www.trancesound.net

Menno wants to spin in New York according to this! Anyone interested?


Interview with Menno:
1. Can you name some artists that inspired you during your earlier stages of production or DJing ?

Menno de Jong: For sure! Producers such as Oliver Lieb, MIKE / Push, Ferry Corsten and Rank 1 really influenced me. I listened to a lot of DJ sets by Tiesto, Sven Vath, Sander Kleinenberg, Sasha and a million others back in the days aswell.

2. At what age did you first begin to DJ ?

Menno de Jong: When I was about 12 I was already Djing at school parties and birthday parties. I got a little more serious when I was 15, I bought a second hand DJ setup and started collecting vinyls. When I was 17 I got my first residency at a local nightclub, exciting stuff!

3. What do you think is essential for a DJ, or a producer today, in order to make it out there in the scene ?

Menno de Jong: You really need to love what you do, and be willing to dedicate every bit of time and energy you have to it. There’s just not a lot of money to be made in dance music these days unless you really make it to the top, so if you don’t truly love it, you won’t even make it far at all. If you enjoy it on the other hand, and have musical talent, you can get there! Releasing tracks is a good way to become popular, but if you are a wizzard with the decks like James Zabiela or something, well, you can make it too!

4. How do you feel regarding the evolution of the trance scene ?

Menno de Jong: I like where it’s been heading. Trance music has gone back underground where it belongs. The parties are becoming more intimate, and the people there are there for the music. That just makes for an incredible atmosphere in general!

5. Looking towards the future where can we expect to see more involvement from you ?

Menno de Jong: I will be releasing my first mix cd in June, and hope to be doing a lot more of those, and hopefully an artist album in the future! Once I finish university I’d also like to tour internationally more, I haven’t been to North & South America nearly as much as I would like lately! Hopefully that will change.

6. Do you have any artists on your label that have upcoming releases that you would like to discuss ?

Menno de Jong: There’s a lot of cool new stuff coming up on Intuition, but two guys that you will definetely hear a lot from in the future are Cliff Coenraad and Kimito Lopez. Cliff has a lovely techno edge to his productions, it’s banging, but has a greate atmosphere at the same time. He will be releasing an EP with ‘Manjula’ and ‘The Hazzolator’ on there on Intuition Recordings in July, keep an eye out for it! Kimito on the other hand is an old school trance melody master. His new tune ‘Sub Runner’ has been in a couple of my sets as ID – ID and I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it! The melody is just beautiful!

7. Are you able to mention the names or labels of any upcoming artists that have requested to create remixes of your latest tracks ?

Menno de Jong: There’s not many remixes coming up, but some artists that have done remixes for me in the past are Markus Schulz, Mark Otten, Octagen (Re:Locate), Inner & Outer, Arizona (Thomas Bronzwaer) and Galen Behr.

8. Tell us something about your latest release - Sjamaan. What did you want to do differently this time ?

Menno de Jong: Sjamaan started out as a techno track. I was trying to make some ‘different than usual’ beats and all of a sudden I had something I was happy with. Since I’m a real trance head I figured: Wouldn’t this be nice with a hypnotic repetitive melody on there? And so it happened. The funny thing about Sjamaan is that it’s one of the first tracks I’ve created mostly on the road, on my laptop!

9. If you had the chance to perform at a club of any sort in the near future which club would it be and why ?

Menno de Jong: Well, one of the clubs I really wanted to play at one day is The Guvernment in Toronto. Last week I heard that’s going to happen on the 14th of July, so I’m more excited than ever! Other clubs I would love to play are Glow in Washington DC, Amnesia Ibiza (happening on the 31st of July, woohoo!) and Crobar.

10. On the Intuition Recordings official website it says that, rumors are hereby confirmed that you will be releasing your first mix CD before the summer, please tell us more about it.

Menno de Jong: The CD is called “Intuition Sessions Volume 1 – South Africa” and will be coming out in June. It was inspired by a month long trip I made in South Africa, and contains a lot of exclusive Intuition tunes, as well as some nice tracks from other top labels. There will be a release party on the 16th of June in The Netherlands, as well as a tour to follow it up. I’ll be playing an 8 hour set that night, so should be great fun!

11. In regards to the Intuition Recordings label, are there any upcoming artist's that you are going to sign in 2007 ?

Menno de Jong: We’ve currently signed a few new ones. A project by Shah and Cosmo from Germany will be getting an Intuition release in September. Next to that we’ve signed some exclusive material to the mix CD from artists such as Orkidea & Marc Mitchell, Yarune, Whirloop and Maor Levi.

12. We are well aware of the type of music you spin and produce but is there any other music that you switch over to occasionally for a change of pace ?

Menno de Jong: I really like progressive and techno a lot too, as well as a bit of psy-trance, so occasionally I can jump out in all directions!

