You may not be familiar with David May, but he is the producer behind some of the the worlds most international successful acts like Laura Branigan, Taylor Dayne and Katrina & the Waves.

David is now stepping into the spotlight, his first solo single ‘Superstar’  is currently at #35 on the Billboard Dance Chart, supported by PRO MOTION. It features the classic strings section from “The Last Time” by the Rolling Stones, also used in the 90′s by The Verve in their massive Indie hit “Bittersweet Symphony”

David took a little time to clue us in on how he’s making the transition from producer to artist, some of his favorite tracks and the all important future plans!

Check our interview with Moises Modesto who is featured on Superstar here

INTERVIEW

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You’re responsible for producing for internationally successful artists, such as Laura Branigan, Katrina and the Waves, and Taylor Dayne.  Do you have any interesting stories to tell about working with any of those?

I cannot tell you a story about Laura Branigan.  Of course there are some interesting stories, but, for example, Laura Branigan was hard work since she was a bit of a diva.  The best thing was, we produced her last single, which was released after she suddenly passed away, may she rest in peace.  For Katrina and the Waves, we’ve only made some remixes, and Katrina herself wasn’t involved in this production and we never had contact with her.

Let’s talk about your new single, “Superstar”.  What made you think of mixing in those classic strings from the Rolling Stones song with electro beats?

The electro dancing is a very big movement here in the European scene and the actual idea came from my manager and production partner, Sven Greiner, and together we thought this would be a cool idea, adding catchy vocals and sequencing them into driving electro beats for the 21^st century.  We made it for the European movement because here the electro scene is very big.  We played our first draft to Moises Modesto and Duane Harden and they instantly came up with the sunny vocals and the hook line.  After we heard this, we knew this was going to become a huge song.

Did you have any hesitation about using that sample?  Because I know it was used by The Verve’s track “Bittersweet Symphony”.  Did you have any hesitation about using something that was so well known for someone else who had sampled the song?

No, not at all.  After all, the original music was for the rocker generation, The Verve was for the 90’s pop-rock area, but our version is for today’s dance scene.  We all knew that this was going to become a huge combine, things we are listening to now with the old, original classic melodies.

I know you’ve been a producer for a long time now, so why did you decide that the time was now right to launch your solo career as the artist, rather than producer?

After all working in the background for such a long time, I felt that it was just time to go for it.  For example, Timbaland, he was also someone who was only in the background, now he started also to do his own projects and I think for any project I want to do in the future, it’s something about being famous.  We have so many productions here, starting from bands going to R&B and it makes it more fun to DJ and play your own tracks for crowds, for example, 4,000 people in Germany with the last gig

That must be a thrill to play your own music.  That’s cool.

Our production company, Panevino Village, we have 4 studios and we see so much different stuff, we have to push it, in every way.

Besides yourself, who do you think is an interesting artist or DJ on the scene right now?

Basically, I really admire David Guetta, because he managed to work with international top artists, such as Kylie or Akon.  It’s one of my dreams to be able to work with a high rated musician as well.

Did you have anybody in mind that you would like to work with sometime in the future?

I don’t know.  Basically, my career is starting now with “Superstar”.  We will see what will happen.  I have to take care of my career and after, we’ll have a look at what my management can do for me.  I really love the new record from Whitney Houston, it’s so great, I think it will be a very big hit.

What are your top 5 favorite tracks of all time?

There’s Massive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy”, I really love The Prodigy “No Good,” Fatboy Slim “Praise You”. There are so many  I really love hard rock, like some tracks from Metallica.  It doesn’t matter what style it is, there are so many great productions.  I think the best is  Massive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy.”  Their record I really love.  Forever.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

We’re gonna try to combine all different styles to make a lot of crossover.  We want to combine a lot of emotion and power together.  This should be the main idea of our future projects.

