RS: Going back to your own production, you have loads of tracks
you've done. When you're creating tracks, do you create them thinking
'I'm going to play this in the club tonight?' What's in your mind when
you're making music?
Steve Porter: That's a good question, because for this album I
actually got all of the tracks that I wanted to license for the CD in
beforehand and then went in to the studio and created the music to fit
the album itself. So for this particular project, that was the train
of thought. I actually went in and if I thought I wanted a breakbeat
tune in this particular area, I would construct that break beat tune
and I would even go to the point of making it in the same key as the
track that was going to be mixing out of it.
RS: What software are you using for this?
Steve Porter: I did it partly in ProTools and partly in Ableton. I
got the tracks arranged and mixed in Ableton and then I mastered it in
ProTools.
RS: What do you use to make tracks?
Steve Porter: Up until last Fall, I was using ProTools, and I just
recently switched to Ableton. I am traveling a lot and Ableton
offers a good solution for on the road production that ProTools hasn't
offered me.
RS: When you're spinning live are you spinning in Ableton or are
you spinning in CD?
Steve Porter: I haven't gone to a laptop yet because I haven't felt
comfortable with a laptop in the DJ booth. I still prefer to spin CDs.
RS: Do you think there'll ever be another Steve Porter artist album?
Steve Porter: l put out an artist album two years ago called
Homegrown. It was on Fade Records with mostly melodic/funky house and
it's mixed like a DJ compilation. That was a lot of fun. I think it
was the beginnings of what I'd like to do in the future. Most
definitely I'd like to put out an artist album along the lines of what
you see from the Chemical Brothers or Crystal Method since those are
the kind of artist albums that I really dig. I'll probably have one
more compilation after this and then I'll hit the album trail.
RS: What are you looking forward to in Miami this year?
Steve Porter: Miami's going to be a blast. I'm doing a party with
Bad Boy Bill and other DJs, and then Porterhouse on Thursday night.
I'm just focusing my energy the parties, just so I can keep up. I'm
going to leave Miami with a cracked head.
RS: Because of your style, do you get a lot of comparisons to
Bad Boy Bill?
Steve Porter: You know, it's funny – there are areas of the world
where I've noticed that Bad Boy Bill is very popular and I've played.
I was recently playing in Germany for a group of promoters and they
they let me know how much they loved Bad Boy Bill. I think that they
share a similar energy and a similar liking to a certain type of
energy in dance music. Bill definitely brings a very particularly
high energy to his sets, so I think there's a little bit of a
correlation. I have a lot of respect for Bill, he's been around a lot
longer than I have and I'm just kind of learning my wings right now.
RS: I was thinking more in the way that you mix so many tracks
in a short time period.
Steve Porter: Yes, I think Bill probably has a similar attention
deficit to my own. I haven't actually had a conversation with him
about it, but I would assume that he probably has a similar disorder
that I do in the sense that we like to keep things moving quickly and
probably don't want to get stuck into anything too repetitious for too
long.
RS: Anything you want to say to all your fans out there?
Steve Porter: Just thanks for the support and go out and get the
album. It should be available in most of your major music stores, the
Virgins and Sam Goodys. I hope to see you all in Miami.
Posted - March 12, 2007
