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| |  Barry Harris
www.barryharrisnyc.com Barry Harris Interview (part 2)RS: On the other side of that, in what way has the internet been negative towards your career?
Barry: The only ways it's been negative is that there's a lot of stuff that Thunderpuss didn't do and got credit for. The scary thing is some people 100% believe we DID do it. For example I would say, the Thunderpuss so-called mix of "Dancing Queen". I still haven't even heard it.
RS: I knew you were going to say that.
Barry: You knew that was coming? I've had people compliment me on it, and I've never even heard it, and I just absolutely shudder to think of what it is. There's other stuff that's listed as ours that I think is just God-awful and there's nothing you can do about it but just kind of shrug your shoulders. Because everyone believes it, once it's in print they believe it's true.
RS: So the most negative thing about the internet is it's been the misrepresentation of your work. I was sort of thinking there might be a negative also with your work being leaked ahead of the game, being a negative part of it also.
Barry: Well, yes, but that's a whole negative aspect of the entire music business, not just ours or our stuff. I mean as far as us and our work, it doesn't really matter. Ok wait, there's the whole fiasco of "What It Feels Like For A Girl," that was a really stupid situation. That really bothered me, can I tell you the story on that.
RS: Please do.
Barry: We did what I thought was a really kick-ass job of "What It Feels Like For A Girl," and we did it early, like two or three months ahead of time. Everybody knew that we were working on it and someone somewhere took the original album version of "What It Feels Like For A Girl," put it on the net and said it was a Thunderpuss mix. That's all they had to do, and that messed everything up. Someone at Warners said they saw a Thunderpuss mix was already on the net and people are already downloading it. That started this fire within the record company and Madonna, and we were like "no, it's not our mix", we have not done anything. They just cancelled our entire mix, period, and that was it, the end of story. It's that simple. We worked with them again later and everything was cool. But it was just such an annoying, stupid reaction that people freaked-out over what wasn't true and our mix wasn't on there, when we worked so very hard and put so much blood, hard guts and soul into it. We did three recalls, because we weren't happy with it. We'd play it out on the weekends and put a lot of heart into that, only to have that stupid situation snuff it out. That was rather disappointing, but I'm over it now. There's my whine story for ya!
RS: hile we're talking about Madonna, there was a Thunderpuss megamix radio version, and then you also did a two-part club megamix. What ever became of the club megamix?
Barry: Nothing. They decide whether they like mixes or not and they didn't care for it, so it never officially came out. That's fine..like I said earlier...it's an unpredictable crazy biz.
RS: What song in history, going back through all time, would you love to remix if you had the opportunity to?
Barry: I would want to work with Widelife on a remix of "Sinful Wishes." Just kidding...inside joke! Hmm i don't know...none of them at the moment!
RS: Let's end on a big positive note, what do you want to say to all your fans and all the dance music lovers out there?
Barry: Hmmm. Keep on dancing? I don't know, only joking, rewind. I'm not done and I'm not finished. I'm still around and I creatively go in waves because life's a rollercoaster, especially when it comes to music (songwriting/producing/remixing etc). I will definitely be back and doing some new stuff sooner than later, I'm not going away by any means!
RS: You've had two big winds in your life - Kon Kan, Thunderpuss - I'm waiting for the third one to come capture me again.
Barry: Yes, well I have no idea when that will be because Kon Kan was 1991 and there was nothing happening for five years, so you never know, it might be another four-year wait, I don't know. When I'm ready, I'm ready. Its like "Dive In The Pool" is me in a nut shell. You have to dive into the deep end. Don't stick your toes in and decide if you want to get wet or not, you know what I mean? You do it all or do nothing. I'm definitely an "all or nothing" guy, there's no in the middle, I "dive into the deep end" or not at all.
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