Personally picked by Pete Tong (“it has to be Stuart!”), triple Grammy Award winner Stuart Price guests on a Little Moore Conversation, discussing how they share a lot more than just the L.A. school run. Pete’s tour of the clubs in the late 90s and early 2000s often featured a Stuart Price track which is where the pair originally bonded, which has now developed into a mutual respect of tennis, Talk Talk and Madonna, whom Stuart produced both on tour and in the studio on ‘Confessions’.
Personally picked by Pete Tong (“it has to be Stuart!”), triple Grammy Award winner Stuart Price guests on a Little Moore Conversation, discussing how they share a lot more than just the L.A. school run. Pete’s tour of the clubs in the late 90s and early 2000s often featured a Stuart Price track which is where the pair originally bonded, which has now developed into a mutual respect of tennis, Talk Talk and Madonna, whom Stuart produced both on tour and in the studio on ‘Confessions’.
Ralph Moore: 0:00
Welcome to a little more conversation with Ralph Moore. Get closer to the biggest names in Electronic Music. In this episode Ralph gets closer to industry Titan Pete Tong and three-time Grammy Award-winning producer, Stuart Price.
Ralph Moore: 0:28
Welcome to the third episode of a little more conversation with my special guests this time, Pete Tong and Stuart Price. Welcome.
Pete Tong: 0:36
Hi Ralph.
Ralph Moore: 0:37
Thank you very much for taking the time today. Everyone has had their breakfast everyone has had their coffee. I think everyone is hydrated
Pete Tong: 0:43
We sound like flowers. A gardening program
Ralph Moore: 0:48
I haven't quite gotten as much experiences you have yet Pete. Not just yet. We were talking about the tennis a minute ago. So it's very English today. It's funny, cause it technically, it should have been a lot easier to get you guys together in L. A. And yet somehow.
Pete Tong: 1:04
It's a miracle uou got us together here. We're neighbors in Los Angeles, and you managed to get us together in Kings cross. I don't think I've ever been in Kings cross with Stuart. We've been going around saying it's quite nice here isn't it.
Stuart Price: 1:16
I think both of us are reconsidering our life plans here. Given what's going on around here now,
Ralph Moore: 1:23
that was gonna be my first question about how you guys know each other. It's the L A connection, isn't it?
Stuart Price: 1:28
Actually, no. Goes it goes back, was going to be a little before, but probably quite a long way before that. Ultimately, I mean, from my point of view, I was a teenage music producer making songs . At some point Pete played one of them. So that was like the, you know, and still is sort of, you know, kind of ah, holy grail of dance music to get a record played on his show. So to have that was probably personally speakingone of my first kind of big validations of the music. But it was really just then by bumping into each other in clubs and, yeah, playing on the same bill, you know, playing at one of Pete's nights or something that we got, I think hang out more and get to know each other a little better and
Pete Tong: 2:14
then getting him on my show, I think the first time I knew about him that was Mark Jones, that you've got to listen to this music by this kid. You know It's absolutely amazing. And then two months later, you gotta listen to the music by this kid. He's amazing. And he's And it was a different name and two months later. Like, you gotta listen to music by this kid. is that the same guys like that? Why has he got so many names? Zoot like rhythm. Like. there's something like that.
Ralph Moore: 2:42
Yeah, well, I guess my point was Yeah, you're absolutely right. Obviously picked. You've supported Stuart's music over the years, but you've really bonded through the LA connection. Haven't you?
Stuart Price: 2:52
thinks that has given us an opportunity to spend more time together? Spend more time listening to music on, just, you know, getting to know the city. You mean, obviously, petes basing out there. We moved there. But I think also today with sort of international music, the way is L. A. Has gradually become more and more of a hub for music. It was quiet there for a long time, and then it's just it's just grown and grown and sort of snowballed into a kind of ah, you know, one of the one of the musical centers of the world.
Pete Tong: 3:23
Thanks to your help to settle, actually as well. That was a nice thing he did when we we We first moved over a very short notice in six years ago in the summer. And it was, you know, you rent you rent a place for a year and nice. You helped us Kind of convinced this, like, where to kind of roughly where to go. And then you even helped us get our daughter into school and stuff that we do. And we do the school run together.
Ralph Moore: 3:47
That's that's amazing. Yeah.
Stuart Price: 3:50
And also, you know, settling in would be part of, like, what kind of acoustic treatment do we need for the studio?
Pete Tong: 3:55
And he helped me with that, actually. Wow. Brought sugar around
Ralph Moore: 3:58
a casserole. Uh, well we've all known each other for 20 years now. I was going to show you a picture, which I have in mind in my bathroom. Now, this is 20 years ago this year, So look about going back to the Mark Jones wall of sound connection. This is subliminal sessions with wall of sound presents. And there you are with the DJ Touche.That's 20 years ago this year.
