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INTERVIEW: Amanda Lepore

Transsexual sex symbol, movie star, and singer ? well that could really only describe one person, the fabulous Amanda Lepore. You’ve definitely seen her ? as the cover girl for MAC cosmetics, on Swatch watches, in countless fashion ads, hosting events around the world, and the infamous “Sunglasses at Night” video for Tiga. Working with producers Fatal Art Syndicate, Cazwell, and Larry Tee, she has compiled a remix EP as a teaser for her upcoming artist album. Warning: the electro is as sexy and spicy as she is.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: Well, first I want to tell you that you’re absolutely beautiful, as is your voice.
Amanda Lepore: Oh thanks.

RS: How did you decide to become a singer?
Amanda Lepore: I was asked to go out a lot and make appearances and I always that I could do more. I’ve always had an interest in it and now I can really entertain a crowd.

RS: When you host an event, what you do on stage as a host?
Amanda Lepore: I’m just asked to do different things. I’ll help out if people are having birthdays or whatever, if I am in New York, I just hang out. I get drinks and invite my friends and dance.

RS: That sounds really cool.
Amanda Lepore: I have responsibilities. With the Sunday Party, I do a lot of contact with Cazwell, but usually I don’t have any responsibilities in New York.

RS: How did you meet up with Cazwell?
Amanda Lepore: He was just in the same scene as me. I would hire him for my birthday parties. It was a Larry Tee kind of thing. I used to always hire him for my birthday parties, to perform and that’s how we became friends.

RS: Larry Tee wrote “My Pussy” for you. What was it like, the first time you heard the song?
Amanda Lepore: I thought it was kind of easy and funny and everything. It came out good with really good beats. People really liked it.

RS: What about Larry Tee’s music attracts you to him?
Amanda Lepore: I like everything that he does. He is really good, really professional and good at what he does. He’s been doing it for years.

RS: Is electro you favorite kind of dance music?
Amanda Lepore: I like it ? it’s definitely robotic and dancey, and kind of fun.

RS: I hear Perez Hilton had some fun with the song also. Are you friends with Perez?
Amanda Lepore: Yes and that was really flattering. Larry played it for me. Plus, I did “Another Gay Sequel” and he wrote a really funny song for that, too. It was really funny, really campy.

RS: Awesome. You also did a cover of the Waitresses song “I Know What Boys Like.” How did that come about?
Amanda Lepore: The people that I worked with producing “My Hair Looks Fierce” and “Champagne,” knew the girl that was in the Waitresses, so they got the rights to do it. I always liked the song, so I said that would be great. They had this thing on a Friday night, a bling party, that I did. It was a live band, and I did that song and people liked it so much that they remembered it, so they thought that I should do a cover of it.

RS: Very cool. Your EP that’s out right now, there’s lots of remixes. What’s your favorite remix of one of your songs?
Amanda Lepore: I like the originals more than the remixes.

RS: You also have an album coming out soon. What should we look forward to on the album?
Amanda Lepore: Well, we tried to make each song a different style. We took at lot of time for each individual song ? they were all really good songs.

RS: You also are coming up in a movie, too. Tell us about that.
Amanda Lepore: Yes, I have a role in Another Gay Sequel as a transsexual airline stewardess.

RS:What’s it like, being on the big screen? Have you seen yourself in a movie before?
Amanda Lepore: I didn’t see it, but I saw myself on the big screen when I was at the Maxwell. They have a big screen computer, and I saw myself on a light ball coming out of the spaceship. It was good. So if the big screen movie is anything close to that, I’ll look great. (laughing)

RS: Well, you look great everywhere you go. How much time does it take for you to put together your look each day?
Amanda Lepore: Well, for the daytime looks, I get ready really fast. Sometimes I won’t take a shower, or I’ll take a quick shower, but usually at night, I like to really pamper myself. I spend an average of three or four hours. Three hours minimum, usually. But that’s washing your hair and conditioning it and putting it up in a style and doing everything. I really like to take a bath, and use this skin care stuff, and all that kind of thing. I’m really girly.

RS: Is Mac your favorite makeup?
Amanda Lepore: I’ve liked MAC makeup forever. I think that they make the best eyelash options of anyone.

RS: I also see you do a lot of work with Heatherette. What about their fashion inspires you?
Amanda Lepore: I like a lot of the flashy stuff they’ve put together. I love the rhinestones and feathers and all that.

