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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! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! |
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Astrix & Friends return to the UK: interview with HOMmega’s golden boy
Reported by HarderFaster
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Submitted 10-10-07 17:48
Bridging the gap between psy-trance and commercial club trance is no easy thing, especially in today’s bitchy dance music scene, where trance itself isn’t exactly flavour of the month with the current music press, let alone psy-trance — historically associated with dreadlocked trustafarians at squat parties with dogs on bits of string. But somehow a young Russian-born Israeli former electro DJ named Avi Shmailov aka Astrix has broken down more than a few barriers to become the world’s fastest growing psy-trance star, while simultaneously skyrocketing up the DJmag Top 100 DJs Poll and into the mainstream.
Having spent the last ten years perfecting his music production on two successful artist albums — ‘Eye to Eye’ (2002) and ‘Artcore’ (2004) — Astrix’s new tracks just continue to get better and better, ‘Future Music’ and ‘Adventure Mode’ confirming his place as one of the most innovative producers in dance music today. Fusing elements of hypnotic trance with electro, funk and ethnic sounds, awesome psy-spiked basslines with the odd ’80s rift, the only predictable thing about Astrix’s sound is that it’s always uplifting and euphoric, funky enough so that it’s near impossible not to at least have a wiggle, let alone a groove…
A child of the ’80s, Avi has already played to thousands in the UK, Brazil, Japan and around the globe at many top psy-trance parties and festivals, including his very own event: Astrix and Friends. The recent DJmag ‘Astrix and Friends’ August 2007 covermount CD has brought even further international acclaim, while his incredible set after Paul van Dyk at Brixton’s Academy’s SW4 afterparty during the August bank holiday weekend cemented his place as one of the world’s top DJs.
With Astrix back in London town this Saturday night for the third UK Astrix and Friends — this time with mates and label buddies Delirious, Pixel and Sub6 — it was time we got the latest on HOMmega Records’ golden boy…
You were last featured on here just over a year ago. What’s been happening in the life of Avi Shmailov since then? What have been the highlights of the last 12 months for Astrix?
2007 has been a very busy year for me. I was mostly on the road visiting exciting territories and in between all that I had three major projects to finalise: my new single ‘Future Music’, the compilation I did for DJmag’s ‘Astrix & Friends’ covermount CD and finally my new album, ‘Red Means Distortion’.
You first fell in love with psy-trance in 1994 and have been producing your own psy-trance tracks since 1997. What inspired you to stop playing ’80s classics and electro and turn to psy-trance?
Psy-trance is a more complex production. Personally I felt more connected to its musical structure, as it presented a bigger challenge to deliver my message to the people with sounds and melodies then with vocals.
Can you remember what the first record you bought was? And the first album?
I can’t exactly remember the first single I ever bought, but I can name Ramirez and Datura as the early birds in my DJ case. The first psy-trance albums I bought were Indoor’s ‘Progressive Trance’ and Hallucinogen’s ‘The Lone Deranger’.
In the ten years you’ve been producing, technology has radically changed the way we play, produce, promote and distribute music. On an everyday level, what has this meant for you as a DJ? And as a producer?
Well, no doubt technology made music production easier but the real challenge of composing an electronic music piece stayed the same. The internet made it easy to access music on the click of a button and get inspiration, technology made the studio capabilities upgrade, but the real task of writing your own original music was and still is the main issue of leading a musical career.
When I first interviewed you for Upfront magazine in 2004 you talked about being a DJ and a producer as being ‘a complete package’, where you get the privilege of creating your own music as well as the satisfaction of playing it all over the world. However, as you explained on here in a 2005 interview, the flip side of being influenced by where you play and who you play to is that after a bad party you ‘prefer to stay away from the studio until the bad feeling fades’. How do you deal with this bad feeling and make it go away? Would you ever consider stopping DJing altogether and only focussing on the production side of things?