Stuart Price: 4:24
Oh, I remember it was 20 years ago.
Ralph Moore: 4:28
This is a question for both of you. Staurt you can start. What a Does it feel like? 20 years and B, What does that era of dance music make you think ok?
Stuart Price: 4:36
I mean, I don't be too existential, but you know, So it depends how you look at how you look at time. I mean, does it feel like 20 years ago? You know, in a way, you know what? What does that even mean? Like the experience of doing music, then versus today, those changes, things have changed, but no, the feeling for doing music, I think, stays the same on that atmosphere playing Pacha then or somewhere else today. That experience also kind of stays the same because you're still trying to do the same thing which is come up with music, discover music, play in a way that makes some kind of contextual sense. Hopefully, other people kind of get on board with that as well. And you just try and you're trying to create a mood. Whether that's the original recorded music mixing other people's music, however, is so so I think in that sense, it's that's our perception of time to me is is one of the same.
Pete Tong: 5:34
I think the biggest difference probably over the last 20 years is is how global we've all gone. You know, I think that the 1999 was the end of like that I'm not Not that we weren't, you know, traveling or getting music from all different places, particularly America and France. But, um, in terms of the travel, we do ourselves as DJs, artists that, you know, the nineties was very UK focus. It's certainly for me going up and down the motorway, you know, little chefs and all night. And I think that that towards the end, you know, coming up to the millennium, it was, um we will start to travel. It coincided with Napster and file sharing, and lime wire and light are there from for me, it was like the beginning of the end of the kind of the heyday of the label business, the bubble kind of thing all the way through the nineties that the UK scene just seemed to get bigger and bigger, and they're going to parties, got bigger, and festivals got bigger. And then, um, just after you know the millennium Then think things started to change. It was also DJs started to migrate to to get their work further afield. That's what that's what it felt like to me. So funny. Funny you show that because my manager just sent me the other day a an amazing video clip of me and Norman Cook. Fatboy Slim and Paul Oakenfied for going around London on a on the back on the bus. And we had that. We did the album at the end of the night 1997. Like my name is stickers. And just to see us on that bus, I mean, here we could we got a bit old. We don't look too bad.
Ralph Moore: 7:08
I remember that because it was you were all dressed in suits and I was working a music magazine at the time.
Pete Tong: 7:15
We went round London in a open top bus double decker bus, and then one of Norman's team made a beautifully shot like film. I'd never seen it, actually. So So,
Stuart Price: 7:24
in a sense, that was sort of trail blaze in what was to come because I think I was that was a bridge from DJs being kind of background. You provide the music into people getting interested in more about them. And you sort of probably saw the opening up of where we are, where we are today. We're
Pete Tong: 7:44
definitely, I mean, the DJs hiding in a corner paradise garage style. When the slit in the wall to during the nineties, kind of coming out coming out of a shell during the nineties, it was like Sasha on the front cover of the magazine were like a son of God and superstar DJ chemical brothers using that term. So I think all that you know, me and boy George during the annual together and like selling a lot of copies. I more than anyone ever thought you could. So they have a lot changed during the 90s!
Ralph Moore: 8:13
Has the last 20 years flown for you?
Pete Tong: 8:18
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it has, um, often say, actually, I You know, if I ever wrote a book, I think I'd probably have to go digging a lot deeper about what happened in the nineties. I think for me 91 to 99 I can't remember actually much from what happened. But I and I do. But But the last 20 years. I do remember more of what happened. You know that moving to You know, in the nineties, for instance, obviously, we're all going to Ibiza a lot. I'll be playing space and many mission and stuff like that. And Stuartwas there as well and that in and out and I can't really remember, you know, it's kind of a blur, but to thousands of was I remember a lot because it was me going to Pasha, you know, and then starting those long residences of, like, 18 19 weeks during the summer. So I think is that is the nineties bit that needs to go and like
Stuart Price: 9:08
gonna be It's gonna be a couple of chapters missing in your book.
Pete Tong: 9:11
Yeah, Yeah,
Stuart Price: 9:12
You could have them ghost written
Pete Tong: 9:15
I've read both the Moby's books and I was, like, just blown away by He's such a great raconteur of his memory. Why don't if your memory or everyone risks talking to his mates. But I was kind of envious. If I ever do that, how am I going to get all that stuff so
Stuart Price: 9:30
That Ibiza that period there. I mean one I distinctly. Remember, that was Is that those That was whether was this off meeting off sort of left field breakbeat music trip hop? Yeah. Dance music, house music. Sort of coming together and converging totally in a inIbiza. And it just the two things just kind of blended . Both sort of sides of that learned stuff from the other on the other side. I think a lot off the wall of sound producers learn a lot from from what house? The dynamic of house music. Like how that works with the crowd, what it does to a crowd, how exciting it can be and started putting it into their records and vice versa. Stuff was, you know, went from the other side, however, as well. It was a really brilliant fusion is really a lot of a lot of good records came out of it. It did good for both sides as well. It brought it, brought something to both.
