STEVE STOCK: What’s going on? This is Steve Stock with Bill Holland in Detroit here at the Movement Festival ’08. We’re here with Reggie Hotmix Harrell. We’re here to ask you a couple of questions, you know, about how the set went, how the setup’s going on, how the sound is, you know, just kind of where the industry is going and all this stuff as far as your set I mean like that, you know.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: The set was fun. I had fun today.

STEVE STOCK: Yeah?

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: You know, a lot of cats come around, a lot of cats DJ, and it’s like they take things too serious. I just came on to have fun today.

STEVE STOCK: And that’s what it’s all -- I think that’s what it’s all about.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: I had fun. I think the crowd had fun. At least I hope they did.

STEVE STOCK: What do you think the sound on there? They got that bass -- the stage rocking again this year? What do you think?

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: You know what, I’ve been down there for other events. This is the first time I actually played there and the sound was tight this year, you know. They had finally got it right. They eliminated like a lot of the echoes so it was like everything was cool.

STEVE STOCK: Nice, nice. Now, as far as the industry and the way everything is going with, you know, just house music and electronic music in general, what do you think -- I mean what’s your projection for like, you know, from the past two years to the next three years like as far as where? I mean there seems to be like a lot of transitions, a lot of changes, you know, the whole swap over to digital versus analog and all this, you know I mean -- What do you think about all, you know, where we’re going? Where we’ve been?

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: Probably as far as the whole digital versus analog, first I’m a vinyl junkie, you know.

STEVE STOCK: Yeah. Yeah.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: I’m a vinyl junkie.

STEVE STOCK: This guy sold me a few of my first records [LAUGHING]

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: You know, I’ve neem doing this for close to 30 years now, and like when we first started out, cats were running around playing with cassette decks. We’re bringing reel to reels, pitch control, and this is the same thing now. A lot of cats are like vinyl, vinyl but, you know, it’s all about utilizing the tools that are at your disposal to, you know, to make you more creative.

STEVE STOCK: Right. Right.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: You know, I’m still a vinyl purist and -- but, you know, I’ve been rolling CDs for a while. I don’t have a problem with Final Scratch and Serato and all that stuff as much anymore as I used to because I -- You know, I haven’t played on a good traveling. That’s the way to go. Now, if I go to Chicago and I go to see somebody play, if I’m in New York or even here, if you’re in your own city, yeah I want to see you with some vinyl, a few CDs are cool, but you know it’s getting harder and harder with the vinyl because a lot of the companies aren’t even putting out anymore. So, we’re almost being forced into the digital age.

STEVE STOCK: Yeah. Yeah. As far as production, I mean as far as like quantity versus quality, I mean I know there’s a lot of new upstarts and there’s a lot of people putting stuff out, as far as that like I mean do you have any like recommendations to kids who are coming out trying to make some house music and they’re using like a lot of just pure digital stuff? A lot of cats are just, you know, maybe people are just using analog. I mean as far as production, the production end of it, what do you think -- you know, any advice or any like, you know, opinions on that?

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: I’ll be like this. If you’re out there and you’re trying to make music, make music. You got -- There’s so many people out here now just going out looking for quick tracks. Just like try to be creative, try to make a song. Tracks are cool, tracks are fun, but not many tracks are being made today that would be playable, you know, two or three years down the line. If you take the time and learn how to actually make a song, you know, music will have longevity and so will your life as an artist because one thing people need to start doing is demanding, you know, the cities -- the city, state, and federal government start pushing more -- pushing the arts back into schools and everything because a lot of kids nowadays, you know, don’t know anything about playing an instrument.

STEVE STOCK: All right. I mean if we can get into that, I mean a little bit further, I mean as far as Detroit and Chicago in the Midwest, as far as, you know, education system and stuff like that, as far as music and arts, I mean do you have anything, you know, further to say as far as like, you know, what should be done and what could be done better as far as here locally in the midwest?

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: Hopefully in the mid -- Well, I can’t speak for like all the Midwest but like for Detroit in general, you know, when you start having -- you know, when you have a city especially where the economy is the way it is, you know, that’s when really you need to start pushing all the art programs, you know, because one it helps keep kids off the street because it keeps their minds active, it gives them something to do, it keeps them focused, and it teaches them discipline. Two, is like when you start investing in those types of programs, it helps rebuild your city, you know, because I’ve seen a mass exodus. It’s like all our creative juices leave the city because they can’t make a living here, they can’t thrive here, so you have to keep those programs going. Once your creative juices go, this city is dead. Plain and simple.

STEVE STOCK: I hear you, man. And now back to like as far as you personally, Reggie Hotmix Harrell, what are you doing within a year. What’s coming up? What’s new? What’s going on for the next few months for you?

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: Right now, we’re just concentrating on parties we’ve been doing, strictly house, do two monthly party/events. Every second Saturday we do a party called The Remix where we’re just doing house remixes of like all types of tunes, R&B tunes, hip hop tunes, old rock tunes. If it’s remixed or one of us has remixed it, we’re running it. And the other part is our strictly house party, you know, because we’re trying to keep house going in the city, and again I had -- right now I’m just trying to have some fun.

STEVE STOCK: [LAUGHING] That’s serious fun, man.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: You know, I’m trying to have some fun for as long as I can.

STEVE STOCK: Cool, man. Cool. Well, definitely dude, thanks a lot for the interview, and I feel like that. Like I said, this is Reggie Hotmix Harrell.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: All right. Thank you.

STEVE STOCK: It’s going on, man. This is Bill Holland and Steve Stock for Gearwire.Com. We’ll see you guys soon.

REGGIE HOTMIX HARRELL: Peace.