I am happy to report that this ‘bad feeling’ is not very common anymore. I travel a lot and almost all my gigs are a night to remember. If I do get those feelings then I try to refresh myself a bit away from the studio. Comedies help a lot; I love to laugh.
Three years on from that first statement and with many more productions and international tours under your belt, how do you feel you’ve progressed as an artist since then? How has your music evolved and changed?
The main thing I am trying to do in my latest productions is to mix styles, to fuse the original psy-trance formula with various mainstream elements from the club, rock and even ethnic music. I do this because I feel that there’s a new crowd looking to connect to this new music, but they need proper tools to help them understand the music so they can advance deeper into the next levels.
You’re currently counting down to the launch of your new album ‘Red Means Distortion’, which you’ve been making over the last year or so in between touring the world. Your first two artist albums, ‘Eye to Eye’ (2002) and ‘Artcore’ (2004) have been hailed for their superb production. Did this international acclaim put extra pressure on you in the studio? And has making your third album been as difficult for you as it is for many artists?
The success of my two prior albums has no doubt put some stress on the production of my new album. The high expectations play a major factor but more then that is the feeling that many artists are writing their music in a very similar way to mine and I am trying to take my music to a new level so that it will remain unique and inspiring.
There’s a lot of controversy in dance music about what playing ‘live’ really means and whether dance music can ever be totally live. What does playing live mean to you? You’re renowned for your incredible high energy live sets — how do you prepare for a ‘live’ gig and what equipment do you use to play a ‘live’ set?
First of all, let me say there is no fully ‘live’ show in electronic music as its core lies in a computer and not in any acoustic instrument or player. My live is a playback of a selection of live mixes of my music and what I do is play over it with new melodies, squeaks and TBs. Other then that is the fact that you are there live on stage giving away your maximum energy to the crowd so that it will return to you from the people. This chemistry is the secret to a good show with major mayhem on any dance floor!
You recently played in London after Paul van Dyk at the SW4 afterparty, which also doubled the launch party for PvD’s new album ‘In Between’. How did it feel to have to come on to the stage of a packed Brixton Academy and play after the world’s number 1 DJ?
I’ve been a big fan of PVD for years. It has been a big highlight and a great respectable moment for me to be a part of — considering Brixton Academy is one of my favourite indoor venues and SW4 is one of the greatest events I’ve been involved in, you could say that this was probably one of my greatest nights of 2007.
Like yourself, PvD doesn’t like to pigeon-hole his music, and his new album takes influences from a variety of electronic music genres including techno, pop and of course trance. Have you heard his new album? Would you ever consider doing a pop track like ‘White Lies’?
Yes, I’ve heard PVD’s new album and I like his exploration of electronic dance music. He has many years of production behind him and it is only natural to search new frontiers. If some people claim that some of the trance is too pop-ish, they should stop for a minute and try to get into the artist’s head and understand his musical feelings. Every artist wants to try new things that will touch more people and open them to all of his other ideas which are sometimes considered too hard or experimental.
As I write this voting is about to close for the DJmag 2007 Top 100 DJs poll. Which DJs did you vote for this year?
I voted for my idols and my friends… and I would like to use this opportunity to express my thanks to all those who voted for me and have supported me all this time. I am here for you and because of you!
You shot into the DJmag Top 100 at No. 75 in 2005 and rose to No. 41 in 2006, making you the world’s fastest rising psy-trance artist. Did you expect to rise so quickly in 2006 and do you feel this has influenced your career at all?
The DJmag poll did influence my career. My original goal was only to enter the top 100, no matter which position, but when it came about I felt a change. I got to play many new places that I didn’t play before and the reason they opened up to me was due to the recognition that being a part of the 100 gives you. Rising up within the 100 is now just a matter of staying good and collecting as many fans as you can while playing everywhere and being your best. Let’s see what happens this year…
You headlined July’s Antiworld 070707 festival as part of HOMmega’s tenth birthday celebrations. How was 070707 for you? If Antiworld put on another festival would you consider playing again or do you feel they should stick to indoor events?