Ralph Moore: 10:28
Of course, around that time, after that summer, you started touring. Yeah, the l r d touring machine. Yet, you know, one of my favourite music films is almost famous I wonder whether you look back on that era off what you were doing. You probably on buses, and it was the start, wasn't it?
Stuart Price: 10:46
Yeah, And there's and there's also, you know, with touring like there's an argument say that it's of It never gets more fun than when you're just in the back of, like, a splitter van going up and down the You know, the motorways are driving around Europe doing these sort of small shows because they're they're chaotic. You're lucky to be there, And, you know, sort of every everything's everything's on 11. So I was going to say there's a lot of vivid memories there, but actually, yeah, the memory's not sure where you know. Sure. Totally where they all are.
Ralph Moore: 11:13
I have a funny memory being backstage at the Brighton Center. You know, it was a wall of sound event. I met Mike Manumission and he was basically telling me how you really need to hurry up and get to Ibiza. Yeah, that was just before I went to Ibiza and you and I bonded over mark king from Level 42.
Stuart Price: 11:30
Yeah, that sounds right.
Ralph Moore: 11:31
Yeah, a bass player. Hey, was Yeah, he deserved
Stuart Price: 11:36
a little. He deserved a little love. It was a little out of focus the time. And I think I think we wanted to bring back the magic of that
Ralph Moore: 11:42
and for listeners who maybe arent aware. Is that one of your favorite instruments base?
Stuart Price: 11:48
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, there was, You know, uh, my school. Everyone wanted to play all the other instruments, The base Was the only thing that was available? So I took it, and I love it. I mean and also its funny. I mean, it's like still in any kind of train. The base does so much, it gives you the rhythm it gives you the melody gives you the fact that, like, it's it's so flexible on if you don't have that working in the track, whether it's on a completely minimal level, where it's providing nothing other than just sorta nor around the feel of the song or whether it's the centrepiece and it's, you know, quote all about the baseline. I mean, it is it's ultimately for me. That's, you know, that's a real foundation of stuff. So So, yeah, I mean, but
Pete Tong: 12:29
he's got lots of bases, and I can vouch for that. Yeah, he's really good at getting things down really quickly. Like, I'll sit with him, do it starting an idea. And it's like, What? What takes me about two days? He's not managed to do in about 45 seconds and ill ask you? How'd you do that? Yeah. Yeah,
Stuart Price: 12:44
well, you gotta be careful to your stuff quickly, because otherwise you got to get out in their own way. Yeah, exactly. If you overthink things like you can get in your own way.
Ralph Moore: 12:51
I was also going to say that there was definitely a point in the sort of mid 2000 where there were so many great remixes that you were putting out. I was constantly writing about them in Mixmag and Pete, you were definitely playing them on theradio
Pete Tong: 13:05
And they were all the same bloke!
Stuart Price: 13:07
Yeah, that was the plan.
Ralph Moore: 13:11
An interesting question, because obviously you look back now and there's things like your your fabric mix, which a lot of people look back and I still listen to I had a lot of those remixes. And Pete, you probably got several favourites. You know, there's so many the paper faces remixes as well as the Jaques Lu Cont remixes. Let me throw this at you, Pete. Have you got a favorite?
Pete Tong: 13:30
Top of my head, actually the well, obviously the killers and then probably comfortably numb. Yeah, but probably the two that hammered the most. Yep. And then there was two versions of the killers were used to confuse people that if you wanted to get tricky, you could play the other one that did they did both come out Or did you just give me
Stuart Price: 13:50
They did. That was That was a really tricky part because this sort connects to sort of dance music having it's, you know, it's kind of renaissance in America. And what happened about the time there was is in the UK You know, you did your main mix. You did a dub mix on the dub mix was always the one you're gonna play when you're DJing And the main mix was the one where, if you needed, you know, a bit more mainstream accessibility to it. But at that time in that sort of major label system in the U. S, that wasn't always communicated, and it didn't always come across on the I think you were. If you were submitting your the track listing credit often within the systems, stuff got a little bit lost and the Dub mix would come out as the main mixing. The main mix would come out as a dub mix and the instrumental would actually be. And there was all this. It was just completely got kind of messed up. Which is why with that Killers one, I think the version it was pot luck. Which version you were going to get. And if it appears on anything today, no matter what it
Pete Tong: 14:46
says, is pot luck when you play as well. Realising halfway through that it's the wrong one.
Stuart Price: 14:54
It's interesting to see, you know, different people played different versions. I mean, you know, Avichi would play the main version. That was just a little bit more vocal and a little bit more. You know, sort was a little bit more that I come, I'd say, like radio friendly on. And I think I use always used to play the Dub one. I always wanted to, you know, take a little longer to get there.
