| Spin Doctor |
I just read a very interesting interview with Eufex on www.energyuk.net. Not many people here will have heard of Eufex, but for those who have, they’ll know him for his intelligently produced Hard House/Nu-NRG tracks, and his massive underrating on the electronica scene.
Things went a bit pear shaped for him, but are now looking up, with a very exciting PA live act in the wings, which should be something very different from the PA’s we’ve been witness to in the past. This is certainly something to keep your eyes on...
Energy UK - Past, Present & The PA to come
| quote: | Sean Stanley is nothing short of a virtuoso. With 17+ years of production experience under his belt, it comes as no surprise that he is blatantly one of the most skilled producers in the scene. What is a surprising however is that fact that he is also one of the most overlooked artists within Hard Dance.
Sean has music in his blood – It’s been a part of his life since he first learned his way around keyboards at age 8. He continued tuition for the next 6 years and bought his first synth, a Korg DW6000 in his late teens. From this point on he continually expanded his studio & knowledge whilst carefully crafting his sound.
The early years saw releases on TYT, Honey Pot & Arriba and by 2000 Sean’s tracks were signed to the massive Nukleuz label and getting heavy play on BBC’s Radio 1. Releases on Neuro Communications, Wasa-B, Aztec, Nile, the hard hitting Vicious Circle & Sean’s own outlet, Ravage Records followed but despite his mastery in the studio, the Eufex sound never had a large following.
Finding it hard to get his music released and feeling frustrated with the scene, Sean decided to give up dance & concentrate his energy elsewhere. This came as a massive shock to many people and fans were calling for record labels to take note and prevent the loss of a class producer. This proved fruitless and it seemed to be the demise of Eufex. Not to be …
Recently there have been rumors of Eufex returning … with a massive Live PA to boot !! GRiT has a chat with Sean about the past, present & future of all things Stanley.
G: Let’s turn the clock back a bit. You’ve had releases on various happening labels, you’ve had residencies, you’ve had your own label & you have fans … How on earth did things come to a point where you decided to pack it all in?
S: Oh God….that’s a really difficult one to start out with. This is going to be a long interview. Right, I’ll try to be as open and truthful as possible but this can be a crappy business. I don’t relish being phoned with threats of libel action or threats of violence? In fact…scrap that. I’ve just got rid of two pages of stuff. Fans, yeah, they’re wicked, very loyal and passionate about the music, absolutely fantastic. Right that’s another go…. Sorry, it doesn’t matter what I say it all reads back like I’m quite bitter doing a ‘poor little me’ act and I’m actually not. So… things came to a head. I’d been screwed so many times and had other problems too. I was physically broken, emotionally wrecked and financially destitute. To tell you the truth I’d rather not talk about it. It’s in the past and I’m very positive at the moment living in the here and now.
G: Do you feel you were under exposed?
S: Yes, totally. But some of the blame lies at my own doorstep.
I’m very English in the sense of not blowing my own trumpet enough. Bloody stupid English Victorian values and it’s high time we got rid of them. I was very quiet and withdrawn and most people don’t understand that and reject you. I’m not like that when I’m behind a pair of decks, odd….. I found it difficult talking to people and almost impossible to ask for anything. As everyone knows if you don’t ask you don’t get. I didn’t ask, I didn’t get.
I DJ which is one of the few areas you can promote yourself but had difficulty getting out there. I spent too much time in the studio and didn’t push myself as a DJ enough. I couldn’t get representation to do it for me either. Not playing out enough means there isn’t a legion of Eufex wannabes following my sets and then rushing out to buy what I’m playing. That means that unless a Eufex track gets picked up by a big DJ it doesn’t sell as well as it should.
With labels there’s been promotion for the records but little promotion for Eufex; the two aren’t the same thing. If a label I’m on puts a night on they generally don’t ask me to play, for example. Maybe labels feel that because I’m not totally loyal to them and them alone that they shouldn’t spend money promoting someone that’s not part of their team who will be on a rival label next month. Fine but I learned the hard way that you just can’t afford to stick with only one label…. no advance only 1 release a year and no royalties isn’t exactly a retainer is it? To be fair, most small labels are set up to promote the DJ side of things for the owners and their mates and they are taking large, personal financial risks. I’m an ‘outsider’ coming in, asking them to take the risk of putting my tunes out so I can understand that.