RS: You were in the video of Tiga’s “Sunglasses At Night.” How did he approach you to be in that video?
Amanda Lepore: Hal from Gigolo Records. I used to work at Patricia Fields and he saw me modeling ties. I would wear them in different ways ? across the breast and various ways that you could wear them. So he asked me to be the spokesperson for Gigolo Records, and then shortly after that, he flew me to Berlin to do that video.

RS: In addition to being in videos, your face has been on all kinds of products. Swatches. Dolls. Do you have your own doll in your room?
Amanda Lepore: No. I had all three of them, but I gave them away to hairdressers that did my hair for free for years. I don’t really have that much stuff around my house, and usually anything with me on it, I give away to friends. I have everything but myself around my house.

RS: And do you still live in the hotel?
Amanda Lepore: Yes. I have a really cheap rent, so it lets me buy all the shoes and clothes I want.

RS: . There’s also the Swatch with you on it. How did that come about?
Amanda Lepore: That was when David LaChapelle lived in New York. He came up with the idea. When he was asked to do the David LaChapelle Swatch, he decided to do me all over it, and it was called Trannie Time.

RS: Are you friends with Christian Siriano?
Amanda Lepore: I see him around in the clubs.

RS: . He made a quote about how straight people have white trash and trailer parks, and the gay people have drag queens and trannies. Did you hear about this?
Amanda Lepore: Yes, the ‘tranny messes’ and all that.

RS: Yes. How do you respond to Christian’s use of the word ‘tranny mess’ and everything?
Amanda Lepore: I don’t know. I’m probably like the other end of the chain because I’m always really meticulous and together. I don’t know what to say to it.

RS: What advice would you give for inspiring trannies and drag queens out there?
Amanda Lepore: I think to have fun with everything, and not taking everything too seriously. You can make a career out of being yourself, you just have to enjoy what you’re doing.

Posted June 16, 2008

INTERVIEW: Blake Lewis (2008)

You may know him as Blake Lewis from American Idol, but followers of underground dance music know him as B-Shorty, the beatboxing host of Seattle nightclubs who has performed with everyone from BT to Crystal Method. His new EP, How Many Words, features dance remixes by DJ Dan, Dave Aude, and Jake Benson. A fan of glitchy noise and IDM, you can hear more work from Blake as B-Shorty on KJ Sawka’s drum and bass CD Cyclonic Steel and BT’s upcoming album.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: Congratulations on this hot new EP “How Many Words”
Blake Lewis: Thanks.

RS: Were you involved with choosing the remixes for it?
Blake Lewis: Oh yes, definitely. I reached out to Dave Aude and DJ Dan, I’ve known them for quite some time now.

RS: How did you meet up with those guys?
Blake Lewis: I’ve been doing electronic music for such a long time – going to raves, hosting parties and beatboxing. I met Dan like four years ago and we were instant homies. I would always scratch over one of his records or I would hype the crowd and throw one of his shows when he came back to Seattle. The same with Donald Glaude. I met Dave Aude through Dan and that was right before American Idol, and we just hit it off. I’m such a fan of both of them, that it was just kind of a no-brainer. I called them instantly as soon as I got the approval that I could get some remixes out there. All I listen to is electronic music. I listen to everything else too but I’m constantly banging beats at home and producing with my drummer KJ Sawka, who’s an amazing drum and bass producer.

RS: How did you meet Jake Benson?
Blake Lewis: I met Jake at that Winter Music Conference and he did a really nice sound – a vibey trancey track. It’s really cool to see the interpretation. I talked to Dan and I was like Dan, just do what you do, don’t even, like, put my vocal in it, maybe just a hint of it, but just to glitch it out and do something underground. His basslines are always just strict and thick, I’m such a huge fan.

RS: Very cool. It’s interesting that your vocals are on the KJ Sawka album and I would guess at American Idol they have you signed to some blood contract where you can’t really do outside projects. How do you get clearance to be on the KJ Sawka CD?
Blake Lewis: Well, we just didn’t care, we just put it out and I told them to. I was on the show and I was like put it out, put it out, I don’t care. To the American Idol people, as long as I’m not selling like a hundred million copies it really doesn’t matter. It’s drum and bass and breakbeat with a reggae influence, I don’t think they even noticed, honestly.

RS: Coming from the electronic music background, what was the American Idol experience like?
Blake Lewis: The American Idol experience, to me, was a remix project. I mean I’m not scared of going on stage and performing, that was the easy part. To me it was like OK, I’ve never really done covers before, how can I tweak these out to my liking. So to me the challenge was OK, this is a remix competition, and basically I just put everything into Ableton Live and put new beats to it and samples and loops and took the the original and fixed it down, fixed it up, time scratched it, and tweaked it out. Then I basically set up a studio in my apartment and/or hotel, wherever we were at with two little M-audio monitors, a little MIDI keyboard and my laptop and just went to town when it was supposed to be. It was good for me because I did my homework at night so when I had to go to the arranging days, I just skateboarded all day. I put my iPod on and listened to my track that I did and that’s how I rehearsed, I was just on a skateboard just listening to the remix I did.