Pete Tong: 15:14
Do you forget your own mix it cause I mean, you made so many there. You must Yeah. Sometimes you must hear one somewhere. Not actually sure whether you made it or not,
Stuart Price: 15:24
I think. Fortunately, Yeah, I haven't. I've been Whenever I've heard it, I've always be able to recognize it. But they definitely there's ones that come up and you go. Oh, right. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, Because I do. Yeah Yeah. Um, on on the same with producing as well. I mean, yeah, it does happen from time to time, but yeah, there's nothing. There have been any yet where I've gone. Who did that?
Ralph Moore: 15:47
You don't remember making it. You remember making them all?
Stuart Price: 15:50
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ralph Moore: 15:51
But I guess the point we started making here is there were loads like it felt like there would be a new a new remix every month.
Stuart Price: 15:58
Most of that was because maybe it was in part because I was playing every weekend and I always wanted to have a new track to play. The weekend that was m sort of goal each week was to have something that I could be the first play that weekend, and ah, no, not for any reason other than to just kind of get it? Look forward to the weekend to be able to try out something. I mean, that's hobbyist part of making music, playful parts never, never really left. And part of that is this is it. You want to try an experiment, see what happens.
Pete Tong: 16:30
think Stuart was definitely one of the first people that I came across who his dj and became all about his own music. I mean, we just didn't talk about that in the nineties. I mean, obviously was there was loads of other people around making music. And Paul, particularly oakunfold, was quite prolific, but he wouldn't like you got to see him, DJ, and he wouldn't just string together a whole set of his own mixes. It would be. But whereas I think Stuart epitomized the kind of you know more of what you're very used to today are actually building a set of his own music, even if it was other people's music was his interpretations of music was pretty pretty unique. So
Ralph Moore: 17:05
one of the things that I think drew me to your music and you sort of confirmed it when you did the new version of its my life was the talk talk thing is one of the things that I've. There's a little spirit of Mark Hollis in some of the music that you make. Yes, that's from my perspective. And Pete I'm sure you agree He was amazing. Obviously, he passed away earlier in the year. Just talk for a minute. What? What? What is it about Mike Wallace's music that you admire so much?
Stuart Price: 17:33
You know, he's, Ah, he's a mystery wrapped up in an enigma or is it an enigmin a mystery? But you know, it's very something fascinating about mark and his his music? Is that really hard to put your finger on what really is so special about it is there's a savant-like quality to what he did, and yet at the same time, it's so soulful. Even when he's kind of pushing to be to be Cold is just It just doesn't come across like that as well. Andi, I think there's a you know, fascination in music, I think, comes from a few things. One is no, not being able to identify, exactly, in it what is that makes you feel the way it does and with Talk Talk I didnt really experience it first time around, so I don't think the time and place thing really applies there. It didn't remind me of being in certain places. It just kind of communicated from beyond its era. And I think still does to this day
Pete Tong: 18:28
TalkTalk were more commercial when the records first came out, the way they were marketed. But actually, looking back now, they were incredibly alternative. Far closer to kind of Radiohead comparisons than you know, Coldplay or something, eh? So I think that, as you say, the enigma wrapped up in a a mystery, wrapped up in a savant, kind of like figure. And then then you look back at how kind of low key he was Um he was definitely a mystery, you know?
Stuart Price: 18:58
And also it seems like he pushed hard against the commercial success when it came and he said, He said, Now I've achieved this. I'm gonna push harder and go further and go deeper, and I think he probably saw it as an opportunity to try and bring something new instead of trying to repeat a formula. And I think repeating formula in any form of music is always diminishing returns. You hear it happened, but But he's an example, you know, you know, kind of leader. Someone to someone to follow.
Ralph Moore: 19:24
And the records of timeless, don't they? I mean Oh, yeah, yeah, that kind of Segways nicely into the timeless nature of some of the records which you're playing right now in the Ibiza classics, it is an interim questions start. I'm assuming that you curate and choose the records to start with. So it must be something of a timeless record is maybe the best kind of record there is, because it never, never, never dates. And you can go back to it and go back to again. And how many is this? The fourth year you're doing it? How many years of
Pete Tong: 19:57
this will be the well it started in 15 with one show at the proms, which was an invitation . Obviously, it was a huge kind of viral demand to do it again. And we got we got back out in 16 and did three shows and then 17. We did like 15 shows. 18. We did about 15 shows, and now we're with so Yeah, five years. This is it's been amazing journey and certainly a a kind of phase in my career that I never I never saw it coming, but it's been really inspiring, invigorating, and you got the kind of right side of my brain working, you know in a way I never anticipated. Yeah, it's been a pleasure. The word that sums up the whole experience has been just joyous that, like the harmony that you get with the crowd. And I think the it's the audience is probably the unsung heroes of the Ibiza classic show because it is the It's the euphoria of everyone that actually take just lifts the thing to another place. And obviously it's a very unusual thing to do, you know, to play a classic set of songs, you know? I mean, in time, I'd like to introduce a couple of new ones, but but actually is it's just like wall to wall joy, and that blows me away. Every time we do this show, you can't really put your finger on it, and it sits that collective coming together in thousands that actually makes it so special. When we do the O2 and you got, like, 18,000 people. Uh um just the sheer joy in the room, um, just takes that That's the X factor of the whole kind of idea.
