Exclusive Interview with Solarstone
Trance Music Lovers In Thailand and Shark join forces to bring the legendary Trance DJ & Producer SOLARSTONE to Aftermoon. He has played all major festivals around the world such as Global Gathering, ASOT, Tomorrowland, TomorrowWorld, Stereosonic & FSOE and he has hosted his "Pure Trance" event series worldwide in cities such as Miami, Ibiza & Amsterdam.
Siam2nite had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with Solarstone, shortly before his performance at Aftermoon Bangkok on 19th December.
You can look back on a career of 2 decades in music. How did you get in touch with electronic dance music – especially Trance - in the first place and how did you get into DJing and music production?
It does sound like a long time when you put it like that! I formed an indie-dance band in the early 90’s with two friends – called ‘Emission’, which led to my meeting a guy named Andy at one of the Emission gigs. He was into early house music, Sasha, Djs like that - and we got together to try making something similar. He knew another guy named Sam who had a bunch of analogue equipment – plus an Akai S3000 sampler, so the 3 of us formed ‘The Space Kittens’ – which then became ‘Solar Stone’ a couple of years later.
How would you describe your own music in just a few words?
Warm, melodic & emotional.
What tracks would you recommend to someone that is not yet familiar with your music?
Hmmm, I think I’d give them the ‘Pure’ album, Electronic Architecture 3 and also Pure Trance Vol. 3 – that would pretty much sum up what I’m about musically.
You have released your 4th and most recent studio album “Pure” in 2012. What are you currently working and focusing on?
Actually ‘Pure’ was my third artist album, Anthology One was a compilation of all of my work up to 2006. I’m working on my next album now, it is slow progress but it’s sounding good so far. I’ve been so busy since the release of ‘Pure’ with the Pure Trance movement (including 3 Pure Trance compilations), countless remixes, another EA album plus the launch of PureNRG – that recording my next artist album has taken a lot longer than usual! It will be worth it though when it’s released in 2015.
In 2004 you started a radio show/podcast called “Solaris International” – at the beginning of November you broadcasted the 430th edition of it. What can you tell us about the concept of the show and where can people listen to it?
The show is simply me playing my favourite selection of what is new, spanning the 128bpm sounds of deep progressive trance / house to #140 peak time trance music. There are regular features such as my ‘Chillout Moment’, ‘It’s Not The Kind Of Thing We Usually Play’ and of course my ‘Big Tune’. The show goes out on AHFM at 18:00 GMT each Tuesday and the subsequent broadcasts on an extensive FM network through the week. Full network details plus tracklists are on the #Si fanpage.
You have played the biggest clubs and festivals all over the world, including Global Gathering, Cream Ibiza, A State Of Trance, Tomorrowland, TomorrowWorld, Stereosonic, FSOE any many others. What was the best and the worst gig you ever played and what was the funniest thing ever occurred during any of your performances?
I think my best gig memory was the first Pure Trance event at ADE in 2013; it was the culmination of a lot of hard work on the whole Pure Trance concept. Actually, if I could combine all the Pure Trance parties into one – that would be my best gig! The worst… that was a gig I played in Singapore years ago, the promoter and PR team had fallen out, and the PR team had not announced or promoted the show at all – nobody knew about it. I played for 20 minutes to an empty room. That was probably the funniest thing too in retrospect. As Morrissey famously said: ‘I can laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible”.
On 19th December you will perform live in Bangkok. Have you ever visited Thailand before? Will the performance be you Bangkok Debut? What can Bangkok expect of your upcoming performance?
No, I’ve never visited Thailand! For some reason my travels have never taken me there, so many of my friends and colleagues have told me what a wonderful country it is, and Bangkok is the stuff of legends, so I’m definitely looking forward to it. I’m playing in India the following day so unfortunately won’t have much time to explore, but there will be another chance for that. As far as my debut performance is concerned, let’s wait and see.