EMOK/PHONY ORPHANTS Interview – Gaian Mind Summer Festival 2006
When you guys first began producing music, the Phony Orphants sound was the most original and undeniable sound out there. Tracks like "Detector Dude," "Driving in the Desert," and (my favorite) "Black Sheep" were recognizable in any DJ set at anytime. There was NOTHING else like those early tracks! As the year's have progressed, you've written more tracks against a surging backdrop of hundereds of new artists; and have kept that same originality intact. Tracks like "Symphony," and "Horny Enphants" from your first full-length and now (the gem) "House for my Spouse" are landmarks in this pattern. How have you managed to keep your music so original? How have you kept your creativity in a place where it's free of, what I would call, "an anxiety of influence?" That is, how have you been able to continually create a sound that doesn't sound like anything else out there?
Well actually we don’t really know how we keep on doing it. In the beginning we just made the sound that we found good. But lately we get a lot of inspiration from different music than trance. Actually we got influence from pop music, electro, rock and so on, this helped us to create something different. I guess after all these yours we also have a kind of formula to write music. This is maybe why our stuff is recognizable. Sometimes we even find it a bit hard to break this formula, which has resulted in very few tracks since the latest album.
When Iboga Records first started - with those wacky pen-and-ink 12" labels - did you ever think it was going to become such a global phenomenom? Was it your intention to create what has bascially become the label known for "the best music on the planet?" As you look back on the last seven years, how has your perception of the label changed and does the current Iboga Records match what you had planned back when the label first opened?
One thing is for sure, we didn't expect Iboga Records to grow into a label of this size when we started. Actually we didt know jack shit about label, business, market, customers, accounting or any thing. We just got some money from the government to try out making a CD. The first years it was purely a hobby for us, we didt do much work, and didt take it seriously at all. Actually we (Banel and Emok) really kicked off three years ago. We decided that we needed to take this to a more professional level otherwise there was no future in what we were doing. SO slowly we could see that putting in a lot of effort into the label resulted in better sales, better artists, and a much better and established label. Not only that we actually started living of the label, paying our self a salary every month.
Last year, Iboga Records started it's own distribution company along with Malmo's Digital Structures. The company, called "Two Hands Distribution," was formed to create easier global access to progressive psy-trance. Aside from that obvious reason, what were your motivations for starting "Two Hands" with Peter, and now others like Anti, Pena and Laureth? What do you hope to accomplish by having your own distribution company and how do you think this company will effect the way progressive psy-trance is bought and heard around the world?
First off all I would like to say, that the word psytrance to me is not a word I compare with our label on music anymore. We prefer to use the name progressive or progressive trance. Not only have the word psytrance a bad effect in many music scenes and shops when you deal music as a distribution, but we start to see the psytrance scene as a much more full on scene than ours. The BPM is mostly 142 and more, where the music we release is mostly under 135 BPM. Lately most of our artists are working in 130 and lower. The music goes and the funky bases and is never aggressive. So we prefer just Progressive...
Anyway after making label business for so many years, we constantly need to evolve, otherwise we get stuck. After having years of problems with Cosmophilia, it seemed like the only way to do things. Also we started to get so many contacts our self, that it was obviously that we needed to do this work self. Also we have had a much stronger connection between us. Digital Structures, Flow, Spiral Trax, Plusquam, Slope, Iboga and so on. We have all been doing the same thing, so why not try to get strong together.
But what really kicked it off was the company called Two Hands. Two Hands is not a company we made, but is a company that existed for long. We hooked up with these guys from Denmark, came to them with the idea. They liked it, and we decided to join forces to make all this happen. We needed some strong people from Denmark to make our dream come true. Not only money wise, but also someone who knows about business and sales. So this resulted in Two Hands Distribution.
Although Iboga and it's stable of great artists have quite a following - there are other fascinating labels based in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of those labels is "NanoBeat Recordings," headed by none other than Jeppe Ornkilde. Jeppe, how has NanoBeat been doing since the compilations "Lush" and "Token to Thrill" were released? Those two comilations (in my opinion) were excellent. Newer artists like Groove Sniffers and Orsten Nors released great music. Tell us what's next for NanoBeat and which artists we can expect to hear more tracks from. And secondly, WHO exactly is Orsten Nors and why doesn't he have more tracks out there? :-)
Nanobeat suffered after Cosmophilia closing. They lost a lot of money like most other labels in the scene. But for a new label like Nanobeat this result in almost the finish of the label. Nanobeat had three releases planned for really long, but all of them got stuck with Cosmopilia crashing. Two 12 inch and one CD. The vinyls was one Mondays Millionarez with a Miro Remix on the flip side and one vinyl with Junk.
Now Two Hands distribution has been speaking to Nanobeat, and we might help them out getting their releases out...
And Ohrten Nors is a German guy, living in Copenhagen. He made a lot more music, but he is doing Electro. You see one tune from him on the Antix remix CD, and he will have some releases on some German minimal house labels.
Throughout your careers, Phony Orphants has been known as the primary Live Act on Iboga Records. More recently, however, the label has been signing new artists who are gaining in popularity. Nobody will deny that the release of "Lull" established the Strom Brothers as two of the world's best producers and the release of "Strange Attractors" paid similar dividends for Aran Gallagher. What part of the job do you find more enjoyable - writing music in the studio as Phony Orphants, or promoting and producing other artists' work through DJing and distribution? How do you balance your time and which do you think is more important in the grand scheme of things? With the coming of new albums from Reefer Decree, Ace Ventura, and Liquid Soul; do you think you'll have enough time to write more Phony Orphants material?
