Ellis: At the end of the day it's just programming, it's zeros and ones and you're not Bo Diddley. Everybody uses the same keyboards and the same drum machines. So we're all basically pulling from things, and it's what you do with those sounds. It's not like Bo Diddley that has this guitar that doesn't sound like anybody else's. So that's always been really funny to me because if you're a musician, you play and you write music. So your sound is all coming from these electronic instruments, how the heck do you have a sound? Understand that as a writer certain people have sensibilities, like for example if you listen to a Diane Warren song, within minutes you know that it's a Diane Warren song because of her sensibility of melody. But with programming of music and production, you shouldn't have just one thing that you do because your art is a palate that is always changing, so you're not confined to something. A band, like No Doubt, well they only play these instruments. Even their music kind of move around, they're kind of different. But when you're talking about electronic music, you should have lots of different sounds and different things, and I mean obviously people come up with grooves and niches but those things should always be changing.
RS: So one of the problems with remixers is that remixers do have a sound and their sound is always the same pretty much over time?
Ellis: Well, yes, once again that's what a record label is hiring you to do. The labels think, this worked for this person so we want that also. You're confined because it either works or it doesn't. I mean, at the end of the day it's funny because with music and recording, the most important thing is the vocal, that's what it is. So if you're hired, and a lot of times there is no logic in the musicality that you're delivering, so if this particular remix, niche or gimmick worked on this one record, it may not work on that record. If a label hires you because well, this worked for that, well if it's not an even fit and the label has already decided that we're paying you for this?
RS: You're screwed.
Ellis: You're screwed, right.
RS: You had a really great quote at the and it's something I want to throw back at you. Remixing is like being a stripper, it's not your ultimate goal, you're goal's that centerfold.
Ellis: Well no, no, with stripping, the remixing is like the centerfold. I mean, no one says well, in my lifetime I want to get naked and be a centerfold, and I can die then. No, you want that exposure to do something bigger and different. I mean, she's a complete mess but Anna Nicole is part of public consciousness because of her centerfold, which then led to other things. If she had any talent she'd end up doing other things, like anything else, Kim Basinger and all these other people, that wasn't the point. The point wasn't I want to end up glossy centerfold, I want to do acting and so how do I raise my visibility as to be part of something that everybody knows? That's what remixing is supposed to do. You're doing your own thing and people become fans of what you do support you, but that's not everybody and that's not enough. So you get a Janet Jackson remix and now your name is associated with something that's in every household. The goal is to become that thing, either to become legitimately a part of a Janet Jackson project, not the remix and the after thought. To be the person that Janet calls and says hey, I'm working on a new album, do you want to come into the studio with me? But you don't get that shot by remixing, you know, those things happen by doing original stuff. The guy that did Beyonce's single "Crazy In Love," he's a new guy. He didn't get that gig because he had the hot hip-hop remix, he got that gig because he produced his own artist named Ann-Marie that was also signed to Sony, and everybody loved what was going on with that artist. Beyonce says you know, I just heard what you did, do you want to write some songs with me? No one's going to say wow, you're a good remixer, do you want to write songs with me? It doesn't work that way. The same way, you don't hire a dentist because you think he might do good plastic surgery. Even if you know that that's what he does, well I've never seen any of that work so why the hell would I hire you for that?
