Mike Dunn Interview
MIKE: It's definitely much easier. I can't be mad about it - you've got to move with the times. If we had stuff like this back then... I don't know if it would have been the same. I know how to go into an analog studio as well as a digital studio - most digital producers don't know how to go into an analog studio. I can work on the original Jupiters, the Junos, the Moogs, Eventides, 480s and two-inch tape machines. When you deal with the software studio, it's close but it's not the same.
I was on the phone with Terry Hunter the other day, and he's doing a track with Patrick Adams and we were talking about this. Patrick told him, if you've never worked on a Moog, you'll hear the software and say, "That's it." If you've worked on a Moog - you can't play the software. There's just no comparison. I prefer the older stuff but the recall on the stuff - I just don't have time for it. To write down the sound settings, load them back up, hope you wrote down the right sound - it's too much hassle, but worth it if you need the real deal.
It's just like when turntables became affordable - everyone became a DJ. Software and computers killed the business of the big studios. Just save up $3000 and you've got everyone saying they've got a studio.
5: What's your studio like now?
MIKE: At the crib, it's compact but still powerful. Tons of software, a few hardware pieces, I still have my 149 tube mic, Avalon 737, Mac Pro, Kontrol 49, Big Knob, Logic Pro 8, Pro Tools LE for editing and a few other pieces. For me, it gets things done more quickly now.
I try to keep the creativity there. I'm still trying to remain creative in what I'm doing in designing sounds. I try to tweak everything I touch and not use factory stock sounds. I have to touch every sound. It would have to be an incredible sound to use it right out of the box. I touch everything just until it's right, every single thing. This track I'm working on right now, producers wouldn't believe the plug-in I used to make the bass patch. It sounds so rich and fat! You'll spend thousands and thousands on new plug-ins and I found a cheap little $200 program to do it for me.
5: Some of those records, both your own and the ones you worked on with friends, are now classics. Do you think they would have come around if you had today's technology?
MIKE: That's what brought us so closely together back then. Everybody in some aspect needed each other. He had this, I had that... "Man, I know you've got an 808. Can I borrow it for a week?" It made you work more because you were trying to create as much as you could in the week that you had it.
5: How many hours of music do you think you have in your archives?
MIKE: Just stuff that I've done? Man, I've got a tremendously big box of DATs (digital audio tape). I told my mom, "God forbid, but if I leave this earth? All this equipment is worth nothing. This box right here? This is the money. What's on these DAT tapes are the money."
I do so many now that I lost track. The thing about the technology now is that you become somewhat unfocused because you're able to do something, take it down, work on something else. Just with my House stuff, let me click on my folder... I have 194 tracks! Out of 194, probably 20 of those are ready to go to record. The rest of them, I'll go back when I get writer's block and start pulling out stuff... "Okay, that's alright, let me take this and re-work it." For me, it has become too easy. It's fun, don't get me wrong. It's a new love. I guess I can call myself one of the older cats now, and it brings excitement back to making music, like having new toys that you just want to sit there and play with all day.
5: You did Dance Mutha Records, Muzique... were there any other labels you did?
MIKE: I also did Warehouse Records - that was Armando's label but I helped a lot. He needed help and I was there for him, the same as he was for me. We worked it out so Dance Mutha was mine, Warehouse was his, and Muzique was ours.
5: There's really no overhead to starting a label if you wanted to bypass vinyl or use it for promo rather than for sale. Do you think you'll get back into that game?
MIKE: Oh yeah, that's coming. I was talking the other day with Roy Davis, Jr. - we're getting ready to do a record together and he was asking me about that. What I need to do now is just focus on getting my name back out there. So I've been working a lot on other people's labels - RobSoul, Defected, T's Box...
What happened is I got in touch with Traxsource.com awhile ago, and I was going to do it but then I looked on Traxsource and saw like 17,000 labels! I'm thinking, I'll get lost in the storm unless big records come out with the other stuff I'm doing and people start looking for it. When you get on Traxsource, you're basically looking for what you already know - DopeWax, Vega, Defected, Strictly... you know what I'm saying? You have your picks that you're looking for first. Then you might back up and look through the top 10 downloads and check some new stuff out. You have your faves but you might luck up with something you've never heard of before. You're taking a chance.
Three and a half years ago, it was really exclusive stuff. Now it's wide open and loaded with labels. You'll get lost in the storm unless you have big name friends, DJs who play it and tell other people what it is. Fortunately I do have those resources.
What was crazy was that Tuesday I was spinning at the Reynolds and Ron Carroll came in. He's like, "Man, I was in Amsterdam, they're beatin' this track of yours and I've got to have it." Guess what track it was? "The Boy Beats on His Drum!"
5: The one we had on our Miami sampler! Did you put that out anywhere else?
MIKE: Yeah, the same song, and no, it's just on the sampler. They had to get it from the Winter Music Conference and brought it back home. Ron's telling me and I'm like, damn, Amsterdam? He's like, "These guys are going crazy, I need to have this track!" That goes to show you how fast this travels now. My wifey, Patricia, loves that track. She's more into the old school, soul, R+B, classics and all of that. She listens to some of the new House stuff - she loves the Nathalie Cole remix.
5: Are you going to put it out?
MIKE: Yeah, somebody will play it and they'll call or they'll call you and you'll call me. We'll just let it grow legs on its own.
5: While we're talking about tracks, I know there's a story behind why you never released "Phreaky MF". It was one of the biggest tracks for a couple of years - why was it never released on its own?
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