RS: For the Roc Project that's on tour or going on tour, is that you DJing with Tina Novak singing or is it a live band setup, or how are you doing the tour for it?
Ray Roc: Since we haven't hit stardom, we can't take the full band out because it's just not affordable. So what we are doing for the Roc Project Tour is going out with a percussionist, me on the turntables and keyboard, four dancers and Tina in the forefront singing. I saw Britney Spears doing the Zone promo shows at various clubs and everyone that saw her called me up and said your show looks like hers. And I was like well, that's because she's doing a club and in a club environment she only can use so many dancers. We wanted to have that Janet Jackson-like big stage appearance where you're having lot of acting and choreography with flips and the dancers are really putting on a show as well as Tina and the percussionist and me playing live for the crowd.
RS: So it's a real show, not just a chick with a DAT?
Ray Roc: Yes, it's definitely not a chick with a dat. It's more like a DJ with a CD and a drummer and keyboards. The song is not completely on the CD as I mixed it down differently. There's elements where I play live and the drummer plays live that I've taken out of the actual songs, so this way you can have that live feel.
RS: I heard you recently got a new residency in New York.
Ray Roc: Yes, I recently got a residency at the new five
million dollar mega club Spirit. It was formerly Twilo and
originally The Sound Factory, the former home of DJs like Junior Vasquez, Danny Tenaglia, Sasha & Digweed, and Paul Oakenfold
RS: That's awesome. Well, if you don't mind, I've got to ask you about someone else, you've worked on one of my favorite albums of the year, the Kristine W album.
Ray Roc: Yes.
RS: And you did two tracks for it, you did All That Really Matters and Living Out Loud.
Ray Roc: Yes.
RS: How did you get involved with the project?
Ray Roc: Well, I am a big Kristine W fan and when I got signed to Tommy Boy and she was part of the Tommy Boy family, I went up there and said that I needed to work with her. When they gave her the word she was excited because she knew about "Never" and she's known about me overseas. So we got together and we wrote "Living Out Loud", and as I was doing that record she had this other record that she wanted me to definitely do the production on, and that's how I did "All That Really Matters."
RS: "Living Out Loud" strikes me as a perfect song for a TV show or a movie, because of the way it starts off really slow like a ballad and then kicks in bigtime. Was that sort of your thought when you were making the track?
Ray Roc: Actually no, we wrote the song to this one track that I had that sounded more like a Modjo or a Daft Punk track. When she was singing the song, we were both thinking that this song needs to have more energy, to go crazy and go where no one had gone before. She said how about if we just start it with a jazzy intro and the concept was you're walking into a bar and you have this lounge singer who's singing her song and the DJ turns over the piano and wrecks the place. So that's where that concept came from and I'm one guy who does not like to be typical or predictable when it comes down to making music, so I said let's do it. It's almost like reminiscing Donna Summer when she used to start off with her ballads and then it went straight into a dance record, so I was like let's just make it 2000 style.
RS: Like "Last Dance" for 2000?
Ray Roc: Yes, pretty much.
RS: Talking about those big artists and back to you as a remixer, you've worked with Cher, Paulina Rubio, Brownstone and No Mercy, but you've also kept in touch with the underground, the Kings of Tomorrow, Fire Island. Do you approach a pop remix say differently than an underground remix?
Ray Roc: To be honest, I approach remixes according to what I hear. I don't have a style when it comes to remixing, so unless somebody tells me that they want something specific I follow what I hear, I have a lot of Latin influence so if they say they want a more Latin style remix from me and when I hear the record I can't deliver it, I'll turn it down. Or I'll tell them listen, I can't deliver that but I can deliver this as more mainstream or more underground from what I hear. So I work more with what I hear as opposed to a style that I need to portray. Lately, the remixes that have been coming to me, such as Ingrid's "You Promised Me," have been requested as a more radio-friendly version. So I'm naming those mixes like Ray Roc's Projects, so you know the Roc Project remix because I'm influencing more of the radio style of music, and it was appropriate for that record because it already had underground mixes.
