Part 3 la dj interview with Jono of Above & Beyond

[wetgroovin]

WMC/Miami Questions

27. Now that Miami is behind us for yet another year, what are your thoughts on the conference looking back?
It’s an interesting conference because it quite different from say the Amsterdam Dance Event. Because in Miami, I think partly because of the traffic, partly because it’s very warm out there, even though it is a winter music conference, it’s actually very difficult to get into a meeting on time there! We have a lot of meetings arranged that ended up running on. In terms of an event, it’s more about the vibe of the place rather than getting work done. That’s something I learned this year at Miami. It’s great because the whole music industry is out in one place for a week. We’re all like-minded people so it’s great to bump into people like Paul Van Dyk and see how they’re getting on. You just, sort of, bump into everyone in the music industry really and you get a bit of a catch up because everyone’s always working. The places you get to chat with other djs is when you’re finishing your set or you’re going on the decks after them or you’ll bump into them in an airport or something like that.
28. How was it like to play Wet Grooves at Nikki Beach?
It was absolutely fantastic! One of the best gigs we’ve ever done actually! Really enjoyed that! Just the atmosphere, it was supposed to be on the beach but it ended up being inside the club because some of the hotels were complaining about the noise apparently! It was a REALLY packed, sweaty, little room and the crowd was SO up for it. It was brilliant. There is nothing better for us than when you’re really in the crowd there, in with the people. Sometimes in some American clubs, one criticism I’d say with the American clubs, is often the DJ is placed up really high. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that compared to other clubs, but the DJ’s often in this booth above the dance floor. Kind of God-like position; what we like is to be quite in with the crowd so we can interact properly and really get into it with the crowd. Because obviously, we got into this music because we like dancing and listening to it in the first place. It’s not like, we’re playing TO people, we’re playing to enjoy ourselves a bit as well. Which I think is a healthy thing.

29. What tracks stand out the most in your mind outside of your own production work?
Some of the early work of Matt Darey was excellent. Tracks like Li Kwan – Point Zero was a really big influence on me personally. Also a track that Paul Oakenfold remixed, do you know Grace – Skin on Skin? <OH YES!> That’s a real classic, the Orange Mix of that. I mean it’s just so influential. The interesting thing about that, the main riff section is seven bars long. Most dance records work in two bar, four bar, eight bar, sixteen bar structures. So it’s quite strange to have a riff that’s seven bars long. But it really really works! I think he used it, originally, in his remix of U2’s - Lemon and then he made his own track out of it. That was another really influential track. There’s some early tracks. I think, later on, Ferry Corsten productions were excellent. Really influential. I think he’s an extremely talented producer overall. And of all the dj and producers, he’s a true producer and I really respect people like that. He’s not gotten too caught up in the dj thing. He’s always kept on putting out really great records and he’s got a great ear for melody. So his stuff was very influential. We also like progressive stuff from people like Sander Kleinenberg. We take our influences mainly from outside dance music.

Anjunabeats questions

30. Do you forsee Anjunabeats going all digital in its releases anytime soon? I.E. - no more vinyl?
I think it’s inevitable eventually. Every label in the world will be digital only at some point. Not quite yet. There’s still a market for vinyl out there. I think vinyl’s a lovely format for collector’s as well. And CDs, personally I find, if I get a CD in the post, I’m much more likely to play it than if I get an MP3 in an email. Purely because there’s an extra process involved. If I get a CD in the post, I will take it out, put it in the CD player, listen to it, decide whether I like it. If not, I’ll throw it away unfortunately. If I like it, it’ll go in my CD wallet and I’ll play it at gigs. Whereas, an MP3 download link, you have to download an MP3 so you can keep it, listen to it, then decide if you want to burn it to CD. There’s an extra process in there and I think if you’re really busy in this industry, a CD is a just a bit more instant. I think eventually we will go digital. It’s going to happen at some point when there’s no market for the other format. The other bonus of a CD is that the sound quality is bit better than an MP3 obviously because you’re not throwing data. So, not for the moment, but it’s definitely inevitable in the long term future.
31. What is the current state of Anjunabeats’ sister label, Hard On Recordings?
That’s now defunct. We decided to focus on Anjunabeats because we didn’t have the time to do the other stuff. It really wasn’t where our hearts were in the end. That kind of sound died for us. That sound is still around for some people, but it’s not really where our heads are at. We do like techy trance stuff, but now we see that being released on Anjunabeats. Anjunabeats is seen as a trance label by most people, but we see it as an uplifting electronic dance label. We’ll release any great music that we would play in a dj set that’s reasonably pumping. Anjuna deep is just a slightly more cooler maybe less accessible for most people kind of stuff.
32. What can we expect from AnjunaDeep in the future?
We’ve signed a new artist called Boom Jinx, who you’ve probably heard about? He’s an extremely talented guy. The best is yet to come from him I really feel that. I think I’m going to go as far as to say as his production standards are up there with BT, in terms of his attention to detail. It’s just unbelievable. This guy is an absolute genius. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll get around to doing an album with him at some point. I’d really like to see what he can do in an album format because I think his music lends itself. It’s very interesting; we’ve been in contact with him on the internet for about 10 years ago. We were both making music and I was really impressed by his stuff. And he liked the stuff I was doing too, so we had a kind of mutual appreciation. Since then, I’ve stayed in contact with him, a couple of times a year. Then finally, he sent me a track. I said, “This was excellent!” We’re gonna release it, which was Come Play Perfect. And then you get the B-side, which was Too Free To Follow and it’s a slightly deeper sound. It’s not the sort of, peak time trance stuff at all. But there’s music for every occasion. It’s something we’ll play early on in a set or a more bar type vibe. We like playing progressive stuff as well. We just like really good quality dance music. Even some of the stuff by the Swedish House guys is excellent. Steve Angello and all those guys, they make some brilliant records. Not always the stuff we play during a peak time set, but we really have an appreciation for their music as well. Anjuna Deep is a bit broader, I guess, than Anjunabeats in that sense. You heard that from the Larry Mountains, 54 track, which is kind of a fusion of disco house, trance and progressive. It’s a pretty genre-breaking record I’d reckon.