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NYE 2006 @ BLEU w/ RICHARD VISSION (Detroit)
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| marcus_beier |
december 31st, 2005
presents
'new years eve 2006'
____'bleu: out'____
with special guest dj
richard vission
thrive music, los angeles
along with
static revenger
a.k.a. dennis white
system recordings, am only, los angeles
and
shawn michaels
bleu, detroit
dennis cox
picturethisdetroit, toledo
marcus beier
forward, fiberlineaudio, friskyradio, detroit
todd smith
pong project, fiberlineaudio, dcs, detroit
dilemma
breakloose, detroit
doors @9pm/club closes @ 4am!
21+ welcome with proper i.d.
$3 well drinks & domestics from 9-1030pm
presales available shortly @ www.groovetickets.com
for advanced vip/table reservations email: [email protected] asap....
bleu room experience
1540 woodward avenue
downtown detroit
313.222.1900
www.bleudetroit.com
*richard has just released a new 2xcd mix entitled 'automatic'
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| marcus_beier |
| bUmP...never too early! |
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| Detroit2 |
Off the Wall: Interview with Richard Vission
Sean “Puffy” Combs. Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. What is it about infixed nicknames that just make a person stand out? But like all the others, Richard “Humpty” Vission has grown tired of the moniker, and so on Automatic, his tenth album, he's going by strictly Richard Vission. I asked him about this name change, electro rock, and how he rocks his body. He plays the New Year's Eve Bleu-Out party in Detroit on December 31st. Static Revenger and Shawn Michaels open.
Upon entering Vission's San Fernando Valley studio, the first and most alarming thing you see is a collection of Platinum and Billboard plaques for none other than Hillary Duff. Vission assures me that these belong to his recording partner, Chico Bennett, who happened to contribute some songwriting and production to the Duff's debut. Apparently the two's preferred awards stay at home. But within these walls that Disney decorates lies the recording studio of a radio DJ-turned global superstar with more Top 10 remixes to his name than almost anyone. On Automatic, Vission shows off his love for dance rock and clubthumpers, and a few contributions from his rock band side project. And he doesn't even need all the king's horses.
Z: So, on this album you completely dropped the “Humpty.”
R: Yeah, it's gone. He fell off the wall.
Z: Explain.
R: Humpty was a nickname that was given to me way back in the day and I didn't have a choice to change it. Basically what happened I had my big break and I got my chance to mix on radio and they were going to give me a weekly show and the program director at the time said “You know what? We are going to have to give you a nickname.” I was known as Richard Vission all the way up through high school and DJing my parties, it's always been Richard Vission. And I said, “I don't really want a nickname,” and he goes “How about we call you ‘Fab Five Freddy.'”
Z: Why Fab Five Freddy?
R: The guy was on MTV at the time, way back in the day. So, this is like the first time I was in the program director's office. I was willing to say anything. In high school my dream was just to DJ on radio. It was just like one of my goals. But I said, “nah, I'm not really feeling Fab Five Freddy,” and he starts going “we've got to put something between the Richard and the Vission.” And he sits there and he goes Richard Humpty Vission. And I said, “nah I'm not really feeling that one either,” and he kept on saying it. “Richard Humpty Vission, that sounds powerful.” And I guess he got a little frustrated because he said, “we can call you Richard Humpty Vission or we don't have to call you at all.” And I said, “Richard Humpty Vission sounds fantastic.” And he told me “you're going to thank me one day because it's a name that once you hear once, you aren't going to forget.” But I've always hated it. I've wanted to drop it for years. Once I started putting out mix CD's, I was really established but all the record stores the record labels didn't want to change it because they were just looking at the promotion value. I started dropping the Humpty about a year and a half ago on all of the records I was putting out. I finally said I want to drop it for good.
Z: People are still going to call you Humpty, I'm afraid.
R: I mean, people still say Puff Daddy people still say P Diddy. People still say whatever comes to mind and I'm not really worried about that. I know it's still going to be on flyers at some places that I play and that's all fine. I just said, let's drop it. It's a new chapter.
Z: Why now? I mean, it's not like you are reinventing yourself as an artist, are you?
The first time I was in the program director's office... he said, “we can call you Richard Humpty Vission or we don't have to call you at all.” And I said, “Richard Humpty Vission sounds fantastic.” But I've always hated it.
R: In two aspects I am. One of the ideas with dropping the name is I think my production has moved into a different status. I'm starting to do a lot more rock stuff. I have a rock band called Stranger Days that will be out next year. It is a start of something kind of new, but people don't know the newness yet until they hear my more rock/dance stuff.
Z: What was the change in approach in making this CD then? Compared to other ones you've done this one has a lot of muscle.
R: It's different in the aspect of my selection of music. I think I was a little more selective. I went through songs and really picked songs that I dug. In the past I used to play a lot more tunes so I would take a part of a song and play a minute of the part that I liked. But now I had to find songs that I could let play for five or six minutes. In doing so, I started to just edit it my own version of every song. Going into the track… if it was on vinyl we'd burn it onto CD and just going into ProTools and cut it to make it exactly the way that I wanted it to sound.
Z: That sounds like something a producer would do.
R: Exactly! There were some songs – and I won't tell you which ones – but I was like, I like this song but it needs another hi hat and I'd put in another hi hat. Certain songs I brought out the keyboards and I put effects and certain little things. So there was a whole production side to this CD before I even started mixing. It was pretty intense. David Garcia and myself – we did all of the edits and all the production.
Z: Did you have an idea when you went into it what the final track listing would be?
