RS: There's a real variety on the CD- a little bit of breaks, a
little bit of trance, a little energy, and a little pop. When you're
writing your songs do you start with the beat or do you start with the
lyric; what's your songwriting like?
Second Sun: Making the album, we were really adamant about making
the album that we wanted to make and not trying to like cash-in on the
success that we've had making trance with Paul Van Dyk in the past.
Our productions are mostly known through Paul Van Dyk, that's who we
started with. We signed to his label, Vandit Records, and we did Crush
with Paul as well. For the album, we wanted to really show everybody
all our different, you know, colors. Basically when we start writing
a song, there's really no set genre - we don't say "oh, we'll make a
breakbeat track or we'll make a house track." For us, we're making
the music we want to make and either people get it and appreciate the
fact that we're varied or some people might be pissed-off because it's
not only a trance album or only a progressive album or only breakbeat.
For us, it's really important to stick to what we want to make.
RS: So how did the two of you meet up with Paul Van Dyk?
Second Sun: It all happened actually here in New York City at Twilo
probably back in 2000. I got together with Adam, back then we were
living in Montreal, and we worked on this track.
It took six months to make our first track "Empire" which was
ridiculous. I used to go down to Twilo which was almost like school
for me because it was such a legendary club. They had residents like
Paul Van Dyk and Sasha and Digweed who did eight-hour sets. One time
I came to see Paul and handed him a CD of "Empire" and then a week
later we got an eMail from Berlin saying he wanted to sign us to his
label. So I guess we got lucky.
RS: When you worked with Paul Van Dyk on Crush, were you in the
studio with him or did you do it remotely?
Second Sun: Adam and I did some stuff in the studio in Los Angeles,
Paul did some stuff in Berlin, and then we went and finished-up the
work in Berlin with him, which was a blast. So we were
multi-continental.
RS: On your CD, is Pop Music a remix or a cover?
Second Sun: That is a remix. Actually the way that happened is that
we were so blessed to be able to do this. Robin Scott, who is M, made
the original track back in 1979. Robin Scott called me and said "this
is Robin Scott, calling from London and I was wondering if you want to
remix Pop Music." At first I thought he was a British producer asking
me if I wanted to remix some pop music and I was kind of turned off as
it were. I was like "what pop music, what songs would you like?" He
said "No, no, no, the song Pop Music, I'm M, I'm Robin Scott and I'd
like you to remix Pop Music." I finally understood what he was saying
and said it would be an honor, of course we'll remix Pop Music. So we
were lucky enough to get the separate parts to his track which were
recorded in Paris in 1978, and we did our own remix, handed it back
over to Robin and asked him what he thought, He told us that through
the years it was his favorite remix of Pop Music. So we were really,
we were blessed to be able to do that remix for him.
RS: I always put Pop Music in the 80s, its funny that it was
actually done in the 70s. Speaking of the 80s, how did you hook-up
with Tiffany?
Second Sun: We were looking for a female singer, and I was very
specific with the singers I auditioned and didn't find what I wanted.
The rumor was out that I was looking for a singer and oddly enough
Tiffany knew of us and really liked what we had done in the past. Her
husband is a British guy who is really into the scene and really into
the music, and she contacted us. Actually her personal assistant
contacted us saying, Tiffany would like to work with you guys. We
wanted to hear her voice before we said yes to it because we were
aware of her earlier work and we thought it was a really fun idea. We
had a chance to listen to her most recent songs which are really great
and her voice is amazing. So right away we said OK, we started
working on "He Said She Said" together. The track was an idea that I
had of having a duet over a banging trance beat. Luckily enough,
Tiffany really gave us the time to come in the studio and she
participated in the writing process. We are very happy with the song.
It's actually going to be on Paul Van Dyk's "Politics of Dancing Two"
compilation, so we're really happy about that.