G: Your productions were intelligent, rather complex & extremely well produced. In your opinion, why didn’t people relate to your music?
S: I don’t agree with the premise of the question. People relate to my music but not all the people all of the time. There are far more people in the world that don’t relate to ANY form of ANY house or dance music than do…fact. I think you’ve gone a long way to answering your own question: ‘intelligent, complex’. Musically a lot of punters and DJs aren’t either. I was stupid enough to forget that. Patronising? I know loads of DJs that couldn’t even tell you what a hi-hat was!
I wanted to take the music to the next level, throw away the conventions, use new sounds and techniques but still make what was essentially ‘Hard House’ or ‘NuNrg’. A method evolved using sounds in combinations or wave sequences. Rather than getting one sound and playing a rhythm with it…and that’s it, it involves getting 2,3,4…10..20..30 different sounds and playing very simple patterns that interlocked. The interlocking parts make the riff. Each sound is separate in the mix, which is a bitch to do and takes ages when there’s so many, and I started to get a reputation for ‘innovation’. You get a reputation, you have to live up to it.
I was exploring quite esoteric stuff – Doppler panning, 3D surround, anything that was ‘flash’. I was saying: “Look I’m totally bored with these conventions. Listen to what’s possible: this isn’t a great sound on its own but when you combine it with this, this and this, you put this one over here, that one over there, make this one fly over your head, behind, then around, all in a rhythmic pattern, it sounds fantasic”. It’s like using a rapier rather than a bludgeon. But it’s difficult to make, requires a huge amount of tracks to be laid, total attention to detail and a huge input of hours and labour.
To understand it you have to listen to it as a whole. Maybe some people can’t; they’re used to locking on to one sound playing a rhythm or melody. Some of my tracks don’t work if you listen to them in that way, only locking on to one or two parts. Listen to the kick and bass first: it holds it all together. It’s like one of those magic eyes…No I can’t do ‘em.
I was getting lots of music released and was trying to keep a lot of people happy. While trying to incorporate this technique I was developing I was also trying to give various labels what they’d want – ‘It’s too Trancey’ ‘It’s too Housey’ ‘It’s too hard’ ‘It’s not hard enough’ – all probable statements about exactly the same track. Well…….whatthedoyouwanthen? I listened to too many people giving me conflicting pieces of information and should have just made it ‘pure’.
I was having hearing problems later on. There are two problems, one for each ear… One is hearing loss; the other to do with internal pressure, which causes pain. Both are permanent. I was listening to loud music for extremely long periods every day. The volume was getting cranked as tiredness crept in and my ears got more damaged. I was obsessed with getting my head ‘inside’ every sound and removing every tiny stray harmonic. The trouble is that the ear only has a flat frequency response at 85db, which isn’t very loud. So, some later mixes sound very good when cranked to extreme levels but lack top end at moderate levels. Some of the comments of ‘it’s all bang bang bang bang’ whereas ‘other people’s stuff does this’ is down to this. People were trying to tell me that the hats weren’t cutting, the frequency balance was off and that maybe I should rest my ears. No one told me in plain English. In hindsight technically some of those mixes weren’t correctly balanced but there are a lot FAR worse mixed stuff by miles that’s released and people don’t complain about much of it.
G: What was going through your head at the time? Did you feel like you failed or were you content with your production work?
S: I felt sad but very relieved. It didn’t feel like failure; there were too many outside forces over which I had no control but there was disappointment and frustration in my inability to overcome those obstacles. That’s one of the reasons I’m back, it’s unfinished business. I’m never content with my production work, ever.
G: With the split from dance, you obviously had a while to think about your music - How long did you have a break from producing Hard Dance ‘till the bug bit again?
S: It must have been over two years I guess.
