In the first of a series of interviews with various Subsine heads, Malwav talks to Macker about his influences, compression and drunken antics!
Hello Chris! So, music. What’s it all about, then eh? What got you into this malarkey?
Honestly, it's pretty unclear to me what got me into it all. I distinctly remember being completely uninterested in all the music my friends used to play at school but just going along with it anyway, as you do at that age. Then at around year 8 or 9 I remember starting to hear a few dance music tracks, which although I thought were amazing at the time - they seem pretty cheesy to me now. A few tracks that stand out from that time were Darudes "Sandstorm" and Watergate's "heart of asia". I also remember hearing a dave pearce show on radio one on sunday evenings which had a few memorable tracks such as tiesto's "suburban train" and mauro picotto's "like this, like that". Soon after I began to buy trance music compilations and research a bit more into the genre - this was the age where 56k modems had just become old news and people were moving onto broadband! My first CD was this one; http://www.discogs.com/release/349600
As I’m getting on a bit, I’m old enough to have been out and about in what many consider to be the “Golden age” of Trance and Hard House from 1994-6, and to me your tracks seem to hark back to that time. Not in an overtly copycat way, but you’ve captured that vibe so perfectly, I’m thinking of classic Way Out West, Hybrid and Sasha in particular. Was this a sound that you were conciously striving for or did it evolve naturally for you?
Well as it happens, probably some of the oldest trance I know is '96, tracks like Salt Tank's "Eugina" and so on. I can't honestly say that i've strived to make my sound like that as such but rather I often try to give my more "summer-ish" tunes a kind of balaeric vibe, which inadvertantly shares the same vibe as the tracks from that era. I don't know if I have a sound of my own yet to be honest, like i'm not sure that I could give someone my records and have them say "oh that's blatently one of mackers productions", but i'd certainly like to reach a stage like that.
For you to compare me to the likes of sash & way out west & hybrid is pretty bloody flattering to be honest! Thank you!
Musically, who has made the biggest impact on you, and where do you tend to draw your inspiration from now?
The biggest musical impact on me is without a doubt Ferry Corsten. I can't say much for the direction he's taken his music nowadays (although he has come out with a couple of superb tracks recently, notably "beautiful").
He was never afraid to try new sounds and take trance off in a new direction, and somehow he always got away with it whereas other artists just get absolutely slated (sometimes rightfully so, sometimes not) for changing their style - but he always managed to pull it off! I think he is without a doubt the king of trance, and it never ceases to amaze me how often I hear his tracks on television and when i'm out & about, yet hardly any of the general populous know of him!
Recently though, hybrid have been a massive influence on me, not because i've just discovered them (i've known them for ages), but simply because only recently have i taken the time to really sit down & give their music a proper listen and in short, it's nothing short of absolutely stunning.
You've worked on some great remixes and have produced some amazing tracks with various vocalists. Tell us about how you approach a remix and working with other people.
I'm glad you think they're great! When approaching a remix, I like to have had a brief from someone telling me what style or direction they want me to take it in, and if I think it wont work i'll suggest something else.
Generally I like to always have a midi file handy! Bloody useful things they are. Aside from that, a few key samples from the track will do me just fine - I like to create a lot of the sounds myself so i'm not a big fan of using parts that have already been made for me - i'm a synth tweaker through & through!
You've turned down offers of remix work before haven't you?
I have turned down remixes a few times now, most notably was the time "Lost Language" approached me to remix a track from "Tilt's" album. If you're into trance, you'll appreciate that this kind of offer is no small thing, Tilt (John Graham, Andy Moor, Mick Parks & Mick Wilson) are a big name in trance, and so are the people behind it - most notably Andy Moor, who is an absolutely superb producer and John Graham (aka quivver).
Anyway, to cut a long story short I was told that I could remix any track from the album - so I picked "new day", a really nice track that I feel I could've definately done something with, but was then told I couldn't do that and that I would have to remix a track called "electronic poledancer".
Now those of you that know me will know how much I despise electro, and this was fairly electro sounding - and they wanted me to do an ambient remix of it! Put simply, if I had done it, I know for a fact that I wouldn't have been happy with the end result and certainly wouldn't have wanted my name to appear on it, so I decided against doing it. I still stand by my decision and think it was the right one, let's face it - electro is shit.
