Your new single: One for the Heads EP is coming out soon on Rebellion. Each track connects between the transcendent power of the dancefloor and an inner spiritual quest. Can you tell us about how you discovered these ideas and what they mean to you in practice?
A lot of our inner spiritual quest has come from our own individual paths, our trials, and our soul searching and we try to reflect that in our performances and our music by creating music and art that stimulates the mind and body physically and emotionally. So much of the culture is trying to lose themselves in the moment rather than enjoying it, getting lost in the music instead of being liberated by it. It is our humble effort to give people a chance to connect and dance through the medium of dance music.
Do you feel that in today’s digital rush and seeming easy connectivity that we have lost something in translation? If so, how has Club Culture changed for you over the course of your career?
The age of convenience and instant gratification via technological evolution is quite a marvel of the modern day indeed. As we creep closer to a world dictated to us through technology it’s important to maintain a firm footing on the ground lest we be completely swept away into a direction we didn’t see coming or want. Social media has connected the world but divided us further. We look for connection online but it’s still pretty hollow. We are physical beings in physical matter, and there’s something to be said about the transference of physical energies.
The great thing about Club Culture is that it’s a mingling of people from all walks of life, and on the dance floor we’re all the same, coming together to celebrate life and love to the healing sounds of music. The faces change, the music changes, fashions and trends change, but that’s alright. I think the most constantly changing thing seems to be the business side, which most recently was hijacked by the corporate world for a moment as it tried to figure out how to capitalize off of a culture that prides itself in being anti-corporate, and as we’ve seen it didn’t work out too well as the too-big-to-fail model imploded on SFX and some larger festivals, but now that the dust has settled, I see lots of growth in the dance music culture especially in America right now. Music business is always a tough business, especially for the artists. But change is good — change is the natural constant of the ever evolving infinite universe. Whether it’s good or bad is completely subjective, so the most important thing is to remain forever innocent and wide-eyed with wonder and excitement, be inspired by change, use other’s changes to inspire your own growth, otherwise you succumb to a negative outlook which can jade and trap you in darkness.
https://soundcloud.com/dance-spirit/sets/sfd006-dance-spirit-future
Can you talk us through how you produced one of the tracks, and something about your studio plus how you approach the working day?
Well in this instance the title track probably has the most exciting story “One for the headsâ€. We had access to a killer studio and had just gotten back from the NYE-BPM happenings down in Mexico and went into the studio with our new Roland JP-08 and Roland Space echo. A lot of the rhythms in the track were inspired by a lot of music we heard in the jungles of Mexico and were for the most part were recorded live in the studio. The synth sounds were recorded from the JP-08 through the space echo and instantly perked our ears. The rhythms were created by using Euclidean rhythms which really birthed a beautiful hypnotic abstract rhythmic base to the track. By the time we had composed the track it was obvious we had created a very serious piece of dance floor material not for the faint at heart, hence the title of the track. We felt it was a piece appropriate for the sharp and educated ear of dance music lovers world wide.
Buy https://www.beatport.com/release/one-for-the-heads-ep/1875679
This is the second release for the Crosstown Rebels family. How did you first hook up with the label?
We crafted this extremely crazy bootleg remix of Bjork’s “All Is Full Of Love†and sent it to Damian, and he was super in to it and we heard he was playing it out quite often, so we decided to give a shot at putting together an EP to submit to the label, which birthed our first Rebellion release, “Drowning in Irisesâ€. Since then he’s invited us to play the Get Lost during WMC, as well as the recent one in downtown Los Angeles at the legendary Park Plaza Hotel.
What are you listening to, reading or watching at the moment outside of Dance Music?
Chris: Right now I am reading a few things, “The Secret Teachings of All The Ages†by Manly P. Hall, “Siddhartha†by Hermann Hesse, and “Tristessa†by Jack Kerouac. My listening always contains heavy listening of the Grateful Dead and Miles Davis. Modern stuff I love is Yagya, Tyco, and have been really inspired by late 90’s electronica. But in any genre a good song is a good song and I love it all.
Reagan: Currently I’m reading Taschen’s “The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy & Mysticism†right now with is an amazing compiling breakdown and analysis of all of the the alchemical art through history. As for music I go between a bunch of jazz, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Ricardo Villalobos, Bjork, Radio Head, and this vaporwave band, 2814, whose album “Birth of a New Day†has been my sleep loop album for the past year now! I’ve also been re-listening to Sneaker Pimp’s second album a lot lately.
How was your experience of Burning Man this year. And how do you feel about the prominence of festivals these days?
Well we both had very different experiences, as Burning Man is a very personal experience for anyone involved. On the objective level, however, Burning Man is the largest social experiment ever conducted by mankind. There is so much to do and see and immerse yourself in that everyone’s experience and interpretation will be different. The prominence of festivals is a good thing — not only does it offer great music outlets for talented musicians and artists, but the efforts of the builders and the creativity involved is very exciting and stimulating. It’s also a great chance for people to make friends, hang out with old ones, hear great music, and and see amazing art. It’s really great to see new people going to Burning Man and being inspired to bring a piece back to their own communities and in some cases start throwing their own events in cities or towns that might not have had any exposure to the non-commercial dance music scene as it’s really helping the overall music scene in America — almost seems to be a mini-renaissance. The only thing to be weary of is over-saturation, but we see more people focused on building communities fostering love light and connection.
How would you describe the experience of playing ‘live’ to people?
Playing live is really special for us as we are able to fully immerse people in our harmonic interpretation of the universe and lead them on a journey. We write so many moods of dance music that it allows us to tell some really exciting stories. The current live set is mostly a hybrid, consisting of our music broken down in to 9 channels of stems, interspersed with some full tracks to help bridge between all the elements. We use our elektron machinedrum and analog rytm as well for additional percussion and elements, and sometimes Reagan does live vocals.
What are your predictions for 2017?
http://www.wearedancespirit.com
https://www.facebook.com/DanceSpiritHyperspace
https://soundcloud.com/dance-spirit
https://soundcloud.com/crosstownrebels
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