Collage all-star

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Steinski ponders his next sonic splice.

Photograph: Kiretsu/R.Gardiner

When a young advertising copywriter named Steve Stein and sound engineer Douglas DiFranco teamed up to enter a Tommy Boy-sponsored remix contest in 1983, they weren't trying to change the world; they were mainly after the $100, record-company T-shirts and the modicum of radio play that a win would score them. But the result of their collaboration was a funk-fueled slice-and-dice job, dubbed "The Payoff Mix" and credited to Double Dee and Steinski, that squeezed scores of sonic snippets into its five-minute running time and arguably had as much impact on production technique as any other single track. Cut-and-paste methodology in music certainly wasn't new: Avant-garde types had long worked with collage, and the idea had already begun to work its way into the remix world; but the skill and humor with which the pair pulled it off certainly opened artists' eyes to its endless possibilities, and influenced everyone from Coldcut and the Orb to any kid with a sampler and a dream. Several more Double Dee & Steinski productions followed, and Stein, now a 57-year-old advertising consultant, has produced plenty of solo work and collaborations with other artists. But much of the music that he had a hand in was never commercially released, for obvious sample-clearance and copyright reasons. Now, however, Philo T. Farnsworth's label Illegal Art has stepped into the breach with the double CD What Does It All Mean: 1983-2006 Retrospective, which includes the stunning Nothing to Fear mix Steinski recorded for BBC Radio in 2003.

What was the genesis of the retrospective?
Illegal Art actually approached me. Philo apparently was stunned that the last album by [mash-up artist] Girl Talk had done so well with no problems, and he seemed to think that I was the next logical step.

When you say "no problems," do you mean no legal problems?
Yes. You'll notice that neither he nor Girl Talk is currently in jail. Philo is basically one of the standard-bearers for fair-use issues. When he asked "How about a retrospective?," of course I agreed, but I did keep some of the most egregiously illegal material off of it.

What are the rules, exactly? What can you get away with regarding samples?
Beats the hell out of me! We're still hacking away at that jungle. I certainly hope we're on the right side of the hack.

It's been 25 years since "The Payoff Mix" came out, and it's still considered a touchstone of the pastiche production technique. Does that surprise you?
It's been that long? Oh my God-I feel old. It's extremely flattering, though Douglas was the one who did the actual construction on that.

Can you explain the methodology that was used to make those early tracks?
People always ask "How did you do that? There was no digital technology yet!" It's like asking someone, "How can you play the piano so beautifully without digitally rearranging what you did?" It's like, I just played the fucking piano! How did we do those tracks? We did them on tape. That was the only way to do it, just arranging bits and pieces on eight tracks, using razor blades and tape. If you had to shift something a bit, that could be a half hour of work right there.

Most of the music you've been involved with has a sense of humor about it.
Douglas and I liked to make each other laugh, and one of the ways we did that was through the music. Timing is key-having the right thing happen at the right time is vital in this kind of music, and even more so with a punch line. But the first record I did solo was anything but funny.

Which one was that?
That was "The Motorcade Sped On," the Kennedy-assassination one. I really wanted to make sure that one wasn't funny!

What Does It All Mean: 1983-2006 Retrospective (Illegal Art) is out now.