‘In the early 2000s, a lot of people turned off of house because a lot of it turned into lounge music,” says local DJ, producer, promoter and label owner Andy Roberts.

“House is made to be played in big environments or late at night, in spaces with low ceilings, red light, that kind of thing. My main goal with our events was to put the music in an environment that got me excited about it.”

As he reflects on the success of the Deep End party series he produces with promo partner Pat Boogie, Roberts is looking even further back — to the late ’80s and early ’90s when, while still a teenager, he found himself DJing at big house events alongside names like Roger Sanchez, Larry Heard (a.k.a. Mr. Fingers) and Robert Owens.

These were the days when house had an inclusive reach (“black, white, yellow, brown, gay, straight, everyone”) and drew large enough audiences to fill warehouse parties, clubs and big venues like the Concert Hall (now MTV Canada’s headquarters on Yonge Street). Roberts was a heavy house contributor, bringing his blends of funky, disco-informed, vocal and deeply underground sounds to warehouses, Mitch Winthrop’s infamous Rhythm Method radio show and, later, to raves and his own residencies including the legendary Hard & Soul Sundays at the Living Room.

In other words, Roberts had the experience and perspective to know that Toronto’s house scene had withered when he and Boogie launched Deep End with lofty goals one year ago.

“We knew there was still a house crowd there, but we wanted to put our money where our mouths were,” Roberts explains. “Nobody was doing anything; everyone was kind of sitting back, waiting to see what would happen. The whole point of starting these events was to generate some interest in house music and make things exciting again.”

Mission accomplished. With the Deep End series, the promo partners have thrown mid- to large-sized events with headliners including Dennis Ferrer, The Martinez Brothers, John Cutler and Quentin Harris, as well as producing some all-local editions. They’ve also brought house heavyweights including Tony Humphries, Kerri Chandler and Timmy Regisford to their hugely successful Long Weekend Legends series. (Frankie Knuckles is next, on May 18.)

 “I think we’ve generated some excitement about Toronto internationally, and definitely amongst people here who can go out to hear this music somewhere that isn’t a small lounge,” allows Roberts. “It’s bigger and more grand than what the local house scene has become.”

For Roberts, it’s also a chance to shine a light on Mixed Signals Music, the label he founded in 2004 after years of releasing his music on imprints like Dino & Terry’s Crash/Vinylpeace, The Stickmen’s Aquarius and NYC’s Kult Records.

Through Mixed Signals, Roberts has also been releasing music by locals including Gene King, Sacha Williamson and King Sunshine as well as international producers like Roy Davis Jr. and Alton Miller.

 “It wasn’t the best time to start a label, but I persevered,” laughs Roberts of launching just as the market for vinyl began to plummet.

He gives the example of Roy Davis Jr.’s “Feet Don’t Fail” 12-inch, released in 2006 and standing as the last physical record released by Mixed Signals.

 “The pressing plant was six months late making the records so we’d already done our promotion, it had good pre-orders, but the distributor didn’t really push it so we got stuck with about half of what we pressed, and we still haven’t gotten paid for the records that we did sell,” says Roberts, telling a tale familiar to anyone in the industry.

 “We decided it was time to take a step back and regroup. We’ve had to cut vinyl out of the scenario and we’re just doing digital, but we’re doing better than we ever were.”

Since the fall of last year, Mixed Signals has only made releases available through online shops like Traxsource. Not only have they sold more “records,” they’ve also licensed a good deal of material to international labels for compilations such as one Roger Sanchez now has in the works. Full-length releases by both Alton Miller and Stephane Vera are soon to come, as is a Deep End mix-CD series, and the new Mixed Signals Music WMC sampler 2008 is now online and available for purchase.
 “With vinyl, even if you have a hit record, good luck getting paid,” summarizes Roberts. “I’m happy with the digital stuff because you can track anything in real time, you know exactly what and when you’re getting paid. It’s just a lot easier.”