We interviewed La Baaz, one of most awesome and promising techno artists on today’s scene and he prepared a special, exclusive dj mix for your pleasure. Check it along with several other projects Patrick’s on. Techno friday’s on.

For those who heard about you but haven’t go in depth, tell us a little bit about yourself please.

Hello, my real name is Patrick Sonderegger and I live in Zurich, where I have my studio and the office. I’ve started my electronic music career in 1994, at this time I’ve organized small outdoor parties where I was playing my first vinyls. Back there I produced music on old C64 and Amiga Computer but soon I bought my first audio equipment to refine my tracks.

From 1999-2004 I’ve released countless progressive trance tracks together with a friend under name Paste. La Baaz project was launched in 2002. In this project I focused my tracks and sets more into Techno.

Today, in my DJ sets, I play chosen minimal techno and groovy tech house with unique atmospheres and groovy rhythms using Tech approach that designates my trademark sound. In my home town, Zurich, I am also co-organizer of the successful party series Kinky Beats.

What would you be if you didn’t gone this way (music production) ?

For me music has always been a very big role in my life, I’ve sung in bands before, now I’m a DJ and producer. The music has sent me on big tours and I have met many interesting people. Something I would never miss. Incidentally, I’ve specialized in website programming. Today I am self-employed and run along with the music successfully a small web agency. I’m very happy with this combination.

Do you remember the event (party/festival) that sealed your destiny and made you go this way?

It was not really a festival I was especially fascinated by the electronic music that I could compose on my computer. Very early I had C64 and Amiga, and I tried to make my own tracks. I’ve played tapes of my own compositions at that time on small open-air parties, people were crazy about it.

What did you listen to and what/who was your inspiration back then when you were starting your thing?

In my teenage years, I’ve listened to rock and heavy metal, fortunately, in the 90’s, I was lucky to get inspired with techno and progressive trance. I’ve developed my sound taste over the years – from the quite deep, progressive trance sound to the Tech-house and Minimal-Techno nowadays. When I think about music, I always produce what I personally like.

Do you travel a lot and what is your favorite gig destination?

Lately, I’m not travelling a lot. As I said, I run my own company, which has occupied my time. Zurich is also quite a beautiful city to enjoy with a lot of parties and good people! I’ll be back to traveling abroad and performing soon. I was travelling and performing a lot before, in Mexico, Brazil, Australia and several European cities.

I play a lot of DJ sets in Switzerland, but Mexico is currently my favourite destination, I played at big festivals with lovely people and they love the sound of La Baaz.

Favorite festival and why?

My best festival experience I had in Mexico at the Soul Tech Festival, where we performed as Moosfiebr. The crazy thing was already the trip to the festival. We should’ve play at 2:00 AM and we have been picked up at about 1:00 AM from the hotel in Mexico City.

There were about 8 artists in the bus. On the way up, the dirt road to the festival, many cars and thousands of people were waiting for the entrance. We had to pass exactly trough this. There was almost no passage with the small bus. We stopped several times stuck in crowds of visitors.

The driver told us that we should stay invisible in the bus, because it could be dangerous if the fans spotted us. They are crazy about making photos of us and eventually would want to get into the bus.

Suddenly, some of them spotted us and started shaking the bus, but in the right moment the driver was able to break out of the crowd. After 3 hours journey and some wicked moments we arrived very late on the stage and we could start our live performance in front of 15.000 people waiting for it. It was a crazy experience. The best festival in Europe for me is the Fusion Festival near Berlin…

If you have a family and travel a lot, how do you manage to overcome being a homesick?

I’m with my girlfriend for many years. Always when I have to go for a gig in another country we miss each other for that time but she also likes electronic music a lot so she often travels with me to the gigs and we can enjoy the parties there together.

Now when we know more about you, what is your favorite hardware/software platform and setup?

I’m a computer geek since the beginnings of C64 and in my studio I work with a PowerMac and Cubase. That’s also one reason I work almost only with a VST’s setup.

VST’s you’re using a lot?

• Tone2
• Lineplug
• Fabfilter
• Sonalkis
• Arturia ARP 2600V (I like it a lot)

Who’d you love to collaborate with in the future or you’re a lone gunman?