Antiworld has been a great supporter to me for many years and I have only good things to say about this team (especially Enrico Sorbello). At 070707 I played on Saturday, July 7th, and I’ve been saying since then that this day was my first open air party in the UK and I will always remember it as a special date. If Antiworld needs my support, I’M THERE!
Continuing the HOMmega tenth birthday party, just last month you were responsible for mixing DJmag’s first ever psy trance covermount CD, where you showcase HOMmega’s awesome talent over 15 tracks. Was it difficult to choose the tracks and put the CD together?
Doing the CD for DJmag was an absolute honour. Due to my busy tour dates the only solution was that I’d work on it while touring Brazil. Being there while compiling and mixing the CD made a good ‘working environment’ as the vibe and atmosphere of Brazil is ‘Party Party Party!’.
In the DJmag feature accompanying the CD, you say that you’re ‘trying to bridge the worlds of psy-trance and club trance and as a result get to play both’. As one of psy-trance’s most high profile performers, it must be quite a rush turning more mainstream audiences on to the sounds of psy! But what do you say to psy-trance purists who don’t like you taking psy into the mainstream?
Good psy-trance is a forward thinking music and I like to keep thinking forward because I am quite dedicated to the spread of psy-trance around the world, but I feel that the only way to do so is to keep bringing in new people who help expand the global trance scene. My trance might be considered commercial but it is done not to become mainstream as much as it is intended to open the door for more people to fall in love with this music. When I’m in a working period on a new album the tracks are more friendly, but I can promise you now that the album is nearly finished, after its release there will be some new tracks with a harder edge of Astrix.
Which psy-trance artists are your tip for the top in 2008?
I think Delirious, who’ve just released a new album — ‘Fast Forward To Rewind’ — are going to have a busy year as the album is great. Also I am eagerly awaiting a new album from Sub6, who I know are planning a special album for somewhere in 2008. On the new talents, I am very pleased with the ideas of Krunch, who seem to be reinventing a certain flavour that was missing for too long from modern psy-trance.
If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have five albums with you, what would you choose?
Coldplay — ‘X&Y’
Linkin Park — ‘Meteora’
Infected Mushroom — ‘Classical Mushroom’
Daft Punk — ‘Homework’ (but the live mixes)
Hallucinogen — ‘The Lone Deranger’
On Saturday 13 October the third Astrix and Friends returns to London’s Coronet, where not only do you play both a live and DJ set, but you also help choose the line-up in the main room. Please tell us about the line-up you’ve chosen for this year’s Astrix and Friends.
This year I chose Sub6, Delirious and Pixel. Delirious are launching a new album and Pixel is also carrying a lot of new tracks from his forthcoming album. Sub6 will deliver, as always, the deeper and harder edge of futuristic funk and electro trance.
How will your DJ set and live set at Astrix and Friends differ? Can we expect to hear lots of your new and as yet unreleased material?
Astrix & Friends is a presentation of my new album, but it is not the official final launch party as the album still has the final tweeks to polish… so my sets that night will include a lot of tracks from my new album but I am still keeping some gems for the official special launch next year, which I am trying to build a special live show for.
Finally, why should HF readers who’ve never seen you play before come to Astrix and Friends on October 13?
We are coming to make people feel happy… one way or another... anyone should want to take a part in something like that! So get your energy levels set, as we are GO!
Thanks so much for your time Avi! See you on October 13th!
Photos courtesy of Andre Ismael @ Zuvuya.net and Daf. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Astrix & Friends 003
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On:
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Saturday 13th October 2007
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At:
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The Coronet [map]
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From:
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10pm to 6am
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Cost:
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£20/£25
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Website:
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www.astrixandfriends.co.uk
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Ticket Info:
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Call Maria on 07813684399
maria@toomuchbutneverenough.com
www.toomuchbutneverenough.com
www.antiworld.net
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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More:
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Antiworld Events Present:
In Collaboration With HOMmega Productions
& Never Enough Present:
Astrix & Friends 003
Feat: “Put The F***G Music Back On!!!!