Superstar (Phonatic Tribal Extended Remix)

We just did a phone interview with Candice Alley, who woke up super early in Australia for us to chat! Candice tells us all about her feelings about being an independent artist, who she grew up listening to and why she would be Lady Gaga for a day!

PRO MOTION is shipping Candice’s next single ‘Before You Go’ with remixes by DeMarko to Billboard and Mix Show this week so look out for it! Here is a preview!

INTERVIEW

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BEFORE YOU GO (DEMARKO! RADIO MIX)

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Were you always interested in music?

Always. Music’s always been a big part of who I am, as I’m sure every artist can understand. Doing anything else is just not as rewarding or as fulfilling as writing and performing and it’s something I’ve done since I was very small. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

How did it feel to be nominated for an award with your first single “Falling” from the Australian Recording Industry?

That was a very special year for me and I also opened the show that year with “Falling” so that was definitely a definitive moment for me and great to get such recognition for a song by the nominating that year so that was definitely a highlight.

I’m sure that was quite the experience. You were very young then, weren’t you? Like 16?

I was. I think I was about 22 or 23.

So that was a pretty good first single then.

It was a great one.

I know that you’re now an independent artist, but you had been on a larger label before. How does being an independent artist compare to being on a larger label?

It certainly has it’s challenges on a marketing level, but you definitely get to steer things in the direction you want, as opposed to being guided by a record label, which gives you the freedom and complete control of who you are as an artist and I think that’s also important. It definitely has good and bad sides, but in the end, I think having creative control is extremely important, so, yeah, I think being independent is putting yourself in a great position also.

You write your own music and you play instruments. Do you ever feel as though that aspect of your performances are overlooked? Do you think that people just think of you as a singer rather than having the talent?

It can definitely be overlooked for artists, which is frustrating at times, but you just have to keep doing what you’re doing and eventually people will take notice and I think the most important thing as an artist is to keep writing and, of course, write your own material, if you can and eventually people should sit up because, I think, with songwriting, you’re really putting something out there that’s coming from an honest place and I think that’s important. Eventually, people come around but it can be overlooked at times.

When you write songs, where does the inspiration come from?

I’m not really sure. I mean, I’ve never forced myself to sit there and write a song, it usually happens on it’s own, but musically, I’m inspired by a lot of older artists that I grew up with listening to or my family was listening to, as opposed to current artists, which I’m sure a lot of other artists can understand and comprehend, as well.

Who were some of the artists that you grew up listening to?

Stuff like The Eagles and The [Rolling] Stones and Bob Dylan, old, classic people like that. Melodically, I think, that’s really going back to the roots of music and I think their songs are still great and that’s why they survive. I think that’s a huge inspiration for me.

Are you going to be working on a new album anytime soon or are you going to be focusing on family, with twins on the way?

I’m constantly writing and recording and I think my twins are going to give me a whole new chapter of writing material on the way, which is great. Through my pregnancy, they’ve been my captive audience at the moment. It’s very exciting.

What albums are you currently playing at the moment?

At the moment, I’ve been listening to everything from Lady GaGa to Wilco and then I’ll always go back to the old artists that I love, which I was saying before, and that’s basically where I get a lot of my writing inspiration from. I listen to a bit of everything, really. If you were to look at my music collection, you’d see a whole variety of things there.

If you could choose to be any other singer for a day, who would you be and why?

I’d probably have to say someone like Gwen Stefani or Lady GaGa because their videos look like they have a lot of fun, so I’d have to pick someone like that.

Thanks Candice!

Before You Go

On Saturday the PRO MOTION team was lucky enough to be able to attend the Smokey Robinson concert at A&E Recovery Rally. We were all excited to see this legend perform, and he certainly delivered. Many of these songs were written long before most of the team were even born, but the fact that we knew many of them, and enjoyed them all, is a testament to the spectacular and timeless body of work he has.