At the moment I work with DJ Kara Maehl our joint projects Moosfiebr and La Baaz & Kara Mehl. In the future I would like to invest more time especially for the project La Baaz and Moosfiebr. I like to do remixes for other artists to get new musical input.

What’s your take on piracy now when music is available worldwide to virtually everyone immediately after being released?

Well, the internet has changed the music industry and new technologies are always made so that sound is easy to copy. There is one point to make it all valid, because if a fresh artist wants to be heard, their music should get out there as much as possible, even with the prior knowledge that it will probably be illegally downloaded. This can be also a good promotion, and you will get a gig faster in foreign countries.

Of course the income of an artist has changed, I think most of the artist charge now more for a gig to get their income compensated. But if somebody wants to support their favourite artists, they should buy the music on Beatport or other online shops with a good feeling.

Please, when you’re going to drop that “Freak It” SoundCloud bombshell already in its entirety? I played it like gazillion times, it’s insane!

My newest work “Lady Elliot” will be released as soon as I have a second track ready for an EP.
The tracks “In the Club“, “Loco Motive” and “Freak It” are all released on Bosphorus Underground Recordings. Check it out.

Any work in progress at the moment and can we expect a release soon?

Lately, I’ve focused mainly on the Moosfiebr project. We have a remix ready for Minilogue’s “Doiice” and for Ticon’s “Blow My Horn“. Several pure Moosfiebr tracks are in the pipeline for a release.
With La Baaz I had some releases on Bosphorus Underground Records, where others will come in the future. One of my latest unreleased works you can listen on soundcloud.com/labaaz

What do you play/listen to these days?

I listen to anything with a character and what I think is good music. Mostly I’m into minimal-techno and tech-house with emotion. In my DJ sets I play quite a wide range, from groovy minimal-techno/house to very emotional electronica as well. I’m always finding the right groove to make people happy on the dance floor.

Some of my Favourite Artistes are: Pan Pot, Stephan Bodzin, Julien Jeweil, Dubfire, Oliver Hunteman, Adam Beyer, Sam Paganini and more..

Contact:

• http://www.moosfiebr.com/
• http://www.kinkybeats.ch/music.htm
• http://dj.beatport.com/labaaz

Social:

• @Facebook
• @Soundcloud

La Baaz – End of Summer Mix 2012

The post La Baaz Interview appeared first on Electronic Music.

Antix has been around for some time now, I remember listening to their debut album “Lull” from 2003 and knowing that they are going to rock the scene since their music was quite advanced for that time and can be easily compared to a bunch of productions nowadays.

Every Antix album brings innovations, top notch production and joy to the ears and synapses of the listener of story they’re prepared to tell.

Antix is band which has tunes remixed by pretty much every big name from the genre and that practice is likely to continue. Lets hear the bros..

Hi there guys, just to get things started, could you start out with a short introduction about who’s behind the ANTIX project?

• The infamous Strom Brothers. Barton and Hayden, we’ve been writing tunes together for the last 11 years.

How did you get into making electronic music?

• We became addicted to dance music it was just a natural progression for us to start producing. It wasn’t enough just to listen we wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of it all.

You’ve developed your sound a bit over the years – from the quite deep, progressive trance sound to the tech house sound nowadays. Is it a shift in sound you’ve made consciously or something that has come naturally?

• Natural progression, maturing with the music, changes in taste all brings on the shift in sound.

I guess some people still request that you play some of your older trancier stuff. How do you feel about that?

• It don’t bother us, if we can, we will play some older stuff, its’ hard though because the old sound doesn’t really fit with the recent tracks. We’ve been playing a few retro sets of late, so look out for that.

You’ve been on the electronic music scene for a long time now. Have you reached a point where you’re able to make a living from your music?

• Almost, we still have to fill it up with other sound production jobs etc. We are not rich with money but feel very rich in our lifestyle.

It’s no secret that you’re brothers: do you think that it has a special impact on the way you make music?

• Yes, I think so, it allows us to express ourselves fully with no holding back, this is sometimes a bad thing but we work through things really quickly.

Let’s put focus on your new compilation out soon on IBOGA RECORDS. How did that come about?

• Emok asked us. We thought it was a good idea, pretty simple really. It’s also nice to compile a bunch of tracks that we’d play in a Dj set, and also quite a few fromour very talented friends.

