Right in a few days, Luke Fair is releasing the third “Original Series” compilation. However we talked to him when this fact was kept secret. Later on the tape got damaged, so the text was nearly not posted at all. Fortunately Luke agreed to answer a few additional questions via e-mail and the whole story can be read below.

Sound Revolt: You were named as one of the faces to watch for in 2002, but in my opinion your breaking point was only last year. What happened that your career blew up only two years later?
Luke Fair: I was focused on productions and then on the Yoshitoshi CD. That helped me a lot...

Sound Revolt: But this was 2003 and you were already the face to watch for 2002?
Luke Fair: That's what they (media) say every year [laughs]

Sound Revolt: How come your remix of "Faakson" by Agent 001 turned into your own original production "Generations"?
Luke Fair: Because I didn't really use any parts of the original. That's what happens when I do remixes. If I can't work around any of the parts, I basically make an original. And maybe after I make the track, find a little bit of the original and put it somewhere, just to color the remix. So the label, which was Opek, shut down. And then shortly after Precinct called and said they wanted to release it.

Sound Revolt: What about the Massive Attack remix? What was that track?
Luke Fair: I started working on it, and then the label decided not to release any remixes, so I never finished it. The track comes from the latest album "One Hundred Windows", but I honestly forgot the name. If you said the name, I'd say “that's it”.

Sound Revolt: "Honestly Unknown" is what I like the most in your Kiss 100 tracklisting. And "Truly CD-R".
Luke Fair: That's a good label!

Sound Revolt: I wonder how you and Hernan Cattaneo work on your tracks together?
Luke Fair: I only did one track with him, but it's not the one that's called “Tokyo”. That is a track that I've never heard before. Someone mislabeled a track and put it out on the net. It's pretty funny
actually. Hernan came over to my place a few years ago and we worked on something, but we never finished.

Sound Revolt: There's another one which Can Costa played...
Luke Fair: That was his edit. He took my track together with Laurent Garnier's "Man With The Red Face" and mashed them up.

Sound Revolt: Why does your productions differ so much from the stuff you play?
Luke Fair: Everybody asks me that. It's because I'm not at the point yet, that I can make exactly what I wanna play. I've only made a few tracks. When I produce I don't think "ok, now I'm going to make a track that will sound like this". I just sit down and write what comes out from playing around with samples and synths. I've taken a long break from production and I'm more inspired than I ever have been, so hopefully this will all change.

Sound Revolt: Comparing your promo mixes, "Spring" to "Fall", one can notice that you have two natures. One is deep and subtle and the other is party.
Luke Fair: Yes, that's because when I do a studio mix, I usually just play the best tracks that I have at that particular time. On the "Spring" promo, all the tracks that I had then sounded like that. I was very happy with it, and I think it's the best studio mix I've done so far.

Sound Revolt: I've read you edit tracks you play to make them sound good in a particular city. Is that true?
Luke Fair: I basically edit everything I play, just to customize it. There's always something in a track that I don't like so I either cut it over or I extend a part that I like. I also think it's really important because with all the DJs out there now, exclusivity is the best way to get a leg up. Everyone is playing the same tracks and you need something to stand out, like your own exclusive stuff that no one else has. Re-edits give you that.

Sound Revolt: The “OS_0.3” tracklisting doesn't say you re-edited the tracks but that's hard to believe.
Luke Fair: I edited most, but a lot of it was very minor. I did some heavy re-editing on “La Serenissima”, andz the closing track, “Waves” by Lifelike.

Sound Revolt: How did you gather the tracks? Did you have problems with licensing? Is there anything you couldn't use? How many exclusive tracks are there?
Luke Fair: Luckily I didn't have any licensing problems. I was worried I would but thankfully there wasn't. There's a few exclusive tracks in there, but most of the stuff is already released.

Sound Revolt: You had a lot more time than Desyn and Jon – did you make good use of it? What do you think about OS_0.1 & OS_0.2?
Luke Fair: I thought the first two were great and very unique. Desyn's was a wicked eclectic house mix and Lisle's was a crazy mind-expanding trip that sounded like it was mixed by a mad scientist. I had quite a bit of time but as usual, I left everything till the last minute. It's in my nature.

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