Ali Wilson Interview & LIVE set from Sunrise Festival Poland to download ahead of Puzzle Project

You can download this his LIVE set recorded from the Sunrise Festival in Poland this June from http://www.puzzle-project.com and go to Mixes!!

Interview by Ali Cantor

Mr Wilson! How’s tricks?

I’m good thanks mate! )

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Well, it seems to have been a pretty fantastic year for you – can you tell everyone a little bit about what you’ve been up to in the past year?

This year has been really busy, lots of great gigs and lots of finishing my album and remixing for the likes of Tiesto & Armin.

Gigwise, warming up for Tiesto at Brixton Academy must have been right up there – that’s pretty big time! How did this booking come about and what was it like?

Basically I had done a remix for Tiesto of a track off his album ‘Kaleidoscope’, called ‘It’s Not The Things You Say’ with Kele Okereke from Bloc Party. They asked me to play as part of his album tour, so I of course jumped at the chance! )

You’ve also just returned from Sunrise festival in Poland, where you tore it up in front of 7/8000 trance fans. Good experience? How was the atmosphere?



The atmosphere was amazing, I’ve wanted to play for them for years so was great to be booked. You can check some videos here…

http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...e+festival&aq=f

In terms of production, you’ve had another storming year – I believe you’ve done some remix work for Tiesto and Armin amongst other things?

Yes that’s right I remixed Armin’s first single from his new album ‘Full Focus’ and as I said the before the Tiesto track.

Your tune Pandora has been one of the biggest tunes this year, receiving massive props from Armin and Judge Jules amongst others. How did you feel about the way this track’s been perceived by such big DJs, and can you tell us anything about the inspiration behind it?

Thanks a lot! It was inspired by Avatar the film, I was amazed by it and had such a strong vision of what I wanted to do musically that I took a whole day of listening to vocals to get the right ones.



You also have collaborated on Kaos Theory with the legendary Marco V – what was it like to share a studio with Marco? Can we expect any further joint efforts from you?

Marco is one of my inspirations so to work with him was amazing, he’s a legend! His studio is also absolute quality, really good pumping speakers, so it’s almost like being in a club! Hopefully we will work on more stuff in future.

Your artist album is also nearly ready to drop, and I understand it’s now due for release in September. I for one can’t wait, I know there’s some monster tracks on there! This will be your second artist album after Watchmaker. What can you tell us about the new album? What’s it called, any general ideas/inspiration/concepts behind it and any tracks you think will be especially big?

The album is called ‘Phenomenon’ and there will be about 16 tracks on it, including some of my old ones like ‘Shakedown’ and ‘Pandora’ but it will mostly be new tracks. It’s a range of styles starting from the housier edge and progressing to the more banging stuff. There’ll also be a Shakedown 2010 on there! ;o)

You’ve got a very distinctive style, which really stands out from the crowd – you can normally tell an Ali Wilson track straight off from the percussion and rythmns etc. How do you go about making a record and how do you get that swing going?

I just use sounds/percussion I like and try to mould it into my sound. I really try and keep things tight and clean so the rest of the mix has a chance to breathe.



One for the tech heads – what’s your current studio set up?

Just Logic with a shedload of pluggins!

You’ve played for us before so those who’ve been coming for a while may well have caught one of your sets for us (or elsewhere maybe) – but for anyone who hasn’t seen you play what can they expect?

Tough, uplifting, techy trance music!



Cheers mate – looking forward to seeing you tear the dancefloor a new one on the 28th!

Looking forward to ‘aving it with you guys too! )

To round things out in traditional fashion, can we ask you a few quick fire questions?

Best ever gig?

Tiesto @ Brixton Academy & Sunrise!

Dream gig?

Would love to do Glastonbury mainstage!!! That’s just immense!

Funniest thing you’ve ever seen with your own eyes?

Probably when my son laughs so much he nearly explodes! Haha!

And the worst?

Probably someone getting bottled – fighting’s for fools!

Childhood fear?

Spiders.

Favourite food?

At the moment loving tapas.

All time classic?

Café Del Mar

Top three tunes of the moment?

Ali Wilson - Shangri La
Marco V - Godd (Marco V remix)
Chasing Status – Let you go

www.puzzle-project.com