Ok, about the process: Did you have an idea to begin? Perhaps concerning which artists should be on it, the flow of the compilation and the sound/mood?

• Our only pre-required was that we’d play the track in our Dj set. We’ve done a Dj mix of the selection and it flows really well. We also wanted to use a few Iboga tracks and tune’s that have we’ve been grooving to of late.

Once again the release is featured on Iboga Records like all of your albums – can you tell about your long relationship with the label?

• We’ve been friends for along time and we’ve been happy with the work Iboga have been doing for us, so it’s a matter of why change when something is working well.

As far as other artists go, who and what are inspiring to you right now?

• We’ve loving the new Maceo Plex album on Crosstown rebels.

Where do you see the sound in “the scene”?

• I think music generally does big circles on itself, just like fashion things repeat them selves but with a slightly different flavor. All I know is that it just keeps getting better!

Antix – Box of Birds

Antix – On The Rock (Lull 2003)

Antix discography:

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Antix

Official website:

http://antixfiord.com/

Folow Antix:

@facebook
@twitter
@soundcloud
@myspace

The post Antix Interview appeared first on Electronic Music.

Hi there guys. Just to get things started, could you start out with a short introduction about who’s behind the Ticon project?

• We are Filip Mardberg and Fredrik Gilenholt – 30 years of age and around 60 combined We have our base in Malmö, Sweden which also houses our studio and office.

Tell me a little bit about your musical development: What did you listen to as kids and what drew you to electronic music in the first place?

• We met through Fredrik’s younger brother, who went to school with me (Filip) back in 1995. Fredrik was listening a lot to hardtrance and techno which was totally new for me. We became friends relatively quickly since this is a small town and any “odd” music-directions and lifestyles were not greeted with the best of respect. Fredrik also played around with an Amiga 500 and a 5 channel tracker sampling sequencer program and one day we started to make a track together. I remember that we had to put the kick in the left speaker and the bass sound in the right since there were not sufficient channels to house all the sounds..haha.

And about the production side of things – why did that start?

• I don’t know why we started. As I said, Fredrik was already playing around on an Amiga and it felt like the right thing to do. After the first session we immediately set up 2 days a week to make some new stuff. After some years this had grown to 4-5 days a week and today it’s our work and passion. In the first years we stayed in Fredrik’s house, but in 2001 we hired a proper studio location.

What was your first big breakthrough would you say?

• We have been producing under many names in the past, but it was not until the Malmö based label Digital Structures, which was run by Peter, Markus and Sebastian (former known as Son Kite, but now produces under the name Minilogue). They asked us if we were willing to try and make something for their labeland they gave us a bunch of techno tracks. We made 4 tracks in 4 days under the name Ticon and to our surprise they were signed and both singles sold out in no time. Then we made our first album, and after that things have just been going up.

You started out making harder, psychedelic trance music, but in later years your sound has certainly become slower and more house-inspired. How do you define your music? And what is its purpose?

• It is really hard to analyze your own music – we only follow our hearts and make music that we enjoy. Not only to dance to, but also listen to and produce. Every album we make is quite different than the previous one, since we get inspired really easy. I believe this is why we still enjoy making music together – nothing gets boring if you have an open mind, ears and eyes! The “slower” music nowadays is only a natural progression for us. I hope it’s not because we’re getting old – haha!

There were already some electro, breaks and 80’s elements on your 2003-album “Aero”, so you can saythat the album was a bit on the forefront of the development the progressive scene took in the following years. Are you consciously trying to go “outside the genre-boxes” in terms of making music, or is itsomething that just comes naturally?

• No idea. We only make music that we think is good in the moment we make it – there’s no plan to make “outside the box” songs. Things just happen due to the influences we are into at that time. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky: one week we can produce a fast techno track, and within 5 days we don’t like fast techno anymore and we throw it away and start on a house track instead. But in the end this is also what keeps us going – never looking back

I think you always had some slightly goofy elements on your tracks and albums. From the track-names, some of the lyrics and even full spoof-tracks like “Bonanza” and the secret track on “Aero”. What’s the background for this?

