DJ Ron Slomowicz: First, I want to say thank you for all the support you've
given dancemusic.about.com. Wearing the button on your record bag is
just awesome, we really appreciate that!
DJ Rap: No problem man, anything to help the scene. It's all good.
RS: I am loving your new CD Bulletproof, where did the title come from?
DJ Rap: No matter how many people try to kick you down or keep you
up, you have to have an undeniable belief in yourself. Even though
people think I disappeared from the drum and bass market, I'm still
around and I'm pretty much bulletproof. You can't keep a good woman
down.
RS: Lately you've been playing house a lot. I danced to that
sweet set you played at Nikki Beach.
DJ Rap: I've got a dual career basically. I spin drum and bass when
I have a product out and I play smaller markets and stuff like that.
But I also work in the house genre because it's played in the big
rooms. Just having got the residency at Crobar, house is really for
me as well. I'm a DJ and a producer and a musician, so I can't be
confined to one style of music. If I relied just on drum and bass,
there would probably be very little work around because the genre is
so small, but I still really love the music. Playing all genres is my
way of servicing every single angle of the music industry.
RS: You're definitely incredible at spinning both. Did
Bulletproof start as an artist album and then you added remixes or did
it start as a mixed CD where you added original tracks?
DJ Rap: Bulletproof is a drum and bass record. It's an underground
record, under the radar. I did the Armani compilation which was a
classic house CD. This is original works with a couple of remixes,
but my artist record follow up to Learning Curve comes out next year.
RS: The new tracks you made for the CD, were they done
specifically for the CD or was it tracks that you were playing out and
you wanted to put on a CD?
DJ Rap: I made all the tracks before I started playing it out. I
sat down and I was like OK, I've got three months and I'm going to
make this record. Then I played it out the music as soon as it was
finished. I only started touring it actually, last month.
RS: Making your tracks, I heard you've been having fun with Logic 7.0.
DJ Rap: Well that's all I use, only Logic, for years. They support
me, I support them, and I think Logic is a brilliant program. You know, I'm a huge fan of Native Instruments and of Stanton as well. The Stanton CD players - the 304s are amazing. What can I say, I love
them, they're fantastic! Apple rules.
RS: On Bulletproof, there's a remix you did of Ferry Corsten's
"Indigo." How did you hook up with Ferry?
DJ Rap: I went on tour with Ferry about two years ago for
Playstation. I did the dual Playstation tour and that's when I
started experimenting with house and different styles, because they
wanted me to play a different style of music, apart from drum and
bass, with Ferry. I was just totally up for it, because it's a great
opportunity to show my skills in other musical formats. Ferry and I
have been friends ever since, he's wonderful. I remixed Indigo
because I think it's a beautiful track and I thought it would be
amazing in a drum and bass style, keeping it true to the original.
