Interview XP - Spun Records Aerodance

Author: Van
Date: Sep 27, 2003
Views: 7802

One of the one because of who last Goa's season was blasted :-)


XP - Spun Records / Aerodance Interview :-)




Van : First thank you for the beautiful time you offered to people last season in Goa!:-) I know that you played there since 94 and also that you organized there some of the biggest and most wonderful parties :-) Few words about Goa maybe, past and present time?

XP : Thank you,Vanessa. I appreciate that words, cause you were the one of main dancefloor blasters for all last season in Goa.
So,actually, i just started to come in Goa in 94,but these golden time was very different from now.
You had to be very good and very well known by Goa people to start to play there.There were not so much trance djs at this time in the trance world as now,and this music was not worldwided... mostly all the best parties happened there,in Goa,on the beaches,down the palms and foolmoons, it was the magic time, when people could fly, really FLY.The enormous connection of human and space energy.It was the fresh wave for many thousands Goa freaks,and people believed.In Aliens,In Shiva power,In a brotherhood of acid warriors, union mind.In trance.
For any dj it was a serious test, honour and a level to play this years in Goa.I knew some people who didn't passed the barrier and flipped out in the middle, after and many times before their sets.
I started to dj-ing in Russia 1994,but I didnt feel myself enough strong for the Freeland. Every dj, on my opinion ,is responsible on the mindtrips of the dancefloor.I didnt feel myself so..

I started to play there in the off season 1996, when my friend Roberto Genoveze,one of the serious organisers for this time, made a small (300-400 ppl)party for the friends. Then i played my first, and most important 2 hours set in my life.

Year by year I collected my DAT tapes and formed my taste.After 98 I spend 6 months each year in Goa, and maybe for this reason(I became a kind of Local) or maybe because I am well contactable person :) and I got more > and more friends,I started to play on the main parties, always in the morning.It is my time.

For sure, year by year Goa has changed. Civilisation, tourists, the articles in differents magazines, the attraction of attention to the different aspects of the life in Goa made its negative influence in the land of freedom.

Old Hippies, "aborigens", for whom Goa was a holy place, where the dreams comes true, who couldn't accept the changes and the new younger people, started to leave Goa forever.


From 2000 the scene in Goa became much younger, level of the djs went down, atmosphere got less psychedelic (Acid Eric died in 99) and quite commercial-the priority of the parties was belonging to Paradiso -Open air club with the good connections, but the wrong politics, and as a result of all this changes, the Big announced festival on New Year Eve GOA 2000, organised By Good Mood and Paradiso was cancelled and all parties in this season as well. That was a black year. Thousands of freaks, collected in the pearl of India was waiting day by day for the parties which were never happened. Bad mood, strange vibes, low spirit.


I was organising some parties before that in Goa, but 2000 gave us a hardshake. Many people who had the power to run for the permitions and the connections gave up. Generally, people stopped to believe.

By casuality I found the guy named Anand (now he is one of the editors of the only one indian modern music magazine "RAVE"), who promised the permition for one of the most legendary places on vagator side-Disco valley. He came actually to few people before, but I was the only one who believed and made it. (Russians never give up, you know :-)


And after 3 months of silence (In Goa,where usually there were minimum 1 party each day, even 3 days break is already too much), the land felt the beat again, we blasted untill late evening in Disco valley, and reanimated this season. Goa people went crazy.

Goa, actually is the place, where the people are a bit shared from each other-many differents beaches, chaishops, houses, ethnic comunities. The only place, where people really meet, know each other, start to develop relashionships- it is a dancefloor... There you start to know people better than anywhere. No parties-no friends, no new emotions.

For sure because of this last 2 years, Goa was more empty than usual and there have been some problems with local laws issued in 2001, which > prohibited any music after 10.00 pm all over Goa's territory.

Together with positive moments : Christmas and New Year parties to Hilltop, evenings in 9 Bar, some good end-of-season parties (like the Russian party on Anjuna beach in 2001), a lot has been cancelled too... even just before the start... When a group of friends are putting all their energy and the time inside a party, and it is not happenning, it is bad, but it is OK. But when it happened repeatedly, you're getting tired of it, and don't want to continue. That what happened to a lot of people who were ready to do it before.

Finally from all professionals organisers left only 2 people -Dudu and me.. As you know parties in Goa are free, nobody pays for the entrance, djs get nothing exept the amazing feeling to play for the best crowd in the world. So, we involved money, searched for places, made the special decorations and invited the best djs staying in Goa to play. All that was unrefundable, but it was what we loved to do, we made it for the people, to give them enjoyment, happiness and the feeling of Real Alive Goa.