G: What has been the drive behind the resurrection of Eufex?
S: I can’t stop working on music. I tried but, COME ON!!! I know what my life purpose is. How many people are lucky enough to know that? I’ve been working on other projects with various people – Prog, Trance, DnB and projects that have very little to do with dance music. Some have been very good but my heart wasn’t totally in it. Yeah, it’s working with music but there has to be real passion for the music to work, you’ve got to feel it. You have to eat, drink, sleep and breathe it so that every essence of your being is this creation and the only thing that comes close for me is this stuff that gets called NRG. NRG is in my soul.
Why now? My life is much more positive, I’m in great physical shape, mentally I’m a much stronger person and I’m generally more confident and not worried what other people think anymore. It’s time to get the show on the road, talk the talk, walk the walk and kick some arse.
G: How has your philosophy on hard dance production changed from 2000 when you were signed on Nukleuz compared to the music you write now?
S: I’ve had a rest and taken stock. I’ve listened to older stuff and can be more objective now I’m away from it. It’s much easier to hear what really worked and what didn’t. The tracks I’ve made this year are less subtle and more driving. Less parts, more riffs. The NRG stuff is more NRG and I’m bringing the acid back in certain tracks. Not having to try to please everyone anymore and make the music fit into a certain microscopic market niche is a real boost too. I’m doing this for the clubbers and myself. Label and distribution requirements don’t matter so I’m just making hard, driving music for the floor and the results are so much better for it. My ears are much better now too, I still have problems but it’s under control. It means that the balance of my mix downs are better – you can hear it on the remix of Jeff Sealey’s ‘Feel The Bass’ – you can hear the hats……YES, I’M BACK!
G: Talking about your tunes … I believe you have been working on a PA since fall 2003. How did you come to decide on doing a PA?
S: It’s totally the way forward for me. After having spoken to a few promoters over the last year the general gist is that while they totally respect Eufex and what the name stands for they’re not so keen on booking the name as a DJ because that corner of the market is sewn up by the ‘big names’ and the local jocks. I have a big name too – Zabrastonitskyislava…….
I have been asked if I could do a PA time and time again and until recently I’ve always said no because a) I wasn’t interested in standing up there like a tit miming b) the technology wasn’t available to do it in a way I wanted c) I couldn’t afford the equipment to do it and d) I didn’t know if it was possible to control so much stuff by myself. Well, the means are now available and I’ve always wanted to do it so I’m doing it.
G: We know it’s impossible to be 100% live as such, so could you please give the tech-heads a quick look at what equipment you’ll be incorporating & how you plan on flying this mother ship?
S: The equipment is simple: 1 loony, 1 laptop, 1 keyboard controller, 1 knob box, software, plugins, maybe a DJ mixer and maybe (only maybe) a Minidisk in case it goes up. Shirt is optional, no dancers or robots – who needs that ? Really? This is about the music, the clubbers and the producer, lets all get connected and have a ball. Nice monitoring to be supplied by venue?!? and venue full of up for it NRG nut bags. Yeeercome on…you know you want to! That’s it. It’s very easy to get in and out of clubs with that rig, making it possible to do more than one gig in a night. I will be flying the ship with my patented left and right hand devices meharties.
G: When can we expect to see the Eufex PA make its first appearance?
S: Preparation started last October but it has been difficult technically getting some of the older material down to 16 tracks or so. New tracks and remixes have been prepared for it too. If things are ready I’m doing a trial run in Lincoln in June for half an hour or so. Then it will be a case of assessing how things went, finalising and then getting on the old promotional. All being well I’m expecting the Eufex PA to be on the circuit by September/October.
G: Will you have a set list to tracks to perform (ala Tinrib / Lab4 / K90 / etc) or will each gig be completely different?
