Drowned Madonna: Hi Scott and Jason, welcome to DrownedMadonna. More than ten years ago you formed Deepsky. How you met?

Deepsky: We were both college students at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I [Jason] was in an industrial band, and the guy I was working with at the time knew Scott, who was throwing raves and looking for someone to help out with sound.We met up, did a few parties, and came to the conclusion that we’d rather be writing music than promoting events. This was back in 1992 so we’ve known each other for a good 13 years now.

Drowned Madonna: What were your initial influences and interests?

Deepsky: 80s alternative and new wave primarily. Scott was big into synth-pop like Erasure and Pet Shop Boys, and I grew up on harder stuff like Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and assorted punk rock. We both found common ground in music like New Order and The Cure. When the New Beat scene hit in the late 80s & early 90s, it seemed like the natural evolution of the music we loved.

Drowned Madonna: What were you doing before you became Deepsky?

Deepsky: Scott and I were both in college at UNM for music. We were both in other bands at the time, but once we got together and started writing the others didn’t last long.

Drowned Madonna: What was your first release?

Deepsky: A three-track EP on Rampant Records out of Los Angeles, with “In My Mind”, “Godspeed”, and “Departure”. “In My Mind” was the big tune from that one. It wound up on Nick Warren’s Cream Live 2 CD back in 1996.

Drowned Madonna: Has your production style changed much from then?

Deepsky: Absolutely. Musically we still strive to keep things interesting and really put a lot of music into it rather than falling into the techno trap—lots of dance music is little more than beats and some tweaky sounds. We try to focus on good songwriting and interesting music that will last more than a month in a DJ’s crate. However, we’ve grown by leaps and bounds in how we write music, and we’ve become far better engineers than either of us ever thought possible.

Drowned Madonna: When did you introduce software sequencers and virtual instruments into your studio?

Deepsky: Around 1999. I [Jason] fought against it for a long time because we’d spent so much money buying hardware synths hand over fist for years, but in the end, the virtual stuff won out. We still have select outboard gear in our studio, but for the most part we’ve gone virtual.

Drowned Madonna: What sound softwares do you use?

Deepsky: Too many to list. Logic, Cubase SX, and Live for sequencing. Almost all of the Native Instruments stuff. Universal Audio UAD-1. For a full list, check out www.deepsky.net.

Drowned Madonna: Do you build your own instruments or do you mainly uses the presets?

Deepsky: Both. If we use presets, we tend to tweak them a bit so they aren’t completely stock, and sit in the mix better.

Drowned Madonna: Do the new softwares affect your creativity and the way you make music?

Deepsky: Of course. Going virtual with the studio changed the way we write. We used to rent ADATs for multitracking and pipe them through our old Mackie 24x4 for mixdown. If you’ve ever used ADATs you know what a bitch it is to edit on those things, and waiting for a bank of them to seek to a locate point takes forever. Using a DAW and plug-ins has streamlined our production process and made it way easier for us to get multiple takes of a mixdown until we’re completely happy with the end product.

Drowned Madonna: Can you tell us the way you write, record and produce new tunes?

Deepsky: There’s not enough space here, and it’s really never the same anyway. Sometimes it starts with a melody, others with a beat, yet others with just one sound. I think the key is that we employ a variety of methods to write music, and that keeps things fresh.

Drowned Madonna: You've worked on and with everyone. Are there any artists/musicians out there you particularly want to remix or work with?

Deepsky: Trevor Horn. If you aren’t familiar with his work, listen to any Art of Noise, and you’ll see why we’ve always wanted to collaborate with him.

Drowned Madonna: What are your all time favourite tunes?

Deepsky: This is the worst question because the answer can go on forever… I’ll keep it short and say True Faith by New Order, even though there are many, many more. That particular track had a lasting impression on both me and Scott.

Drowned Madonna: And what about your own favourite track?

Deepsky: Our upcoming release, “Ghost”, is by far the best tune we’ve done yet. I’m not one to listen to our own stuff over and over but it really is a great song.

Deepsky: We were happy to have a chance to mix that tune. She’d been moving more into more of an electronic sound since she started working with Mirwais and William Orbit, and we felt we could really do something with "Die Another Day". Given that it was the title track to a James Bond movie, we were honoured to have a part in it.

