| Peter Presta | |
| Background information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Brooklyn, NY, USA |
| Occupation | DJ, remixer, producer |
| Years active | 1990s-present |
| Associated acts | Darren Hayes Sade Anastacia Duran Duran Cindy Mizelle |
| DJ / Record Producer | |
Peter Presta is an American DJ and record producer, whose work has included remixing Duran Duran's "(Reach Up for The) Sunrise".
Biography[]
Growing up in Brooklyn, Peter knew that he wanted to be making music from an early age. His elder cousin owned The Funhouse, the club where John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez and Madonna started out. Despite being so young, Peter was able to sneak in courtesy of his cousin and quickly became enraptured by the whole experience.
After leaving high school Peter set up his own record shop, Unreel Records, stocking early house and freestyle. This proved to be the perfect tool for getting DJ dates as he would offer to promote their nights in the store in exchange for a chance to play. Not surprisingly, they took up his offer and Peter was soon playing in just about every club in town six nights a week. Venues such as The Tunnel, Club USA and The Limelight.
He would also sell his own mix tapes at Unreel Records and one of these found its way into the hands of the Aleem brothers who invited him to put his mixing style onto vinyl. Creating these medley mixes was fine but what Peter really wanted to do was make his own music and he released his first record, "Dancing on the Fire", under the name A New Trend in 1991. He was also making techno at the time and a chance meeting with Joey Beltram soon followed with the two became close friends and Joey releasing Peter’s tracks on his Rhythmatic Rage label. Since Peter was recording for Rhythmatic Rage he would end up hanging round the Nu Groove offices and hearing all the latest house records by people like Todd Terry and Masters At Work. Soon Peter was making his own house tracks and it was "Who Could Dance" as Mix of Trixx on Cutting Records that put him firmly on the map.
When Nu Groove closed down Peter was without a permanent label for around a year. He released "Car Alarm" under the name Viper in 1996. It ended up giving him his biggest break and selling close to 60,000 copies. Peter stayed with Maxi for the next four years.
Following the success of "Car Alarm" remix work came flooding in with Danny Tenaglia, Moby, Crystal Waters, E-Smoove and the Jungle Brothers among those getting the Peter Presta treatment. He also began collaborating with fellow New Yorker Ray Roc as Roc & Presta and their track "Everybody Over There (Getting Robbed)" was picked up by Masters At Work for their label in 1997. It went on to sell nearly 10,000 copies in the first week.
2004 saw the release of "Inside & Out" on Kinky Vinyl and "O Rox Drums" on Honchos Music with the latter going on to be a big club hit and played by all the top DJs. Peter also launched his own label in the UK, Apple Jaxx Recordings distributed by Amato, which has a dozen releases under its belt already and always features either an original track or remix by Peter himself. There have been releases on a vast array of other labels including Royal Drums in France, Sound Division in Italy, Houseworks in Switzerland and Peter Rauhofer’s Star 69.
Following the international success of "We Got Him" and a string of other high profile releases in 2004. Such was the buzz around "We Got Him", in fact, that the remix work started coming in thick and fast for the likes of Darren Hayes, Sade, Anastacia, Usher and others. Peter also remixed "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise" by Duran Duran which went on to become a chart-topping record in the UK and his remix of Cindy Mizelle's "Shine On" was used for the video.
As well as Deejaying more than ever, he’s recently produced a remix of Heather Smalls’ "Proud", which is part of the soundtrack in the last ever episode of Queer As Folk where it plays for over five minutes. It’s also slated to be the official anthem of the London 2012 Olympics.
A selection of credits[]
- The Loops of Damage (12" 1993)
- Presta Essential (12" 1994)
- Mix of Trixx (Part 2) (12" 1994)
- The Presta Whorehouse (12" 1995)
- Laf Wit Elmo (12" 1997)
- What's Your Name? (12" 2005)
- I Ran (12" 2005)
- Get Down (In My House) (12" 2007)
Related releases: