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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! |
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Trance Generation Preview - Interview With Ben Lost
Reported by Ehren Stowers
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Submitted 01-02-05 01:28
When you see Ben play behind the decks, the first thing you sense is that this guy knows what he is doing. He oozes an aura of total control.
I’d heard a lot about Ben Lost before I first got the chance to see him play at Godskitchen last year. Having listened to his hugely successful mix album released on Lost Language, ‘Exhibitions’, I knew his style and choice of tunes was right down my alley. I was not disappointed – he spun a carefully crafted set of excellent melodic trance, and I walked away that night knowing this guy had a huge future ahead of him.
Ben had a huge year in 2004 - joining Scott Bond’s massive night AHEAD, the hugely successful trance label ‘Lost Language’ (he’s head of ‘A & R’), collaborating with Solarstone’s ‘The Young Parisians’ on ‘Jump the next train’, and being named as a Mixmag future hero to name just four.
With Ben making his debut at Trance Generation on feb 11th, and 2005 shaping up to be bigger than the last, I wanted to find out what he had to say for himself!
It might come as a suprise to some people, but you actually began your music career as a singer & a guitarist in a glam punk band called 'Charlie' when you were 13! Can you tell us when & how this all kicked off?
My school friends and I were all really into music and decided to form a band when we were 13. Our first band was called Candi-Snatch and we started off by organising our own gigs in church halls and peoples gardens. It wasn’t long before we got a support slot on tour with ageing punks The UK Subs after impressing them at a gig in our hometown of Peterborough. The flyers read ‘when Granddad and the kids are united’. We also got a support slot with The Sultans of Ping of ‘Where’s Me Jumper?’ fame… ha!
The band name changed to Charlie after a weekend spent being boisterous backstage at Glastonbury in 95. We met various NME and Melody Maker journalists and I allegedly punched Joe Strummer from the Clash!? These journalists had a field day with the idea that there was this bunch of snotty nosed teens with attitude, running riot at various gigs and festivals and basically enjoyed making up outrageous stories about us involving drugs, girls, vomit and violence… although some of it was true of course.
Every teenage kids dream then! You obviously had some success as 'Charlie', and were eventually signed to London Records - not bad going for someone so young! What led your band to being signed to London Records?
We were introduced to Menswear’s label manager at London subsidiary ‘Laurel’ and he paid for us to do a demo with Elastica producer Mark Waterman. He liked the demo and signed us up. We released one single called ‘Who Am I’, which got a few plays from Joe Whiley, Steve Lamacq and John Peel, before Laurel got booted off from London leaving ourselves, Tiny Monroe and Menswear without a deal.
This must of been tragic news to a young developing band. What were your thoughts at the time? Did you have any clear direction from this point?
We carried on for a bit with James’ old manager - remember ‘Sit Down’? … but we all ended up going our separate ways when some went off to Uni and I moved to London. We did get a J17 piece just before splitting up though – haha. We actually had a bigger feature than Five who were on the opposite page… naturally I liked that. I’d already started working for Pinnacle Distribution in the later days, so it was just a matter of carrying on with that.
Ha! Nice! What did the other band members get up to after this?
They went off to Uni and did very, very well. They also did a couple of gigs without me in Peterborough as ‘Brewster’s Millions’.
Nick and Harry from Charlie and myself, along with our friend Gavin from legendary Peterborough band The Filthiest People Alive, recently put together a new group called Tough Love and its sounding great, so hopefully we’ll be doing some more gigs in 2005.
Being involved with live bands from early on, how did you perceive this growing 'fad' that was dance music at the time?
I pretty much hated all dance music till I was 17. The fact that it was burying guitar music in the mid 90s didn’t help but we all had a shared appreciation for indie kid friendly electronic music like Orbital, Aphex Twin, FSOL and… er… Ozric Tentacles. None of my other band mates ever really caught the ‘dance music’ bug although there was the odd thing that they really liked. They’re generally a lot cleverer than me though… so make of that what you want…
So what was your first 'true' dance music experience then? When and where was it, and who was playing at the time?
It was at a club called ‘Bubble’ in Peterborough and John Pleased Wimmin was playing pumping house and funky, trancey stuff. Tracks like ‘Perfect Motion’, ‘Café Del Mar’, ‘The Freaks Come Out’, ‘Greece 2000’...
It was 1997 and it felt really new to a 17 year old boy who was used to getting drunk and going to gigs that ended at 11pm. There were obviously all the alternative nights that we went to as well, which tended to go on till 2-3am… but nothing like the dancing till 6am, everyone’s high and wants to be your mate atmosphere that I was experiencing. I was used to being called a faggot and getting into fights over spilt pints. It was also a real reaction to what I considered to be a stagnant, dying guitar music scene.
Couldn’t agree more! They really are two completely different experiences… What were your thoughts about music from then on? How did you perceive all the other genres of dance music at the time?
