Ramon Tapia has been busy making his name in the tech-house arena for a few years now, and after acclaimed releases for the likes of respected German imprint Great Stuff, he joined forces with Strictly Rhythm earlier this year for This Groove EP. Now he’s lent his enviable remixing talents to one of the biggest house tracks of the year; James Talk & Ridney’s ‘Forever’. We caught up with him for a quick chat about how he approached the mix and the challenge of coping with ‘that’ sample…

So 2010’s been pretty busy for you…any highlights so far?
 
So far it’s been hectic with touring in South America and up and round Europe. And of course I’ve spent a lot of time in my studio. As far as highlights go, I’d say getting signed to Srictly Rhythm, and the release of my album Sunka Sanka on Great Stuff are pretty up there!

Have you been over to Ibiza yet? Any interesting experiences?
 
Yeah, I had a gig in a new club called Summum but I’m planning to go on vacation with my girl in September just to chill out. After all, the island has plenty more to offer than just party, party, party.

Let’s talk about your mix of Forever – was is daunting taking on a remix of a track that sampled such a classic tune?
 
This was a hard one to get done. It took me a couple of mixes until I got an idea of how I could blend my sound with the sample, as it’s so prominent in the original. But in the end I think it worked out pretty good…but I guess you’ll have to be the judge of that!
 

What hard/software do you produce on and how did you approach this remix?
 
I use Cubase as my main sequencer. I just love the workflow in that program.  The approach? Hmm… there wasn’t really an approach. I just started to play around with the main sample to figure out what to do and how to do it…trust me it was a hard nut to crack!

What other projects are you currently working on?

I’m busy with a lot of stuff at the moment; a release on Riva stars label Snatch, doing a Strictly Rhythm compilation with edits by me and friends and much much more.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about..?
 
I’m starting a new label soon with my buddy Hermanez called Fonz Records…so keep your ear to the ground for some killer releases dropping soon!

The Forever remix package is out now – click to listen & buy