In addition to the old classics, Smokey also performed some new songs from his recently released album “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun,”which we here at PRO MOTION are thrilled to be involved in, providing remixes and promotion!  I particularly enjoyed his soulful rendition of Norah Jones’s classic song “I Don’t Know Why.”  Then after the performance we had the chance to meet and take professional pictures with the man himself, which was a great experience given that he was so nice!  We are yet to see them but hope they came out well!

Thanks to the A&E team and Smokey’s management for providing the team with an unforgettable experience!

I Don’t Know Why

Love to Infinity is a family affair! The remix and production team consists of Andy, Pete and Dave Lee. The brothers have been in the business for over twenty years and worked with some of the finest international talent including Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey and Gloria Estefan.They have just finished work on a remix of Radka’s “Hey Boy” for PRO MOTION that you’ll be hearing in full very soon!

We recently caught up with Andy who told us how they got their start with U.S. artists, about the experience of remixing Michael Jackson and their current collaborations with artists like Kristine W.

INTERVIEW

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RADKA HEY BOY (LOVE TO INFINITY RADIO MIX)

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MADONNA INTO THE GROOVE (LOVE TO INFINITY SPECIAL EDITION MIX)

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GLORIA ESTEFAN EVERLASTING LOVE (CLASSIC PARADISE MIX)

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What did you grow up listening to in the Lee household?

We had quite an eclectic mix of all different styles, from stuff like ABBA in the ‘70s and Bee Gees and things like that through to Van Halen and Human League. We’re always listening to sort of poppy things and stuff that was commercial. Anything that was in the Top 40, really. I used to listen to the Top 40 chart countdowns and things like that. I used to pay quite a lot of attention to what was going on at a young age, like 8, 9, 10. I think that’s how it all started out for us.

You’ve been in the business now for a long time (20 years, this year). Why do you think you’ve had such longevity in the business when there’s been so many changes and so many people have come and gone?

I think ultimately the bottom line is Pete and I are both musicians, so we both play everything. Every time we get a Love To Infinity mix, we don’t hire people into doing it, we literally play all the instruments ourselves- guitar, keyboard, bass, and all the drums and stuff. We’ve always been very versatile that way, so we’re not just doing one style and I think goes back to what we used to listen to as kids- we’d be listening to Van Halen one day and then Human League the next or Madonna or something like that in the early ‘80s. We were always into different styles. We’ve never really just done one style in Love To Infinity, we’ve always done dance-y stuff and then we’ve done pop stuff and then we’ve had quite a big career just doing radio mixes for record companies, whereas they’ve gotten a ____ “We just spent 8 months doing an album, we can’t find a single. Can you mix this to make it radio friendly?” We’ve always been quite versatile, so I think that’s why we’ve lasted; we’ve moved with the times and gone with what sounds commercial. And, also, the other thing is, we don’t actually DJ- Love To Infinity has never DJed- it’s just something we’ve never gotten into. A lot of the DJs have a particular sound that fits to them and what they play, whereas we don’t really have one sound, we do all sorts of different things. I think that’s probably why we’ve lasted. It could just be people like what we do, who knows?

How did you get your start working in America with U.S. artists?

Our first U.S. break came because I’d engineered a track by a band in the U.K. called SubSub called “Ain’t No Love, Ain’t No Use” and it was really big, it got to #2 and off the back of that, the singer, Melanie Williams, got signed to Sony and we ended up doing some of the mixes for her solo record. Because Sony network everything around global offices, the tracks ended up at Sony New York and Frank Cirillo, who was part of Epic at the time, picked up on it and so did Larry Flick at Billboard, because Larry was doing all the Billboard columns then, and between them they sort of collaborated together and said, “well, why don’t we get these English guys to have a go at doing Gloria Estefan?” This was in ’94. So I got a call from Frank Cirillo out of the blue, I’d never spoken to him before, basically saying, “We want you to do Gloria Estefan’s ‘Everlasting Love’”. And then Larry Flick phoned me up; I’d known him for a while before because he’d always written nice things about Love To Infinity in Billboard. Larry said “Oh, me and Frank have been having a chat and we think it would be great if you started doing some American things” and that’s really how it started. It was Larry Flick and Frank Cirillo who basically started us off and once we did one for Sony, it just turned into a snowball; we must have done about 50 records, me and Pete and David, over the years for Sony for everyone from Michael Jackson to Celine Dion, we’ve done loads and loads for them. That’s how it kind of started- it’s all down to Larry and Frank.

