DJ Ron Slomowicz: Thinking about last year, for me the song was Most Precious Love and it's amazing how it's kept its legs this whole time. Did you have any idea that that would be so massive then and so massive now?
Simon Dunmore: No, actually to be fair, we were really disappointed that it never got radio support in the UK after the buzz that it had at the Winter Music Conference last year. We felt that it was a genuine contender for what people tout as a Winter Music Conference record, and all the magazines and all the DJs pretty much kind of endorsed it, but it never caught fire at radio in the UK. Because of that it had a real longevity at the club level and then it just never stopped being played by a lot of DJs. So we did some new mixes and we're re-promoting it this year. I don't anticipate it being a conference record this year, but we've just been added to all the major stations in the UK, so it's going to be a crossover hit in the UK. Even though it has taken eighteen months, sometimes that's the way it goes.
RS: I heard you got Radio One on it, congratulations.
Simon Dunmore: We're really happy about that and the video's getting played as well. It's a conceptual video and it's animated. It's got some people from the scene - Junior Jack, Masters at Work, Bob Sinclar, Blaze himself, Barbara Tucker, and they're all cartoon characters. The video's getting played in the UK, so fingers crossed.
RS: Yes. I love the video because you brought everyone in the scene together – sort of like your idea for the party as bringing people together.
Simon Dunmore: The strength of Defected is the people that we work with and we work with some of the best producers in the world I feel and they make great music. We're just an umbrella for great producers and great records, so the video pretty much replicates that.
RS: When I read your bio, I learned something which I've been wondering for years, what happened to my favorite label of all time, AM/PM UK. When you were there you had a major over you, and now you're on your own as an indie, is that about right?
Simon Dunmore: I worked at AM/PM for five years and we had a really good, purple kind of patch. It was the politics of working at a major label. When I was there it was owned by PolyGram, which got bought out by Universal and people were losing their jobs. They asked us to merge with another label and I felt I was lucky at that time getting to keep my job, but the next time I might not have been so lucky. I thought it was a good time to leave and start my own business. I'd been working with majors for almost twelve years so I had enough connections and felt like I knew the business well enough to start my own label. So we defected - Defected from AM/PM to start our own label.
RS: Is that where the name comes from?
Simon Dunmore: Yes, absolutely. We left somewhere to go to a better place, we felt.