Stuart Price: 21:35
It shows a lot of strength in this in the in the writing of those songs Strength of the melody,
Pete Tong: 21:42
the first time I've ever in my career the way I've always been on the front foot looking at the next thing. The next thing, the next thing discovering the next thing is convincing people that this is the next big thing. And I've never really paused, hardly ever to look backwards. I mean, I've done the odd compilation or my name has been put to them and sections on my radio show over the years where you look back at things but to actually go out and perform a kind of retro thing. I've never done that before, you know, it almost fights against my DNA of like you can't keep doing that, but but we're doing it with an orchestra is just a whole whole different thing. So I just yeah, classic timeless music coming back to your pointand
Ralph Moore: 22:21
Stuart you know, one of the things I've always admired about you, is that you? You know, you started in the clubs and on on the vans in the bus es. So we're on. Then you're the musical director for the pet shop boys who are also playing the 02 Yeah, and you're not afraid of either stadium-sized records or working in that environment. In fact, I suspect you probably quite like it?
Pete Tong: 0:00
That's because you were in a band. So you think you have to do it like that. But it's actually something quite unique about Stuart is I can't think many people not coming out of the nineties that actually we're musicians that then decided to DJs That was actually quite unusual path. We all started because we couldn't be in a band like we wanted to. I wanted to be in T. Rex. You know, I couldn't get the gig, so I started doing somewhere along the line. But I think that's the other unique combination about Stuart. I'll take a little bit. I tell that story about because I was working with William Orbit back in the day, um, particularly all Saints when we were doing the beach and stuff like that. And he was having a nervous breakdown working with Madonna, partly because of the pressure of her wanting to take him out, live all the time, and he said he didn't. Do you think you could think of anyone that might actually be able to do this? Said we could try this guy, Stuart Price. You see if you see what he thinks and the rest is history that said that. I think that was What was that, your first proper big MD gig?
Stuart Price: 24:28
eah, there's like a magnifying glass. It's a perfect example of how, how, how doing its little subtle nuance things once it went. You know, the more the crowd size goes up, the more those simple gestures get magnified and have massive effect and actually also makes you appreciate that trying to be too complex with something or too layered just gets completely lost on that scale. So, really, it's a good reminder to keep things simple. I think about the shape, the dynamic of the show. Like what? What? You want to go to point A B C. D. Throughout its also, no matter how much you prepare, how much you rehearse how much you construct beforehand, it's only really gonna happen in the moment. Yeah, a lot like D.Jing I mean, if you try and rehearse. I mean, when I first started djing of sheer confusion and nervousness, I mean, I must have rehearsed like the same 30 recordsas clear Europe. That's because you were in a band. So you think you have to do it like that? But it's actually anything unique about Stuart is I can't think many people not coming out of the nineties that actually we're musicians that then decided to DJs That was actually quite unusual. Part we all wheel started because we couldn't be in a pants we wanted to. I wanted to be in T. Rex. You know, I couldn't get the gig, so I started deejaying somewhere along the line. But I think that's the other unique combination. Most year I'll take a little bit. I tell that story about because I was working with William Orbit back in the day, um, particularly all Saints when we were doing the beach and stuff like that. And he was having a nervous breakdown working with Madonna, partly because of the pressure of her wanting to take him out, live all the time, and he said he didn't. Do you think you could think of anyone that might actually be able to do this? Said we could try this guy, Stuart Price. You see if you see what he thinks and the rest is history that said that. I think that was What was that, your first proper big MD gig?
Stuart Price: 24:29
Absolutely. Yeah. And it and it. More or less kind of came out of nowhere. I done a remix for the mere ways, and that was sort of one of the only involvement I had with anyone connected to her music.
Pete Tong: 24:43
Theres also the theory. What? There he was a DJ it like, I think that if she thought he was, she was hiring a DJ. But he was a proper, proper, allround musician. So.