I think, our mission was completed successfully, because (suddenly for me) the season 2002-2003 was the best for the last 7-8 years. It was like global freak conspiracy!

Full of friends, whose feets didn't pumped the dust on Goa dancefloors for many years -came there.Mega gathering, supercrowd,2-3 really good party in a week - Also we came to the pick of serious production -global decorations,hi-tech equipement, shadows, showers, and, the most important -extra high level of the djs : Riktam, Banzi, Paul Taylor, Dede, Dino, Shanty, Edoardo, Celli, Domestic, Pixel, Ari Alien, Miko, Joty, Yohann Kraft and many others made the last season in Goa unforgettable experience of thousands people for whom Goa was and is a part of their life.

....Also that year was saddly marked by the unespected death on Goa roads of one of the most promised iraeli artists Cosma :(...

... and I have to prevent everybody who is going next year, to drive their bikes attentively.

Anyway, Goa made its jump up again and catched the 2nd breath. It is alive and full on, waiting for blast of the next season.

We will be there to make it happen...


Van. How and where to start with you?... DJ, producer, organizer, head leader of the main label in Russia Aerodance Corporation :-) How do you manage with everything? This let me think that your name should be XP as Xtra Powerful ;-) ???



XP. I won't open the secret of my name :-) Many people, who dont know me well, think that it is my "Artist name". It is not true, I have that name for many years, much before I thought to start to play or whatever.
Generally, I consider the idea of the "Artist name" for the dj as something really ridiculous. OK, the musicians are normally called by their artist name -like Alexis Altom or Ari Alien. But I grew up in Goa, and the djs there are part of the crowd, the friends, mates.

"-Who is playing today?
Teo, Yonas, Amrit and Kaio."
That's all. If people know, people like -they come-. If not, they don't care who is playing -dj Reanimator, dj Psychedelic baba or dj Beatmaster-.

I met somewhere in europe one guy, for example, who seriously told me that his name is ...DJ... I FEEL YOU.
>
So, powerfull or not, you decide.

About the rest...what to tell you?

It is my life. I like or to make the things good or not to make at all. Djing, party organising, producing -that things I can make well. So I am managing somehow.

I started to make parties in Moscow in 1994 and since that time, Aerodance corporation(my label),the most professional party organisation in Russia, produced more than 450 parties in Russia from 1000 to 40 000 people. It sounds unreal, but many foreigners readers of that interview would be surprised how huge is the trance scene in Moscow.

In a megapolice with 12 000 000 habitants it is the most popular dancing music... Imagine...

We were good family team, and knew how to work. We opened the first of the 5 trance clubs in our city -Aerodance, Chill Out Planet, LESS, Galaxy and Plazma- and were blasting untill 2000... date when I leaved Russia and changed my life for the future of my beautiful new born daughter.


Since 2000 I live in Italy, and actually only 2 things I am managing together : it is djing around the globe and playing with my baby.


Van. ;) So let's start by the DJ/Musician part of yourself ;) Before your first parties in Goa as DJ, how, when and why do you start to get interested to the Trance music?



XP. I dont really know when to start with me.


I passed already through few differents lifes, but all around music. I was punk in the beginning of 80's and even played in one of the most famous Soviet underground punk bands on solo.

Then i danced for few years professionally breakdance, and this time also formed some of my dance movements o present, and then at the end of 80's I first time listened acid house, and from that moment actually ,I stucked on electronic music.

Trance came in my life later, I think 92/93.. or around. First russians "ambassadors" came back from Goa-dj Gabriel and the guys, who organised after Chill Out Planet(famous party-clothes fashion label) and brought the tapes with the earliest tracks of Goa trance. Then I completely freaked out and here I am :)



Van. Which are your musical influences, all kind mixed up?



XP. Good question.

I think it is better if I will tell my Life top 10 in out-of-trance music, not in a particular order : Doors, Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, Ozric tentacles, Kino(rus.), Ravi Shankar, Dub music, J.M.Jarre, Gypsy romances, Manu Chao. Didfferent, ah?


Van. How could you, in a few words define your musical style?



XP. I love to play understandable intelligent full on psychedelic emotional trance. If you understand what I mean. Sunlight music. Better unreleased, so I am sure that people are not tired to listen it again. I always try to renew my collection, and play the newest stuff, 'cause for me each track is a psychedelic digital message. You listen it first time-you got it. After it is already like a joke, which you heard and if it is good, you can laugh 1-2 time more, but then...


Van.On what are you mixing?

