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Studio Madness , Remixes and the HOUSE of HOUSE
Posted: July 13, 2009
This one is all about making sweet music!
Today is the day … I’m very excited to announce that my first exclusive digital album has just dropped on Beatport. I’ve been working on this Album for a least a year now and I feel proud of what I’ve produced and am now ready to share with you all. I’m happy to announce that my album is a mixed Album that will also be sold “track by track” with a few extra bits for your playing satisfaction. The House of House is made up of 20 original tracks and the live mix consists of 15 of these tracks. All the music for this album was created and recorded in my home studio in Canada. The music was put together on a daily basis and it was something that I truly enjoyed doing. Sometimes things just seem to come together so quickly when you are being creative and having fun, which is what I did with this project.
I’m hoping that people will understand this album as it’s not your usual House album and it is not commercial in anyway, it’s just straight up Sneak Beats! I had been working on the track sequence for a while and then finally I just woke up one day and said “ok, I’m going to mix this whole thing down!” I had too many tracks, even for a double album, so I had to decide what tracks would tell the story musically by blending it all together. This also helped me decide what tracks were going to be chosen for the final cut. I’m not re-inventing the wheel here, I’m just going back to the roots of House music and polishing up a nice selection of things. A lot of feeling went into making each track, I didn’t use any tricks, I just let the music and the mix make it all happen. I really feel like I’ve done my best to complete this project and now it’s finally here. I’ve added a video of me in the studio mixing my album down. It was all done live while having fun at home with my 2 dogs and wife … they’re my support team here and while I’m banging away in my lab they pop in to visit and to keep me motivated.
Some of my favorite traxx on this Lp are Twilight, Afternoon Delight and I live in Toronto. I’m sure people will have their favs and I’m sure I will do some remixes and extras for everybody to enjoy. I hope you like what I brought to the table and you enjoy my beats and rhythms.
Well now that my album is done and out, that certainly does not mean that my work is all done. I keep hustlin’ for House all day long! I’m always spending long hours working in the studio and that’s why I decided that I’d write a little something about my second job as “the Beat Maker.” I’ve only ever written my blogs about my travels as a DJ and thought that maybe some of you would like to hear the updates on what I’ve been working on in the studio. This blog is all about the behind the scenes work ...The dirty business that requires nothing more than time, dedication and hard work.
Life in the studio consists of all sorts of music being played all day long. One of my ongoing projects is putting in the real work making sure I have all the right music ready for my road gigs and I have all the music I need. I like to have a little bit of everything available for any occaision … you never know what to expect when you’re out there on the road. I’ve spent countless hours going thru my massive record collection and diggin’ for them records that I know I can play again and that people will either appreciate hearing again or will discover for the first time. As you can imagine, I have a lot of records. When you’ve worked in record stores, owned a record store and just have the plain passion for record shopping, you collect a ton of vinyl! I do think I have almost every dope record made between 1986 and now, and as there are not as many record stores available, I thought, well I have a hella lot of records that most people missed or just did not care to buy, so why not dust ‘em off and play them again. Now this might all sound easy but it takes dedication and a hell of a long time. On an average day I can record as many as 50 records. They’re hand picked, cleaned, recorded, cleaned up again, cut to CD and into the CD BOX. People have wondered why I don’t pay someone to do this job but it’s best that I take the time to do it cause it really gives me time to get re-acquainted with the music. Plus I get to listened to it while I’m doing a hundred other things.
I’m definitely a multitasker, most of the time I’m recording records, listening to the tracks in the back ground, making some notes on where the tracks need to be cleaned up for pops and scratches, I’m also chopping them up or re-editing a few for better playing purposes, while all this is going down I’m also cutting slices of samples I find in odd places and records that I may never play but I can rip a snip of a beat or loop that I can re-use. Sometimes I’m doing all this while also thinking about how this makes my job way easier when I play out. The discipline has to be hard and steady to keep up and since sometimes it’s crazy on the road I have to be ready to jump in and out with very little time. Im sure some of you may also be wondering why I do not use Computer programs and a laptop to play out since it’s the new thing to do but I’m liking my system and I think I get the best out of it. I think technology is a great thing and I’m not knocking it I just think that sometimes simple and pure is better. I will explore the use of the computer programs but even the transition from playing records to CDs was a hard thing for me, but embracing the technology of playing CDs has been very beneficial, it allowed me to travel with an arsenal of music that I don’t have to worry about loosing while I’m travelling and that I can whip out whenever I need to bust out the beats!