Headliners Live Acts : Astrix, Sub6, Pixel, Delirious
Album Presentation Event For Astrix!!!
Album Launch Event For Delirious!!!
Music Style:
Future Music, Psychedelic Hard Dance, Progressive, Trance,
Breakbeat, Techno, Minimal Techno!!!
Antiworld Goes Back to Basics!!!
Bigger and Better than Ever Before…on Saturday 13 October 2007
@ The Coronet Theatre London…
26-28 New Kent Road, London SE1 6TJ
Astrix & Friends 003 Feat: Put The F**k Music Back On!!!
We are very pleased to say we will carry on playing Indoor Events in London despite the tremendous efforts of our dedicated crew at 777 Festival. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Antiworld were not able to run the Sunday as planned, though it would take something much bigger than that to stop the vibe that powers us. Therefore, we had no choice but to put on the best party ever in order to repay all the true psy-trance fans and our loyal family.
STOP PRESS STOP PRESS
We are Very Very Pleased to announce that the King of London Techno Mr Chris Liberator will play the next Antiworld event on Saturday 13 October 2007...This is DUE to a cancellation he had from a party in Spain we are sorry for them...very happy for us....so see you all in the Techno Room for one hour of total madness...
GOOD NEWS:
We have decided to use the future Antiworld Events (And Many Others) as a way to refund all the
UNHAPPY ticket holders of the 777 Festival.
We will have a list of events where you can choose. However, we have a limited amount of Tickets that we can exchange at once. Astrix & Friends will offer 150 Tickets to be exchanged with 777 Festival Goers and this is on a “first come, first served” basis, so please hurry up in sending your info to e303power@hotmail.com in order to get your tickets.
We, of course, want to talk to you all, so if you need any sort of info or clarification,
Please email and add us on the Messenger e303power@hotmail.com
Or call the info line on +442083658918 or Text +447793219497
Words by www.myspace.com/wagnerconcha
Antiworld Supported Events :
Astrix Dj Set Tour Date in Portsmouth Friday 12 October 2007
@ Psy-Co Events
Official Astrix & Friends 003 After Party in Collaboration with Twist @ Crash with Pixel Dj Set on Sunday 14 October 2007.
For More info please check www.astrixandfriends.co.uk and www.antiworld.net
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Flyer:
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 - 
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Acid Techno. Funky Techno. Techno. Breaks.
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DJ's:
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Main Stage:
Hosted By Antiworld, HOMmega Productions and Never Enough Events:
Music Style:
Psychedelic Hard Dance, Full On Psychedelic Trance & Progressive!
Astrix Live & Dj Set
Delirious Live
Sub6 Live
Pixel Live
Kristian
Muestik
Sutekh
Dj Gaba
Metaphase
Matt Loraine
Second Room Hosted By:
Archangel Events Vs Family Groove Vs Never Enough Events
Music Style : Breakbeat & London Techno
Chris Liberator
Breakfastaz
Freshold
mr white
Zaidi
Animatek
Julian Gas
Peter Wel
Paul Panik
Monica Soldan
Third Room:
Hosted By Heavyweights Events
Music Style : Minimal Techno & House
DJ Keyd
Kristina
Mikelangelo
D.A.M Mast
Eduardo Herrera Vs Morisco
Arnold B
Jeet
Ross Eden
Fourth Room:
Hosted By Clockwork Prism
Music Style : Chill Out & Down-Tempo Trance:
Greg Prism
Jonty
Mandie More
Nautilus
UB 7
Corneilius
Plus Special Guests Trancient Dreams Live
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Other Features By HarderFaster:
HarderFaster Awards 2016 - The results are in!
HarderFaster Awards 2014 - The results are in!
Lashes, Dimples and the Brighton Music Conference
HarderFaster Awards 2013 - The results are in!
HarderFaster Awards 2012 - The results are in!
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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