XP. I used to play 8 years on DAT, and was maybe the last from old goa's dj crew who changed for CD's. I liked the sound of DAT -I had good connections for the music- result a good quality, and also I knew the trick with beatmixing on DAT. A lot of people think that it is impossible, but it is very possible, and even easier when you know how to do it.

Riktam, Banzi, Amrit (he shown me the technic) were the first who got it, and believed me,They mixed on DAT's better than many djs are mixing now on CDjays.

Anyway, i preferE the easier workshop combination : Pioneer 100 and Pioneer beatcounter mixer(500 or 700. Good SONY headphones. Chillums.

That's it ;)


Van. From where or how does your inspiration come when you are creating music?


XP. Hmmm,looks like I have to tell now about my music creating side, OK. Shortly as I can.

So, first track I made was with Para sense in my house in absolutely stoned condition in 1998.

Our project we called by the name of the label-Aerodance. We liked the atmosphere of the work, so we started to seat time to time when we got the same condition :) Together, making the tracks for Moscow audience. For us it was fun -we remixed all kind of famous world and russian melodies, made them full on and funky. We were not supposed to present it to the world trance society, but we had good suggestion and we released in 2002 Aerodance album on Acidance records(Greece), as well as few tracks in israel, US and Holland.

But meanwhile I made each week parties, I played a lot, I was busy with my daughter, and however, honestly, for me that time the musicmaking didn't become a point of my life. Now my child grow up, I am getting more free and I will start to pay serious attention on my musician future. Last track I made was with Sebi-Frequency Surfer and will be released on the following compilation of Neurobiotic rec. White wizard is coming... From him I will take my inspiration


Van.You play now on Spun Records label since last season in Goa? What does it change for you to play for such a famous label? Could you tell me more about your collaboration with them?


XP. Ooo... This is a lovely part.

I tell you the truth -it is a great honour for me to be part of SPUN.

First of all, we are a family. We know each other a long time, some around 9-10 years. More of SPUN people grow up together and know each other so well. We have the same music taste, idelogy, sense of humour, memories and many things more uniting us.

It is very different from the situations of many labels, where the work is just a work. It is a long and deep conceptual friendship. Specially with my Big geeza mate paul taylor and GMS boys.

2nd point, SPUN records is definitly one of the headleaders of world trance labels.(For me-the first, for sure. It is completely my sound. 170%. The modernated and high-tech updated old goa trance. Full on. Emotional. Futuristic sound. Monster production. Strong melodies.

By the way, I really love melodies inside the tracks. I dont like cheezy fluffy tunes. Good made melodies. They means that the artist is the musician, not just someone, who learned the softwear.


This is SPUN. Are you SPUNnned? If not yet, check now www. spunrecords.org



Van. Next gigs? Which was your best gig? Which is the one you'd prefer to forget everything about?



XP. I still staying 6 months in a year in Goa, Nov-March, and also i don't know when you will publish this interview, so I better will answer that they are always and around all of you.

Catch me if you can :)...

And by the circumstances i prefered not to have a gig so good that i will forget about, I on the fathers duty, hehehehe



Van.What about the parties you organized all around the world? When is them next one?


XP. Goa only. The rest of the world is busy by other people and too stressing.


Van. Some news from Para Sense you're the world Producer of? Next release? Next gigs?


XP.Yes,for the last 7 years I am producing the Psychedelic Monsters-Para Sense.Quite successfully.They have really different music stile from what I use to play(many ppl think that if I am producing the group,i play their stuff),but it is really good producted and strong night sound,our DARK SIDE. After releasing 2 albums on Acidance records we are preparing now to the very special project,will be out in a couple weeks on Cristal Matrix-THE VERY UNKNOWN OF PARA SENSE/AERODANCE It is 10 previously unreleased tracks, 3 of them new, and the rest-founded in the collections and lost before, made from 1997 till 2001. Very surprising, I promise you. Very different from what you can expect.
It will rock you!

Van. What are your personals projects for the future?



XP. My project is to compile a CD for SPUN around next spring. So if musicians, who makes a SPUN style stuff want to contact to me -you are always welcome.Also,as I said,in Goa I hope to make few good ones.



Van. Which are your favorite tracks, DJ's and groups of the moment?
Who are the artists you already work with and who are the one you really want to work with them later?


XP. About my favorite groups for now ...

....I really like GMS.Each their track is a bomba! They have the formula,and it is the only one group, which is really kicking for the last 7 years, always staying on the top.

I know the people who complain, that GMS sounds the same -they need the changes. But, again, they have the formula of the dancefloor blast, they actually made it, and why they have to change -nobody ask Hoffman for example to change a formula of LSD. Maybe he can, even now, but are you sure that it will be better? I'm not.