I listened to all styles and bought a lot of what was around in an attempt to find out what dance music I liked. I really liked Dave Angel, LFO, King Bee, Les Rhythm Digital, Grooverider, ‘Freak’ style psy-trance, Industrial stuff like Skinny Puppy, Throbbing Gristle, Meat Beat Manifesto etc… but eventually came across some of the Renaissance compilations and fell in love with tracks like Albion’s ‘Air’, Grace’s ‘Not Over’ and Liquid Languages ‘In The Air'… despite loving my other recent discoveries, this was definitely what I’d been looking for…big melodies, nothing too melodramatic and the odd vocal … big room drug music…
Certainly nothing wrong with a bit of that! How often did you go out clubbing after this? Where was it that took your fancy? Did you try any other different clubs ?
I went clubbing whenever possible in Peterborough and its surrounding towns but didn’t really get the chance to go out regularly until I moved to London and started hanging out at The Gallery pretty much every Friday in the summer of 98.
Turnmills was where it all really began for me as well – as it seems to have done for many a clubber!
It was there that I met a couple of Gatecrasher regulars and we started travelling to Sheffield on the Saturday after spending the Friday night at Turnmills….
What was it like to return to the Gallery recently as a DJ rather than a clubber?! Have you been back at all since those days in '98?
It was cool. I love the main room there… low ceilings, very dark, big lasers… The booth must have been designed with Tall Paul in mind though, cos I could barely see over the DJ booth or reach the CDJs. I’ll have to wear stack heeled shoes next time…
You joined as head of A&R to Lost Language Records in 2001, now recognised the world over, and regarded as the front runner for delivering quality trance. How did you get to this position?
I was working for Pinnacle distribution and made loads of connections at the labels I was into at the time. Sean from Hooj and I used to swap a lot of music and one day he asked me if I fancied heading over for a chat about an A&R position that had come up. We got on well and he offered me the job. He showed me the ropes and after a little while I took on Lost Language as my main role.
When did you actually start DJing then? Having been involved with a band previously, did you find this transition easy, strange, or just plain difficult?!
I got some decks when I was 18 and just played around with all the vinyl I’d been buying. After I’d learnt to mix I just concentrated on set construction, something that really interested me as it was quite similar to planning a set list in a band. Starting with something big, bringing it down so that the impact was bigger on the next track, finishing on a high…sounds obvious but it seemed that most dj’s were just starting deep and getting harder throughout their sets and that never really made much sense to me.
So what do you personally look for in tunes; what is it that makes you go 'wow'?! How would you define your style?
One of the most important things to me are the drums and bass lines… I can’t really stomach anything too funk-less or straight, unless it’s say, a very well produced techno or electro track. On top of that I like good melodies and vocals… nothing too melodramatic and no sh*t lyrics. To be honest, I now mainly look to other genres to find tracks with the ideas and production values of trance that I used to like, as I think most trance has gotten way too formulaic.
We've all heard it a million times before - how trance and dance is dead and burried - but what is the true state of play for trance and the scene as a whole currently? Should we be picking our headstones?!
Trance is still massive all around the world but it definitely needs some new ideas injected into it. Despite being into lots of different styles of music, I still get the biggest buzz when I’m playing energetic, bass driven, melodic stuff… you cant put a price on the big moments you get from playing that kind of music out… sounds naff – but its very true.
Producers need to get back to the simplicity and quirkiness of the older stuff. It all sounds so linear now. The same kick drum, big synths, no personality…
People everywhere will always love the melodic element of trance as it’s a very global thing. Not many other styles of dance music manage to capture that… so don’t go ‘picking your headstones’ yet…
How is trance selling at the moment then, and who in the world is buying it?
Lost Language is doing pretty well at the moment and proggy, trancey stuff seems to be getting bigger and bigger in the US… although I might be making that up.
So Who has been the strongest selling artist under 'Lost Language' to date?
Tilt, Solarstone and Lustral have all had good sales, although they’ve been big artists for a long time now… since the Hooj days.
There’s loads of new talent on the way as well though – Serge Davant, Koala, R-Tem…
What has been the most enjoyable DJ experience to date? Why?
I’ve really loved all my trips to Japan and Russia. The last time I played in Russia it was pretty crazy. The club was rammed and people were trying to get on stage, giving me presents, taking photos, autographs… just really up for it, lovely people. Same with Japan really, although the first gig I did this summer was at a big outdoor festival and it started to hail during my set. Some kids built a tent in the middle of the dance floor, which they managed to squeeze about 50 people into and then I got as many people as I could into the DJ booth with me. I ended up playing my set to a small group of very cool people as the sun rose up behind some massive mountains that I hadn’t noticed as they’d been hidden by mist until the morning. All rather surreal and very magical.
Sounds fantastic! You have also done work under the alias of 'Ashtrax'. Can you tell us more about this? Why did you create 'Ashtrax', what material have you produced under this alias, and is there any forthcoming?
