Masterclass – Remix Ethics Tips My Story

Under various aliases I’ve been producing music for 17 years – seven of them on a professional level. I’m currently working under the name of D. Ramirez and running my own record label, Vudu; I was previously one half of The Lisa Marie Experience and was responsible for over 60 mixes. And one thing I’ve learned is that before taking on a remix job, there are certain thorny issues to consider.

Remixing is definitely an art, but it also poses some moral questions. Should pop songs be made into credible dancefloor fillers? Should you really be dancing to Kylie in your local underground club? Should credible producers ‘sell their souls’ for money? Should you tell an A&R man who’s pushing for something that you know you shouldn’t do to stick it, or do you take the money and hope nobody notices? Each producer will have their own opinions.

I first started making music in my teens. At the time I was heavily influenced by synth-pop acts like Yazoo, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk and the Human League and that led me to purchase my first synthesizer, but it was when house music first appeared in the charts that I started to take serious notice. Tracks like ‘Jack Your Body’ and ‘Love Can’t Turn Around’ opened my ears, and I was hooked.

I started to work with a couple of local DJs. We came across an acapella of Sir James’ ‘Special’ on Strictly Rhythm, sampled a small section (sample time was very limited in those days), placed the sample over some drums, added some piano, brass and bass, and hey presto, we had a track! The track was renamed ‘Candlelight’ and we called ourselves Cordial. It was pressed onto vinyl and given out to DJs. The track’s success led to a record deal with 3 Beat in Liverpool. So the track which got me signed was essentially a remix – it was only because Strictly Rhythm agreed to let me use a sample of one of their tracks that I got that deal, which led me to where I am now.

The next remix (so to speak) came from when we were out buying records and came across a bootleg of old disco tracks featuring Musique’s ‘Keep on Jumping’. A few years earlier, Todd Terry had sampled a section of the same track and created one of the biggest underground records of all time. However, he’d only used a few stabs. I was working alongside Neil Hinde at the time and we both agreed that the track needed to be sampled and re-vamped, and thus was ‘Keep on Jumpin’’ re-born. We called ourselves The Lisa Marie Experience, because we’d used a large sample of a Michael Jackson record (he’d just married Lisa Marie Presley). ‘Keep On Jumpin’’ became a Top 5 hit and hence Neil and myself were to embark on a remixing career which went on for over four years, covering over 60 remixes, 40 of which were to go either into the Top 10 club or national charts.

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