RS: What’s your take on the remixes of Jordan Sparks’ “No Air?”
Blake Lewis: No, I haven’t even heard them. Are they any good?

RS: Benny Benassi did a really sick mix of it. So, how did you hook up with BT?
Blake Lewis: BT and I go way back actually, I know him the longest out of everybody. I met him in 2000 on his Never Gonna Come Back Down tour, the second day before they were done in Seattle. I’ve been a big fan since ’95 when Blue Skies came out. I’ve been listening to electronic music since probably like ’91, dance music in general back in the day with Crystal Waters, Haddaway, and La Bouche. Then I heard Orbital and from then on it was BT. I went to Europe when I was thirteen in the eighth grade and I spent I don’t know how much money on just LPs. Blue Skies kind of changed my outlook on vocals because as a beat box and a vocalist, I love just sounds and glitched-out noises. I heard Blue Skies and BT’s vocal production and how he just twists it up. People are still boggled by his production skills – listening to stuff that was done eight years ago and that’s just like new to them now which is great. I met him just for a second in 2000 and I was such a huge fan. Then in 2003 or 2004 I actually got the chance to open for him with my loop-based set, with all my loop pedals, and so I do basically a vocal electronic show. Like I’ll do like sh-bo-sh-bo-sh-bo, loop it and then I’ll do a bass line, and then a three-harmony, and then maybe a trancey line. Then with all my samples and chaos pads that I wear on my body, I opened for him. America knows me as Blake Lewis because of American Idol, otherwise B-Shorty is what I am known as in Seattle for the work I’ve done with various artists. That night performing with BT was where the connection was really made, just when he actually saw me performing, he was just like ‘I’ve got to work with you.’ I got the phone call from BT actually a couple of days after the finale when I got second place. He had no idea I was on American Idol. He called me and was like ‘yo dude, I want you to get on my album.’ I was like ‘man, I’m getting signed and I just got second place on American Idol’ and I’m like ‘let’s do this.’ And so “She’s Making Me Lose It” was more out of that and he wanted to work with me because of one of my songs called “She Loves The Way,” which is on my MySpace. If you want to check it out it’s on my loop-based stuff. That’s how that relationship was born. I opened for him at a club called The Element where I was the host and I’d beatbox for everyone. A lot of people don’t know but I named Hybrid’s last record. They chose my name, I Choose Noise, Hybrid’s last record is my title.

RS: Wow, I didn’t know that.
Blake Lewis: It’s just so amazing to work with these people because they’re huge to me. I mean BT alone is one of my biggest musical influences, with soundscapes and the way I perceive vocals. It’s electronic music in general but it’s his records and his concepts and song melodies and vocal arranging. Which is great because now we’re great friends, I just actually left his house for five days, I just actually got in to New York, I was with him and we just wrote a song for his record and it sounds tight. His new record is just going to be genius.

RS: I also hear that you’re a big fan of Erasure.
Blake Lewis: Oh man, Andy Bell. I was going to sing “Chains of Love” on the show but I opted to go with The Cure. I love the sound of 80s music in general and that was the whole concept for my record, is kind of like a 2000 and 80s mashup with a little funk soul in there as well. I loved everything from the 80s. I just got Dave Gahan’s last record and it’s fricking amazing.

RS: Was this year your first time at the Winter Music Conference?
Blake Lewis: Yes, it was, you don’t know how excited I was. I’ve I wanted to go for ten years but I’m just a broke-ass musician from Seattle, beatboxing. I could never afford to like go to Florida and didn’t even have a booking agent to book. I didn’t know what to do down there and KJ is my roommate and I was like ‘dude, guess what, I get to open IDMA,’ and I was so stoked and it was crazy.

RS: Well you worked with BT, is there anyone you’d like to work with that you’ve not worked with yet?
Blake Lewis: Oh man, there’s a thousand others. I’d love to work with EdiT and Richard Divine. I’m really into IDM and people that really take noise seriously, the beauty of the dirty and the funky. I’d love to work with Jamie Lidell as a singer songwriter and he’s an amazing electronic producer. God, there’s so many! I mean as far as electronic, I talked to Crystal Method a long time ago because I’ve played with them a couple of times and they watched the show and they were like ‘dude, we voted for you the whole time.’ I gave them a copy of my accapella ProTools session for “How Many Words,” so maybe they’ll get on that. Definitely, you know, Hybrid as well, I talked to them and they owe me a remix because of like when they took my title they were like ‘we owe you a track.’ There’s so many people and I could work with any electronic producer just making beats and have a good time.

