George: That was actually really crazy because when we did the Tamperer remix we only were using decks more than we used CDs. We had this little acapella and I thought "God, how many miles has this record got to go" because obviously it's "Drop a House" and you've quite cleverly picked up it was the same sample for The Tamperer. Who'd have thought? I think the reason Tamperer was such a big hit wasn't necessarily because it was "Drop a House" but it had the big Jackson Five sample behind it which obviously made it a huge number one record. So I think that's why it worked, but who'd have thought one could have squeezed two big records out of one acapella line. It's quite amazing that sort of camp, girly, over the top vocal managed go get on to two massive records.
RS: Think of how many times Sweet Pussy Pauline's vocals have been used on dance records..
George: I know. A similar thing has just happened with the new George Michael single "Go to the City" which is using "Flawless" by The Ones. We remixed The Ones' song and now we've remixed George Michael's version. It's strange how records go around and come around, but that was another similar situation. When you listen to the album, there are a lot of ballads and all of a sudden track 8, you've got this virtual cover with him just jamming on top of it. I don't know where it came from but it's really working big time over here on the dance floors throughout and it was a pleasure and an honor to do the remix.
RS: This is also the second time you've worked with him, doing Outside a few years ago. When you go into the studio to remix a record, what role do you play and what role does your partner play?
George: We've been asked that question many times. We actually play equal roles, basically we sit there and there's usually one argument of the day as to what will happen but neither of us actually have one decisive rule as to what we do. We both finish it there from the beginning, we decide what is going to be the opening lyric, bassline, etc, We work along together and we've got to agree on the vocal arrangement, bassline and everything. Sometimes a bass line could take five minutes and sometimes I can take a couple of hours because it's just got to sit right. Recently we've been working with a live bass player, Matt Branson, to make really live funky bass sound, as opposed to just doing a bassline on a keyboard.
RS: I noticed how like your new Emma Bunton mix is a lot more on the funkier, jazzier side. Is that a new direction for you all?
George: The Emma Bunton record is actually quite Latino based. The song was quite difficult to do because you can't really make it sound really chunky and hard because of the style of the track. We are actually going much more funkier, about five or six of the things that you wouldn't have heard yet which we think are probably our best projects. We've just done the Stonebridge record "Put em High."
RS: Wow, I love that record. It was one of my favorites from WMC this year.
George: Yes, we did that about three or four months ago and it's just about to be pressed this week. There's already been vinyl copies out of the original mixes and we did a mix back in March because they were thinking of putting it out again in the summer and have a really, really big summer Ibiza anthem. We've done that and actually I think it's one of those records that just works like a treat so it just went down really well. There's another four of five things which when you hear them you'll get an idea of the real fat funky sound that we're going for. We've also just done a track with the Jerry Springer theme.
RS: The Opera thing I keep hearing about?
George: The opera thing, yes. There's a track called "I Just Want To Dance" and we've done a mix that minutes that starts with the orchestral overture and the acapella and then it kicks into the whole big funky thing. It's just getting promoed at the moment and it's been received really well. It is quite gay and camp. It's definitely the end of a night out kind of thing.
RS: Looking back on your history of remixes, does one record stand out as the most difficult remix to do?
Steven: Well, the Jerry Springer one was very complex because there was lots of strings and we chased the overture so we were actually mixing classical music and an acapella. Actually, it's kind of become a bit of an anthem particularly at the end of the night with the DJs. At a club the other week, I came out of a record into Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Our mix of Jerry Springer starts with this string overture so I played about three minutes of the Tchaikovsky thing and the crowd was going what the hell's going on and they were really jumping up and down. I mixed it into 'I just simply want to dance' and it blew the roof off. That record that was particularly complex because of the strings and scoring.