You may not recognize the name or the face of Richard Morel. But if you've visited a dance club over the last decade, you've probably danced to his music. Collaborating with the fellow Washington D.C. duo Deep Dish on 1999's confrontational house classic "True (the Faggot Is You)" announced his arrival. Under his Pink Noise moniker, he's remixed Nelly Furtado ("Promiscuous"), New Order ("Krafty"), Seal ("Killer"), and countless others. Together with former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould, Morel DJs and hosts Blowoff, a roaming gay dance party that's appeared in D.C., New York, San Francisco, and P-town. He worked with Cyndi Lauper on her fantastic recent album, Bring Ya to the Brink, and his latest solo album, The Death of the Paperboy, is now on iTunes and eMusic with physical CDs to hit stores later this month. Trust us: You'd like him.
Out.com: Why did you and Bob Mould create Blowoff?
Richard Morel: We'd become friends and started writing songs together about five years ago. And in the middle of that process, Bob asked me about doing the parties as a way to have fun and meet people in D.C.
How do reconcile your alienated rocker side with the side of you that makes remixes of pop songs played at circuit parties?
Both of those parts exist in me. When I first got into music, there was rock and disco and New Wave, but I kind of absorbed it all as one thing. As a kid, I loved all the disco and R&B that was happening, but I also loved Alice Cooper. I've been like this so long it's all that I know.
What do you most fondly remember about working with Cyndi Lauper?
It was the writing process. I've done a number of collaborations where you write the music and then you send it to them and they do a vocal and send it back to you. She's not like that. She likes to be in the room and bounce the lyrics around and interact in the same way you do in a rock band. She's such an unbelievable singer, and it was kind of magical to hear her singing the ideas. She was totally willing to go someplace where she really hadn't gone.
What do you do when you get a job to remix a song and realize there's just not much to work with?
I will try to get the one central piece out of it that will work. Sometimes I swear they hire the remixer to try and get a song out of it. I'm not naming names, but you wonder how some of these people got record deals.
Who would you most like to remix?
David Bowie because I've been a huge fan my whole life, and U2 because they're a rock band that keeps delivering and being pompous and brash. I'm just inspired by that.
What were the records that made you want to make dance music?
I remember when "Turn the Beat Around" by Vicki Sue Robinson came out. I had a little AM radio and I used to wait for them to play it. "Keep on Truckin'" by Eddie Kendricks was like mind-blowing for me. As far as my first forays into nightclubs, a big record was "Heartbeat" by Taana Gardner. Also a lot of the British New Wave stuff was dance music, whether it was Heaven 17, Soft Cell, New Order, or even Billy Idol.
Your own songs seem quite personal. What kind of feedback have you received from the people in your life whom you've referenced in your lyrics?
[Laughs] Sometimes I get more feedback from the people I don't reference in my lyrics. Like "This is about so-and-so. Why isn't it about me and what's going on here?" [More laughter.] They might be about something that isn't contemporary, but it is nonetheless very autobiographical.
Have you ever won someone back with a song?
No. I wish it were that easy.
-- BARRY WALTERS
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