Richard Vission has been a preeminent house DJ and producer in Los Angeles since the late ’80s. His musical career started when DJ culture was first taking flight in Los Angeles, becoming known for a freewheeling mixing style that cycled through dozens of records per hour. He took the same frenzied sound into his production career, scoring big in 1992 with the sports-anthem classic “Jump” as a member of The Movement.

Since then, Richard has produced and remixed top dance tracks for artists such as Donna Summer, Radiohead, Todd Terry, Lady Gaga, RuPaul, Ace of Base, Taylor Dayne, Crystal Waters, The Black Eyed Peas, Madonna, and many others. In 2001, he earned a GRAMMY nomination as Remixer of the Year. For over two decades, Richard’s hosted Powertools, the longest running mix show on U.S. radio. Powertools airs weekly on KPWR (Power 106 FM) in Los Angeles, and is syndicated in other markets.

As a busy producer who works on up to ten songs at any given time, Richard needs fast access to great sounds. That’s why he’s recently turned to the INTEGRA-7 SuperNATURAL Sound Module, calling it Roland’s “best sound modules, all in one.”

We recently talked with Richard about his long career, current projects, and how he’s integrating his newly acquired INTEGRA-7 into his everyday production process.

What tunes do you have on the charts right now?

One of my main songs out right now is with Luciana, and it’s called “When It Feels This Good.” It’s doing well on the Billboard dance charts. Remix-wise, I have the will.i.am/ Eva remix that I’m really excited about. I just did the Madonna song “Turn Up the Radio,” which went to Number One on the Billboard dance charts. I have a new single called “Feel the Love,” where I teamed up with Sven Kirchhof from Germany, and it features an amazing vocalist named Raquelle.

You started out as a DJ. How did you develop your following?

I started as a DJ when I was in high school. Everybody was a DJ; just in my high school there were 60 DJs. So everybody had a crew name, and it was just a big DJ explosion that happened in East L.A. I’m not sure if it happened anywhere else the way it happened [there]. We used to do house parties, and from there you just started building a following.

Soon I was in charge of my high school dances, and I wanted to do my dances in a different way. I don’t know how, but I convinced the school to give me a $3,000 budget. I would turn it into $10,000, and I started booking up artists like N.W.A., The Cover Girls, J.J. Fad…all the hot stuff. That’s how I kind of built a following. I started building relationships with artists and labels right out of high school.

How did you progress from being a DJ to a producer?

Being a DJ, you’re getting all this music and eventually you’re going to say, “Yo, I want to make what I’m playing.” Today, it’s obvious—you have to start off making tracks. People make tracks now before they DJ. Back then you started off and grew as a DJ, and then the next process was starting to produce. Once I started doing production, then everything else opened up.

Are currently developing any acts?

Right now, I’m in the studio with a group called W3 The Future. It’s three 15-year-old kids, and it’s just a really, really cool project. These kids are just so talented. We just signed them to Young Money Entertainment. Lil Wayne is a big fan, [and he] put them in his latest video. That’s a project that I’m really, really excited about. I’ve cut like 15 songs, and I’m going to be executive producing the album. Those kids, I think they’re going to make some real noise.

Tell us about your radio show.

It’s called Powertools on Power 106 here in L.A. We also simulcast it on a few other stations, but it’s predominately an L.A. show. It’s something we’ve been doing for 20-plus years, since I was a kid. I’ve had such a great relationship with the people at Power 106, and they basically give me two hours. I’ll do an hour of the hottest, newest stuff, and we have great guest DJs, from Afrojack to Tiësto to Hard Rock Sofa to Dada Life to Laidback Luke…everybody does the show. It’s just really cool to have the hottest DJs playing the newest music, and we do it every single week (Sunday from 2-4 a.m.). We also have a podcast on iTunes if you’re not up at that time, and we have a blog at RichardVission.com that shows what everybody’s playing. It’s just a real cool thing to do.

As a writer and producer, where do you turn for inspiration?

For inspiration, I turn everywhere, man. I listen to older stuff. I’ll listen to the first Daft Punk album to just digest some of that for inspiration, to remind myself you don’t have to overproduce stuff. I’ll listen to Zeppelin, I’ll listen to old Jimi Hendrix, and then I’ll listen to a lot of new stuff. The great thing of having Beatport is always hearing the new tracks. And I get sent a lot of new stuff. I like to take everything in, and something will spark an idea—let’s try this, let’s try that.

When you write a song, what elements do you start with first?

The track always comes first for me. I don’t necessarily write lyrics and melodies; I bring in topliners [for that]. So what I like to do is create a track that feels interesting to me; I’ve got to like it just as an instrumental track. That’s how I kind of start off. And then I write with some great topliners, like The Jackie Boyz, DQ from The Writing Camp, Nervo, Luciana…there are a lot of people. They come in and they do all the magic, and I’ll sit with them when we’re writing a pop song and feel out their ideas. They’re so talented and [create] such great melodies and lyrics, then I adjust the track to meet the feel of the song.

