Steve Porter is an American musicvideo producer, remixer and DJ originally from Amherst, Massachusetts. He is best known for his pop-culture mashup remixes and studio work as a progressive house producer. Porter began producing music while attending Williston Northampton School, and was discovered by Chris Fortier in 1999, when he was signed to Fortier's Fade Records. Since that time, he has toured as a DJ and has released remixes and original music. In 2009, Porter placed second in the DJ Times "America's Best DJ" poll. In the same year, Porter founded Porterhouse Media, an audio/visual marketing company that creates viral videos. Porter has won several awards for his videos, including two Webby Awards and one Daytime Emmy Award nomination.
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. His touring included festivals such as Lollapalooza and Coachella. During this time, he released several trance music albums, which received mixed to positive reviews from critics. 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. A Guardian article compared the video to the similar Cillit Bangremix, 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 coachMike 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. The "Press Hop" remix also helped Porter gain attention from other sports associations.
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 . 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 accolades
Porter has won two Webby Awards for his video remixes. In 2012, Porter won the award for "Best Video Mashup" for his "All He Does Is Win Remix" featuring football playerTim Tebow. In 2013, Porter won the same award for the "So Disrespectful" remix. In the same year, Porter was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Promotional Achievement" for his work with ABC, creating "monthly mashups" for the morning news programGood Morning America. For his DJing, Porter was voted runner-up in the 2009 "America's Best DJ" poll conducted by DJ Times. In 2012, Porter ranked number 60 on Fast Company's list "Most Creative People 2012". Fast Company specifically cited his "Lin-sanity" video remix, which highlighted Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks.