13. Do you have a warm up routine before performing a live set? (For example stretching your fingers or hands ?)

Menno de Jong: I flip through my CD folder like crazy, thinking about what tunes I’d like to play and what might be suitable for the night. Other than that I have a drink, have a dance, and try to get into the atmosphere of the party.

14. What country do you feel that you have gotten the best crowd reaction from ?

Menno de Jong: Definetely in Poland, my first gig there was in front of 8000 people, and they went nuts, a debut I will never forget!

15. Are you able to remember the first album or single you ever bought ? What album or track was it ?

Menno de Jong: The first CD album I ever bought was 2 Unlimited – Get Ready, this was when I was 7 or 8 years old. The first vinyl I ever bought is kind of hard to remember, things got a bit out of hand with buying records once I finally started, I was doing a paper round and working in a supermarket to finance my newfound addiction!

16. What's your top 5 tracks at the moment ?

Menno de Jong: Here are some of my top5 tracks at the moment:

1. Kimito Lopez – Sub Runner [Intuition Rec.]
2. Albert Vorne – Formantera What (Gareth Emery Remix) [Club Elite]
3. First State – Evergreen [ITWT]
4. Jonas Steur ft. Jennifer Rene – Fall To Pieces [Black Hole]
5. Rex Mundi – Perspective [Global Underground]

17. Do you have any information that you would like to share regarding upcoming tours or albums ?

Menno de Jong: Here are some of my upcoming gigs:

(05.26.07) Amsterdam Dance Mission 9 Year Anniversary Party - Ekwador (Manieczki, Poland)
(05.27.07) Gatecrasher Summer Sound System - Lotherton Hall (Leeds, UK) www.gatecrasher.co.uk/summer
(06.01.07) Monday Bar Black & White Cruise (Stockholm, Sweden) www.mondaybar.com
(06.02.07) Off The Rails – VOID (Sheffield, UK) www.offtherails-online.co.uk
(06.09.07) Alcatrazz – Huys ter Horst (Horst, NL) www.alcatrazz.nl
(06.16.07) Menno de Jong pr. Intuition Sessions CD Release Party - Studio80 (Amsterdam, NL) www.intuitionrecordings.com
(06.23.07) Trance Element – Pachanga / Tunnel Club (Linz, Austria)
(06.30.07) Flying Dutchman – Opium Beach Club (Kiev, Ukraine)
(07.07.07) Intuition Summer Event - Bloomingdale (Bloemendaal aan Zee, NL) www.intuitionrecordings.com
(07.07.07) Creamfields (Wroclaw, Poland)
(07.14.07) Guvernment (Toronto, Canada) www.theguvernment.com
(07.21.07) House Parade 2007 – Trance Vibrations (Timisoara, Romania) www.houseparade.eu
(07.27.07) Viva Beach Party (Gdynia, Poland) www.vivaclub.pl
(07.29.07) ID-T Tomorrowland - De Schorre (Boom, Belgium) www.id-t.be
(07.31.07) Amnesia (Ibiza, Spain) www.amnesia.es
(08.03.07) The Gallery - Turnmills (London, UK) www.turnmills.co.uk
(08.04.07) Nature One – Gatecrasher Floor (Kastellaun/Hunsruck, Germany) www.natureone.de
(08.11.07) Intuition @ FFWD Heineken Dance Parade (Rotterdam, NL)

18. Is there any advice that you can share for aspiring DJ's in regards proper beat matching, EQ, and volume control.

Menno de Jong: Mixing a good trance set is all about choosing the right tracks. Trance productions are usually very ‘busy’ and full of melodies and sounds that can get in eachothers way. Try to pick tracks that fit on eachother. The only way to find out if they do is mixing at home a lot. Keymixing is also reasonably popular amongst DJs, I personally prefer building a set by how tracks flow together and form a story rather than whether keys fit together.

19. Would you like to share any other comments for TranceSound.net as well as your fans ?

Menno de Jong: Thank you so much for supporting me. Whatever you do, just follow your musical Intuition, and hopefully we’ll meet at a party one day!

Love,

Menno

Interview by Zaneta Soroko aka Euphoria (TranceSound.net forum moderator)

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Interview with Simon:

1. What is your musical background ?

Simon Patterson: My grandfather signed and discovered Van Morrison and helped break the Rolling Stones so music was always in my family. Although he didnt want me to be in music! I used to play semi - pro football until i have a car crash when i was 16 and couldn't play again. But then i found dance music and that was the right path for me!!

2. At what age did you become introduced to EDM ?

Simon Patterson: When I was about 15. I used to listen to Judge Jules on Radio 1 and really loved uplifting trance. I never thought about buying decks or becoming a DJ. I just loved listening to the tunes!

