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Mariah Carey owns Christmas.
Earth, Wind and Fire owns September (the 21st of the month, in particular).
Prince, and not the Y2K bug, owns the year 1999.
The summer song was almost like a feeling [as] opposed to a sound.
It made you feel like it was hot outside.
Somebody was gonna barbecue.
It was time to go to the park, or time to go to the pool.
And I think that feeling never leaves you, especially if you grow up like that.
Youre just rushing to throw on shorts because of that feeling it gives you.
You helped create one of those songs for a whole generation, too.
And of course in L.A. its 90 degrees in December.
He called and he was just like, Hey, whats going on?
and Im like, Oh my God, its great!
He gained about 20 pounds over the winter.
But you know the girl?
She looks so good.
It was just the typical banter of the season changing that he missed.
And that is what drove him to write that song.
A lot of the lyrics about the nuances of summertime is basically what he missed.
But what happened was once he came up with the idea the music of the song perfectly fit.
And as soon as I heard it I was like, Wow.
I just knew that this is the song that I wanna hear at the barbecue.
Thats all we wanted.
And it just came back the year after that and the year after that and the year after that.
And it was like, Okay.
Your first Summertime mix leads off with Summer Madness, the song sampled in Summertime.
Was that an intentional ode?Yes, absolutely.
It was funny Mick is a very good friend of mine and he actually came up with the idea.
He called and he was like, Hey.
I got an idea.
I dont know if you would be into it, but what if we did a summer mixtape?
And I was like, Yeah thatll be cool, but you know what?
We cant put any new records on it.
As long as it feels like summer were good.
And I was like, Ah, man thats even better.
And it was kind of like, Well.
I hadnt planned on it but why not?
And its been nine years.
On the first eight mixes, theres been just one song repeatedOne repeat?
Ive only found one.
DAngelosCruisinappears on volumes four and six.We never knew that it was a repeat.
It started to get to the point that my wife proofreads the mix to verify.
So I had to go back in and do it.
Listen, I absolutely have to fact-check that.
Even with that, youve found this massive catalogue of songs that sound like summer.
Whats the process like now?Its starting to get hard.
And she say, Nope.
And Ill be like, Okay let me put that in.
Like I said, the hardest part is gathering the songs that we havent used.
Once we get the songs its very easy for me to put the mix together.
The mixes lean heavy on songs from the past.
And I feel like the warmness of a song recorded to tape is something you cant miss.
Those [bands] were very surf-y, very wavy.
I would have to really sit down and listen.
There are some really good songs.
You dont realize that none of those records that evoke that emotion were made by one person.
It was always the collaborative effort.
Youre young but you get it.
I have to ask you the unanswerable question.
Whats the best summer song of all time?If I had to … wow.
I was gonna say if I had to pick one, Ill pick two.
