profile - interview

Profile

Anthony Sillfors grew up in Kiruna in the north of Sweden. The extremely cold climate, the Aurora Borealis and the fact that the only Northern European space station is located nearby his hometown must have caused some serious damage to his brain. Today he suffers from an almost insane obsession with science fiction.

After travelling the world as a professional skateboarder, he first got his first dose of trance on a vacation in Mexico in 1992. Since then, he has been a regular party chaser around the world. In the late nineties, he decided that it was about time to send his own sonic frequencies in to outer space and started producing music. Releases on labels such as Flying Rhino, Medium and MDMA in Israel soon followed.

He is now based in Gothenburg and is belting out tunes in a furious tempo from Sector 3 in the Spiral Trax HQ. According to Anthony the music is best describe as a sci-fi sound effects orientated morning trance with coded data from space! We just call it banging trance with nice harmonies and a huge soundscape. Now his time is spent touring and producing the debut album from PREX, a project he is sharing with Noma. Judging from the recent reactions to his live sets it looks like S>Range will be the next big act from Spiral Trax.

3 upcoming tourdates:

2002-01-12 Paris, France
2002-01-26 Stockholm, Sweden
2002-03-02 London, UK

More info @ www.s-range.com

Interview (October 2001)

What does S-RANGE mean?
S>Range is short for ESRANGE,the Space station in my hometown Kiruna,(Just a tribute).

Why were you attracted to psytrance?
First time when I got to hear this music style I got impressed cause it was a fresh sound. It had small amount of everything I used to like,ex Synth music,hardrock and etnical beats.

What has been the reaction to the material you've released?
Since my first release I have got very positve reaction worldwide. Iam just a lucky dude !!

How has the sound progressed with each release?
The sound changes a little bit for every release,Its get boring to do same things allover again,so I need to progress to keep the sound fresh.

Do you ever find you have got too many sounds etc to fit in one track?
Sometimes you have so much inspiration that you have to cut down on sounds in a track and save the other sounds for a new track.

How long could you spend writing a single track?
Everyting from 5 days to 2 weeks

What new stuff are you working on?
Iam working on a new album of S>Range and Prex,just finished a singel of S>Range with a Noma rmx on the B-side that will be released on Spiral trax.

How did your relationship with Spiral Trax come along?
Since i know Dj-Anti for a long time I have tried to pump him with trax until they were good enough to be released on his label Spiral trax.

Tell us a bit about your studio and the Spiral studio!
The studio is based on a Mac G4 computer,Mackie 8 Bus 32ch desk,Mackie speakers and lots of midi equipment to get the sound warm.So I basicly work with 32ch midi and 24ch audio in every track to keep every sound separetly

Where is the best place you have played?
I have played all over the world and there are so many nice places,hard to tell any favorites.Every place has its charm.

Did you ever think you could make a career out of it?
My intension were to give 110% when I started,now its just a proof that if you realy wants something you can get it if you give you best all the time.For sure i didnt expect that it would go this fast.

Which DJs and acts have influenced your style?
There are so many good Djs and artist around the world and they all inspired me.

Tell us more about P.R.E.X and working with NOMA?
Prex is a side project of Noma vs S>Range,we have been doing music together for 2,5 years. We are currenly working on a album that we should have finished a long time ago,but since we both has been busy travelling all the time it has been delayed.So we hope it will be released before the summer 2002.we will have a singel out soon on Spiral Trax.

Whats the difference compared to S-RANGE musically?
Hard to tell,2 guys together in the studio,anyting can happen. We dont have any certain style just creating someting nice to the people. Its more like freestyle thinking, no bounderies.

Do you work on any other projects other than S-RANGE and P.R.E.X?
My girlfriend and I are also writing trax together and more likely we will be 2 in S>Range in the future.

When you perform a live...what's the difference between the tracks on CDs and tracks played in live?
The trax on the live are sometimes rmx or I put layers of new sounds on it. Its all depending of the equipment I have in my desposial for the gig.

What do you think about Djing?
Its great to Dj,you can play your favorite trax and you have more freedom. I like to do both on a party.

So why do you think the Scandinavian sound has become so popular?
Its a fresh sound that the artist bring out with influences from many different dance style. I think this is the secret,that we are not affraid to mix different styles togheter.

Interview by Henrik @ www.tractact.org