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Features
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| Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! | | TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! | | A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! |
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Interview with Tony Burt
Reported by Bagel
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Submitted 30-12-03 13:12
Tony Burt, Trance Producer, Label Manager & Founder and Manager of the Above The Sky Records online store is a busy man…we lured him with beer and got his views on everything from CD DJing to German DJs in their sunglasses…
First of all can you tell us a bit about how the Above the Sky label started?
Above the Sky started back at the end of 1999. We had been in the studio for a while producing a European trance sound after running a small trance night called LunaState for nearly 3 years. It was a natural progression I guess and we also figured that we could offer something different than what was around in the London scene at that time. Mat Silver sent me a demo with the first release called ‘Memories’ and we went from there.
How would you describe the sound of Above The Sky?
Above the Sky is a trance label. Over the past 4 years we have navigated our way through a few different sounds but the foundation for all of the releases have always been trance. Alongside Above the Sky we also have ATS Limited, 020 Records and now Captured Music. Each of these labels carries a different trance sound, from deep & progressive to the more uplifting.
Who are the people behind the Label?
I handle all A&R and management for each label.
How did you first get involved with your production partner Mat Silver?
Mat and I met back in 1999 when we invited him to DJ at one of our parties. We have been good friends ever since and spend a lot of time together both in and outside the studio.
Tell us a bit about your studio – if you’re willing that is!!!
We have a new G5! That’s the biggest news at the moment. There has also been a small revolution happening with production over the past years. A lot of our hardware is now pretty much dust collecting or are there for show! They are great to have, for example the old Roland Juno’s and 303’s but we rarely use them anymore. We are using a lot more software synthesisers and a load more clever plug-ins. It is truly unbelievable how easy it is now to have access to some great FX and sounds. There are some things that haven’t really changed though, we still keep using hardware like the Roland JP-8080, and it’s a hard habit to kick!
Have you got a personal favourite out of all you productions? And what’s been your most popular release to date?
That’s difficult to answer as we are continually trying to refine our sound and I just don’t want to say I like the new stuff. A lot of older productions I still like but have heard them too much now. I guess our remix of Alphazone ‘Rockin’ is something special to me, we changed the melody slightly to make it more uplifting than the original and I won’t forget the first time when it all came together in the studio. It was goose bumps all round! In return Alphazone delivered a superb remix of our single ‘Ultimate Wave’, which we were really impressed with.
Our most popular release to date has been pretty close. Both ‘Teardrops’ & ‘Ultimate Wave’ are neck and neck for overall sales.
The label aside, Above The Sky are also well known for their reputable online record store. At what point did you decide to move into this market and why?
The site was launched back in May 2000. The reason for it was quite simple, I though there was a need. I thought a lot of people were intimated by going into record stores and asking for a record they heard over the weekend etc. Also the Internet offered a more convenient way to shop for music, rather than trying to get into town each week. And of course it also allowed people access globally to upfront music, something that wasn’t around when I was back in New Zealand!
I also wanted to make sure that we offered a high level of service as well as a comprehensive catalogue.
With such a highly competitive and volatile market have you found 2003 to be a difficult year for business?
Yes and no really. The ‘mp3’ culture has had a definite impact on our business, more so through 2003 than ever before. There is very little that we can do to protect ourselves and I think that this has lead to a few high profile and well-known labels finally conceding defeat. On the other side I think our own productions have reached a larger audience than ever before due to file sharing. This has not meant larger record sales though. I am not supporting illegal downloading but I think a healthy medium needs to be reached in order for labels and consumers to be happy. I am hoping that 2004 will bring this a little closer. If not, I think that it is inevitable we will lose more great labels.
Do you see the ever-increasing popularity of CDs and high speed Internet as threat to the future of Vinyl?
I still think that there is a market for people that like vinyl. I personally love the stuff. (I know you do too!) But I think CD’s are becoming more popular due to everyone wanting to have the latest music before anybody else. The process of transferring music to a vinyl format is a long one, up to 3 months in some cases and DJ’s can’t wait this long anymore it seems. All you’ve got to do is look at DJ’s charts these days, TP’s and promos aren’t enough anymore, everyone wants the word CDR appearing on their charts! This I believe fuels the fire for illegal copying and distribution of music. For example, we are very selective to who we give our music to on CDR, we have been burnt a number of times.
Would you consider making your music commercially available for download on the Internet?
Yes definitely. It is not as simple as that though. There is publishing and copyright considerations which I am working through at the moment. We are re-launching version 3 of our website in early 2004 and I am hoping we can offer all or at least part of back catalogue in an mp3 format at this time for a small fee.
In recent times you’ve enjoyed a hectic DJing schedule nationally and internationally…tell us a bit about where have you been playing:
I have been fortunate enough to be playing at Heat during the past months. It has been great playing with some of London’s most talented trance DJ’s as well as watching resurgence in the popularity of trance in London.
Internationally I have recently played in Zurich, Germany, Sydney and Christchurch. All of these have been great nights and I am hoping to get back downunder early in 2004 to promote the Above the Sky label sound.
Tony Burt at the Zurich Street Parade
How does playing overseas compare with the UK crowds…do you play many of the same records as you would here?
