Steve Porter (producer)

Early life

Steve Porter was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, around 1978, the son of Catharine and Roger S. Porter. Catherine was an ombudsman at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Roger founded the school's polymer science and engineering department.

Porter was interested in sports from a young age, in part because of the NHLPA Hockey '93 video game for the Sega Genesis. He attended Williston Northampton School, where he was part of a club for "budding DJs". He graduated from the school in the 1990s.

Career

As a DJ, Porter was discovered by Chris Fortier and signed to his label, Fade Records. Throughout the early 2000s, Porter toured North America, Asia, and Europe as a DJ. In 2009, he ranked number 2 in the DJ Times "America's Best DJ" poll.

Early remixes

Interested in branching out from traditional DJing, Porter began working on video remixes of commercials and celebrities. One of these remixes was a music video called "Rap Chop", which remixed the Slap Chop infomercial using auto-tuning. Porter posted it to YouTube on April 25, 2009, and soon afterward the video went viral, garnering over 12 million views within two years. while Jason Lutz, in an article written for Billboard, compared Porter's mashup to similar viral video works by Mike Relm and The Gregory Brothers.

In June, Porter released another remix entitled "Press Hop", which featured footage of basketball player Allen Iverson and his "practice" press conference, as well as a controversial rant by American football coach Mike Gundy. The "Press Hop" video was viewed over 3 million times.

In July 2009, because of the success of the "Rap Chop" video, Porter partnered with Vince Offer to produce official commercials for Offer's products. Porter was also contracted by FedEx, and the "Press Hop" remix aired on ESPN.

PorterHouse Media

Because of the success of his early remixes, Porter founded a production company, PorterHouse Media, in 2009. Porterhouse Media is a multi-media company based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The company's main service is creating viral media remixes as advertisements for sports teams and leagues and television networks such as ESPN, ABC, and NBC. By 2012, the company had produced approximately 100 video remixes, each of which takes between 100 and 250 hours to create. Most of them are about 30 seconds long.

In 2010, PorterHouse Media partnered with Goodby Silverstein & Partners to produce advertisements for the National Basketball Association's "Where Amazing Happens" campaign. They produced four commercial spots, "Where Defense Happens", "Where Clutch Happens", "Where Determination Happens", and "Where Stepping Up Happens", which each remixed footage of basketball players into rap songs. In the same year, PorterHouse Media also produced a series of advertisements for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown and CBC Television's Hockey Night in Canada. Although Porter's remixes are generally well received, fans of his early work as a DJ are often critical of his commercial work.

Other work

Porter's remix of "Put Your Faith In Me" by Konami in-house artist UZI-LAY appeared in Dance Dance Revolution Universe and his own song "Somebody In Da' House" appeared in Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2. Porter contributed two remixes to the 2014 video game Fantasia: Music Evolved. In 2015, he created a musical "supercut" of clips of the rapper Eminem, to celebrate the artist's birthday. The video was featured in Rolling Stone. This led to a series of subsequent collaborations with the magazine.

Porter also did a mashup of Jeff Dunham's NBC-special Unhinged in Hollywood.

Awards and recognition

Discography

Albums

• Homegrown (2005)
• Planet P (with Funk Harmony Park) (2005)
• Porterhouse (2006)
• Porterhouse Volume 2 (2007)
• Essential Mix (2007)

EPs

• Carismo (2006) - Curvve
• Operation Berlin (2006)
• The Control (2009)
• Rollerblade Disco (2009) - Curvve

References

References

1. (2015-09-17). "Campus Invited to Honor Catharine Porter, Former University Ombudsperson". [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]].
2. Antosiewicz, Frank. (1998-09-07). "Researcher Roger Porter Dies". Plastic News.
3. (1998-08-26). "UMass Professor Emeritus Roger Porter, First Head of Polymer Science and Engineering Dept., Dies at Age 70". [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]].
4. Hicks, Brandon. (2010-12-07). "DJ Steve Porter remixes HNIC". CBC News.
5. Medeiros, Matt. (2011-05-09). "Steve Porter of Holyoke followed varied path to the founding of Porterhouse Media". MassLive.
6. Porter, Steve. (2005-07-26). "Chris Fortier: Much More Than "Progressive"". JIVE.
7. Rinehart, Dave. (2007). "Porterhouse Vol. 2 mixed by Steve Porter". Resident Advisor.
8. Greene, Jo-Ann. "Porterhouse - Steven Porter". [[Allmusic]].
9. Greene, Jo-Ann. "Porterhouse, Vol. 2 - Steven Porter". [[Allmusic]].
10. Anderson, Kyle. (2009-07-14). "'Rap Chop' And 'Press Hop' DJ Turns Viral Video Into Big Business". [[MTV]].
11. Lutz, Jason. (2010-08-24). "YouTube auteurs remix videos into pop music hits". [[Reuters]].
12. Herrera, Tom. (February 14, 2011). "Justin Bieber's Ringtone: 'Come After Me! I'm a Man! I'm 40!'". AOL News.
13. Petersen, Matt. (2010-05-14). ""All I Gotta Do Is Focus": DJ Steve Porter, the Man Behind the NBA Playoffs Ads". [[Bleacher Report]].
14. Cortez, Samantha. (2012-07-11). "After Getting 14 Million YouTube Views, This DJ Started Creating Video Remixes For Big Brands". [[Business Insider]].
15. Thomas, Vincent. (2010-05-03). "Where the Remix Happens".
16. McCarthy, Zel. (2013-06-21). "Steve Porter: From Nightclubs to NBA, the DJ Talks About His Video Remixing Evolution". [[Billboard (magazine).
17. Shteamer, Hank. (2015-10-16). "Watch 'Shroomed-Out' Eminem Goof Off in DJ Steve Porter Birthday Supercut". [[Rolling Stone (magazine).
18. (9 September 2015). "Unhinged in Hollywood Official Mashup : JEFF DUNHAM". [[YouTube]].
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