Drowned Madonna: How did you come in contact with Madonna? Have you ever met her?

Deepsky: Our management had worked with her in the past, so we came together through that contact. We never met her. That’s standard for remixes though. There’s no real reason for the artist and remixer to meet up, unless the artist needs to take a direct hand in shaping the mix.

Drowned Madonna: What have you been asked to do? Have you been free to create whatever you wanted?

Deepsky: We were hired to do what we do, so yes—free to create what we want. Madonna always has final approval over the remixes, and we’ve never had any trouble with acceptance, so apparently we were on the money.

Drowned Madonna: Did Madonna give you some input?

Deepsky: Only by accepting the mix without any changes.

Drowned Madonna: Tell us more about the creative process of your remix…

Deepsky: The first step was slicing all of the individual tracks into small parts for arrangement. Next, Scott pulled together a basic idea while I put all of the remix parts in Live and edited the tempo and timing of each snippet to lock up with our track. I also did a number of vocal effects and other treatments for atmospherics, and Scott dropped everything into the arrangement. We tweaked and modified the whole thing for a good two weeks or so, and in the end, we wound up with a final version that got the green light without any hassle.

Drowned Madonna: How many different remixes did you do of this track?

Deepsky: The vocal and dub versions.

Drowned Madonna: Madonna also wanted you to remixed her second single from “American Life” album, “Hollywood”…

Deepsky: Apparently we did good work with “Die Another Day”, so she asked us back to remix another song. Our mix of “Hollywood” ended up being a little more uptempo and the better of the two, in my opinion. The process was very much the same as “Die Another Day”.

Drowned Madonna: Did you remix other Madonna’s tracks?

Deepsky: Those are the only two so far.

Drowned Madonna: What do you expect from Madonna’s upcoming album?

Deepsky: She’s been working the same sound for a few years now, so I’m betting she’ll come out with something that sounds completely different than "Music" or "American Life".

Drowned Madonna: Have you been asked to remix the first single?

Deepsky: If we had, we wouldn’t be able to comment, right? (smiling)

Drowned Madonna: Would you like to remix more tracks for her?

Deepsky: Of course.

Drowned Madonna: And what about producing and writing brand new tunes with her?

Deepsky: Absolutely. I’m sure that between the three of us, we could put together some incredible music.

Drowned Madonna: We are sure.. Do you prefer remixing or creating your own music?

Deepsky: Writing originals without a doubt, although remixing is satisfying in a completely different way. Re-interpreting someone else’s vision can be very inspiring for your own music.

Drowned Madonna: How many remixes have you done?

Deepsky: I can’t even count. Probably somewhere close to 40. Anyone who’s interested in our discography can check it out at www.deepsky.net.

Drowned Madonna: Let’s talk about live gigs…

Deepsky: Love them. We’ve been taking it easy on live shows until our new album comes out because we don’t want to burn people out on the new songs before they hit the shelves. We’ve been DJing a lot in the meantime. We built our reputation on the strength of our live shows, so obviously they’re very important to us and we enjoy them a great deal. We have big plans for the new stage show, including additional musicians and more live instrumentation, so keep an eye on our site for up-to-date tour information later this year.

Drowned Madonna: What are you working on right now?

Deepsky: We have two new singles coming out this summer. Earlier I mentioned “Ghost”, our newest with vocals by Jes, I think that has the potential to be a huge hit. It’s easily one of the most compelling tunes we’ve ever written, so please check it out. It will be available on Thrive in the US, or through Release Records around the world. We also have another track coming out called “Lost In The Moment”. This was a collaboration with Marc Mitchell of Sunday Club and Human Movement fame. There’s currently a remix contest for the song on Proton Radio (www.protonradio.com), and the full release will hit in a month or so. We also have a full album on tap for later this year or early next year. It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve been spending a lot of time getting it just right, and it’s worth the wait.

Drowned Madonna: What are your goals today?

Deepsky: We’ve been steadily increasing our film and television licensing, and we’d really like to make that more of a staple in our careers. Scoring original music for that sort of stuff is really where we see ourselves heading over the next decade or so. Aside from that, getting these singles out and making “Ghost” a worldwide success are the main goals right now.

Drowned Madonna: Thanks for taking the time to do an interview with us.

Deepsky: Anytime.Thanks!