Ron: Regarding the Juicy label, you've just made a big decision to be distributed through Eric Morillo's Subliminal label.
Robbie: Yes, it's going to be pretty nice.
Ron: A few years ago a lot of the indie dance labels were going up to Warner and the big major labels for distribution, why did you decide to go with Eric and the Subliminal Family?
Robbie: Before hiring Eric I was distributed by Amato Distribution in the UK, which is a small distributor in the UK. It wasn't really doing too well and I would sell a lot of records on all sides of the world. Recently, I've been selling a lot of records and getting a lot of support from the US. Because of the harder stuff that I'm doing, I needed to have a US label that would rock the US and actually be excellent in Europe. I've known Eric for a long time and I've done so much work with him, so I figured I'd just call Eric. He and I had been talking for years to get together label-wise or management, and he said let's do a label, and I was like OK, off and do it.
Ron: Is the Wicked CD compilation going to be the first released through Subliminal?
Robbie: Wicked's going to be the first mixed CD and was done before Subliminal, so it's going to be on the Juicy music and SFP Records in Miami - which is another group I've been working a with for a long time.
Ron: And Wicked is a compilation of other people remixing your tracks?
Robbie: No, the concept of Wicked was to be a peak time set from the last four to five months. So most of the stuff is on there, because I play a lot of new tunes that I do in my set when I play live. So the compilation has lots of my music and then a couple of other tunes I like. It's like really pumped up, right there in your face, which I love.
Ron: So when you spin live, do you test a lot of the tracks you make in the studio?
Robbie: Yes.
Ron: And then you go back and tweak them next day to get them exactly right?
Robbie: Yes, I do that a lot. I play a range, long sets of four, five, six hours sometimes. I tend to play a long range from deep tribal to funky disco to hard technoish sounds. So during the whole set, you will hear at least ten of my tunes mixed with everything else, because I just love playing my music.
Ron: Well I mean if you make it it's got to be good.!
Robbie: Yes, if it works, what the hell?
Ron: You do a lot of remixing yourself, how do you react to when people remix your tracks?
Robbie: I love it man, I love having people remix my tracks. My track Funk-a-tron was remixed by Santos from Italy and he did a great job!
Ron: The Santos mix is my favorite. I've played that record both times it was released and now I'm playing it again because of that new mix from Santos, that's the "Camels" guys?
Robbie: Yes, the "Camels" guys. He did an awesome remix, totally killed it. That record's not going to die man, that record's gonna keep on going.
Ron: It's one of those records, like it first came out as a cool, white label, and then that vocal version came out and then another. It's like the third time I'm on the record, it's one of those records that will not go away. Where did that sound, that like distortion noise, how did you come up with that?
Robbie: That sound, its an original sound that's in a Kurzweil keyboard, the Kurzweil 26000, it's just there. Actually it's not in the keyboard, when you buy the keyboard they give you like an supplement or a CD for sounds and it's on there. But you've got to look for it, but I found that and I said holy shit. Actually I'm doing a track right now with the same sound, as we speak, when you called me I was messing with it.
Ron: When you heard that sound, did you just say that's it, that's the bomb or what about it?
Robbie: Yes, and especially when you filter it, when you bring the highs in and the lows and you mess around with like the way it starts. I was like, this is gonna drive the crowd crazy. I had that record and shopped it for labels from Europe, UK labels and the US and everybody passed on it. Nobody liked it, I was like what's wrong? So I kept that record for at least eight months in my box and played it, because I DJ a lot in Europe and over here. I remember when I was in Europe, playing Amnesia in Ibiza and I played it and the crowd went nuts. Then a week later, I played it at Opium Gardens in Miami and then there was an amazing reaction. This is something, I kept thinking but who the hell's going to release it? I didn't have my label back then so I said screw it, I'll go show it to Eric and he called me the next day, and said let's do and took it from there.