Stuart Price: 24:50
There's another connected story there, which is, you know, I think, you know, I always wrestled with that sway between being wanted to be in a band, wanted to be a dj. You know what you want to do. And, you know, as people know the moment, being out with the live show is very complex. There's a lot of moving parts. You sort of have to just have faith that it's all gonna work, right, because there's a lot of elements that are out of your control. Where is when you're there with, like, four decks? Mixer filters like it so much within your control, and you can really drastically change what's going on. But ultimately, that's the part that I was attracted to is that there was so much you could affect about the music, even from really simple things, like just the overall volume, you know, being able to play a track quiet for 30 seconds a minute. And then just being able to Jam up and seeing, like how that big effect happens. But so, so much so that when I was MD with Madonna, I had a ll the mix coming into me on stage into a DJ mixer to be able to multiply through so at the time I was looking for a filter to be able to run the whole band through. And I called Pete and I said, You got anything like this, have you? And you went Actually, I do. Yeah, I've got this Allen and Heath and he lent it to make it. Yeah, and it went on, and Pete's Filter went straight into the into the Madonna sort of set
Pete Tong: 26:08
went round the world. Yeah. Stay there. We'll come down. It came down to one nob that you could just go.
Ralph Moore: 26:13
Yeah, wow?
Stuart Price: 26:14
But the cool thing was, it was the whole live band going through it vocal, you know? And that was a sort of little kind, I think turning point in that control of dynamic.
Ralph Moore: 26:23
And then I remembered meeting you and saying do you want to go see the pet shop boys at Hammersmith right? Yeah. And then up that kind of became a sort of segway way from Madonna to camp PSB.
Stuart Price: 26:33
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, on there. I mean, obviously, like I grew up undecided whether I'd wanted to be Neil or Chris, I mean, never that still not sure they were. They were. They were and are heroes. I mean, very they're exceptional people. They're truly unique. And But yet, but we went to that show. I started to really from that show, really respected. What a good live act They were on how much they put into their production, I think also in an era where you know, people start to talk about economics, of touring, reacting so inflated to this day, they still put so much back into it. They work with top designers. They work with top lighting people.
Pete Tong: 27:16
They really invest in the show. It really invests in a very kind of intellectual kind of top of his class. Yeah. Top to bottom.
Stuart Price: 27:23
yeah, Yeah. Doesn't cost us much as an orchestra though.
Pete Tong: 27:25
No
Ralph Moore: 27:27
Pete I think one of the things that you've done recently which has only just come out, is your You've just been made president at 360
Pete Tong: 27:35
Thats a very American title. I shunned it when they asked me. Then I had to be reminded I lived in America. So, President.
Stuart Price: 27:44
and then you went okay,
Ralph Moore: 27:44
so it wasn't a hard decision to make. Did you have to think about it for a day.
Pete Tong: 27:48
Something like that Yeah.
Stuart Price: 27:51
What? What is the role mean?
Stuart Price: 27:53
I just wanted to erm I started djing so long ago you had to get a day job. Yeah, I always had a job. That was just habit. So I used to work from magazine blues and soul black music. And then I got a day job in a record company which went quite well in London records in FFRR and then when that got sold at a couple of years floating around and then got involved with WME. And that's been great. And I said, I'm still involved with them But I do. I was missing the kind of real front line creative process of making records. It was really through the orchestra of going back in, making these albums and being involved in a different way. I was straight back into being an A and R man again, albeit for my own record, and it just I just really enjoyed the environment again, being back in the studio, you know, not that I was still have still been advising FFR and do stuff like that, but not as front line as I had been. You know, when I want to start doing the classics albums, so I just I just wanted to make records again and do that. Get back to doing that. And the opportunity came up to work with Mark Gillespie, who's a good friend. We go way back to kind of clubbing days of God's kitchen, obviously, and he'd he'd been living in America like like start we'd all been there roughly the same amount of time. I hadn't quite found that fit for me in l. A. And he fell. And if I was going to stay living in L. A, um, Then I thought this would be a good guy to work with them and go trying to find some artists and make some records that express basically what it is. Yeah. And it'll it goes through Sony, and we just started. So if you got any demos out there yeah, yeah.
Stuart Price: 29:25
ave you got any demo Ralph?
Stuart Price: 29:26
I've always got demos.
Stuart Price: 29:27
Have you ever met made music?
Pete Tong: 29:28
looking for the new Otis Redding. Yeah!
Ralph Moore: 29:31
I've never I've never made music, but actually dub fire Asked me that I was didn't I went to see Carl Cox and dub fire and he introduced me to someone as Ralph from music? Okay. And then he went h my god that's a Freudian slip. And I said, Well, you know, it's been 20 years now. And then he said, Have you ever made music? And I said, Well, I haven't. But my mom was a music teacher and he went ah there we go. So no, I haven't But, you know, I think we've all been United by this.
Stuart Price: 30:00
Is that where your love comes from?
Ralph Moore: 30:01
Yeah, I think so. My mom taught piano.
Stuart Price: 30:04
that makes sense. Yeah, I was becoming clearer.
Ralph Moore: 30:06
You know, I did, actually, I did try to learn base at school, but the thing is, it's like I'm the guy that wants to talk about things and write about things and get excited rather than make it. And I know enough people who are making it a lot better than I ever would. So that's
Pete Tong: 30:21
That's what Neil Tennant did, used to write about it.
