Interview with Wayne Hunter aka DJ Smash


Q: Please tell me how you got involved in the Motown Remixed project and how you ended up remixing Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed & Delivered I'm Yours. Were you able to choose the song you wanted from Motown's back catalogue or did the label come up with the songs?

Wayne Hunter: I got involved through fellow remixer Paul Simpson (who remixed "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye) and Harry Weinger (A&R and producer of the project). Since I was one of the first to be invited to participate, luckily, this song had not been chosen by anyone else yet.

Q: What is your general opinion about a label doing a whole album of remixes of vintage songs like the Motown Remix or the Mayfield Remixed albums or the Verve Remixed series? While I can't argue with a good remix of an old song on a 12" single here and there, I'm usually not very fond of a whole album especially if it's released on a major label. For me this looks more like the label's executives finally have run out of ideas.

Wayne Hunter: I have mixed feelings about it. Obviously it is easier to take one song by an artist and really focus on making that the best it can be than it is to take a whole batch of classics and try to make them all good remixes. It really depends on what the real message and meaning is behind the project. Major labels always follow and eventually copy or buy out what the underground is doing, so they don't have many original ideas anyway. What they do have is catalog. Remember, Motown, Curtom (Mayfield's label) Verve and many others were independent labels back in their day but have been bought out buy the majors, so in a sense, this was 'independent' music (when it was made) it is just now percieved as 'major label' music since that's who owns it now.

Q: What is the difference for you between remixing a song that in its original version doesn't mean much to you and that's just a job from a record label and remixing a song you really love? Is there a different approach? Is the result recognizably different for you?

Wayne Hunter: Early in my career I decided that I would not remix or produce something I did not have a deep feeling for in it's original form. I may have done one or two projects that I did not like and realized too late that it was a mistake, so I made that one of my guiding policies. I have turned down more work than I have done, so that should tell you how serious I am about it. Sometimes it is harder to remix something you love because you want to preserve your original memory of it and you know you can't make the song better, but if it is already a classic, then you know that at least it will always be out there in the world and in people's minds (even after what you do to it is long forgotten) so I feel honored just to be able to contribute to enticing people to listen to an artist or song again in a different context.

Q: Which musicians has influenced you the most? Are there any artists you like to work with or particular songs you like to remix and why?

Wayne Hunter: My greatest influences are artist who shake things up and change how you view music (and the world). Stevie Wonder being at the top of my list, there are many others, to name a few, Prince, George Clinton,George Duke (who I recently remixed for Sony), Gamble & Huff, Michael McDonald, Kate Bush, Herbie Hancock, George Michael, Grand Master Flash, Rakim, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Airto, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Beck, Brenda Russell, Jazzanova, Lauryn Hill, Peter Gabriel...
I could go on and on. Obviously I love many styles of music and artists, although I don't think I can produce every kind of music I like. I do feel I could guide an artist to find a new style and have them discovered by a new or different audience than they are used to.

Q: You were one of the first ones (if not the first one) who came up with the phrase jazz not jazz in the early 90s. Please tell me what jazz not jazz meant to you back then?

Wayne Hunter: Well, yes I was the first person to coin that phrase as way of describing the music I was producing at the time. I wanted to have a built in description since the term "Acid jazz" to me provoked too much controversy, questions and unreliable answers. The main argument has always been "is that Jazz" or "what is jazz?" (also, the title of one of my first songs) or "that's not Jazz!" which was actually true in most cases. My point is that those perspectives can co-exists creatively and enhance one another. We proved that with Eightball, New Breed and Giant Step.

Q: You've released Phonography 1 and 2 on the Blue Note label. In Germany Blue Note/EMI is notorioius for releasing CDs with copy protection. This is a reason for me not to buy their releases anymore because I don't want a record label to tell me on which players (if on any one at all) I can hear the music that I have legally purchased plus I want to be able to convert them into ogg or mp3 files to listen to them on my digital audio player. What do you think of this development?

Wayne Hunter: I believe that because of rapid advances in technology, soon all distributed music will have to be "free" or given away with some other service or product. There is already so much "free" music out there. I can record from a variety of digital sources and never have to buy anything (if I am happy with the content provided) simply because the 'genie' is out of the bottle now. You can't show people how to have more control over their experience and then just take away that control because you are making less money from them. I think the subscription model will win out in the end.
Just like recording technology changed the value of music, music has changed the value of technology as well. Just under ten years ago we were happy with a $30- 50 Walkman, now everyone seems to need a $300 iPod just to hear the same music! Has the music gotten any better? So what if you can fit more music on it, you still have to buy more music to put on there (and have a computer to load it up with). Music has made these machines more valuable. Trying to "protect" it with more technology is a losing strategy

Q: More and more artists these days seems to be fed up with major labels and release their music on their own and sell their CDs online. Comparing an online shop like cdbaby with the releases of a major label I must admit that I'm much more impressed by what's available at cdbaby than what Sony/BMG, Universal, EMI or Warner release these days. For me it looks like major labels are no longer interested in artist development and it's hit or miss with the first single or album for an artist. What do you think of the state of the music industry today?

Wayne Hunter: Now artists have more control of their output than ever before. I always encourage up and coming artists I meet to be independent and not rely on the traditional system of exploitation (producers, distributors, record shops, magazines) not that you won't need any of those channels eventually, but you don't need them to turn your dream or idea into reality. You can have more of a voice and more choice to establish who you are as a creative person and who you are speaking to. It is up to artists to develop themselves and create their own audience. Most pop artists are very unhappy with how they are sold. It's the money that keeps them putting up with it.

Q: What projects, remixes and own production have you planned in the near future?

Wayne Hunter: More Motown remixes, a Motown Remixed European tour this fall with King Britt and myself, releases from my new weblabel BRAINWASH, and other soulful suprises.

For more infos visit djsmash.net.