Somebody says that the sound of GMS is commercial and not too intelligent. For this people I want to tell especially - Guys, you changed the subject of the parties. To get more intellect, we go to the libraries, conservatories, theaters, or listen the intelligent stuff in the houses. On the parties we are coming to have FUN! Dance, smile, laugh, flirt, move, find friends. It is a last place on the earth, honestly, where I can go to pretend to be more clever after the visit. Sex ,Drugs and Rock n Roll -nobody changed this rules of enjoyment. I dont know about the rest part, it depends, but GMS live are always PURE HI- TECH ROCKNROLL. I love them for this-the music and the people. To be objective,I can say,that I play very very few GMS tracks when I am djying,cause when ppl come to listen SPUN dj,they expect only GMS,I try to be on the edge of worldwide trance. But ,generally,I can play few hours GMS and their projects,and I will enjoy a lot.
Whom else? Actually I love all good producted, welldone morning full on trance, and so many bands who produce it as Simon Potsford, Delirious is good, protoculture, new Space tribe, Altom, Absolum,Eskimo,Brain XL,Serious Isness... Actually all who creating killer full on traxx.


That is my top 15 for now, check it put:
1. GMS - Animatrix
2. Space tribe - Giants
3 .Chaoticnoisefreak-Headhunter
4 .Apocalypse-Phenomenon
5 .Polly + Cyrus the Virus-Biological Planet
6 .dj Mack + Star X -Full Communication
7 . Protoculture - High Orbit
8 . Frequency Surfer+dj XP-White Wizard
9 . GMS - the Lord of the Ring
10 .Eskimo-can you pick me up ?
11 .Dynamic - Lets Rock !
12 Delirious - magical object rmx
13 .Serious Isness-new killer track,but I dont have a name
14 .Brain XL - Hypercube
15 CPU - Process unit


Van. Muchas gracias for this GMS story.. let people speak.. jealousy jealousy.. this drive people crazy ! Here we say much more than thank you and many other also :) Did you play in France? What do you think about the French scene of these time?


XP. Ya, I played few times. For TBE in 99, for JP Elefantom 2000 near Paris, and for one organisation in grenoble. It was OK, but for ununderstandable reasons, the boys are overdominated on the parties in France :) But I would love to go their again,I have a lot of french friends.Salut!


Van. You played already everywhere in the world but which are your favorites places to play? and why?

Xp. I Love Goa, Japan, Russia, Brasil and Portugal. People really love this music in this places, accept it in a right way, have high level of psychedelic culture and full on spirit. I never played in Australia, South africa and Quebec -the trance scene there is big, but I didnt check. Coming soon..

My best time ever,I think ,was on Trancendence festival in Brasil,Alto paraiso,last summer.It was incredible!Super place,organisation,music,everything.About organisators I have to tell few words separately-I never saw in my life(and I ve been so many parties,believe me)so much love to the partypeople than gave the Trancendence guys.I hope some of them will read this int.,and I want to tell them BIGGEST OBRIGADO .Want to be their again and again each minute


Van.Except the music, do you have any other kind of interests in life? Which ones?


XP. Ooooooops. Hard to tell you. I have a hobbie. Life surviving in the human jungles :)

Van. One dream, something you really want to realize or
something you really want to say?
XP. Dreams-a lot. Too much. I live in the world of dreams.. To choose the one.. Ah,I know -I dream to go back in time in Goa, 1994-1995, my wonderful young age and feel again the neverending feeling of a mindflight.
And what I want really to say, even to wish -is good and trustable connections beteween party organisers and record labels and the artists. It is a shame when the artists are cheated and unpayed, and it happened anyway. We all are making the same story, and at first all that is a human connection, entertaiment, and then the business and the money (what is also important, for sure, but to loose the reputation and as following the contacts and the good name is too unequal profit).
For example, in 1998 we released 2 tracks on Israeli label USTA on "Israeli flipped on enfield" -Para sense- Tape label system and Aerodance kaio dreams . It was very hitty, and after ZOOB released LP with both of our tracks. Untill now, after all promises and mistical stories, we never get any cent for both of this tracks. The amount of the money is miserable, and not so important for us, as an opinion we've got about this guy. Its a shame. People!Lets love eachother,communicate more and work together with one purpose -to give the people what they need -enjoyment, happiness, dance and music. Imagine..
"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... "



Van. Contacts, booking, website...
XP. Contact booking : xp@spunrecords.org

and all info about me and SPUN artists on : www. spunrecords.org,


Spasiba..



Vanvan@chaishop.com

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