• We like to think of our work as fun and goofy. Music needs charm and humor – otherwise it would be dulland gray. The best music we make is made when we have fun in the studio and we just play around – no strings attached so to speak. You need to take some risks and do whatever comes to mind so that you don’ tfall into the production loop of boring, serious music…. Bla bla bla i don’t even know what that means

Looking back, which of your tracks and/or albums are you most proud of? Also – I guess some people still request that you play some of your older, harder stuff. How do you feel about that? Do you still play some of your old tracks in the original versions or maybe new re-edits in your livesets?

• We don’t have an album that we have favored. When we have finished working on a track we straight away start working on some new material – we never look back and we always play the newest material in our live sets to test tracks and techniques in unfinished tracks. We never do gigs with only older music since looking forward is much more inspiring than looking back. Some older songs we still play at times, but only in new live-versions. Since we play a lot of  live sets we tend to change tracks a lot, so we don’t get tired of working on stage…

You’ve played in practically all corners of the world (except for maybe the Arctic and Antarctica) and released 4 album – how do you keep motivated and inspired?

• Music is our way of life – without it we would be lost. There’s no greater feeling than when you get just the right feeling in a track that you are making, then playing it out live and get a good response. That’s what keeps us motivated.

Let’s focus on your new stuff; Can you tell something about your new, 5th album?

• The work on this album “I love you, who are you” has been going on for almost two and a half year so it’s going to be quite an emotional rollercoaster. The music that we made 2 years ago is quite different from the stuff we’re producing today, but that is a good thing in an album I believe. Albums should (in our opinion) be fun and inspiring to listen to, and we feel that we have accomplished that. The focus lies on club oriented songs, less “commercial” than our previous album and perhaps also more DJ friendly. So how to describe your work in letters? Hmmm… there’s a kick and a bass, a high hat and stuff like that

This is also the first album you are set to release on Iboga Records, even though you’ve had a few tracks featured on the label over the years. Why did you choose Iboga Records for the new album?

• We felt that we wanted to try something new and we have been friends with the label-managers Emok and Banel for many years, so it was a natural decision for us. Iboga Records has also grown on the international market, and the guys are definitely very enthusiastic – it is inspiring to work with them!

As far as other artists go, who and what are you listening to at the moment?

• We listen to anything that has emotion and joy. Fred is into Frank Sinatra and Balkan music and I’m personally into progressive house and tech house, but that will probably change soon enough. We tend to change what we listen to every month.

Where do you see the sound in “the scene” heading?

• The great thing about the electronic scene is that one cannot predict where it is going. There’s a lot of new techniques being developed and the development away from the old, expensive midi-based studios has given room for the computer based studio with plugins and software-synths. The great thing about this,is that almost everyone with an interest can start making music in his or her bedroom and that has, in ouropinion, led to a rise in popularity of electronic music. The downside is, that in recent years the main focus has been on the production rather than warmth and feeling in the techno scene. But in general I believethat we have a bright and interesting period in the scene ahead of us.

And finally – are there still new musical things you want to explore under the umbrella of Ticon, or perhaps a new venture?

• We never stop exploring – every week there is something new to discover. So hopefully many new adventures are still to come

I Love You, Who Are You album Soundcloud clips:

Blow My Horn:

The Glue ( editors favorite <3 ):

Smorgasbord:

Official website:
http://www.ticonmusic.com

Follow Ticon:
@facebook
@twitter
@myspace
@soundcloud

The post Ticon Interview appeared first on Electronic Music.

Please state your full name, place of origin and your artistic alias under which you perform for our readers.

• My name is Mikael Dahlgaard and I live in Copenhagen, Denmark. My DJ name is EMOK and I produce music under following names: EMOK, PHONY ORPHANTS and MAELSTROM.

A lot has changed in the electronic music scene, including many music listeners taste. What drove you towards more minimal music you propagate?

• I have all ways been into different styles of music. I love most electronic music all from good Goa trance to minimal techno and chill out. With playing and living from music for so many years it comes natural to me to change style and what I like from time to time, as I cant stand listening to the same kind of music for years. I had a period where I have been more into Prog House music, but still uplifting and with energy, lately though I like it a bit harder again, with more melodies so some good proper Prog Trance. As for Iboga Records, we had a year with releasing a lot of Progressive House music.A lot of our artists make this style these days and we love it as well. We have achieved a pretty good and solid name for Iboga records in this style. That doesn’t mean the trance music is a done chapter on Iboga Records. We have just changed the label into two labels, IBOGA RECORDS CLUB and IBOGA RECORDS TRANCE where each label will focus a lot more on the specific style. So for all of you that know Iboga Records from the trance scene, there is good news, we have some massive releases and albums coming up with artists like: LIQUID SOUL, ACE VENTURA, ATMOS, FLOWJOB, MAELSTROM, QUANTIZE, CAPTAIN HOOK, BEAT BIZARRE, REEFER DECREE, PHAXE and a lot more.

