Above & Beyond Interview

http://trance.nu/v3/interview_show.php?id=261/
Above & Beyond are currently on tour to promote their latest label compilation Anjunabeats Volume Five. This follows the success of their acclaimed artist album Tristate. Tony from Above & Beyond was interviewed about this release.
Anjunabeats Volume Five is available for digital download at I-Tunes and Audiojelly. The CD can be purchased at cdjshop.com
1 How is the tour you’re on right now going?
Tony: Its been great. We've been going to some new places (Puerto Rico, Niagara Falls) and returning to some of our favorite places (Pacha New York, 1015 San Francisco) and the dates have all been really good.
2. To promote Your latest album 'Anjunabeats Volume 5' You're very heavy on the show circuit always doing shows and live performances , when do you have time to listen to new tracks, submit remixes, and program Trance around the world (their weekly radio show) ?
Tony: We have a huge advantage in that there are three of us. We DJ as a duo (there three in the squad, and two in the team!) and so if we're on tour in the week off somewhere long-haul there's always someone at home to take care of TATW and keep the production, label and A&R side moving along. But we listen to new music on the road all the time: the internet doesn't care if you are at home, in the studio or in a hotel room in Mexico - the tracks still keep coming.

3. Please tell us about the new release and what fans can expect from this album
Tony: Anjunabeats Volume Five is a slight departure from earlier "Volume" releases in that its a double CD and, for the most part, forthcoming stuff. So we've been able to give full reign to both the Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep repertoire we've got lined up for release in the coming months.

4. What is the one specific tracks that sticks out in your mind that really represents what the CD and A&B is all about
Tony: I think its the breadth and, hopefully, the quality of stuff on there that represents what we are about rather than one track. We've always played a broad range of music in our DJ sets and now the label is able to attract excellent artists from right across the board of what we play out, which is fantastic.

5. You guys seem to have a real talent for producing successful vocal tracks, why is that?
Tony: I guess because we really like songs and think a lot about lyrics, melody and harmony and how they can best be combined. Between the three of us there is quite a lot of song-writing experience from the bands we used to be in and the music we listen to, which is right across the board from pop to indie to dance.

6. Please tell me more about Your first encounter. How did you all meet up?
Tony: Jono and Paavo met at University and I met Jono through my brother who bought a sample CD that Jono had made. I arranged to meet Jono one night out clubbing with Matt Darey and I then met Paavo for the first time at my flat when Jono and he came round to help me finish the original "Time To Die" Nitromethane mix. Of course we had no idea it would lead to this!

7. How important has MySpace, Last.fm or any of the other top networking websites been in getting your music out and connecting with the fans
Tony: We've always been present on the net and our own website has one of the most loyal and fanatical forum members of any site out there. But MySpace has grown so fast the numbers on there dwarf our own efforts. We have almost 90,000 friends on MySpace now and its growing faster by the day, so that's clearly having a growing influence on our fan-base. Last FM, YouTube and many other sites are also becoming more and more important.

8. What are your strengths individually? Is there one particular technical aspect of music that one of you have greater experience or knowledge in?
Tony: That's so complicated because we all do different things depending on how we feel. There's so much more that comes from how we work together than from being reductionist about us.
Jono has this incredible Juke Box brain and is able to recall chords and sounds from thousands of records, so he's an incredibly fast source of musical ideas. On the other hand he loves the groove part of tracks and would quite happily work on the intro for ever. Paavo is our in house technical genius who could probably build a working satellite out of a beer can, an old radio and some toothpicks, but underneath it all he has a really strong connection with the emotional side of music and so writes the most amazing, sad music. My schtick is songs, really, the delivery of a message with words or musical progression. What the milkman is singing (or whistling) at any point in the track is my thing. But I'm an ex-marketing guy, so I obsess about the visual side of what we do as well. But as I said before, its the combination that really explains it but that's far too complex to explain at 7.00am!
9. Do any of you ever aspire to do more solo projects
Tony: We all have done, and may do again, but right now we're concentrating on A&B in general and the OceanLab album in particular.

10. What does your studio set up consist of?
Tony: A big Mac stuffed with Logic, Ableton and all the best Plug Ins, a raft of synths (Moog, Pro-1, Juno 106 etc), some guitars, some lovely microphones, a Soundcraft Ghost analogue mixing desk and more. You can get a full list at anjunabeats.com.

11. What sort of non-electronic music records or CD's do you own?
Tony: What sort don't we own?!! I think between us we have over 2,000 CD's.

12. Being that you guys travel frequently, what is your favorite place to stay and why?
Tony: Apart from home (!) I was blown away by Buenos Aires: its like Madrid 20 years ago - gorgeous, slightly crumbly Grand European architecture and amazing food.

13. What is the largest audience that you have ever played in front of and where was it
Tony: I guess Trance Energy last year had the biggest indoor crown - 30,000 in one room. But we just played outdoors in Poland and according to the promoter there were 30,000 people there if you include the people outside the fence. And that was our own gig, so that's probably the biggest.

14. The future for Above and Beyond is…
Tony: Definitely unpredictable, er, Orange? Actually, the immediate future is OceanLab!

http://www.anjunabeats.com/
http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/