Page 46 - Zone Magazine Issue 007

feature interview
With a musical career spanning almost 2 decades and a Production discography that any A-list Electronic music producer would be proud of it’s no surprise that David Forbes is known as one of the UK’s most respected and versatile producers of our time.
Starting his career in the early Electronic music days David’s experience and knowledge of the industry is unparalleled and this has resulted in him producing in a multitude of styles and there hasn’t been a label that his Midas productions haven’t graced over the years with releases on the scene’s most respected labels – Subliminal, Vandit, Spinnin, Reset, Oxygen, Perfecto, Liquid, Doorn, Anjunabeats, Ferry Corstens Flashover Recordings, Captivating Sounds, AVA, Coldharbour, S107, 68Recordings, Black Hole, Ministry Of Sound, Universal, Sony, Whoop, Five AM, Eve and Noom records to name just a few.
In addition to David’s solo releases over the years he has also collaborated with many of the scene’s top names working with Artists such as Mark Sherry, Alan Nimmo (Signalrunners) and more throughout the course of his career.
David was also part of the platinum multimillion selling Group Public Domain, Scanners plus more and if this isn’t enough David also engineers for some of the scenes established and new breed Artists.
In 2013 he worked closely with Lord of the rings Actor Billy Boyd giving him lessons for his appearance in Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy movie.
On the label side of things, David’s own Aria / Aria Recordings & Aria Knights labels is also going from Strength to Strength fast approaching its 60th
release and first collaboration it’s the ideal outlet for David’s recent Collaborations and productions from some of the scenes most promising up & coming talents and the new Aria Knights sub label is also causing quite a stir with a string of hard hitting full fire anthems all lined up and ready for release in 2012.
Although David is Globally Renowned for his productions, he is also one of Scotland’s most prolific International DJ’s appearing in Ibiza, Holland, Brazil, Ukraine, Ministry of Sound [Singapore], Ministry of sound [London] Hong Kong,Austria, Miami, Mexico, L.A., Festivals such as The massive Sunrise
Festival in Poland & Shared a stage with Deadmau 5 at Germany’s Nature 1 Festival. He has also completed a colossal 13 interstate tours of Australia headlining the Utopia event in front of 20,000 people in the Sydney Super Dome stadium. On the home front David has also played for leading brands and festivals such as The Reading & Leads Festival, Homelands, Coloursfest, Ministry of Sound, Full on Ferry, Colours, Inside Out and has had several appearances at Tiesto’s Scottish shows including his infamous SECC world tour. Over the past 15 years you would be hard pressed to name any DJ who hasn’t included a David Forbes (or one of his many aliases) Productions in their sets and with almost 20 years of experience in both Production and DJing ability which is a rarity these days there is no question that David Forbes is a true example of the perfect modern day Electronic artist.
In 2016 David has his first Collaboration with Trance Superstar Paul Van Dyk coming on Vandit Records, He re - releases his Seminal Questions Must Be Asked Record once again after Armin Van Buuren’s Armada Records Snapped it up up 10 years after its original release. If That’s not Enough he has also just signed a further 2 records to Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto Records...2016 certainly looks bright once again for this hard working Producer!!
David’s Productions have also featured on many big hitting compilations over the years from major artists such as Paul Van Dyk’s very first Politics of Dancing compilation, Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Sander Van Doorn, Markus Schulz, Above & Beyond, Gareth Emery and last but by no means least Tiesto who included ‘Answers’ on his now legendary ‘Tiesto in Concert’ DVD (the only UK artist to do so) meaning that David has rightfully earned his place as a household name in the upper Echelons of the Dance Music Fraternity.
Having been in the electronic dance scene for over 2 decades now, whats the biggest change you have seen, good or bad?
The biggest change in my opinion has been the crossover from selling Physical units to Digital, & also the move from Analogue to Digital too. I think its helped with the creative process moving to digital the technology advancing and making it possible to have endless channels and plugins to work with. As for
selling digital units i think it would be difficult to make a living full time from that alone.
Who have you admired or aspired to be like in the scene?
There’s loads of artist I’ve admired over the years, i can’t say I’ve aspired to be like any one artist in particular, I’m just very priviliged & honoured to have forged a career out of something I’m extremely passionate about...people talk about being successful..success to me is waking up everyday and being able to do something i love. What release has been the most successful for you and tell us about it?
I suppose commercially Questions Must Be Asked was my biggest solo release going into the uk charts..i’ve had quite a few top 40’s being involved with different projects over the years.
Who have you worked with that has been more inspiring than others, and why?
When i was learning my trade in the studio back in the day i worked with a genius called Scott Brown, To this day he’s probably the one person who inspired me more than anybody in my career , i’ve never actually told him that, he’ll know now i suppose..i never really learned that much technically from him because he worked that fast, funny because i hear people say that about me nowadays in the studio.
If you where to go back in time what would you do different?
Don’t think i would change anything to be honest I’ve enjoyed the ride up until now!...no wait i remember holding on to my publishing during the hardcore days until i stopped producing Hardcore / Happy Hardcore, then signed it all off for nothing as it turned out to a Crook of a record label / Publisher! we’ll leave it there i think no names mentioned :).. thankfully i got all the titles reverted back to me but by that time it was too late.
Is it just Trance you work on or do you work with House and Techno?
Trance is what I’m known for but I’ve been writing and releasing House, Techno & Disco for years, it was only last year i released a really popular track on Spinnin Deep which did really well.
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