We, all your faithful listeners are aware of your new sidelabel, Iboga Trance, which will propagate psychedelic and faster tunes (not that current ones aren’t psychedelic enough), how do you think it’ll perform having in mind enormous quality and popularity of Iboga on the scene?

• We think this is the right way for Iboga Records focusing more on trance music as this is our origin and we still LOVE good quality trance music. We will focus a lot on the quality of the releases we make and work a lot more on promotion and artist management.

Will it gather only psychedelic genre tunes from current artists or are there some new names planned as addition?

• Names so far for Iboga Trance is: Ace Ventura, Liquid Soul, Atmos, Gaudium, FREq, Phaxe, Flowjob, Quantize, Captain Hook, Reefer Decree, Beat Bizarre, Maelstrom, Phony Orphants and we have some interesting new tunes from Mayor 7 (Side project from X Noize).

What can we expect to hear from you this year at the festivals?

• So it will all depend on which festival I play, which time and which stage. I will continue doing my 130 bpm progressive sets as I have been doing the past years but I will also play some faster sets focusing more on the music from Iboga Trance. All depends on the event. I play music for the crowd on the dance floor, so they will get what they expect.

What are the new, upcomming Iboga releases you’d like to emphasize?

• End of February we release the LISH album -€“ MILES AWAY. A really massive progressive album, also we have a chill out compilation from LENNY IBIZARRE. In March we have the new double TICON album -€“ I Love You, Who Are You ?. In march we also have a new compilation compiled by ANTIX called BEST OF OUR SETS, and the new GAUDIUM album is also close to be done. Then we have some massive single releases with ACE VENTURA, TICON, A.BALTER & EITAN REITER, FLOWJOB and so on. Later this spring we have compilations from ACE VENTURA and one from LIQUID SOUL, so stay tunes, there will be A LOT of nice stuff coming to your ears.

There are doubts on music sales in your music genre. Was it hard to survive all these years while you maintained high quality of releases and did the new digital music age hurt your sales?

• Yes its VERY hard. The sales of our progressive music (Prog House) is going very well, but the trance music is VERY hard to sell. Seems like people from the trance scene doesn’€™t buy so much music any longer and do not support it as years back.  Must be because trance people tend to download and copy the music instead of buying it. Its sad, because its becoming more and more difficult to have a label going releasing this kind of music that people so many places like so much.  The worst thing about this will be that no one will be left to release this music in the end, and then slowly this style of music will disappear.

If you could release music from any of your artist right now, who would that artist be and why?

• Shit that’€™s a hard one. So here comes a list of my favorite tunes we are going to release soon:  ATMOS -€“ ONLY 4 US, TICON & WEEKEND HEROES -€“ TELEPORT, RIKTAM & BANSI -€“ MOTHER FUCKER and then I look forward for the next massive LIQUID SOUL single we work on.

I know it’s ungrateful to ask, but our readers are simply dying to know what music top artists listen at private, so what are your favs?

• Its all good. Ticon, Pet Shop Boys, Deep Fried Dub, Music For Dreams (Danish Label), Turbo Weekend, Spleen United, Antix, Metallica, Nirvana, Bob Marley, Manu Chao.

There’s a rumor that new Iboga website is on the way, is that true and what are functionalities it’ll offer to your visitors/listeners?

• Yes its true. The new website is almost ready and its really a nice one. It contains a new online music store, weekly podcast and much more. Stay tuned. www.iboga.dk or www.iboga-records.com

Emok’s Exclusive Dj Set for Analogik:

Tracklist:

1. Nord – Boulevard Hotel
2. Atmos – Only For You
3. Pryda – Glimma
4. Lish – Feel Good
5. Hallucinogen – Gamma Goblins (Riktam & Bansi Remix) < OMG!
6. Ticon – Retreat To Retro
7. Nyquist – Otagu (Perfect Stranger Remix)
8. Michael Woods – Nitro
9. Flippers Vs DJ Slater feat U-Prag – King Of The Night

Follow Emok and Iboga Records:

• @facebook
• @twitter
• @soundcloud
• @myspace

For Contact and Booking :

• Iboga Booking
• booking@iboga.dk

The post Mikael Dahlgaard (Dj Emok) Interview appeared first on Electronic Music.

