RS: What about your videos? I work in a video club and I remember when I got the video for Irresistible, I was like oh my God, how did they do this thing? Did you envision translating that song from audio to visual, and did you make the video yourself?
Tom Stephan: It looks like it, doesn't it? Oh my God, I didn't know anyone ever say that video, that's amazing. You know, that was a much better idea than it was a reality. I didn't actually do it, no. Things happened really fast while I was away, and so things happened a lot without me. The video director was chosen and when I got back to the UK to do the video they were shooting it the next day. He had some really great ideas but I didn't feel like it came off the way we hoped. I was kind of shocked that anyone actually ever saw it.
RS: With dance videos, you expect them to be really low budget, so I really like your video because it was really creative.
Tom Stephan: Yes, thank you. Well, I mean it might not have been essentially me, but I'm glad you're not saying it was awful.
RS: I mean, if you want I can send you some really awful videos but.. Switching gears you have a new mixed CD, These Beats Are. How do you choose tracks for your mix CDs like that?
Tom Stephan: It was really tough actually because I haven't done one in so long so I had a million things that I wanted to squeeze onto it. Its a combination of things that I'm playing out now, things that are a couple of years old and some things that I think never got quite as much exposure as they should have.
RS: Then, how do you choose tracks for your current lKiss 100 show?
Tom Stephan: That's all new stuff. I do play a classic track every week, but otherwise the radio show is about playing the newest music around, the records that are going to come out in the next couple of weeks. These Beats Are CD is a little bit more club sounding than my Kiss show, although the show gets a little bit more clubby in the second half. These Beats Are is pretty representative of the kind of stuff that I play out. In fact, parts of it are taken from things that I've done when I played live and thought that sounded good and should be recreated. Like this thing that I did with Let's Beat It, it was just something that I did in a club one night, didn't think that it really worked well and so I recreated it on a NRK CD.
RS: Going back to your studio, are you Mac or PC based?
Tom Stephan: Mac.
RS: Are you Logic, ProTools, Reason?
Tom Stephan: Logic and ProTools.
RS: Very cool, you go both ways. Outside the PC, what's your favorite piece of studio gear?
Tom Stephan: It's called a Waldorf Q.
RS: Very cool. With your new artist album coming out, what's your inspiration behind it and what direction are you going with it?
Tom Stephan: It's full speed ahead in the direction of Superchumbo. An album of Superchumbo stuff, how can I explain it? I basically had the idea to do the album after doing the last Get the Lead out album, having to put together a selection of songs that already existed. Then I realized that I could actually make an album and put it together as you made the album and so that's what I'm doing with this one. It's let me do some different things, they're not all full on peak hour club tracks and I've also had a chance to work with a lot of different singers, but it's definitely all Superchumbo, all house music and I'm very excited about it.
RS: May I asked you who some of the singers are?
Tom Stephan: Yes. I've done a track with Celeda and I've done another track with Sylvia Mason James, she sang on Irresistible.
RS: We love her.
Tom Stephan: Yes, yes. And some other ones are a secret.
RS: So, last question, anything you want to say to all the dance music people out there?
Tom Stephan: Yes, come and see Superchumbo live and come and dance.
