|
Proton Radio has been around for some time now and most of you are probably familiar with it. For those of you who do not know however, Proton Radio has become one of the premiere sites to find quality dance music of mostly the progressive nature. They broadcast live and pre-recorded shows featuring not only some of the hottest DJs, but also actively take time out to feature new artists and to showcase labels. Within the last year Proton also launched its own music label. Because of Proton’s established reputation, the label has already garnered a lot of attention, but in an effort to continue exposing new artists and promoting the label itself, Proton has been hosting remix contests every few months. The most recent contest was for the new Deepsky and Marc Mitchell track Lost in the Moment. "Peg City Allstars have created a superb reinterpretation that adds a gritty dancefloor edge to the original, with the on par production quality making them worthy winners of the remix contest"
— Simon Jones (Progressive-Sounds)
The winners for this contest were announced just a few weeks ago now. The news is still spreading around, but to be honest, our community here at Tastyfresh.com could not be happier. Three Christians, two who are active members here and one who seemingly disappeared years ago, made the announced list of winners and notable mentions. Our very own Joel Armstrong and his partner in crime Peter McCowan won the contest under the name Peg City All Stars. Gerwin Koudijs, probably best know around here for his remix work for Demulcent Records and the Osmotic CD series, received an honorable mention. Last but not least, His Boy Elroy aka Tim Holt got another honorable mention. You may remember Tim’s work from N*Soul Record’s Eclectica 2 and 3 Cell Records’ Tuned Samplers. There is nothing really significant about this except for the fact that to my knowledge, never have three Christians been picked out of the crowd for their interpretations of the same song. That said I am not at all surprised that these three artists accomplished what they did with this remix. Recently, I had the both the opportunity to sit down with these three and chat about their remixes and how they got started with music. TF: What excited you the most about Lost in the Moment? Joel: It’s a great tune. When I listened to all the remix samples I couldn’t believe how intricate they were. Gerwin: I was amazed by the variations in melody, sound and themes, which were in the original track. The sounds (and remix parts) are beautiful, sometimes cinematic. It was quite a challenge to pick up a theme (apart from the strings part) to base the remix on. Tim: This contest from Proton has had the highest profile original artists (Deepsky & Marc Mitchell), so that initially got me excited about this contest and Lost in the Moment.  TF: Did you ever think your remix got this far?
Joel: When Peter and I came up with our original ideas for the tune, we knew right away that we had something exciting. Our goal was to create something club friendly, current, and also something that showed respect to our dance roots. When we had finished the tune, we knew it was a great track, even if we didn’t win. But we did write to win and we are happy with the success. Gerwin: I really hoped I would be in the top 10 or so. But still was surprisedwhen I was! Tim: Honestly I was hoping for a win. I wasn't that surprised that my remix got notable mention, I felt it was better than my last one for Proton, which also received a notable mention. Fortunately I've done pretty well in remix contests so far (Wired Magazine, Magnatune, and now 2 Proton contests) so I tend to get high expectations for these things - even though I try not to. TF: What do you attribute to the success of your remix? Joel: I guess I sort of answered that in the last question. Music just seems like such a hit or miss situation half the time. After listening to many of the other entries and the extreme quality they show, I was excited there was that much competition to go up against. Gerwin: Not overusing the remix material, which was made available. Apart from the strings I hardly used the material I think. I also tried to locate the different themes in the track and use/interpret them in my remix. Tim: Well I hope it's because of the production quality, and the time and energy I put into it, but you should probably ask the Proton guys. Besides, I really do think that God had his hand in it too, as I keep feeling like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I kind of stop short at saying it's my destiny or "calling", but try as I might, I can't get electronic music out of my head and heart, and I suspect God has a lot to do with it.  TF: Did you run into any problems during the production of the remix?
Joel: Peter and I had to be careful not to stray too far with our original ideas, it was a remix after all and we wanted to pay as much tribute to the original as we could with out compromising our own creativity. Gerwin: The structure. It's always my biggest problem. I think it still lacks a good climax (but don't tell anyone!). Tim: Not really - I had some odd issues converting the files into Apple Loops (I use Logic to write and remix stuff), so I ended up settling on keeping the tempo the same as the original track. I think I've figured out now (after the thing was over) how to fix the loops, but it sounds good at the original tempo, so it's not a huge deal. TF: How long have you been producing? Joel: I guess I started messing around with demo software for production around 4 years ago. It’s only been inside the last 2 years that I’ve buckled down and truly attempted to get a good foothold on my hobby of choice. Gerwin: I think I was 13 years old or something when I made really awful music with trackers (Fasttracker 2 anyone?). Some years later I discovered Buzz and Psycle which got me into (virtual) synthesizers. These two programs (especially Psycle) have thought me a lot about sound design. When Reason came out I tried the demo and actually liked horizontal music programming. Since then I've been using it. When I'm limited by its functionality I rewire it into Ableton Live 5 (like I did for the remix). Tim: I've been doing some sort of electronic music for close to 9 years now. I wrote a lot in college, then kind of got away from it for a few years, and now I'm pursuing it full time.  TF: Why did you start producing dance music?
Joel: Honestly? Well, this might sound dumb but I started writing dance music because I was lonely. I was living in a new city and I didn’t have too many friends. I had my computer, music that I loved, and some free time. Gerwin: Because dance music was the kind of music I liked (I guess it was mainly eurodance back then, Dutch and cheese!). Besides that, making music always fascinated me, along with computers. Tim: Just because I love electronic music. I really can't put my finger on it, as I'm not a huge clubber or anything, but there's just something about it that I'm drawn to. From house or progressive breaks to IDM or just plain weirdness, I love it. I think the fact that as a baby my parents used to put me to sleep next to a running dishwasher may have something to do with it too. TF: How has your faith influenced your music? Joel: I don’t know how to answer that honestly. Well I guess God’s given me a gift to be creative and I’m trying not to let that go to waste. Gerwin: At the least my faith has given me doors and ways to expose my music.The other way around it has given me friends and opportunities that influenced my faith. Tim: Well, I think the biggest way it's influenced me is in how hard I work on it. I feel like the highest calling of any Christian who is an artist is to do stuff with excellence. I tend to really try to pour my emotions into my music, and that's probably a lot like what David did with the Psalms. They have a tremendous depth of emotion that I love, and I try to put that sort of depth into my music. TF: Thanks for your time guys. So, that’s it. You can grab Joel Armstrong’s and Peter McCowan’s Peg City All Stars remix from www.Beatport.com/proton. Both Gerwin’s and His Boy Elroy’s remixes are free downloads from Proton Radio’s website. Also, be sure to grab Joel's latest release on Proton called Serenity. It received an amazing 10 out of 10 from Progressive Sounds and is only available on Beatport.com. Related Links: |
