A couple of months back MYT and Hello Demo partnered up and launched a remix contest, giving producers the chance to remix Buschwacka’s classic The Sound. What are the most important aspects that producers should keep in mind when remixing a track?

Making sure they are putting their own unique style onto the track they are remixing. This means carefully choosing which genre and type of track to remix in the first place, so be selective, and don’t be afraid to turn down a remix if you can’t hear how to do something interesting or unique with the original track. For me, I now will only consider remixes from outside of my genre, or time period, or have vocals.

This means I can either update a classic and put a modern twist on it, or put a track with no drums, or different drums, into more of a dance floor context. I rarely, if ever consider remixing tracks from my own genre now, as the remix process has become quite similar to the process of making original tracks, and I find it’s more difficult and not as rewarding to take a Melodic / Progressive track, and make another Melodic / Progressive remix of it. The original already does that pretty well, so why be repetitive?

How has Hello Demo changed your everyday workflow?

It makes the process of not only accepting music from our MYT AAA Members much easier, but it also makes promoting the MYT brand, and my own music and podcasts, much simpler through the use of Hello Demo profile. It’s saved me and the MYT team so much time, effort hassle and repeating work but having everything in one place.

What’s the ultimate production tip you give your students?

Deeply learn the rules and principles of music production and audio engineering, so you can then break every single one of them.

 A question that students should ask but never do?

How do I stop worrying about fitting into what I think the industry wants?

I see this time and again. For a maverick genre, that in the early years, was all about innovation and not fitting in at all, the biggest unconscious desire I see and hear from young artists is wanting to fit in, meet their imagined expectations of the industry, and simply, how to conform, how to fit in. The problem is, the really great artists all followed their own unique path and never really gave that much of a damn about whether or not they fit in – they just did what they were into, and followed their gut instincts. I feel dance music lost its way a little bit in recent years – we lost that ‘Punk’, DIY, ‘Fuck You’ ethos, and I for one feel like it needs to make a comeback right now.

Hello Demo is changing the way labels communicate with artists by making sure that feedback is always given on any music that they receive through the platform. What is the most common type of feedback you give on music that is sent to you?

That’s a bit of a difficult question to answer, as every track is so different, the needs of the track, the aims of the producer, their skill level etc. However, I do see some common themes. Mostly, its either tracks are too harsh in the midrange, or the low end needs better control – new producers especially get a bit over-excited when it comes to bass!

They are the most common aspects, and I’d advise any producers reading this getting similar feedback to listen back to their tracks on at least 3 different playback devices with different characteristics, in different environments. Everyone knows ’the car test’, and that’s still a great way, but don’t be afraid to listen on Bluetooth speakers, or even on crappy Apple in-ears or even laptop speakers. You’ll be surprised at what you discover and can learn.