RS: Do you think as an American Idol you’ll be able to get more of the next generation in to electronic dance music?
Blake Lewis: I don’t know, I tried to promote it as much as could on the show. American Idol is definitely more of an incentive for people to work with me just because everyone knows who I am. But the fact that they enjoy my music and they believe in it is the main reason why I’ve been working with these people. I’m actually working with Darude for what might become the Dance For Life track.

RS: You mentioned before how the BT was a breakthrough artist for you. If you had to give ever kid who watched American Idol one CD to get them in to dance music, what CD would it be?
Blake Lewis: Probably Movements in Still Life. It really opened my eyes to so many different things and there’s so many different tracks on it. That’s why I enjoy BT so much because he’s so good at trance but he’s so good just in general, his production is so good. The European or Japanese version of Movements in Still Life has this track with Paul Van Dyk (Namaste) and Mike Truman of Hybrid (Running Down the Way Up.) The breakdown on Hip-Hop Phenomenon changed my idea of what I could do live with my voice and I studied that track.

RS: How much pressure was there on you to make the album more pop and less electronic dance?
Blake Lewis: There wasn’t really pressure. I definitely wanted to work with BT a little bit more but we’re doing that already regardless, so I kind of wanted him as the executive producer of the project and the label wasn’t having. I couldn’t get exactly everything what I wanted to do but I got eighty percent of my ideas out on this record. Definitely the more danceable tracks are more of my favorite, the more electro tracks like my single How Many Words, gets compared to Andy Bell which is great. That’s very flattering.

RS: Are you a dance artist?
Blake Lewis: I would like to say yes, I definitely am a dance artist.

RS: Very cool. You mentioned M-Audio a bunch of times, are they sponsoring you yet?
Blake Lewis: No, I want to talk to them though. I mean I’ll definitely talk to them, I have contacts. I went to the Remix Hotel down in Miami and I met a bunch of people and developed a lot of relationships when I was down there, which is great. I just set up my studio finally back again and I just bought some M-audio stuff, so.

RS: What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Blake Lewis: Oh man, to everyone out there, just thank you for the support. That’s like the first thing and that amazing, thank you for the belief in my music. The fact that they enjoy it and love it as much as I do, means a lot to me. People out there that enjoy making sound and want to make sound in this area, I want to thank you for listening to my noise.

Interview conducted May 2008.

INTERVIEW: The Shapeshifters (2008)

The Shapeshifters, or Shape:UK as they are known in the US, broke out onto international scene with “Lola’s Theme,” one of those rare club records that enter the mainstream consciousness yet stays true to the club roots. A string of commercial hits followed ? Back to Basics, Incredible, and Sensitivity for major label EMI. The duo, Max Reich and Simon Marlin, have gone back to their underground and noctural roots and signed to house heavyweight Defected Records for their future releases. Watch out for their Treadstone EP and a mixed compilation in the near future.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: Max and Simon, of the Shapeshifters, how did the two of you meet?
Max Reich: We met up in Sweden about twelve years ago, in Gothenburg, my home town, and there, through a mutual friend, we were introduced. Simon was working at an independent label looking for new artists, and I gave him a cassette with hot stuff, so there you go.
Simon Marlin: Yes, as Max said, I was signing stuff and he gave me a cassette. That shows how long ago that was. And two weeks later, I signed him to the label. I was working, at the time, for Down Boy, and then we went on to work together at Sony. We signed the Aquafused project that was part of Sony, and then we basically have been working together ever since. I worked at Peppermint Jam for a while, and then we decided to do it ourselves. We set up Noctunal Groove with my wife Lola, and the first record we released was “Lola’s Theme.”

RS: Where did the inspiration to use that sample come from?
Max Reich: Well, it’s Johnnie Taylor’s What About My Love, an old record that Lola had in her record collection, an 80s record.
Simon Marlin: We were basically listening to old records one night and it was one of those things, the timing just worked out. I heard the first eight bars of What About My Love, and I put it on plus six and thought, ‘oh this might work.’ I said to Max the next day, ‘let’s do this,’ and three days later we pretty much had the record finished.

RS: Did you guys have any idea the record would become as big as it did?
Max Reich: Yes, we did actually. We knew it was going to be number one and knew it was going to sell half a million records, that’s it.
Simon Marlin: You know, we knew it was going to be the most bootlegged record in years and be on five hundred compilations. No, we had no idea, that’s the honest answer.

