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Putting together a compilation

It was first time in many years that I've missed writing a month's diary that shows how busy I've been. It's only now, a day after the New Year, that the dust has settled and I've found a few moments to put pen to paper. 2008 has flown by, probably because everyday I open my eyes I have marathon days worth of work to get through. My solace time was always on plane journeys, but even then I was so tired I found it difficult to get motivated to do anything! It is for this reason why I've decided to take much of January and February off. I need time in the studio to finish off this much awaited artist album I've been talking about. Through last year I found myself skipping to pre-made parts from my other tracks in order to save a little time in the studio, and it was at that moment I decided to slow down at the start of 2009, as this is not what I'm about. I love experimenting when making music, making new sounds etc. But when I'm fighting a 2-day working week in the studio, this is impossible. I have many ideas bursting to come out of me, so this time off will allow my body to catch up and enjoy the time in the studio. To be honest I'm so excited!
Throughout November and December I put together my next Psy Trance Euphoria mix compilation for Ministry of Sound. I had the big guys breathing down my neck in order to meet deadlines, so things where a little more hectic than usual…hence why my diary is late! People presume it's really easy to put a compilation together, just bung your favourite tracks together and that's it! Uhhmm, I wish. I must say it's much easier today than it was many years ago. Things used to get muddled in political 'swaps' between the major labels. The pop compilations would want to use hit records from other major labels, so they may swap tracks (still with payment and contract). But if one label had a few hit records, they could set their own bargaining rules saying; 'you can use our num 1 hit track, as long as you take 4 or 5 others from our label group'. So this is where it got problematic for us guys further down in the specialist department. If I was compiling for a label on the other side of this deal, the label boss would say I HAVE to take 1 or two tracks from this other label in order to forfill their deal. I would be then shown a list of tracks that I have to choose from and nothing would fit into my set. This resulted in much time fighting my case to stay true to my sound, sometimes I lost and had to use the occasional track….now it's your job to look back and guess those tracks!!!
This compilation was a much easier to compile, luckily with none of those swap games going on. Most promos are uploaded directly to my server or via links. This is very convenient saving time, but becomes a nightmare trying to track down whom the music was made by or who owns it. Most files are not named correctly and have a simple working title or 'test' or even just have the title and that's it. The original email will be long gone as I get sent so many promos and probably didn't have to title on it anyway. Then comes the long winded task of finding out who made the track as I have to submit all information about the tracks to Ministry of sound in order for them to licence them because they need the contact info and the track title. Once the track is identified, it's the job of the record label to submit the correct title, credits and spelling of the artist name and title. This ensures everything is correct on the sleeve notes of the actual CD. If it were down to the DJ, everything would be wrong!
Putting down a mix for a compilation is completely different to mixing a DJ set. I believe there's an art to this. Playing to crowded dancefoor and getting their reaction steers you in a certain direction depending on their energy, but with a mix compilation you have to think of how people will be listening to this; at home, in their cars, iPods etc etc. So it's takes much preparation programming each disc and this is very time consuming. A single dummy run eats 78 minutes of time, so imagine doing this a few times when you've made a few changes. These dummy runs also give me an indication of how long the mix will run for. With my style of music most of the track are very long, on ave 7 – 9 mins, meaning I can only squeeze 12-14 tracks on each CD. I'm not a fan of mixes being edited down to size as I like the natural flow in the originals. But often labels will want as many tracks as possible to make it look like value for money to the consumer. I have no idea why some labels squeeze 22 + tracks on a single disc, all the original tracks have been butchered down to size, it's like a long melody mix!
