RS: That sounds like a good direction. How do you approach a remix differently than like an original track you're doing in the studio for yourself?
Peter: When you do a remix you have the original vocal as a guide. You start with the vocal. When it's an original production I start with the music and then lay a vocal over it. It's basically starting the other way around because when you're doing an original production, it can go in any direction you want but when you do a remix you have the vocal and it gives you some kind of direction or radian. You're somewhat limited because the vocal is in a certain kind of range, a certain key, it's a certain kind of feeling so you have to go with in a similar direction to that. When you do your own original production you can do whatever feels right or whatever you get an idea for.
RS: Speaking of tracks, you've been licensing some really awesome ones lately for your label Star 69. Like amazing ones! What made you pick up the Made By Monkeys track, "I Try"? What inspired you about that track.
Peter: The guys that did the track pressed up 500 copies and did a mailing of it on a white label vinyl. I got one in the mail and called them right away. There is something so unique about the vocal. I really felt I could do something great with it so I called them and signed it to Star 69. The official release is in this month.
RS: Another big track for you is the Amuka record, "Appreciate Me". It seems to have been the soundtrack of the Summer up in New York and New Jersey.
Peter: Yes, "Appreciate Me" is one of the biggest tracks of the year. It's so crazy but it was the biggest! We have been one of the most requested records every night on WKTU in NYC every night for the last 3 months. KTU is a major station and that helped us get adds across the country. Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Antonio, Boston, Seattle and a lot of other cities have added it too. It was Star 69's biggest hit this year.
RS: You didn't predict that?
Peter: Not at all. I always liked the song and thought it was great and catchy but I never expected the success it's had.
RS: How about Bucci Bag?
Peter: Bucci Bag was already huge in Europe and everybody slept on it here and we were lucky enough to get it. It's a favorite of mine and it's still doing very well for us. We also picked up another record from Europe by Bob Sinclar called "Kiss My Eyes" That will be out in a couple of weeks with all new remixes.
Ron; Oh, the Antoine Clamaran record?
Peter: Exactly. We had remixes done by Angel Moraes, That Kid Chris and Midnight Society. All very good mixes.
RS: Speaking of remixes, I wanted to ask you, what's the inspiration behind the Star 69 Extended Mixes series? Is that a DJ compilation per se?
Peter: Well, we don't release every mix on CD. A lot of mixes were only previously available on vinyl. We get a lot of requests for our old stuff on CD so I though OK, I'm going to combine everything that I didn't release on CD single and put them on one package, which has now become Vol. 1, 2 and 3 and soon Vol. 4. A lot of people like to have beatmixed CD's but there are also alot of DJ's that who only play CD's now so they want all our mixes in an unmixed CD format.
RS: Some other things I see coming out on Star 69 - the Saeed & Palash project, how did you team up with those guys?
Peter: It was like my, hold on, 1,2 3, 4, 5, 6, My seventh release on Star 69 was a Saeed record. It was released under the name Superjuicy and it was called "Give It To me". He sent us a cassette with a demo of the song and I signed it and then it all kind of exploded from there. They started their own label, Addictive Records and they made a name for themselves. Saeed has always been kind of loyal to me because I gave him his first opportunity to release a record. We released their first mix CD called Tide:Edit:07 and it did pretty well so this year we released their new one. It's called "Addictive Beats."
RS: A fan wanted me to ask you if you have any plans for album projects for Star 69 favorites like Lula, Suzanne Palmer, and Celeda?
Peter: Yes, we're actually recording Suzanne Palmer's album right now. It will be released early next year, probably in time for Winter Music Conference. The album is produced by various producers. Cevin Fisher, Angel Moraes, Dezrok, Orange Factory, Eric Kupper, Fred Jorio, Murk... she did a different track with each producer but still there is going to be a style that is uniquely Suzanne's. We're very excited about it.
RS: Sounds wild.
Peter: And Lula, we're working on an album also. We just released a new single from her called "My Empire" which is doing very well. The album may take a little longer because she has a child now so it's not as easy to get her in the studio as it used to be.