Having taken the same Music Tech course with you, one of the things that I think struck everybody on the course, was the cleanness of your mixdowns. Can you give us some insight in how you achieve this? Any more tips and tricks you care to share with us?
I think the problem with a lot of artists is that they get their whole track down and leave the mixing process until right at the very end - I firmly believe in mixing the track as you go along. Also, I know quite a few producers on the trance side of things that do absolutely piss poor jobs on their mixdown and ask me to master it, thinking that i'll be able to sort it out. A shit mixdown will always be a shit mixdown, regardless of who you get to master it.
Also, there's a huge focus on "compression" on online forums, it's the new buzz-word in production and although i'm well aware that it is entirely necessary, I think that a lot of todays aspiring producers use it far too much - and don't even get me started on limiting. I can't remember the last time I used compression on an individual track, it's such a rarity for me. I tend to stick cubases "magneto" tape emulation plugin on the master channel to beef up the signal a bit, and POSSIBLY have some slight compression added after that, usually with a ratio of about 1.5:1.
EQ is another key to a decent mixdown. If you have a sound that isn't anything to do with your bass end - use a high pass filter or low shelf eq on it to take away all of the low frequencies, they are what muddy-up a mix and take up a lot of space, so if you don't need it - get rid of it.
Aside from that I think one more thing to keep in mind is that in a lot of productions you can end up having an awful lot going on all at one point in the track, but just how many of the sounds you've got going on can you actually hear? If you can't hear it, take it out and use it elsewhere in the track instead.
I happen to know you’re a big techy geek! What gear is exciting you at the moment, and do you have a favourite bit of kit? What would you like to get your hands on?
I'd definately like to have a mess about on the Roll Music Super Stereo Compressor, which is basically a mastering compressor, and I think it's the sticker on the back of it that I fell in love with, it reads; "over compression ruins music"!
Also, I'd still love to have a go on the Access Virus TI. I had a go on it at sounds expo, and it sounded great, but sadly I didnt have long enough to nerd around on it.
You’re an extremely active member of the trance.nu forum. How do you see the web affecting music scenes at the moment?
Well it's great, producers from america can share porn with producers from europe.
The internet does have it's up and down sides. The upside is that it's so easy these days to get your music out there and promote yourself, and really get stuck into the whole music thing. But the downside is that a lot of shit gets released by labels that have very poor quality control, and also that (this is particularly apparent in the trance scene) DJ's all sound the same these days. People used to go out and browse record stores online and on the high street to find their new records that they were going to play in sets, but these days with the abundance of big renowned DJ's on internet radio stations - everyone just copies their tracklists and we end up with everyone raving over the same bloody tracks all the time.
I really would like to see Armin Van Buuren (the biggest culprit) stop his ASOT (a state of trance) show. It's absolutely massively popular, but I feel it's not doing any good for the scene as a whole.
What does being involved with Subsine mean to you? What are your hopes for the future?
I hope this label will always stay a close knit community and that we will consistently churn out one quality release after another. I'd like to see the whole thing take off and gather an avid following of fans that will always support us. I think it's a wonderful thing that we have come together to do this not for money, but for the love of music and everything music related. I'd love to see the label at least break even on every release so that we can carry on doing this.
It’s pretty safe to say you like your partying! Is it safe to share some stories?
Oh jeez, let's see... there was the time I had to be carried home on my 18th, there was the time my best mate Dave got punched in the face when he danced with a lesbian and her girlfriend got a bit upset about it. There was the time I woke up after a night out with a broken wrist and absolutely no recollection of how it happend. There was the time I (stupidly) downed half a litre of vodka and somehow (so i've been told) still managed to polish off the 12 bottles of beer i'd stashed away earlier. Then there was the time we went to birmingham to see Airwave and just as we got out the taxi at the club, i placed a can of stronbow beneath the tire, which exploded over everyone as he drove off, and on the same night my mate broke a glowstick in half and showered the dancefloor with the glowing, probably radioactive contents of it. There was the time I got on the night bus back home and was too drunk to see out of the window, so I had a quess at how long i'd been on the bus, and ended up getting off about 3 miles from home. The list goes on and on and on. Also, if you ever see me getting kicked out of a club, you can be almost certain it's because i've been drinking on the dancefloor.
Is there any questions you think I should've asked, or anything you want to add!?
Hmmm, to be honest I think you covered it all pretty damn well! I love you.
Cheers Chris!
Interview conducted by Malwav 07/01/08