Its always been hard balancing the time with all we do. It always end up that we don’t have the time in the studio writing music as we like to. But I cant really tell what I like the most, for me it’s the balance between all of it. Traveling, promoting, playing, producing is all part of what I do, so if I take away one of them, the balance will break and I will get frustrated. So as I said before, Jeppe and I haven been writing to much music since our last album, we have been really short of time. I guess we will try to make some more before the summer comes. As for me, I have been focusing a bit on making music by my self as EMOK. I did few remixes, one tune with Ticon, and some more for my solo album releasing in the beginning of next year... I hope... EMOK.
Over the years, both of you have worked individually and together with other artists to produce collaborative tracks. "Saturday Candy," and "Chicago Collins" with the Strom Brothers, the amazing "Mondays Millionaires" project, "Spot my Burger" with Freq, and an old Riff-Raff track that Mikael did with "Spy vs. Spy" have highlighted a long career in such work. How has working with others in that sense helped (or hurt) your own musical ability? Who have been your favorite artists to work with? What has been your favorite piece of work created outside the Phony Orphants project?
Its very important to work with other people in the studio, and we will keep up doing it. Its very good for inspiration, and a very good way to learn to use the studio in a different way. Personally for me my favorite piece is a new track I didt with Ticon. It will be released in September on Homega... You think, this must be full on... but... I will let you be surprised. Also I did two new Mondayz Millionairez tracks with Hayden, and thay turned out really good as well. As for Jeppe, he has been writing few tunes him self, and they are really good as well, mush inspired by electro.
Is there ever going to be an Emok solo album?? If so... WHEN?!?!? "Old Speckled Hen" is one of my favorite tracks of all time - and your recent work with "Perfect Stranger" on the track "Truth" is simply a masterpiece! Can we expect a solo album any time in the future?
Yes, working on it mate. Hope fully in the beginning of next year. With a bit of luck November 2006.
Though a detailed list of gear is available on your website, please tell us your primary set-up as it pertains to equipment in the producing, recording, and performing process. What gear do you require for your live-set compared to the gear you require to produce in studio? Do you prefer MAC computers or PC? Windows or OS X? What types of synths and software do you use?
Well we work with a PC. Dual core processor, 2000 MB of ram. A fat one. Besides that our digital mixing desk Yamaha 03D is the center of the studio.
Then we have a fat compressor, it’s a SSL clone... super fat. Our SPL Vitalizer is a favorite as well. Then we use the TC Fireworx effect module a lot. Much better sound then from the plug-in. And lately we got in a Alesis Andromeda, this is the absolutely most fat Analogue keyboard you can get for money. And then we off course use a lot of plug-ins on the CPU...
The new album, "Et Cetra" has an undeniable electro feel to it. Tracks like "Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll" and "Party" illustrate the "electro-direction" that some of the more established progressive artists have been taking lately - why did you choose this direction and how do you think it is effecting other artists around the globe who look to you for inspiration? Many young artists see you guys as an inspiration. Do you think the new electro influence is one which will catch on globally now that artists like you guys, Beckers & D-Nox, and even Son Kite are making the sound more popular?
I think the electro is catching up a lot of people on the trance scene. The grooves is so much more groovy, and also the scene needed some new direction to change the sound a bit. I even hear the influence in the full on psytrance music, from artists like Sub6, Infected Mushroom, GMS and so on. But I also think that there will be an end to it as well, we need to keep on developing, so a year from now…..well I guess you will see something completely different. And I guess that artists like Beckers, Son Kite, Ticon, Antix, Freq will be some of the heads behind new changes in the progressive sound.
With a population, GNP, and average income larger than most other countries in the world, it seems odd that the trance culture has not developed in the United States as quickly and easily as it has in countries on other continents. Though a few cities in the States, Canada, and Mexico have established small scenes - it is easy to see that North America is FAR behind the rest of the world in producing good trance artists and labels. Why do you think this is? What about North America makes it difficult for trance labels and artists to thrive the way they do in countries like Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and Brazil?
Well I might not be right. But the American lifestyle is based on: Money Money Money and Money. The trance scene has for many years been travelers, hippies, and a lifestyle where the money is not in the center. So for many American people the more posh house scene have been mush more attracting. This is a scene where people use a lot of money, and people think much more about how they look and which style they have. Pretty simple, but I think I’m right.
Aside from the obvious choices like "Perfect Stranger," "Liquid Soul," and "Ace Ventura," - what artists do you see making an impact on the global progressive culture in the next year or two? Is there another "Phony Orphants" or "Son Kite" on the horizon? Morever, what labels can we expect to increase in popularity? Do labels like Tribal Vision, Plusquam, or Groove Control have a chance at becoming as globally respected as Iboga?
Well first of all I think you should look out for artists like Sun Control Species, Manuel Duego, Earsugar to name few.
And as for the labels, I think its good to see a label as Tribal Vision making so much good stuff. I really hope that they are some of the guys that will stay for long. They have been giving the scene a new inspiration I think. But in the end of the day I think its up to how much work the different labels put into it...
What REALLY happened to Frogacult?? :( (feel free not to answer this one if you don't want to - it's just been bugging me on a personal level...)
Well they are still around in Denmark. But they stopped making music together. We all hope they will start again one day. Lets see...
I think thay have one new tune, and we will speak to them about releasing it...
EMOK of PHONY ORPHANTS was interviewed by Dave Henshaw. www.sonicbeating.org
May 23, 2006