As you were just saying, you’ve remixed a bunch of very famous artists, like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey. Who were you most excited to work with?

We wanted to work with Madonna for ages. Love To Infinity has been managed by John Saunderson for 17 years; he’s now our publisher, actually, he works for our publishing company that we’re signed to, so we still we still work together but he’s now on the publishing side of things. John, basically pursued Madonna for us and got us the Madonna mix. That was really, really good that we got to do that. We’ve been huge Madonna fans since we were kids. The one that really stood out for us was the Michael Jackson one. When we got asked to do that, it was kind of surreal to be in our studio and hearing Michael coming out of the speakers. It was also a surreal experience because I’ve never heard somebody give such performance on the vocal tracks. When you’ve got a 2 inch multi-track, you can push all the faders off and solo things and when you listen to Michael’s vocal all the way through, you could hear his feet taping and making clicking noises with his fingers and slapping his thighs and what have you and you can just imagine him doing the whole performance down the microphone in the studio, he wasn’t just quietly doing it. There’s loads of ambient noise going on under the track. If you did them acapella, you’d be horrified at the noises underneath. But you could tell the guy was giving an amazing performance to get that vocal, he wasn’t just standing there and that really stood out for us. Again, that was another Sony track. We were all in tears the other month when he passed away. It was a sad time.

Did you ever get to meet any of the artists that you remix? Do you ever collaborate in the studio?

Yeah, we come over to the States quite regularly. A lot of the time, we’ll come over and record vocals with the artist and then we’ll bring all the files, or tapes as it used to be, back to the U.K. and we’ll finish the mix over here. So, yeah, we do end up meeting people and working with them. Although, some of them, we’ll do a succession of mixes for them- some artists like Gloria, we’ve done like 8 tracks for, or Atomic Kitten   we’ve done like 8 or 9 tracks for them over the years, so you end up building a relationship with the people and get to know them, so that’s good.

Do you ever get personal feedback from the artists?

Yeah, once you get to know them and you’ve worked with them, they’ll phone you up saying “Yeah, we really liked the mixes”. Again, going back to Michael Jackson, he sent us a load of bottles of champagne when we finished the mixes with a note saying “I love your mix guys. Thank you very much.” I got a knock on the door from the courier and this package arrived, so that was very nice.

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PRO MOTION was proud to be part of the Pet Shop Boys campaign for ‘Love Etc.’ – which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.  Billboard Magazine just released an article commending the boys for their success.  We are currently aiming for the same success for second single Did You See Me Coming.

TRANSCRIPT
SAYING YES TO LOVE
The Pet Shop Boys set a record for the most No. 1′s on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart among duos and groups as ‘Love Etc.’ hits the top slot.  It’s the veteran act’s ninth topper and first since ‘Break 4 Love’ reached No. 1 on the Nov 10, 2001 chart.  The group has been tied with Depeche Mode for the most No. 1′s among duos/groups.

During the Pet Shop Boys’ 20-plus years on the charts the act has notched 33 Hot dance Club Songs hits. The duo’s first, ‘West End Girls,’ debuted March 15h, 1986, and hit No. 1 May 3, 1986.

‘Love Etc.’ is the first single from the Pet Shop Boys’ 10th studio album, ‘Yes’ (Astralwerks). The set debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard 200 upon its April release, becoming the act’s highest-charting album since 1993′s ‘Very’ debuted and peaked at No. 20. — Keith Caulfield