Last week, when Melbourne DJ Mr Andy Reid dropped his new mix Layers, we were blown away. The near-hour long mix was a sprawling journey that we completely lost ourselves within.
So we caught up with the man himself to chat about where he seeks inspiration, how he pieces together one of his mixes, and what he believes the key to a great mix is.
Fresh off the release of his new mix Layers, we caught up with Melbourne based DJ Mr Andy Reid to chat about his process, inspiration, and the key to a great mix.
HAPPY: Hey Andy! How’s it going? What have you been up to lately?
ANDY: Hey, it’s going awesome thanks for asking! I’m getting ready to head off to a festival in the NSW forests next week, organising costumes, playlists for a couple of sets, some theme camp support and everything you need to sort and survive for an art fuelled week of creativity and dancing haha.
HAPPY: We’re loving the new mix… how are you feeling about it now that its out?
ANDY: Thanks! I’m glad you’re loving it. Well to be honest, you guys said the nicest things so that was pretty special. I’m pretty happy people want to listen to it and show me the love. I’m super stoked it’s charting so well (Currently 17th in Acid House Charts) and can’t wait to make the next one. Ready to make the next one.
HAPPY: Could you walk us through the process of making this last mix?
ANDY: So this mix was a bit of a stretch for me compared to my previous mixes. I basically bought a heap of tracks I was loving at the time in ‘stem’ format. Which means you get the broken down parts of each track such as vocals, synth, drum and bass.
From there I matched up vocals from one track with the synth and drum and bass from other tracks, did a bit of a numbers game and trials to make sure they all lined up to give it a whole new sound and drops from the original artists intention making sure it made you want to dance and feel the music.
Once they were made, I put them all in a mix together which takes you on a journey through the different styles and layers. All this was done off my laptop and a controller in my makeshift studio in Country Victoria.
HAPPY: How long do you generally spend on a mix?
ANDY: Some of my best published mixes have only taken the time it took to record them, so around the hour mark, some can take hours and one of my mixes (which was only twenty seven minutes) took days because I was so stubborn in finding a way to make two almost impossible tracks to merge with each other to give it that sound I was searching for.
HAPPY: For you, what is the key to a great mix?
ANDY: The journey. For me a mix is about taking your senses on a journey that can go anywhere from bright, colourful, energetic to some dark lows, sound resets and build ups so you can appreciate what’s coming next. Not necessarily in that order but they generally give or remind you of emotions. Mixes that keep you up dancing after building you up will always be my personal favourites.
HAPPY: You’ve put out a lot of mixes over the past year… do you have any favourites?
ANDY: A couple… generally when I’m mixing it’s an outlet of the emotions I’m feeling at the time so they’re either never planned or never published. Cheeky Cues, almost a year ago was awesome as I made it as soon as I woke up on a Sunday morning so it’s got a nice cruisy vibe about it with delicious sounds in there. That was probably the first one where I had decent mixing skills too.
HAPPY: Are there any particular artists you take inspiration from?
ANDY: Actually everyone. I love how every artist has the courage and inspiration to do what they do, which of course gives me and others inspiration and the sounds to play with. I especially love the artists who know they are so different from the stereotype and just keep doing what they love, that takes a lot of courage and perseverance but you can tell how much they love it which is infectious.
HAPPY: When can we expect the next mix?
ANDY: There might be a cheeky one before I head away for a week on Tuesday. I’m aiming to learn a bit more on the production side of things then combine my love of loops and samples all together to see how far I can push myself in the next release.
HAPPY: Cheers for the chat!
ANDY: No worries, thanks for listening!
Layers is available now.
