Page 14 - Zone Magazine Issue 020

I
am here with Luke Brancaccio London based DJ and Producer from Suicide Sports Club & Brancaccio and Aisher, and Simon Berry, head man and founder of Platipus Records and responsible for many progressive trance records in the early 90's, including two favourites of mine; Art of Trance ‘Gloria’ & Poltergeist – ‘Vicious Circles’. He is also one half of Union Jack!
" Luke and I have been talking about doing some combined DJ/Live gigs with decks and synths etc. which could be fun. Hopefully they’ll be the opportunity for that to happen down the line. "
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Welcome guys! Can you please tell the readers a bit about yourselves!
LB: I’ve been DJ'ing and producing for about 20 years; I’ve always had a passion for discovering and creating new music, which has led me to success with things like Brancaccio and Aisher, and Suicide sports club. I’ve had the privilege of being signed to some of the biggest labels in dance music. Now working with Simon and back on labels like Bedrock and circus recordings, it’s gone full cycle.
SB: As you say, I’ve been producing on my own as Art Of Trance and as one-half of Union Jack since ’93. Throughout that time I’ve been fortunate to do live gigs right across the globe. I’ve DJ’d on a few occasions but I decided a long time ago to prioritise making music, and doing the odd live gig along the way. Unlike Luke, I have neither the patience or inclination to go trawling through hundreds of new releases each week.
How did the collaboration come about for
'Wake up' and the inspiration behind the
track?
SB: About a year ago, a friend of mine invited me along to a house party Luke was hosting, just down the road from where I live. We met then and a couple of months later we agreed to hook up for a studio session. 6 sessions later, Oblivion was complete and we sent it to John at Bedrock who got fully behind it. A month later we got back on the horse and started ‘Wake Up’. We had this very nice harmonic melodic sequence chord change going down and felt we needed to inject a bit of anarchy into the track which is where the contrasting Wake Up vocals slotted in perfectly.
received?
SB: The initial feedback’s been incredible.
LB: The response after only a week of it being promo’d has been absolutely amazing with people ranging from Damian Lazarus, Kolsch and Camel Phat to people like Tony Humphries, Carl Craig and David Morales, all getting excited about it, and that’s not even scraping the surface. To say we’re pleased is an understatement!
What hardware software was used in the making the track?
SB: It was the first tried I’d used a couple of fairly new bits of kit I’d recently acquired. We used the Modal 008 for the bassline, which was actually the starting point of the track, as well as the Moog Sub 37 (again) for various atmospheric sounds which we bounced in. The rest of the sounds were in the box, including some raw Roland System 100 sounds that were used for the main melodic sequence. The impOSCar soft-synth featured too... oh! and some heavily processed orchestral samples like the skidding cellos.
What advice would you both give to any young
aspiring Dj Producers hoping to make a name
for themselves ?
LB: I would say hone your skills! And just be relentless. Keep on doing it and send your music to everybody. there’s nothing worse than a great tune that hasn’t been heard.
Can we look forward to any more
collaborations or solo projects in the near
future?
LB: I’ve been working with a guy called Tim Healey from Coburn and currently with another guy called Zed White, and back in the studio next week with the bad ass Mr Berry
SB: There’s a few of people I’ve been chatting about collaborating withthisyear,butunfortunately,they’reallbasedabroad.I’mnot so into working remotely...sending files back and forth. I prefer to collaborate in the same studio, to share the vibe, so it’s on hold until we’re in the same country / studio.
LB: After Oblivion I felt we’d really found our stride and working on ‘wake up’ was an easier, organic process.
The collaboration 'Wake Up' is coming out on Yousef's Circus Recordings which is one of my Favourite labels at the moment, what's the feedbackbeenlike?IheardthetrackonJohn Digweeds 'Transitions' show and it was well