RS: Because I know your mix of Deborah Cox “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven” spent like three hundred and seventy-five weeks at number one, something insane like that.
Valentin: I was really psyched to do that mix because I have always been a Deborah Cox fan and the opportunity to do the song blew me away. I sat down in the studio with her amazing voice coming out of the speakers, a capella at me and I was just inspired and amazed. As I said before, it was a complete inspiration and the track came together. I was excited about it, I really felt like I had something. When the opportunity was there for the track to get some exposure, it took off. I’m so thankful that people really enjoy what I did and what she had done, which clearly was a lot of what’s going on there, I mean it’s just an amazing vocal performance. I’ve had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times since I did the mix and that’s surreal for me. I know at some point, I’m sure in the near future, we’ll end up working together again because I was excited about her voice and she seemed very pleased with what I had done with the production. That was a very good collaboration by two people who never met up to that point.
RS: You took her in a direction that she’s really never been before. In the past her club remixes were more tribal, house and disco oriented and she’s never really been taken in the more trance-pop direction.
Valentin: I try to be very sensitive, being a vocalist, and when I listen to a track it’s important to me that if the song is there and the vocal performance is there, that whatever tempo ultimately the track is at, I’d like to stay as close to the original as possible. Sometimes, as I’m sure you can appreciate, that’s very difficult. I just did a remix for Britney Spears and it was kind of hard to re-envision where it was going to go because the track was a ballad, as are a good number of remixes I suppose are. I was almost tempted just from a hey, I’d love to do something a little more housey standpoint to bring down the tempo a bit and do something more housey. But he song and vocal performance dictated to me that it would be closer to the trance thing, so be it, it’s really a matter of inspiration. I just go with where the music takes me and thankfully I think I’ve developed the chops where I can realize what the song will be as a completed recording. Hopefully we’ll get the opportunities to continue to do that. It’s all about the music and the music just kind of happens, when the vocal performance is there, the music almost does itself.
RS: You also just did the Lucas Prata single “Never Be Alone.” Do you notice any difference working with male vocals versus female vocals?
Valentin: Male vocals are a lot lower. Most male voices that you're going to hear in pop, rock and hip hop are baritone voices. They’re not equipped to do that sort of vocal gymnastics that a lot of the female vocalists seem to be able to do. There is definitely something about that that translates to being a little bit harder, especially in a dance mix, to get the fire and the incredible sense of energy out of a vocal. You have to take a slightly different approach with the arrangement because if you have somebody who’s just wailing like Deborah Cox, Christina Aguilera, or Kristine in QED, when they belt it out the microphone is ready to pack up and go home. You get so much emotion out of their performance that it drives the track. With the male vocals youreally do have to be careful, even if it’s a passionate performance and it’s genuine just by its nature, the fact that it’s a step lower, you don’t automatically get that energy. A lot of times you have to build that into how you envelope the melody, let the melody work more even in a sense than the performance does. Did that make sense?
