GUS TILL Interview – Gaian Mind Summer Festival 2006

You have been involved in the psytrance/electronic music scene for a long time. Can you describe how you got involved, and what your musical experience was before you began writing psytrance?

Well, I've always been a musician and had a fascination with synthesizers that goes back to when I was a child. As a young teen I was always fiddling about with electronics building weird oscillators and noisemakers. By the time I was 18 I got my first synth - an ARP Odyssey - a fabulous beast! So I started playing in New Wave bands in Melbourne at the end of the 70's. This was a scene that artists like Nick Cave, Dead Can Dance, The Saints, Crowded House were all involved with (on the Sydney side it was INXS and Midnight Oil). But b y the mid 80's I was getting pretty tired with the whole pop thing, and this was at the time that dance music was just starting to loom on the horizon, so I pretty well threw in my lot with that and the whole MIDI/ computer revolution which was actually making it possible. As for trance, there was no conscious decision that this was the scene I wanted to be in - it was sort of coming into existence and I was kinda heading there. It was more a case of what my idea of electronic music sounded like and what I was actually writing fit perfectly with it, and by the time I'd moved to London permanently in 95/96 (I'd been in Paris the previous 3 years), met up with all the trance crew there - initially it was all the TIP crew - I was in!

Please tell us about some of the projects you are currently (or previously) involved in, and what distinguishes them from one another. (What makes a track a "Bus" track vs. a "Gus Till" track, etc.?)

That's a lot of projects so I better keep it down! Currently Im working with my wife Cozi ( DJ Supercozi) on two new Zen Lemonade albums. One is a downbeat/dub album and nearly finished, the other is an upbeat trance album - our take on it at any rate. We've also got an Electro/break type of thing going on but haven't settled on a name for that yet. There's loads of downbeat stuff - writing some tracks for the new Interchill compilations and a remix of System Seven. Then there's some remixes I've been doing with Adam Freeland in his break' rock style, and been remixing some Californian Glam Rock bands too.

As for the Gus/Bus thing - I've decided to keep all of my new trance stuff as Bus and all my other stuff as Gus! It was always mixed up and for absolutely no good reason - it just served to confuse. There's also a Slinky Wizard project I've started with George Barker which we just can't seem to ever finish. The fact that I live in Bali and he's in the UK could have something to do with it but.

As well as solo projects, you are involved in a number of collaborations. Do you have any favorite people to work with in the studio? Who would you most like to work with, if given the opportunity?

Anybody who can bring something to the table that gives me a new slant on things is OK in my book! At the moment Im really into working with quality musicians - the whole computer thing has come around now to the point where we can be 'liberated' from the banality of MIDI and having our music rigidly stuck to a grid. Computers have come of age and are now a true recording studio in the original sense, but with much more fantastic options available - and that's what I really want to exploit. I can even have an entire 'Orchestra in the Box' now which Im really getting into.

I have many favorite people to work with - Simon Polinski, Joe Creighton, Geoff Hales (Rip Van Hippy) who I always use whenever I get back to OZ. And Tim Valkenburg who I work with here in Bali who has an amazing studio just down the road from me. He's been working on the new Zen Lemonade stuff with Cozi and I, doing guitars and some mixing. Working with Steve and Miquette from System Seven is a pleasure too as they were heroes of mine back in the 70's! (Would love to get Steve in the studio more). And a choice of anybody? Robert Fripp and Brian Eno.

How would you describe the current state of the psytrance scene? How has it changed since you have been a part of it, and where do you see it going?

Well, it seems bigger than ever - but it's also become narrower than ever, and this is something of an affliction with all scenes- not just trance. Take punk rock/new wave for example: back in the 70's it was a very open affair - people were exploring the whole realm of possibilities of DIY and there was a real enthusiasm about the whole thing - think of the disparity in style and message of groups such as the Sex Pistols, XTC, Devo, The Jam, Wire, Nick Cave etc. But by the time you've moved ahead a decade to the mid 80's all we we're left with was 'punk' and that meant strictly mohawks, leather jackets and incredibly monotonous music - which is just an incredible whittling down of what it originally had been. Somthing very similar has happened to trance. What was really exciting about trance was the incredible inventiveness of people like Koxbox, X-Dream, Hallucinogen, Atmos, Planet BEN, Metal Spark, Johann, Total Eclipse, Juno Reactor, etc. You could pick any of them apart from each other immediately upon hearing them, and they were always taking the music off into new directions. It's the absolute reverse now - same kick drum, same Nord Lead noises, same big of tricks from far too many artists (some of whom should know better) - it's all, quite sadly, become very one-dimensional. It's not all that gloomy though, fortunately things are sloooowly changing, and I'm hearing some new sounds that prove interesting - guess this is what's drawn me out of my 'semi-retirement'. Bring back proper 'morning music' I say!

What is the most memorable experience you have had?

That's easy - watching my second child being born and after being told it was to be a boy - it was a girl!!!! (our 1st child's a boy) But trance related, that's easy too - the entire period I was living in the UK and DJing in amazing places and meeting new people all over the globe. Highlights would be the big festivals - Samothraki was just incredible, Solstice in Japan, Solipse in Zambia, Morocco 2001, Thailand 2002, Earthcore 2000, and the entire 'summer of doof' in Oz...

What are some of your interests other than music?

Where technology is taking us, the 'new' climate of political criticism (although bizarrely no-one, especially the main stream media really wants to pay attention to it), reading - whenever I'm not glued to my computer, enjoying life in Bali, travelling, building up my prog rock collection and Chelsea football club!

Please describe your process of writing a song, from inspiration to completion.

I start noodling about with a sound, add something else to it, sit back, throw some paint at it, chip away here, glue that on there, remove the first bit, remove the second bit, put the first bit back in again (the last steps can be repeated infitiely) break in a few eggs, stir, heat and let it hatch.

What is your current studio set-up? How has your setup changed over the years?

It's all been whittled down to the latest G5, a UAD card, a Powercore Firewire, Logic, and every conceivable piece of software. All the mixing I do at Tim Valkenburg's where we have an identical Mac set-up and the most extraordinary monitoring system you could imagine - the only other place that's got it is the Abbey Road 5.1 mastering room. It was built for him by his cousin who just happens to be a genius - he was the guy who invented the' Fairlight', the technology which made all dance music possible!

Your first Bus album has been eagerly anticipated for a long time. What are your thoughts on it now that it has been released?

That the bleedin' thing should of been released 6 years ago!!!!!! Not to say I dont like it (I do!), but the next one will be quicker off the mark, that's for sure.

What is your favorite track you have written? What is your favorite song written by somebody else?

'Moon and a 1000 Offerrings' from the new Zen Lemonade downbeat album. Favorite song? Something written by John Lennon or Jimmy Webb I guess. And my favorite trance track - 'Ant Invasion' by Planet BEN.

What's next?

New Zen Lemonade, new Bus, loads of chill releases, writing some orchestral flavored peices and some straight orchestral pieces, Electro/break projects... even a prog rock thing I've just been asked to do. Got everything here up and running properly now so there's no excuses!

If you could sum up your life's philosphy in a few words or sentences, what would it be?

'Do what thou wilt', to quote Aleister Crowley.

Any final words?

That says it all!

Thank you once again for doing this interview. We are very excited for your sets at the Gaian Mind Festival!

GUS TILL was interviewed by Dan Pihlblad. www.sidetrakkt.com

May 11, 2006