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)