With mixshows on XM, Pulse 87, Music Choice, and iPartyRadio, Mike Rizzo's skills for finding and breaking dance records drive the energy of his mixes. In 2008, Mike has rebooted his career with a string of high profile remixes (Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Danity Kane, and Usher) and a new A&R position for startup label NY2London records. Who knows what's next for the family guy from Jersey?
DJ Ron Slomowicz: So Mike, I hear you're doing a whole reboot to the career, what's up?
Mike Rizzo: Just trying to make it happen again. It's not that I
took a complete hiatus but when my son was born three years ago, me
and the wife decided to spend quality time. Family is important so I
kept it going with some remixes and production but I definitely wanted
to spend some quality time with the family, but now I'm back fully in
the loop.
RS: Because you've done like three hundred mixes in the past two
weeks, right?
Mike Rizzo: It's been a good year, I have to say. It's definitely
been a quality year with Britney, Usher, and Danity Kane. First and
foremost, I want to say I have a very good team of people that I work
with and that's important, because I can't do it alone. I have a
great bunch of engineers from when I started with Josh Harris and
Robert Larow and now Mr. Mig and I can go on and on, but it takes a
team effort to make all those mixes happen and I want to make that
known.
RS: Which engineers are you working with now?
Mike Rizzo: I'm working still with Robert Larow from Orange Factory
but predominantly this year a lot of stuff with Mr. Mig. He's a
talented guy and he lives close to me in Philly, so it's therapeutic.
I take the ride up the Turnpike there from Jersey and I go down and I
work with him once or twice a week and it's been a pleasure.
RS: Are you still working with Chico from the Funk Generation?
Mike Rizzo: I haven't. We did a couple of things a couple of years
back but he's based in Pittsburgh. He was working there for a bit
with Big Management. He's a great guy and very talented but we just
did a couple of projects together, that's about it.
RS: So if it says Funk Generation, that's Mike Rizzo?
Mike Rizzo: Yes. To make things clear I kind of came up with that
name with the first Katharine McPhee mix that Chico and I did
together. I was brainstorming a cool for one of those cool for the
room names one night and came up with Funk Generation. I wanted to
carry that name because I like it so I tried to revamp and reinvent
myself and just using a different name for mixes this year, that's
all.
RS: When you collaborate with somebody in the studio what's your
role in the process and what do you actually do?
Mike Rizzo: Well I always wish that somebody could actually come in
and see how the process works. I bring my own loops and stuff in
there, and we start from scratch and vocal in with loops and a
bassline and I kind of play out of key. I'm not a musician so we kind
of work the vocal in with loops and drums I want and my own
percussion. I have my engineer or programmer lock that in and we just
go with the flow what I'm feeling that day in the studio, whether it's
a disco vibe, electronica, progressive, whatever I'm feeling kind of
with the original song we go with.