I’m also one of those DJS that loves to freestyle and I never have sets prepared nor recorded to make me look better or sound perfect, I’m there to push the boundaries and play with the flow. I actually do not want to sound perfect as I’m not a robot I want to sound LIVE! Plus I do this all while drinkin’, smokin’ taking some photos with fans, and oh yeah! Smashin’ the floor with good House Beats. So ya, that’s all I have to say about that.
REMIXES
Ok, now let’s talk remixes! I’m on this track train right now doing a bunch of remixes … some for money, some for swaps and some just for fun. I’ve been linking into the European market a lot lately as this is where I play the most. I’m enjoying doing remixes of what I want, when I want. I’m not very particular with the remixes and I’m enjoying challenging myself with different sounds. I just get into the mood to mess with things everyday to keep me from going crazy. Oh yes my friends it’s not easy being me, I have a lot of responsibilities to attend to and I’m committed to them no matter what but I’m lucky that my one true passion of making the beats is what keeps me level. I do work and I love it, plus I know people are listening out there so I must do as I can to deliver. I have a pretty long list of remixes on the go so if you’re into knowing what’s been hitting, I’ll start spitting!
First we start with the HoodFellas who sent me this party jam accapella from one of their homees Verse, I really liked it so I ended up flippin’ a mix for them. It’s a very hip house style, if you’ve never heard of hip house, you gotta look it up, It’s from Chi town.
I also did a really slammin’ remix of a track “Down with God” from Anthea & Alex Celler that will be coming out in Tuning Spork from Berlin. I really dig the beats I made for this remix, there are 2 mixes to pick up. In return, Jay Haze, the owner of Tuning Spork, did a remix for a track of mine coming out on GuestHouse Music very soon. There will also be a few other tracks as part of the 4 track Ep.
Moving on to an un-official remix of Kid Cudi’s Day N Night, which I believe Universal is thinking about picking up. I gave it to Atrak and he’s been killing it every gig. That’s one of them remixes that you just do for fun!!
This may sound weird but I also did a remix for the Canadian Techno DJ, Mistress Barbara. She has a new album out where she is singing as well as producing. She asked me to do a remix for a track called “4 on the floor” so I was pleased to have some fun with it and see what I could come up with. It’s not a typical track that I would remix but projects like that are good to do cause you never know what hits or not. I hope it does well; We Canadians gotta support each other.
This one I had to do just cause I had to do it. I’ve been killing Rob Swinga’s “Uptown Hoe Down” on 1200 Traxx for a while and I ended up finding a little snippet sample of his name in a Chubb Rock track so I had to show love to Robb and give him some shine. The track I did is more like a tribute Dub mix but I’m sure it will do it’s duty when played.
On the European front, I did 2 remixes for different German producers that will be hitting the records stores and sites soon. The first one is M. In & Sexy Pie’s “Frauden & Blummen “ coming out on International Freakshow Records, this track has a really freaky vocal with crazy little hooks to sing along to. I hit this up pretty good and they loved the remixes, a main mix and a dub instrumental that have the craziest “jacky ghetto” Chicago stylez that I can flip from time to time.
The second German thing is called Molisans Brothers “600 Entry” on BC tec. This is a sort of minimal tribal sound that they are loving out in Europe right now. I just hit it hard with some Chicago Jack and some Sneak goodness and the remix came together very quick and painlessly.
You might be thinking, how the hell does he do this all the time and back-to-back? Well the answer is, I don’t know, I just get into my studio and go to work like a farmer farms everyday or a baker bakes bread everyday. I get inspired by things that trigger sounds and beats very fast, plus shit, I’ve been making tracks since 1990, it’s what I do. The more you do, the more you learn, and you apply it to the next track you make. I say this proudly cause I live it, “You are as good as your last good paying track” and “You are as good as your last good paying gig”. I’ve done lots but you won’t see me laying around and wasting my time on video games or shit that clouds your creativity levels, you must stay in touch with yourself and nature to be productive.
Well, I think that is about it for now. I hope you enjoyed the sneak peak into my studio world and trust me, you’ll be hearing from you soon.
Peace out.
Sneak
Past Blog Entries
June 2009 - 8 gigs in 10 days - Turin, Rome, London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Mamaia, Liverpool & Aberdeen.
Get the full album here.
