its first event in Puerto Plata featured Mihai Popoviciu alongside Thaddeus X, Jordy Sánchez, and Eduardo Peña.
In this conversation, Romero discusses how the project came together, the thinking behind its closed format, the Dominican Republic’s underground electronic music community, and what comes next for UNDISCLOSED.
EG: Hi Iván, welcome to EG. To kick things off, what was the vision behind launching UNDISCLOSED in the Dominican Republic, and how did the concept for this boutique event series come to life?
Iván Romero: Thanks for the invite. It started with two ideas meeting. Joan, my partner, wanted to throw a party. I wanted the party, but I also wanted a label, because we have local artists here who are genuinely good and don’t get the reach they deserve.
There was also an obvious gap. In the Dominican Republic, minimal, tech, and deep house have always had listeners, but never a home. They were being played in rooms built for something else. Systems tuned for volume rather than texture, venues that didn’t carry what this music is trying to say.
Our rule is simple: the music comes first, always. Everything else exists to serve it: the location, the sound, the atmosphere. We don’t pick a venue and then work out what fits inside it.
The label and the events are two halves of the same thing. Putting our artists in the booth next to international names, and releasing their music so it travels further.
Everything else followed from that. The closed format, the unmarked location, the capped headcount. We really like keeping it intimate.
EG: Bringing an underground heavyweight like Mihai Popoviciu to Puerto Plata is a massive statement. How did this specific booking materialize, and what made him the right fit for UNDISCLOSED’s debut?
Iván Romero: We’d seen him a few months earlier in Miami, at Do Not Sit on the Furniture, and we loved it. It was the groove, the way the set was built, and the crowd his music pulled in. That’s when we knew he’d fit what our audience here was looking for.
We reached out to him directly and coordinated with his management, Still Hot Berlin.

EG: You opted for a strictly intimate, invitation-only format capped at 150 guests at a private location. Why was exclusivity and a smaller capacity core to the experience you wanted to curate?
Iván Romero: The invitation-only format was a deliberate choice, not a limitation. This music calls for a certain kind of listener. Someone who understands it, respects it, and can read a set instead of waiting for a hit. Keeping it closed is how we protect that, and how we make sure everyone in the room is there for the same reason.
That’s what makes the energy feel different.
EG: The Caribbean electronic scene often leans toward massive commercial parties or larger festival settings. How does UNDISCLOSED carve out a space for deeper, groove-led minimal and tech-house sounds?
Iván Romero: The big commercial parties serve a different purpose, and that’s fine. What we do sits somewhere else. We bet on long sets, not festival sets. A DJ playing two or three hours can build a real journey, take you somewhere, instead of showcasing their hits in forty-five minutes.
The sound is a deliberate choice too. We want to feel the bass, but hearing the detail matters just as much. The texture, not just the volume. That’s something a festival, by design, seldom prioritizes.
And musically, we’re after something organic. Groove and swing that come naturally, not forced, with energy that never costs us the texture.
“Our rule is simple: the music comes first, always. Everything else exists to serve it”
EG: Mihai is renowned for his sleek, driving rhythms and master class vinyl/digital selections. How did the local and regional support lineup featuring artists like Thaddeus X, Jordy Sanchez, and Eduardo Peña complement that journey?
Iván Romero: Honestly, the running order mattered less than you’d think. What mattered was that each of them- Thaddeus X, Eduardo Peña, Jordy Sánchez– got behind the decks with their own music and real love for what they were playing. That comes through. That night it showed on the dancefloor.
We never saw them as openers setting up for Mihai. They were part of the same conversation. Each one brought their own groove, their own swing, their own rhythm, and putting that next to Mihai’s sound was exactly what we wanted to prove. The talent here can hold its own next to anyone.
EG: Logistically speaking, what were some of the challenges or highlights of setting up an underground-focused, high-spec private gathering in Puerto Plata?
Iván Romero: It was a beautiful mess. Because of how the venue worked, the whole setup had to happen the same day as the event. Nothing could go in before. There was a moment where it really felt like we weren’t going to make it.
Then, in the blink of an eye, everything was standing. Sometimes the chaos behind the scenes never reaches the other side, and that night it didn’t.
The highlight was what came after. The production held, and the energy from the room went past anything we expected.

EG: The response from the local music heads has been palpable. How important has community-building been in shaping the initial identity of UNDISCLOSED?
Iván Romero: It’s been central. The people who came to that first night weren’t strangers to each other. They knew each other from the scene, people who value good music and a more mature sound. But they came from all over the country. That told us something. This community already existed; it was just scattered. Nothing was bringing it together.
[UNDISCLOSED] isn’t only an events brand to us. It’s the meeting point for a community that was already there, waiting for a space that spoke its language.
EG: Looking at the broader landscape of the Dominican Republic, how do you see the underground electronic music movement evolving over the next few years?
Iván Romero: We hope people grow attached to projects like this one. Not just [UNDISCLOSED], but any project here working toward the same simple goal. Push good music, and build an audience that actually understands it.
If that happens, the movement grows on its own. It doesn’t take much more than honest spaces and listeners who want something beyond a party.
“[UNDISCLOSED] isn’t only an events brand to us. It’s the meeting point for a community that was already there, waiting for a space that spoke its language”
EG: Now that the first event has passed with Mihai Popoviciu, what kind of blueprint has it laid down for future UNDISCLOSED events?
Iván Romero: The format stays. Invitation-only, capped, and even more curated than the first time. That part isn’t up for discussion.
Production is where things change. Unique venues, far more organization, more time. I’d rather not go into detail yet, but the level is going up.
Musically, we stay in the lane Mihai set. Maybe slightly deeper, maybe slightly more tech. It depends on a set of things that only work when they line up, and that’s what makes a night unforgettable.
EG: Lastly, what can the local underground community expect next from UNDISCLOSED?
Iván Romero: For now, that stays [UNDISCLOSED]. Literally.
What I can say is this. That night, the energy the room gave us confirmed something we already suspected. A project like this doesn’t just make sense here; it was needed.
We left with a lot more drive to keep building.

Follow UNDISCLOSED on Instagram for updates on upcoming events and label releases.