Ralph Moore: 30:23
That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Tong: 30:25
know, it's never too late.
Stuart Price: 30:26
I mean, and Neil still takes That is sort of, you know, the observation, analytical approach to a lot of stuff as well. I mean, he's just So
Pete Tong: 30:36
He was the editor of smash hits!
Ralph Moore: 30:39
Yeah. I mean, I caught up with them a couple of weeks ago and he was talking about the MK remix of Can you forgive her? Which is 25 years old? Yeah. And he said that it was still being played now and then Harry Romero, who I manage delivered an influences his mix and, of course, its track two on the mix 25 years later. Amazing raising. And I sent it to Neil and he was like, You know, look at the Paradise. But of course, that's the thing about a timeless remix. MK wasn't what that well known at the time. Now, obviously, he's kind of a pop star, and you can go back to those records and they still sound amazing that if they didn't sound amazing. And Lord knows, there's a lot of nineties remixes, which don't you wanna
Pete Tong: 31:18
That's why he's still around them.
Stuart Price: 31:20
I think one thing is really that is really good seeing. I think again, like the classics thing really reflects it so well, is that so much dance records a made out of a production technique or like a programming technique or some Syncopation that has come
Pete Tong: 31:36
on, you are a new patch or a new sound. Yeah,
Stuart Price: 31:39
on, even if it's like the one key like this, this key does everything kind of button on it does something, and then that track goes on to be a big track. Well, when you remove it from that and then you have an orchestra playing it. Suddenly all that stuff kind of shines in like a new light, and you and you really appreciate the delicacies of that of what went into that patches creation. Yeah, and it just it just shines a different light on it. And I actually think they're definitely songs that you do in your set, that I've been able to enjoy more as a song because it's being taken out of the context like I don't know, say it was It was a trance record I wasn't fond of that genre at the time that I can appreciate.
Pete Tong: 32:17
Yeah, definitely Records like CafeDel Marre and Children were created with with the limits the artist had the disposal and they would never have the opportunity to work with an orchestra. And even if they had, I don't know if they would have done. But then orchestrating those tunes years later is that has added a whole new dynamic to them, and it proves that they were that was always my biggest motivation and start it was like the chip on the shoulder dance pieces, not taking seriously one day I'm gonna show you that these tunes are unbelievable. And if you play them with an orchestra, you you'll appreciate it in a different way.
Ralph Moore: 32:51
he did add gray by Kolsch into your set didn't you?
Pete Tong: 32:54
done it. We've done it. Yeah, I've got 50 or so tracks now is a repertoire waken short chop and change So we could agree
Ralph Moore: 33:04
Now Pete you definitely are DJing as much. Maybe not as much as ever. But you're still DJing a fair bit. Stuart, you've been quite quiet on the DJ front. But you played it. You played something like the shacklewell arms, I think it was the shacklewell arms a few years ago. But then since then you've been concentrating on
Stuart Price: 33:22
yeah, it was very empty Shacklewell arms as well. Yeah, again it goes back to you don't know if what you're doing is really any good until you go out and play it for me when I'm making stuff. First thing I do studios in one room put it on a key, go into the other room, play it like mix it in with the other stuff and you know right away. So So you spent half an hour on something you think is really good. Put it on the key. Go play it. It's no good. Okay. Why wasn't it good so go back and fix it on just kind of repeat that process. But that only really works if you're gonna, if you're if you're mixing in with contemporary stuff as well, so part that is having to is sort of keeping up and getting sent tracks by people writing to friends. What's happening at the moment on just through that sort of process kind of feeding back on itself. You know, you kind of go in the right direction, but the bigger part is actually getting to go and play live somewhere on. And in that case, it doesn't matter. I mean, shackle well arms, O2... I mean, it's still the same thing. It's like, Is this really what's happening that does this actually mean something? And without that part in the chain, it's like the whole thing just doesn't really, ever get going.
Pete Tong: 34:30
All my decisions ever made about music will come really from from DJing. So I think I feel lost if I wasn't DJing and I think that's still the biggest motivation now is just checking things out. You know, there's It's just, a different thing to play a record in front of. It doesn't matter whether it's 10 people or, um in a few 1000 people. But it just triggered something else. You know, it just proves stuff. I think one of the best things about the Ibiza season for me as it does give me a little window where I can go and see other people. Players were. So I get that out of. I gotta get so much out watching other people play a little. I'll always come away with a record, you know that I've either got and I'm not playing or I heard in a different way or obviously something I haven't got that I really, really like.
Stuart Price: 35:11
we've spent time in the studio together where we stand there around the machines and we just get something going on. You kind of get the Bob going on. You just both enter this zone. You instinctively know, you know, kind of Wait, you're going now is kind of quite weird. Like if your kids come in and see that going on. You're in the zone and there, you know, they're just like what on earth is going on.
