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On the eve of our new pack release, Funky House Producer 2, we sat down to chat with the creator of this pack and the original Volume 1, Andy Lee, to find out what made it so successful.

What was the inspiration behind the original Funky House Producer pack? 

There’s a Moog synthesizer just behind me there that I bought over 15 years ago that I just couldn’t afford. It was a case of, "Right what can I do to pay for this synth?"

I started putting sounds from the synth onto discs and posting them to people. My production sound has changed quite a lot over the years. I’ve been producing for close to 20 years now so I’ve gone from making soulful house to deep house to now probably a more minimal kind of sound – but still music that takes you somewhere. 

How did you get yourself ready to create the new, modern version?

Coming up to the anniversary 15 years of working with Loopmasters, I looked at some of the earlier packs that we’ve done. There was like a collection of three packs: the first pack was Funky House Producer; the second pack was Soulful House Sessions; and there was Disco House Sessions. I just had to go back and take a look at these packs and recreate the vibe of the three; and then, using small elements and parts of that pack, almost like regenerate a new pack from it.

What gives you your inspiration when creating your own music?

It could be over 20 years ago now that I purchased the Magic 7” collection, which was a collection of about 300 vinyl that had been removed from a jukebox in America, to put CD players in. For this project it was perfect because there’s such a link between like old disco records, old funk records and funky house. It’s always been there so you can stick a record on and just get inspired by a bassline, or inspired by a guitar riff, and then just pick up your guitar and just kind of do something similar with a similar kind of feel. You should find that things just naturally fit together quite nicely with this pack. 

How has your production setup changed over the years?

It's quite similar to how its been for a long time. Outboard-wise, we use a collection of vintage mics, vintage preamps, into a very modern processing chain inside the box. I love the Elektron pieces of kit, it’s a very different way of working to programming inside the box. The idea with the packs is to inspire as much as possible, but it's just fantastic to watch people take that to the next level.

Funky House Producer Vol 2 is available now on Loopmasters and Loopcloud.