DJ Ron Slomowicz: This is your first artist album - what inspired you to do a CD of original music?
Scumfrog: I've wanted to do this ever since I released my first vocal track "Learning To Fly" back in 2000 (and that wasn't even with my own vocals). It took this long because in 2000 no-one had heard of The Scumfrog, making an album slightly premature. In the following years I worked on establishing a profile, first as a remixer/DJ, then a s a producer/songwriter, and now I arrived at "Recording Artist;" a process we in AA used to refer to as "baby steps."
RS: The album is full of different vibes - tribal, prog, trance- and with a real rock feel throughout. In an era where DJs/producers are so pegged to one genre, how do you think people are going to respond to such variety?
Scumfrog: At a marketing level, people still need their genres and subgenres to successfully market their product, but at a consumer level I experience that people are becoming more open and even hungry for diversity. I see a lot of DJs switching from playing one particular sub-genre all night long to being more playful and mixing it up with winks to other styles. My album is all about that. So even though we may have a struggle branding the CD in one certain genre, most buyers - and, thank god, reviewers - so far have percieved it as refreshing.
RS: It's like you are giving dance a punk rock attitude. Did you play all the guitar on the album?
Scumfrog: Yes, I played all the instruments on the album. The guitar parts were definitely the most fun.
RS: And that is you singing through most of the album?
Scumfrog: Oh come on, can't you tell?
RS: I guess I should have expected that you were a singer after the "Love at First Sight" remix. Are you a trained vocalist?
Scumfrog: No, but my training as a producer tricks you into thinking that I might be.
RS: Do you find it more difficult to produce your own vocals as opposed to remixing someone else's voice?
Scumfrog: When I'm doing a remix of someone else's vocals, the vocals are the starting point around which I create a new track, and they usually need very little additional producing (other than editing). When I'm doing my own material I usually make the track first. When the track is done I think of the type of vocals that are needed to suit the track. If that type is in my range and style, I record it myself, if not, I pick up the phone. When I do it myself, sometimes it all just happens in one take ("Come On") and sometimes it takes my hours of overdubs to get it right ("Domino").