Pete Tong: 35:33
is our school run like?
Stuart Price: 35:35
It's, you know, it's quite transposed. Ultimately, that is, at that moment of getting something going, you know, the kind of flow comes with it. And in that moment you sort of make or break it. That's if you're then gonna be on a dance floor watching someone play. If that if that's coming out to you, you know that you'll probably be into it. Whereas if it just feels like that never really happened. It never really came from the Zone. Then, Ah, it's all falls flat. And I think that's what makes the difference between you know, great DJs and mediocre DJs There's a lot of different factors in there.
Ralph Moore: 36:10
And do your kids feedback on your music when you're making it, or do you let them hear stuff? And unless I'm sure you do
Stuart Price: 36:16
Yeah definitely especially both of them of coming at various points and pushed every single button on every drum machine on every synth. Just when I thought I had it right they come in on, they completely mess it up on most of the time it makes it better. I'm not ashamed of it, but because But that's in part because they come in with that element of chaos and it comes in. And, you know, the longer we work on saying, I think a lot of sort of good ideas you have come in this sort of more sort of a female, like a shape. If you over think it too much, you start squaring it off and turning it into something just a little bit less kind of interesting. On one of the things is to keep it in this amorphous shape and Chaos is a big part of that because it's the bit where someone makes a mistake and everyone turns around in the studio says. 'What was that' and you immediately excited about it and my kids do that.
Pete Tong: 37:11
I got so many ideas on the go and I never have time to finish them. That was my biggest problem with me because I'm off got too many jobs, but he's absolutely right. I mean, I just did it yesterday. Okay, fire up the computer on the plane and you go opening up all these projects. And some of them actually got, like, eight bars on the bars or thirty and you'd moved on or you thought they weren't any good. And it's often not that little inception the beginning. Then we end up polishing it into a kind of
Stuart Price: 37:39
tell you something funny that happens along those lines, and it's It's also it's not so much production technique that happens now. But there was a time where so most things were in the laptop computer. Whatever is, it's all there, and it kind of all works and you load it back up and it works the same. But there was an era where your sequences were on one computer running the middie for everything. And your samples were over here and you had to load up all the samples here, and you had to load up all the sequencing stuff here. So you had song, A? You opened up, you know, a on both things. But there was some times where you just kind of by mistake you'd load up song C on the sequencer. And your samplers would still be on song A And you, you forgot press play on the sequencer on its start sequencing all the wrong samples for in the kind of the music that you've put in C, and you go what? It suddenly sounds like the most innovative, exciting record you've ever heard. Yeah, on way more exciting than what you were actually sort of what you've done with your kind of logical brain.
Pete Tong: 38:39
mistakes are good.
Stuart Price: 38:40
Yeah, And it's those sort of moments that you stumble upon like that often lead to, I think, a lot of exciting stuff. And I think Electronic music in general is the perfect arena to be able to exploit that and do it. Although I suppose I suppose you could you could equally do it in classical music. There'd be a version of that.
Ralph Moore: 38:59
So it sounds like it's fair to say that you guys are as busy as you've ever been. Okay, I know you like cycling. That's kind of your whole thing. I've actually just discovered cycling thing. Bought a bike and went to Cornwall and cycled my heart out for a few days and it's all right. It was It was a great feeling, so I'm sold on it. It's certainly gonna stop me taking Uber 10 minutes down the road.
Stuart Price: 0:00
Tour de trance
Ralph Moore: 39:24
Hey, five out of 10 for that one. Stuart, what are you doing in your down time, Any obviously youre a = father. Do you have a something like cycling that you do to relax?
Stuart Price: 39:32
Yeah, I play tennis. Just consequence of we came in. Oh, yeah, when we moved to Los Angeles, Obviously this window opened up of being able to be outside in fair weather. A lot more and for me. That was just it. I don't know what even happened. So it just kind of took over my brain and that was just It was just in deep.
Pete Tong: 39:51
He's in his tennis shorts every morning. That's right.
Stuart Price: 39:54
Yeah, but you know what? You're in your cycle shorts.
Pete Tong: 40:00
For five years, I've been so yeah, we'll get a game together. He's never come cycling with me, and I've never hit a ball with him yet. We must break that taboo.
Ralph Moore: 40:20
Yeah, well, I think we've covered an awful lot of topics. I've you know, I might notice a school run. We've covered that. We've covered 20 years. We've covered Ibiza classics we definitely covered the president 360 thing. We talked about bout my Mike Hollis.
Stuart Price: 40:22
Pete's just getting into the sort of idea of presidential rolls. You know, maybe we
Pete Tong: 40:26
got a very good example of the moment with one back home. Now, we got a new prime Minister as well.
Ralph Moore: 40:33
Well, listen, Thank you for taking the time small. Thank you. Amazing. Thank you.
Ralph Moore: 40:38
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