I still see London crowds as some of the best I’ve ever played. On my recent gigs in Australia and New Zealand I found the sound to be a lot harder than what I currently play. I personally not a great fan of the hardstyle sound or even a lot of the hard trance around at the moment but this hasn’t caused any problems where I’ve played. I have made sure I am well stocked with a broad range of records before heading out into the unknown.
2003 has been a big year for trance, how do you think this came about?
I think it’s been the result of an education process and also of people checking out trance for the first time. Of course DJ’s like Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Armin van Buuren etc have greatly contributed to it with their mass market appeal.
...and where do you see trance heading in 2004?
I think 2004 will be another big year for trance music. How long the current Dutch sound can be sustained remains to be seen but there are still a lot of different sounds within trance that have been developing over the past few years. These are the areas that excite me and I am hoping that trance fans will have an open mind and explore them as well.
How do you view London’s clubbing scene? What about other genres such as Hard House and Hardstyle?
I am really pleased to see smaller trance nights starting to pop up. This had to happen after the London scene has been dominated by a few large promotions for what seems like an eternity. I really hope this can continue and that clubbers can see beyond the same thing week in a week out.
Hard house continues to have huge support in London but has also continued to been influenced by a lot of the harder trance sounds. I am personally not a big fan of it but can understand its appeal and also the atmosphere & energy that it creates on the dance floor. As for hardstyle, well I’m not going to comment on that one!
In late ‘99 trance suffered heavily as arguably a result of market saturation, do you believe there is any risk of this happening again?
Yeah for sure. For example, I am starting to get a little tried of that plucking guitar sound in trance at the moment. It’s commercially orientated and has crossover potential for sure. This is not a bad thing but I don’t think people want to go to a club and hear the track they heard on Capital FM during the day! (depends on what clubs you go to I guess)
The last few months have seen people like Armin’s labels releasing 2 records a week with sometimes very little to differentiate them. The bubble may burst but as I said there is more to trance than just this. The same thing happened in 1999, but there was still some great trance music in 2000 for example, even though magazines like Muzik ‘officially’ declared that ‘trance was dead’. BTW, where has that magazine gone?!
This year we’ve had the pleasure of hearing a number of UK trance artists really begin to shine through when previously the scene was heavily dominated by Central European Artists. Why do you think this has taken so long to happen in the UK?
A few reasons really. I think the trance sound now is a result of a healthy European scene for a number of years. Producers like Ferry Corsten, Timo Maas, Marco V have been kicking around their own scenes for years now. As a result they have developed ‘their’ sound. In the UK we had Sasha, Digweed, Nick Warren etc taking UK clubbers down the progressive house route.
Now the cost of setting up a studio, or even producing music has been greatly reduced. We now have a new generation of young UK producers creating in their bedrooms with very little, if any, hardware. Listening to their European heroes and emulating their sound with a UK twist. It’s great.
It is also important to remember places such as Germany, which traditionally produced a lot of great trance music. Over the past few years they have fallen victim to mass commercialisation with very little variation in their music, whereas the UK scene have been true to form and continued to innovate. I feel that this can be credited to both the UK club scene as well as the producers themselves. One can’t survive without the other.
Who do you see as the most innovative producer on the trance circuit at present?
Too many to mention really but I am still a big fan of Marco V’s productions even though I don’t always play this style. I am also impressed with Gabriel & Dresden, Harry Lemon, Katana, Ron van den Beuken and Robert Gitelman. There are a number of other younger Dutch and also Swedish producers that are doing some great stuff as well. For example, Mike Shiver, M.I.D.O.R & Six4Eight, Timeok, Andreas Schmidt, Kuffdam, Danjo & Styles.
Tony Burt with Matt Silver (and sunglasses)
Why do all German Trance DJs where expensive sunglasses in their Press Shots?
Great question but I am not100% sure myself Mate!! You could also ask, Why do Germans put towels out on sun chairs at holiday resorts during the middle of the night?? I have made a note to ask them for you though 
Last of all what’s in store for fans of Above The Sky records in 2004?
Quite a bit really. Not all on Above the Sky but spread over the 4 labels we have the following ready or very close to release,
Pervading Call –‘Destiny’ (with the Informers Remix)
Mike Shiver & Sonicvibe – ‘Lunation’ (with the Masters & Nickson Remix)
The Shove Brothers ‘Paranoia’ (with the DJ Danjo & Styles Remix)
Timeok - ‘Seven Floating Ways’
Kuffdam & Plant – Summer Dream
Albert Vorne – Leaden Day (with the M.I.K.E. Remix)
New project from M.I.D.O.R. & Six4Eight
New Informers single
New Mat Silver vs. Tony Burt
As well as remixes for;
Oceanforce – Golden Moment (Mat Silver vs. Tony Burt Remix) (Elevation Records)
Mike Robbins – Are You A Freak (Mat Silver vs. Tony Burt Remix) (Bulletproof)
My god what a list! Thanks for your time Tony and all the best in 2004.
Tony Burt plays at HeatUK - New Year's Eve at Brixton Academy - for full details of this event Click here
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Other Features By Bagel:
Interview with John Askew - consider the tone lowered...
Legal MP3 download sites gather momentum
TWISTED Foam Party Preview: Interview with Marcos
Interview with S.H.O.K.K.
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
to Tony - top guy, great DJ and a man who has fed my vinyl addiction for the last few years! He probably knows my credit card number off by heart! 
