GTA: You’re known for editing and splicing a lot of popular and classic house music tunes to suit the needs of your own DJ sets and style. For example, the “Plastic Dreams” edit that you have at the ends of this Lights Out CD. How did that start? When did you fall into this whole idea of editing tracks to suit your own particular needs?
SL: Very good question. It started very simply for me, which was—basically, I’d get a record through the post and I’d listen to it and I’d think, “This sounds great!” And then some horrible break would kick in that I couldn’t stand and then the break would go and the track would come back in and it’d be great again! And I’d think, “I really want to play this record, but I don’t want to play that break.” So I just started loading them into the computer, cutting the break—literally with a pair of scissors on Logic, cut the break out—ditch it in the bin, stick it back together, burn it onto CD and play that. So I could then play it without the break. That’s how re-editing started for me. It became a bit of an obsession. I ended up re-editing half the records that I was playing in a club! And then it would go from cut the break out. And then I’d like, you know, “Well I’m going to add this a cappella and then add this bass line,” and before you know it, I was half remixing half the records I got! And it really upset my management because they were saying, “We went you to write some new material! We want you to do some remixes, and you’re spending all your time in the studio re-editing all these singles and you’re wasting valuable talent here! You should be remixing this, that and the other!” And, like, sometimes, maybe it’s a mistake, but I don’t do things for money, I don’t do it as a business; I just do it because I want to do it for me. I love music. So it wasn’t exactly great for my management, because I was spending four days a week in the studio just re-editing tracks! It became a bit of an obsession. I’ve let it go a little bit now. I’ve just sort of—I do dig out the occasional old record, like you said, and think, “I want to play this again.” There are two old records that I’ve recently done: One is “Get Your Hands Off My Man” by Junior Vasquez.
GTA: Oh yeah!
SL: And that’s sounds great. I can’t wait to play that tonight. It was one of my favorite records from the time it appeared, so I’ve just really beefed it up again. And also Marshall Jefferson, “Move Your Body.”
GTA: Of course!
SL: That piano stab in that is just fantastic! I’ve put loads of effects on it and put a big kick behind the kick drum! So yeah, I mean, I’m still doing some re-edits, but I’m trying to calm it down little bit.
GTA: You say your management wasn’t too thrilled with this, but while maybe it might not have made you a ton of money, it certainly helped your career.
SL: Yeah. I think so, yeah.
GTA: Because it did put a stamp on your DJ sets, right? I’m sure people were coming up to you screaming, wondering what that new mix was?
SL: Yeah, many times! I mean, I just hope that it hasn’t upset the original writers of the singles. Especially with the Lights Out 1 album. Most of the tracks on there were changed in some way or another, and I just hope that it doesn’t actually upset the original writer of the track, because I don’t do it to—I just want to make it a little bit more unique and make it fit into what I’m doing a bit more.
GTA: Do you think more DJs should do that? Be a little more hands-on in the kind of music that they play, that they edit?
SL: Yeah. I just think that, you know, it depends on how passionate you are about something. It depends how much you want do it. I only did the re-edits because I wanted to, and throughout doing the re-edits I realized that it made my set a little bit more unique. And then, as I said, I got into the whole obsession with doing it. I was thinking, “I’m going to make my set tonight three hours and it’s going to be two hours of stuff that they’re never going to hear ever again!” And that was a bit obsessive.
GTA: A bit?
SL: Just a bit! Yeah! [Laughs.]
GTA: You just said you hope that no DJs or producers ever come to you and say that they’re disappointed that you changed their work. But have any DJs or producers come to you and said that they loved what you did? That what you did blew their mind?
SL: Yeah, some have. Yeah. Luckily no one has come to me saying they don’t like it, but a couple have come along and said they’ve liked what I’ve done.