R: No. I mean we had some idea of certain tracks that we wanted to use for about half of the tracks. But the other half, it just kind of molded itself. I think I have a lot more original production. It started off being a double mix CD but then I realized that there are a lot of original productions that had never really been out and I wanted people to hear it in its full form, not just in a group with the mix. There were songs that I had never released before, songs that were never on a CD so I thought it would just be cool to have the club mix on the first disc, and then have stuff that I've written and produced on the second disc and then when you buy the CD you get a code and you get to download a third CD. So it's actually like three CDs in one.
Z: It's nice to do it that way too with the whole digital aspect because people don't like to buy CDs as much as they used to.
R: We just had so much music, and I was just like let's put it all out there. And I wanted to something a little different because it is my tenth CD. I though it being 10 I just didn't want to do a single disc, I wanted to so something substantial.
Z: So what do you do in this rock band of yours?
R: I play the keyboards. I handle all the electronic aspects of it. There is stuff that we have MIDI-ed up. I would say it's like 80 percent live 20 percent MIDI and stuff. It's like a cross between The Killers and Berlin.
Z: Are you producing that as well?
R: Yeah I'm writing and producing. It's me, Kristin Holt, and my partner Chico [Bennett]. Kristin's the girl who's actually singing on the title track, “Automatic.”
Z: What are your feelings about making that transition? It's not an easy one.
Right now there is a sense of adventure and danger with music. I think for a while alternative music, or just music in general got kinda flat. Now it's like, anything goes. There are no rules anymore. I like that.
R: The transition has already been done. The Killers and The Bravery, I mean that's dance meets rock. I don't think I'm knocking down any walls. The band is its own identity. I don't look at it as a transition, because I'll still be doing my electronica stuff, its just this is something else that I am doing. I will always keep on DJing. I've gravitated toward the rock stuff right now, only because I grew up with it so I've always liked organic sounds. That's the music that I listen to when I'm driving around in my car – I listen to a lot of alternative – that's just what my tastes are. I got The Killers album like, a year before they broke. Because I'm a DJ, I'm always listening to new bands that will be breaking a year from now. Right now there is a sense of adventure and danger with music. I think for a while alternative music, or just music in general got kinda flat. Now it's like, anything goes. There are no rules anymore. I like that. There is excitement in the air with music right now.
Z: It seems like four to five years ago things were revolving around pop, which you were able to take advantage of with all of remixes.
R: There is something in the air musically, when you have a brand new genre like reggaeton breaking and you have bands like The Bravery and the Arcade Fire. There are a lot of interesting things happening. You get Paul Van Dyk working with alternative singers…it's really exciting right now. I think all the walls are down right now and it's anything goes.
Z: I think that's true for people making music and for those of us in the industry, but when you see a crowd when you go out and DJ do fans expect to hear certain styles of music still?
R: People expect to dance. Period. Whether that's going to be a Killers bootleg that I'm playing or a classic house track… I think people just come to dance, which is why the walls are broken down. I think lyrics are really coming back in dance music. People want to sing along while they are dancing. I think electronica is gravitating back to more vocal stuff, and I think that's cool.
Z: Do you see yourself as a songwriter in that aspect?
R: Yeah, that's what I've been concentrating on.
Z: Have you been doing that forever and we just haven't heard it for awhile?
R: I dabbled in it a little bit back in the day, but it wasn't until I hooked up with my partner Chico about four years ago I wrote my first lyric and melody without a beat. I came home from flying and I wrote this stuff and I sang this song in my head called “Tomorrow.” I think it's just been working with my partner who is a prolific songwriter that I just got the bug. Now I write beats, I write melodies, I write lyrics. I'm having a good time. It's something different that I've never done.
Z: When you write do you write with a particular vocalist in mind?
R: Right now I've been writing for my band. My whole concentration has just been for our band.
Z: Have you thought about doing what Linda Perry does?
R: I have a ton of songs that are out there floating around that nobody's picked up yet.
Z: You want the right person to pick it up.
R: Of course, it's got to be the right situation.
Click for a review of Automatic
Z: And you've had some pop success already with your remixes. Is this something that you want to pursuing – the songwriting? It gets your name out there and you've got to know that when you do a Britney Spears remix that's going to be huge.
R: That's not the focus of my career. Actually doing the pop remixes- I'm doing very little of that. I've got to really like the song. Like The Killers, The Bravery, I even did an Usher song because I really liked it. Believe it or not, pop mixes or pop artists are the hardest thing to do.
Z: Do you ever go out to clubs to dance? Leave the DJ bag at home?
R: Honestly, I'll go out and hear DJs but I don't necessarily dance. What gets me to dance is more of the deeper stuff. Marques Wyatt, Louie Vega. But I've been going to see a lot of bands lately. A lot of times I love just going to hear DJs and not dance. I just like watching people. I like being a part of things and watching things but not necessarily hitting the dance floor. When I hit the dance floor, it's got to be deep, dark, sultry. I used to go to Deep by myself… sometimes I wouldn't even call to be put on the guest list. I would just pay the ten dollars like everyone else, get in line, dance an hour and a half and then go home. It was great.
Z: It's hard to find the time for that now, I'd imagine.
R: Yeah, like I try to make Sundays my day off. I turn off my cell phone. I've learned nothing is going to burn down or go to hell if you don't answer your phone. But every now and then, like my friends say, every now and then you just got to go back to church. |
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| dubblies |
| How do you get to the UnderBleu? |
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| marcus_beier |
| the door is located next to the bar on your left when you enter the club..it looks like its just for club personel, and when the underbleu is not open it is.....cant wait to see everyone there... |
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| djarecebo |
| looks like me and dubblizzle are the only ones going, but then again its humpty... we'll see how it is :wtf: |
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| Omega_Blue |
| quote: | Originally posted by djarecebo
looks like me and dubblizzle are the only ones going, but then again its humpty... we'll see how it is :wtf: |
hey... don't call him humpty anymore dammit :wtf: |
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