RS: So how did you get into dance music, while working your R&B demos?
Ellis: I guess I just got frustrated and I needed to make a living. I've always been able to make immediate money in dance music, so I did a couple of records and backgrounds on things.
RS: Such as?
Ellis: A lot of which I wouldn't really repeat. Then, I got my gear and my room situation happening and I did a record called "Make Me Hot" under the name Stiletto Soul which Groovilicious picked up and did nothing with. There were little things here and there. A little later, I knew somebody at King Street who told me that they were looking for a song for Loleatta Holloway. A Japanese production team was doing an album, coming here to work with her and had a track but no song. They had everyone submitting stuff but they didn't like any of it and I happened to be their last person. They asked me but said it had to be here the next day since it was a Tuesday and she would be here on the Friday to record it. I went home and wrote "Share My Joy," did the demo - the vocals, backgrounds and mixing it down, and brought it in. She heard it and loved it, so that was a really cool weekend for me. Right around that time, just doing the typical New York hustle, I had this gospel brunch in a restaurant in Second Avenue. The producers said they really liked the song and the big backgrounds and they'd rather have background singers do it than her with her just doing lead vocals. They asked if I could get background singers and gave me a budget which I used to hire my friends from the gospel brunch and we recorded at the Masters at Work studio. Then Loleatta came in and I ended up producing all of her vocals. That's how I eventually met Thunderpuss because they did the remix and we started talking. So it's been all these little things, one thing that led to another kind of things. Right around that time, I was kind of hanging at King Street Records, and Jeremy Skaller, who was then from Dynamix, was there talking to them and we were introduced since he was into R&B music also. We started talking and we vibed musically, doing the same kind of R&B music. We started working and writing and we did a couple of writing sessions for Full Force and stuff like that. Basically out of financial necessity of money, we both needed to pay bills and had done dance music, so we started working on the next Tina Ann single.
RS: Which was?
Ellis: In My Dreams. Then after that we decided to come up with a new project because Tina was really hot and everybody's looking for dance material, which is what we had a little bit of a name for. So I had this idea for a song called Fire and we demoed it, and approached labels. We said that we have this song and do you have an artist because we think in very pop ways. I sang the demo, which is really funny because Danny and Jellybean asked what was wrong with the girl singing it. It was quite funny and Jeremy got a big kick out of it and said do you want to know her? And Jellybean was like oh yeah..
RS: In a pop role, you mean that you bring the song to a label for one of their artists?
Ellis: Yes, but dance labels don't have artists signed to them so that was the issue. So, we had toyed around with a couple of different names and approaching some of the girls that have been on the scene for a while, but we felt really strongly about looking for a singer who was like Tina Ann.Tina takes her records, performs them and really works them like an artist. We've seen more money from airplay than remixes because there's no residual money in remixes. Every year since Don't Want Another Man has come out and now In My Dreams and Too Late and all these other songs, we're going to see money for the rest of our lives.
RS: So you are focusing on the future and looking for this new artist, how did you find her?
Ellis: We were working with our urban artist at Sony studios, because we know one of the engineers there and he hooks us up with good rates. I was leaving one of the rooms, going from one floor to the next, and I heard somebody singing with a really great voice. I turned the corner and there is Dolce basically, but not knowing it then. She's a really cute college student girl and I thought that the sound really doesn't match the picture. I said excuse me, was that you singing? She was like, oh my God, yes, I'm sorry, I'm auditioning for something and I needed my own space so I came out into the hallway. She'd done a couple of little commercial things and she's sung on producer's demos for the guys that worked on the Lauryn Hill album So, I said listen, we're downstairs and I don't want you to think anything is kind of funky, but we have a song and we're looking for a singer and if you're interested come downstairs when you're done and check us out.