S: I’m really buzzing about the creative possibilities of it. I’m trying to get away from the static nature of playing very structured music on 2 decks. No two gigs will be the same. So if you want to hear the music you need to come to the gigs! Obviously there is pre-programming and preparation but I’m trying to make it as flexible as possible. The track list won’t be fixed, the arrangements won’t be fixed and I am able to totally mash up tracks as the mood dictates so I can, for example, take the rhythm track from Chained with the Hoover from Maximum Resource and the vocals from Body Blaster and mash them up into a totally new track there and then. The thing that is proving to be problematic at the moment when tracks are totally mashed up like this is creating a decent breakdown on the fly – that’s something I’m trying to get my head around right now. If you imagine 8 to 16 decks and FX you’ll be getting there.
G: You have beefed up ‘Sneaky’, which never saw a release due to the main lead getting nicked & you’ve remixed the classic ‘Vacuum Packed’. You’ve also mentioned Techno, Acid & HardNRG … What can be expected from a Eufex PA and what sort of impression do you intend on leaving with the clubbers?
S: Chinese Whispers and people putting 2 and 2 together… The lead from Sneaky was stolen but it wasn’t the reason it didn’t see a release.
Recently, Casper sampled Kiss; I was chuffed. It was old and I’d already had the credit for creating it. With Sneaky I was totally pissed off that the whole lead part was stolen from an unreleased track and then passed off as someone else’s work. That was theft and a violation of trust. We kissed and made up and I bear no grudges but when people go on about how good that record is you’re damn right that I make sure that they know that it’s MY riff. Anyway….I’ve taken back what’s mine and remixed it. It’s faster and harder than the original: much better altogether, far more NRG.
Aaaand, yes, there is a brand new Eufex remix of Vacuum Packed for all the VP fans. No….you cannot have it. Do not ask! It is for the PA only and nothing or no one else.
The impression that I want to leave with clubbers is simply that they’ve just heard something totally new, different, creative and most importantly that they’ve had a wicked time dancing to the show.
G: Are there any plans to start a new label or re-launch Ravage as a platform to release your new material?
S: Ravage is gone. End of.
As you can perhaps glean from I don’t have much interest in releasing records! Vinyl’s days are numbered anyway; I don’t care what the camels say. The music industry is changing very rapidly and the conventional model isn’t going to last much longer.
The PA is about exclusive music and clubbing in the future. This is the music, this is the guy that’s making it, he’s making it now, right in front of you, dance and enjoy. At the moment it’s about 50% new stuff and 50% oldies, which are then mashed up and recreated. If I release the music it won’t be exclusive to the PA and the pull for booking the PA diminished. Until something has been played out to its potential and ready for putting to bed I won’t even consider thinking about getting it released. Why would I?
G: What about overseas fans that wouldn’t be able to attend a Eufex PA … Do you plan on releasing CD’s of your live shows?
S: Wherever someone is, whether it’s the UK or abroad, if they want to hear the music they’ve got to come to the gigs. If there isn’t one in their vicinity they need to get talking to their local promoters… I won’t rule out releasing albums at some point, whether it’s myself or a label that does it but it would have to be viable.
G: What is your ultimate goal for the PA project?
S: I keep my goals to myself. But the PA project is the first on a list of many.
G: You have recently done two remixes for Scottish label ‘Lit Up’ as well as mix downs for Mark Stephenson tracks on Psychout records. You also engineer, mix down & program for various people outside of Hard Dance. Is your door open to anyone?
S: Yeah, of course it is and it’s an area I’m very keen to expand. At the moment the studio is in the house but PA success pending I want to move it into somewhere more fitting so I can get a live area, vocal booths etc in and greatly expand the areas I’m working in.
G: What are the most important things to keep in mind when writing music for a dance floor & a big rig?
S: “Lessons what I have learned”, Give them what they want and don’t over-estimate the intelligence of the crowd i.e. most of them are there to ‘ave it not to have a chin stroking session.
G: Do you have advice for newcomers to production & the industry?
S: Look after your health. Believe in yourself. Sometimes the only thing that will keep you going is your faith and your passion. If you don’t have both….get out now while you still can J
G: Any last shouts, respects or thoughts?
S: It’s 2 in the morning and I’m hungry. Shall I eat, shag or sleep?
A massive thanks to you Sean for taking the time to do this interview. Best of luck ! |
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