Who are some DJs and producers who have influenced you?

There are a lot. I think one person is Little Louie Vega. He kind of came from the same school I came from. He didn’t start off playing house music or EDM music; he came from a freestyle world [like I did]. He’s been a big inspiration with the longevity of his career, and the fact that he’s never compromised his integrity with any record. He’s somebody in the past, David Morales is somebody in the past.

People today…I think Laidback Luke is amazing. He was doing trance records back in the day, and he just kind of developed a new sound and reinvented himself, and now he’s just killing it. He’s always pushing the envelope, not being afraid of trying something new, which I think is cool. And I think Hardwell is also pretty amazing right now. To me, everything that he touches is just golden.

Where do you see things going in the next couple of years with EDM? What sort of trends are out there, and what’s happening on the street?

I think the EDM world is going to go back to being a little more underground. That’s where I think the future is. I think it’s become so mainstream—right now, EDM is pop music. It’s all over the radio. It’s not challenging any more. It’s cool that it’s got into that popularity, but I’ve already seen a new wave of stuff coming out where it’s going to be a little more underground. I think you’re going to start seeing different types of music come back in the scene. Right now, it’s almost like what I’ll call a “global house” sound, and a lot of people play a lot of the same records. You’re going to start seeing trance come back in, you’re going to start seeing tech house come back in, you’re going to start seeing people having specialties and certain sounds again. To me, that is the future of EDM.

How many projects do you work on at a time?

In the studio, I’m working on nine or ten songs at one time. Usually, the norm is about seven in the pop world and about three in the EDM world. There’s just a constant flow. For good or for bad, I’m one of those tweakers—I’m never, ever done until it’s done done. You know, sometimes we’re writing pop stuff and we’ll be editing those vocals and working melodies out, and then at night I’ll be working on an EDM track. We’re also developing new tracks at the same time. It’s just ongoing, like nonstop here for us.

How does the INTEGRA-7 help you with your workflow and the demands of your schedule?

What’s cool about the INTEGRA-7, what I really like about it, [is that] it’s going to cut down on my time that I have to go searching for sounds. Right now, in the computer, we probably have 50 [virtual instruments] to choose from. But it’s very nice to know that I can get a lot of answers for what I’m looking for in my head [faster from the INTEGRA-7 hardware]. The INTEGRA-7 is going to make things really, really cool and help the workflow work faster.

Also, working from the INTEGRA-7 Editor for the iPad just makes it a little cooler. Looking at a sound module, sometimes it’s just difficult to get your head around it. The way [Roland has] laid it out in iPad form is very, very simple—touch here, press here, touch there—as opposed to [going] into different pages. An iPad just makes it [more fun].

How do you think other musicians and songwriters will use the INTEGRA-7?

I think the INTEGRA-7 is going to be used by a lot of different people, from studio rats like myself to live musicians. I can see every band wanting to have access to all these different synths when you’re on the road; you’d probably have to bring 20 different synthesizers to bring what’s in that box on the road. I think for songwriters, too, they just want access to a lot of different sounds to get their ideas out.

You’ve been ahead of the curve for a long time with EDM groups like The Movement and Stranger Days. Could we possibly see you forming a new group in the future?

[Laughs.] I don’t see myself being in a group in the future; I think my days of stage diving [are over]. But I think I will be producing other groups, for sure. Being in a group is a really cool thing, and I think you’re going to start seeing more EDM groups come back into the fold, without a doubt. I think that’s going to be the next evolution.

I always like to look at history; history always repeats itself, but with a twist. And I think it’s really cool to see DJs play music, and I think the next thing for an EDM fan is to actually go and watch the person play the music. I mean, the best EDM show in the last 20 years is Daft Punk. So I think there’s going to be an evolution of that. Kids are going to be like, “There are a million DJs out there, but I want to play my stuff live.” I think you’re going to soon see four, five people on stage. I think that’s going to be the next thing. I think an electronic outfit having access to all the sounds that the INTEGRA-7 has is going to help them. If you’re doing your records live, you’re going to need access to a bunch of different sounds.

How does the INTEGRA-7 inspire your creativity?

The INTEGRA-7 is great for inspiration, because it has so many different sounds, from brass to synth sounds to live piano, and a lot of new sounds, which is really cool. I mean, it’s just amazing to get ideas down or take your production to the next level. Anytime there’s something new that comes out, it’s definitely inspirational. [The INTEGRA-7] has old sounds too, and a lot of people have never discovered those old sounds, so to bring them back in the mix is very cool.

One other thing I think is dope about the INTEGRA-7 is the history of sounds that it has, especially a lot of the old drum sounds that I’m always searching for. One of the first drum machines I ever touched was a Roland TR-909. So to have access to that history in the INTEGRA-7, and their history of all their synths from the old JUNOs on down, it’s just pretty amazing and cool to have all that at your fingertips. It’s a JP-80, and it also has every SRX board. It’s like your best sound modules, all in one.