The guy behind one of the hot projects, Ridden, was kind enough to give us inteview and exclusive Dj set to accompany the article, hope you’ll enjoy reading and listening to it as much as we did while preparing  it. Read on..

Please state your full name, place of origin and your artistic alias under which you perform.
– My name is Michael Chavales from Athens, Hellas, and I am performing under the “Ridden” project.

Who were your musical influences and what are you striving towards?
– Any sound that can excite my imagination is an influence. My main goal is to make people totally enjoy themselves on the dance-floor reaching the trance dance experience…

What first drew your attention to electronic music?
– The main factor that led me into the electronic musical style, since 1998, had been the diversity of this style as it s related with the sound of a “real” instrument. The whole feeling that is created by weird electronic sounds plus the intense and repetitive beats and grooves (which are absolutely related to the psychedelic “tribal” culture) made me a loyal follower of this music.

Describe the current state of psytrance music scene in Greece.
– Lately, the Hellenic psy-trance scene is growing fast. Numerous of indoor and outdoor events are being organized with a lot of success, and as a result, more and more people are getting familiar with this psychedelic way of entertainment.

What is your hardware setup, favorite host sequencer and why?
– Well, I use a powerful PC for the Production and a Macbook Pro for my live performances. The hardware setup goes like this:

• Apogee Rosetta 200 AD/DA converter as soundcard.
• JBL LSR 4326 Loudspeaker system.
• Access Virus Ti and Novation X-Station (hardware synths)
• The sequencer I use is Steinberg Cubase 5 cause it makes me work really fast and effectively.

Are you satisfied with the album? Do you believe you have accomplished your goals?
– Satisfaction is clearly a subjective matter. As a person I am not the kind of the man that gets satisfied easily, so, I m always trying to expand my style and ideas in new paths, always having the same goal – The trance dance Xperience-

What can we expect to hear from you this year, maybe a new album?
– I can tell you that the main idea for my new album is already set, some tracks are ready, but I don’t know the release period. In parallel I also running a side project with my good friend “Conwerter” as “Binary Code” which you can expect the EP and the debut album this year and I m also collaborating with another good friend “Meander”, in a more “progressive” style which u can expect news soon.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with young producers?
– The main tip I can give to young producers is to learn use their “ears” correctly. The most important thing is to hear exactly what we produce, so all we need is the combination of a well acoustical measured space and a representative loud speaker system to begin. These, with a big dose of imagination and of course hard work apart a successful recipe to become a creative producer.

While Harmonia records is considered one of the old, stable and quality labels which released stuff like Pleiadians and Wizzy Noise, how does it carries its load at these times when music is available everywhere to download and share, how it handle enormous loses which are evident in your music genre industry?
– Well the “problem” with downloading and sharing music exists and it’s really a big loss for any kind of Label. As Harmonia Recs we use some mechanisms to protect our “stuff” ,but we can’t control everything…it’s the common situation of our days no matter the music genre. What are the upcomming Harmonia records releases you’d like to promote?
– For 2011 we have a full schedule of releases which are:

• Conwerter – Invisible Landscape (debut album) physical CD and digital release
• VA – Dance Code Physical CD and digital release
• and Digital EP’s from Eunoia, Binary Code, D Freq and JP Illusion.

Ridden’s Exclusive Dj Set for Analogik:

Tracklist:

1. Skywalker
2. Unusual Experience
3. Secret
4. In your Face (2011 Edit)
5. Greatest story (vs Conwerter)
6. Seti
7. Wisdom
8. Seti part II
9. Riding Life

Follow Ridden:

• @facebook
• @soundcloud
• @myspace

For Contact and Booking :

• www.harmonia-records.com
• ridden_psy@hotmail.com
• ridden@harmonia-records.com

The post Ridden Interview appeared first on Electronic Music.