RS: How do you follow up a single like that?
Simon Marlin: Just be true to yourself. You just do what you do. That’s such a big thing ? you just have to keep carrying on making records. The thing for us now is that we just want to keep making records for the dance floor, and if they become bigger records, then so be it.

RS: A lot of club music is now based on samples or dub tracks, but your music tends to be vocal-based. Do you have a problem translating vocals to the club?
Simon Marlin: Sometimes we end up playing our nocturnal mixes, which are the more dubbier ones. It’s a tough thing. To be fair, right now in 2008 we’re actually using less vocals, and doing more dubby stuff anyway. At the time, that’s what was right for us. To be fair with EMI, they always wanted us to make vocal-led records because it’s better for radio. But a year ago we decided, we don’t make records for the radio, we just do what we do, and if people like it, they like it. You can’t make records for record companies, you have to make them for yourself.

RS: Is New Day a sign of the way you’re going with your new album?
Simon Marlin: Yes, but we’ve done a whole album. We’re not going to put it out because we’ve just left EMI.

RS: OK.
Simon Marlin: And we’ve just signed with Defected.

RS: Wow. So this second album is never going to come out?
Simon Marlin: No, it will come out, not right now, though. Right now me and Max feel like we just want to go back to our roots, in the clubs and do the things that we feel like doing when we’re DJing.

RS: How did you all hook up with Defected?
Max Reich: Just knocked on the door. I think the rumor spread quite quickly when we left EMI. Many labels did approach us, and Defected was one of them. We handed them another couple of tracks, off the album we’d done, and they immediately wanted to release them on Defected.
Simon Marlin: Simon Dunmore, he knows his stuff and we were very flattered. He picked up the phone and said, ‘Let’s talk,’ and we liked what he was saying. He obviously liked what we were saying. He’s giving us the freedom to express ourselves again, in a bit more of an independent way. And it’s just a good vibe, it feels right, it feels like a good home for us. If there is something we do that does have the potential to be a big record again, he’s more than capable of putting it away.

RS: So the next thing coming from you all is going to be a full artist album on Defected?
Max Reich: No. We have two singles, one called Treadstone and one called, well it’s actually a remake of The Shine, you know, the old record? Those are the two first releases and then, we’ll see how it goes. We’ve got Treadstone from the album. Basically it’s an EP, the Treadstone EP.
Simon Marlin: We’ve done an album deal with Defected, but they’re not pushing us to release an album straightaway. What the plan is, is to release Treadstone through here, and obviously into Ibiza, and then to do an in-house compilation, which will be out around October, I think it is.
Max Reich: September / October.

RS: When you guys DJ out, are you two both on the decks together? How do you all DJ together?
Max Reich: We’re more back to back, really. Two or three records each, and then go and have a few drinks. Simon goes out to have a cigarette.
Simon Marlin: Yes, that’s the handy part of being a duo ? if I want to go and have a cigarette, then I can go and have a cigarette. We’ve always done it that way, and we just kind of vibe off each other, we’ll throw things in the mix.

RS: There’s a big movement of the Swedish house DJs, the whole Swedish House Mafia ? are you part of that?
Max Reich: Yes, actually I am. No, I’m sorry ? I’ve been in London. I lived in London for ten years now and, you know, this house mafia thing is one of the new generation of the kids. There’s Axwell and Steve Angello and Ingrosso.?
Simon Marlin: And Max was releasing records on Bush Records way before these boys even knew how to use them.

RS: OK. I’ve got to ask you ? you don’t do a lot of remixes for other artists, but one you did was Christine Aguilera’s “Hurt.” How did the project come about, and what was it like working on that record?
Simon Marlin: Hosh Gurelli from Sony/BMG approached us because he likes what we do. We were obviously over the moon. He played us the record over the phone and I said ‘yes, I think we could do something with that.’ He sent us the parts, and to be honest, it was a joy to do, to work with a vocalist like that. The only one we haven’t done, what we really want to do, is Mary J.
Max Reich: We’ve done the Leona Lewis single as well – “Bleeding Love” ? which is a massive hit.

RS: Very cool. What would you like to say to all your fans out there?
Simon Marlin: Well to be honest with you, we should have come here a few years ago. All I can say is, we’ve had great response on MySpace and stuff from people here, and there seems to be a real love for what we do. So all I can say is ‘thank you and keep the love coming.’ I think what’s nice about the U.S. is that they do appreciate a good vocal.

Interview conducted March 2008.