EDM Producer
Motivated by the fresh sound of psychedelic and melodic trance, Bangladesh born, Toronto resident Saad Ayub has created an euphoric blend of music to stimulate the body and mind. Since his move to Toronto most of his work has been recognized and supported by Armin Van Buuren, Sean Tyas, John O’ Callaghan, Giuseppe Ottaviani and many more. We had the chance to catch up with this upcoming new talent in the trance scene, read on for the full interview.
1. Hi Saad, tell us how you started your career back in 2008.
Hello! So, it all started with Ministry of Sound and House music. At that time, Bangladesh needed to experience the beauty of house music, and luckily I was able to be the front runner to promote the world tours of Ministry of Sound in Dhaka. While promoting the brand, I fell in love with the art of Djing and self tought myself to be a DJ, leading to become the supporting DJ for the Ministry Of Sound brand in Dhaka. I would like to also mention, the electronic dance music has been part of my life since I was 8 years old. I used to listen to the cassette tapes of Enigma, Tiësto, Paul Van Dyk and many other artists.
2. What kind of sounds do you associate yourself with the most when you produce / remix a track?
I started as a DJ first, then I learned how to produce. I am actually a very new producer, only three years down of what I am today. I started to produce with vocal trance. That’ s my specialty, but as I am growing as a Trance producer, I do incorporate a lot of classical elements of Trance as well as some newer stuff like psychedelic elements. That’ s when I produce original tracks. When it comes to remixing a track, I try to recreate the track giving my own signature sound while keeping the groove of the original track intact so that it doesn’ t compete with the original track. For example, if you look at my remix of“ Where Do We Begin” with Sunset, you can notice what I have tried to accomplish.
3. What makes your sound stand out compared to other producers?
Good question! To be honest with you, when I produce a track, I try go in the opposite direction of what’ s popular right now, but at the same time something to be proud of and stand out from others. For example my track“ Move On” is basically a rebel trance( hahaha), it’ s very melodic and uplifting, completely opposite to current popular sound which happens to be PsyTrance. I try to capture the emotion and tell a story with each track I produce, it’ s about my life stories. Since last year from“ Forgive & Forget” to“ Where Do We Begin” and every single bootleg or rework in between most tracks were produced by myself, and I was able to tell you a story of what’ s happening in my life. Gladly, a lot of the track resonated with my audience as well. I think that’ s how these tracks or sound stood out compared to other producers.
4. What do you think are the most vital things when it comes to producing a track?
Don’ t copy beatport Top 10, don’ t copy EDM, don’ t copy Bangers. People are tired of that, people will forget your track in matter of days. I have given this advice to some of my collaegues as well. Please try to be unique, take inspiration from tracks, but don’ t go around copying it. Labels receive tons of tracks that have potential, but they will turn it down because it sounds like XYZ track. You have to try and create something unique, whether it’ s an out of the box triplets drop instead of a generic pitch bend / side chained
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