Back in 2002 I got criticized for admitting I mixed my White label Euphoria using software, back then it was a huge step for me. Today it seems to have become the norm and accepted. We all know we can mix as DJ's, but software makes things so much convenient and saves me a bucket load of time. In the past if I made a little mistake in my mix, I'd have to start all over again. When you're fighting time you'd start to get really stressed and then wouldn't be in the right frame of mind near the end watching that clock because you need to catch a flight. In today's world, I can mix the compilation (I still do this in real time), and then I take the mix with me on the plane to tidy things up. You have to remember the computer doesn't actually mix the tracks together! The software simply holds things perfectly in time; this is only a tiny piece of the job in hand. The skill of a DJ is to make sure the mix starts and ends at the correct time. Make sure frequencies and keys don't clash etc. I look at mix compilations as a perfectly recorded album, as you would with any leading artist/bands album. Then I have 'live' recording that I air on my radio show recorded at a gig, or that surface from clubs/festivals that I've played at. It's the same story with bands too; they also put out 'Live' CD's or DVD's. I want the album version to sound perfect, each mix smooth and tight so that it sounds like one continuous track. When I DJ however, I want people to hear the impact of the next track, so it punches them into a frenzy, especially if it's a track they know.
I have to say, I think this Euphoria is one of the best albums I've put together for a long time, CD's 1 & 2 in particular. I had a plethora of awesome tracks to choose from, in fact too many! This put a HUGE smile on my face as I was putting it together, very satisfying for me as a DJ. Ministry of Sound work like a military operation, so release dates never move, so I can confidently say this will be released in February.
Diary
There's been a few standout moments of the past few weeks, the live 00.db sets being a couple. The most fun part watching my partner in crime, The Digital Blonde, overcome his fear of flying! I have to say he's done pretty well; we got him down to a gig in Manila, Philippines. It was a good 18-hour journey and he held up well. The gig was amazing, in a huge conference centre. The only downfall was technical problems with the sound system for the first hour of our set. A real shame because the volume dropped really low…but them it hit back and the crowd went crazy. I then played a DJ set after and got dragged to Dom's (Promoter) club called Warehouse. I haven't played an afterhours for many years, I was due to fly home later that morning but this didn't stop me playing until I got dragged away by Ricky! I loved every single minute of it as it reminded me why I was a DJ and bought back memories of the early days of the scene I loved and miss. I played the tracks I truly loved, those deep ones at the back of my CD wallet that never usually get touched, and the crowd in front of me where going crazy. I repeated the same thing the following week in Kiev. After playing a HUGE show for Cream, I ended up at an afterhours for a repeat session! This reminded me of when the UK scene was at it's height, I used to hold three afterhours residencies on Sundays in London, one of them being Sunnyside up. I used to travel up and down the motorways of the UK Friday & Saturday nights, then head straight to London for my first afterhours gig at 11am, then finish 8pm in the evening at the third club with no sleep! If I had a few dodgy gigs over the weekend I knew I could let it rip at my Sunday clubs, because these places allowed you to play anything you wanted, that's what the punters where after, they wanted to hear the true sound of the DJ. Dam, this makes me miss them even more talking about them, as these where the places you could experiment with new tracks you had just bought. Still in this frame of mind, myself and Digital Blonde headed to Goa, India for the amazing Sunburn festival…guess what, the same thing happened…I ended up at another afterhours! I think I needed this one because there where a few political issues on the night that resulted in the festival having to stop the music for a good hours, just as we started our set. In typical Indian fashion, things got resolved and the music was fired up again, unfortunately with only 30 minutes remaining. The guys at Sunburn worked very hard this year, extending things to a 3-day event, bloody amazing considering the recent events that happened in Mumbai. The Indian people needed this to help move on from those terrible atrocities.
2008 has been a great year for me, I seem to have found myself musically. The past few years have been pretty tuff, especially for myself who is musically different to most Trance guys out there. But I stick to my guns and stay true to what I believe in. I feel the time is right to release some of my own releases that I thought might not get understood in previous times. You're going to see many good things coming from the Fleming camp in 2009, starting with Euphoria and a while load of singles and EP's lined up. Oh and not forgetting the 00.db album with many new goodies on there. Here's a big cheers to everyone who supports me. Good luck to you all in 2009. ☺