Interview with Producer Dave Newfeld (II)

The second part of my Dave Newfeld interview is here and here. In this part we talk about record producers (and engineers and mixers) - from Trevor Horn to Jam & Lewis to Mutt Lange to Phil Spector to Arthur Baker to Steve Albini etc. etc. etc.

Interview with Producer/Wedding DJ Dave Newfeld (I)

Dave Newfeld is a friend and mentor, a brilliant producer and musician (best known to the world, perhaps, as the man behind the board for Broken Social Scene's 2002 album, You Forgot It In People), an awesome wedding DJ, an electrifying personality, a speed-of-light talker -- an all-around inspiring dude with a mind I've been envious of since first meeting him in 1983, the year we both entered Ryerson's Radio & Television Arts program. I've been wanting for a few years now to bend Dave's ears for a podcast -- to try and capture, as it were, his unique perspective on pop music -- and I was finally able to get him to commit to an interrogation of his brain via a few rather lengthy phone conversations between Toronto and Trenton, Ontario, where Dave currently resides in a magnificent old church which he has converted into a recording studio and personal living quarters.

The first part of my interrogation deals with Dave's 20-year career as a DJ, during which time he provided party tunes at more than 800 wedding receptions and office parties, and played 500 nights at Toronto's not-particularly-legendary Dufferin Gate. In our chat, he delves into his personal aesthetic as a maestro of the dancefloor, revealing some of his favourite set lists ("I worked in a wunderbar era for pop DJs," he notes), and recollecting some particularly memorable gigs (some of which would not be out of place in a John Ford western). I knew Dave would have some great stories to tell about all this, and he certainly doesn't disappoint.

I've edited this discussion into two MP3 files -- click here and here to listen.

In the second part of my interview with Dave, we delve more specifically into issues of music production... stay tuned.

More Dave Newfeld online:

• Lengthy 2007 audio interview, conducted by by Bob Dobbs (about whom, more later)
  
  
• Plaza of the Mind interview (2007)
  
  
• Profile of Dave's Stars and Suns studio in Exclaim! (year unknown)

In Search of Digital Love

A 63-minute aural exploration of Daft Punk's 2001 masterpiece, "Digital Love." What started out as a simple idea for a podcast with a few interviews and a few music clips evolved into a pseudo-documentary, before finally taking shape as a sort of critical mashup. Give it a listen (though be forewarned: some of the mp3-derived sound quality is negligible-bordering-on-terrible... some of the messiness is deliberate too, of course). (Available as an MP3.)

Big thanks to the following participants -- these brave souls who followed my wacky (mostly indescribable, even to myself) hunch and made this entire operation feasible. (Not to mention a heck of a lot of fun to compile.)

INTERVIEWEES

Brian MacDonald

Michaelangelo Matos

Nate Patrin

READERS/TRANSLATORS

Geoffrey Baines

Phil Dellio

Jonathan Delvecchio (Ukranian/French)

Lindsey Donovan

Ahmed Egeh (Somali)

TRACKLIST (In order of appearance)
-Eric B & Rakim, "Paid in Full" (Coldcut remix)
-Elegants, Little Star"
-Madonna, "Nobody's Perfect"
-Miracle Fortress, "Digital Love" (cover)
-Musical Youth, "Pass the Dutchie"
-Mad Mix Mustang, "Is this Digital Love" (Bob Marley vs Daft Punk)
-Beastie Boys, "Hold It Now, Hit It"
-Algeronics remix of "Digital Love"
-Gattobus, "Digital Love" (cover)
-Alphabeat, "Digital Love" (cover)
-George Duke, "I Love You More"
-Grandmaster Flash, "Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel"
-Derek & the Dominoes, "Layla"
-The Orb, "Little Fluffy Clouds"
-Gary Wright, "Dream Weaver"
-Keri Chandler, "Digital Love Affair"
-Red Hot Disco Express LP (feat. Gino Soccio et al.)
-Pure Power! LP (feat. Sylvers et al.)
-Kraftwerk, "Ohm Sweet Ohm"
-ELO, "Strange Magic"
-Olivia Newton-John, "Magic"
-Pilot, "Magic"
-Heart, "Magic Man"
-10CC, "I'm Not in Love"
-Air, "Remember"
-CJ Connection, "Digital Love/September" (Daft Punk vs. EWF)
-Earth, Wind and Fire, "September"
-Schoolly-D, "Get Your Filas On"
-Sku, "Digital Love" (cover)
-DJ Shoe, "Digital mashup" (Fifth Dimension/Peter, Paul & Mary/Everly Brothers/Sugababes)
-Majors, "A Wonderful Dream"
-Mayhem, "Digital Love" (talkbox cover)
-Vocaleers, "Is it a Dream"
-Fred Astaire, "Dream Dancing"
-Drastic Harmonic Sessions, "Digital Love" (cover)
-Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder, "Together in Electric Dreams"
-Giorgio Moroder, "The Duel"
-Lali Puna, "Together in Electric Dreams"
-Hell Electric remix of "Digital Love"
-unknown [via Youtube], Daft Punk vs. Kylie Minogue ("Wow")
-Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star"
-Les 100 Plus Grands LP advertisement (feat. Village People)
-Steve Winwood, "The Finer Things"
-Shangri-Las, Give Him a Great Big Kiss"
-Zapp, "Computer Love"
-Supertramp, "Dreamer"
-Supertramp, "The Logical Song"
-- Piano breakdown mashup featuring: Hell Electric/Miracle Fortress/DJ Nicky T (DP vs. Sean Kingston)/Hatsune Miku Kagamine Rin/Drastic Harmonic Sessions/The Situationists
-Tommy Edwards, "It's All in the Game"
-Hall Starz, "Digital Love" (cover)
-Peter Frampton, "Do You Feel Like We Do"
-Daft Punk, "Robot Rock"
-Daft Punk, "Digital Love"

Turntable Cres

A storage space for audio (and occasional visual) content. Old & current interviews, mashups, podcasts, remixes, soundbites, radio shows, etc.