3. What are your feelings towards the evolution of trance music ?

Simon Patterson: I think now its got much better produced but that is it for me. It hasnt really moved on and i guess to a certain extent it cant cause most things have been done. There are loads of sub genres within trance like i like, progressive, i also love techno and trance. I think with trance music people need to start pushing the boundries and trying different things. Not the same old thing, but unfortunatley thats what people seem to want..

4. Do you write the lyrics to your own vocal productions ?

Simon Patterson: No, when I do Dogzilla stuff with Richie Kayvan we both do it. Him more so than me. Although I am actually working on a solo vocal track which I am trying to write vocals for now!

5. What inspires you to write those lyrics (if you do) ?

Simon Patterson: Life in general, experiences mainly.

6. Do you see Dogzilla working with any female vocalists in the near future ?

Simon Patterson: No def not in the near future..

7. Dogzilla is a rather unique name, where did this name original from and who decided on it as the group name ?

Simon Patterson: Richie decided on it. The first track we did reminded us of Godzilla wrecking a city so he changed it to Dogzilla as a track name, the label thought the act name would benefit from that too so it sorta stuck!

8. Which other DJ's or producers do you like working with the most ?

Simon Patterson: I dont get the chance to work with many other people. I admire John O'Callaghan, Sander Van Doorn and anyone who comes up with unreal riffs and melodies!

9. How do you like working with Richie Kayvan ?

Simon Patterson: I love it. Hes the most talented person I have worked with and should be producing for the likes of U2!

10. What are the characteristics that an artist would need in order to be lined up along with some of the Top DJ's ?

Simon Patterson: I think the most important thing is hunger. If your hungry you'll make things happen. Yes, talent is also important but I know loads of people who have all the talent in the world and do nothing about it.

11. Who are some of your influences as a producer ?

Simon Patterson: No-one really. I love Push for his riffs but in terms of who I aspire to be, I really love listening to rock music and taking ideas from bands and stuff. Astrix in the psy genre is amazing so these would be the only people that I really spend time trying to work out what they did to make it sound like that.

12. What is your favorite record of all time ?

Simon Patterson: In trance - Plastic Boy - 'Silver Bath'. In rock - Metallica 'One' or Nothing Else Matters

13. Do you listen to other genre's of music besides trance ? If so, can you tell us some of your favorite artists ?

Simon Patterson: At the moment I love a new band called Headway - they have just been signed to Geffin in the US. They are going to be massive. Quite melodic like Coldplay, but amazing lyrics. They are from the UK. I also like a band called Sigur Ross - so uplifting!

14. What song would you says is your best work out of the tracks that you have produced ?

Simon Patterson: F16 without a doubt. Still cant match that!

15. Do you have a home studio ? If so, what does your set up consist of ?

Simon Patterson: Yeah I have just moved from Pro Tools LE to Logic. Just consists of loads of software and the Virus TI. Going to invest in an amazing reverb unit in the next few weeks...

16. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time when you are not in the studio ?

Simon Patterson: Eating and working out. I eat the most in the world!

17. Which event would you say is the greatest EDM event of all time, whether you were attending or performing at the event ?

Simon Patterson: Sunrise in Poland - no words can describe how unreal this is!

18. Is there anywhere in particular that you would like to perform and have not had a chance to yet ?

Simon Patterson: Yeah LA is the number 1 place for me. to be honnest USA in general.

19. What do you feel the ideal type of sound system is and what size room can it accommodate ?

Simon Patterson: Funktion 1 is the best. Any size room is good for me!

20. Can you tell us anything regarding your other involvement in the music industry besides DJing and Producing ?

Simon Patterson: I used to work for Seb Fontaine and Judge Jules as there A&R. I also used to be A&R at Ministry Of Sounds Incentive label.

21. What advice would you give an aspiring producer or DJ ?

Simon Patterson: Find your own sound and keep knocking on doors!

22. I just wanted to say that you did an excellent job in New York spinning along side Sean Tyas and Tom Colontonio. Did you enjoy yourself in New York ?

Simon Patterson: Yeah unreal. Wicked gig. Really enjoyed it. The warmth of the people, the hospitality on the promotor and hooking up with Sean and his circle of mates was a great experience. I love NY and when I come back I will be wearing the t-shirt to prove it!! Brilliant place.

23. Can we expect to see you spinning in New York again soon ?

Simon Patterson: I am counting the dayz till I return. In talks at the moment about it. Hopefully very soon!!

24. Are there any other comments that you would like to add to address your fans ?

Simon Patterson: Just thanks so much for coming and for all the support and kind words, means alot and next time i come it will be even better! ;o)

Interview By Zaneta Soroko aka Euphoria (TranceSound.net forum moderator)

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Electronic Night Life
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Last edited by euphoria on May-17-2007 at 13:21