I met Ashley Casselle about 6 years ago when I was chatting up his girlfriend at Bedrock - I wasn’t aware it was his girlfriend at the time. We got talking and he asked me if I wanted to try out a vocal for his Ashtrax project. I wrote Digital Reason which got released on Deviant and it all carried on from there really. We’ve done a lot of tracks since then and we’re currently finishing off an artist album for Global Underground.
Your recent collaboration with Solarstone's The Young Parisians, 'Jump the Next Train' has exploded, quite literally, all over the place. Featuring yourself on the vocals, this track has already been described as a 'future classic'. How did this project come about, and when was it that you recorded the vocals?
I was given an ambient track a couple of years ago to write something over and writing wise, it all came together pretty quickly. That was actually my first vocal take on the record and I kept asking them if I could do it again properly but they said it was fine and wrote a new track around what I’d done, which became the piano intro mix.
People always ask what its about… drugs, death, sex… etc – the usual… I guess the best way to sum it up is to say that its about getting into something/someone that you know will make you feel great in the short term… even though you know deep down that its gonna kick you in the teeth eventually. I think most people can relate to that.
A bit like fast food! You recently performed this live with the Young Parisians at AHEAD for New Years Eve. How did it go, & what was it like to sing live again?! Will there be any repeat performances in the future?
It went surprisingly well!
It took a long time to convince us. We knew how naff and cheesy club PAs could be, so we decided to do it as long as we could implement a genuine live element. In the end I decided to play guitar and sing live and Rich played live bass… Everyone reacted brilliantly, none of the bottling or heckling I was expecting… it turned out to be a very fun seven minutes. I can’t remember too much about it though because I was rather drunk on tequila but I’m looking forward to watching the video.
I can’t see us doing it again anytime soon but if we ever got a few more tracks together then maybe we could do a Young Parisians live set or something…
You are Mixmag's new 'Hot Future Hero' - what are you ambitions for the forth coming year? Any exciting projects you can tell us about?
I’m just happy writing songs and playing music to people who enjoy listening to it. If that turns into something big then cool, if not then f*ck it... I just want to meet as many good people and see as many countries as I can while it lasts…
I guess I’m also really excited about the Ashtrax album and doing more work with my band this year…
What is one place that you would love to play at that you haven't done already?
Belmarsh Prison…
Can we ask why?!
Sorry, I was being unnecessarily irreverent… there are some appalling human rights issues that need addressing there though. Foreign inmates held on dubious terrorism charges... you can find out more here http://www.cacc.org.uk/belmarsh.htm.
Wormwood Scrubs is nearer though, so maybe I’ll play there instead…
What are your current top 5 tunes?
Koala ‘Fantasy’
Gods Uncle ‘Overclockers’
Descent ‘Clockwork’
Stuart Keenen ‘Futurestep’
Lustral ‘Solace’ (Verontsov and Dorohov Mix)
Name 3 of your all time classics?
Natious ‘Amber’ (Silk Mix)
Saucermen ‘Aquarius’ (Evolution Mix)
Breeder ‘The Chain’
And lastly…. Any predictions for the trance scene in 2005?
Psy-trance seems to be taking off and although I’m not really into the music the parties are insane. There was a ‘trance and folk music’ rave in London not so long ago. I’ve always thought that there’s just not enough folk music in trance… so maybe this year we’ll see Above and Beyond dropping the odd Sam Rathbone or Woody Guthrie track at Trance Generation…
Catch Ben Lost at the next Trance Generation on FEB 11th at the SoundShaft, with the legendary Matt Hardwick, and Corderoy (including a Live PA with singer Kirstie Gorton of their smash hit ‘Deeper’).
Photos provided by Ehren Stowers of Trance Generation
TRANCE GENERATION - Valentines Special
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On:
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Friday 11th February 2005
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At:
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The Soundshaft [map]
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From:
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10 pm - 7am
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Cost:
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£10 Members , £13 (before 11) or £15 otherwise
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Website:
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www.trancegeneration.co.uk
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Ticket Info:
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Advance Tickets STRONGLY RECOMMENDED for this event
Ticketweb:
Tel. 08700 600 100
Priced £13
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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After a storming debut year in 2004, Trance Generation returns to continue to do what they do best in 2005 - offering mind blowing major name line-ups in as intimate a 500 capcity venue as you can ever imagine. With superclub production to match including incredible lasers and visuals, Trance Generation stands alone in its class and succeeds in offering something truly different to what is out there.
If you love Trance....... you'll love it.
On Feb 11 expect a BIG start to the year with another bumper line-up.
ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE RECOMMENDED FOR THIS EVENT
Room 2: funky house is hosted by Cheeky People
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Flyer:
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Other Features By Ehren Stowers:
Adam White preview for Trance Generation
Interview with Above & Beyond
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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