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INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
PM: any advice to the upcoming producers
out there?
DC: Very simple advice I give everyone that asks
me that question, I tell them how I learned the
most. Pick a few tracks you think are the greatest thing ever made, and analyse the hell out of
them, truly in-depth. How did they do the kick,
the bass, what does it look like, try to recreate
these elements, and don’t be afraid to spend an
entire week on just that. You might not end up
with the same thing (which is good), but in that
process you will have learned a million things.
Persistence is the key.
FOLLOW DIGICULT
PM: How you see the psy scene nowadays?
PM: As always, let’s start from the basics,
who you are and where are you from?
DC: DigiCult is 2 people, both from Belgium, Bert
De Decker and Dries De Crop. The project has
been around since 2003 with the first release in
2005.
PM: How you started with Psytrance in the
first place?
DC: Like everyone else I guess, you hear the music and you’re hooked. This was way back in the
previous millenium, i think that might be one of
the main reasons our music has always tried to
stay true to those basic melodic principles.
PM: What “DigiCult” stands for and how you
came up with this name?
DC: Initially the project name in the first year
was ‘digital culture’ but that soon evolved to the
shortened version. No specific reason for choosing it, it just sounded exactly like what we were
trying to bring, and in the end, what’s in a name
:)
PM: oh, cool! And how you would define your
music style?
DC: Melodic in the first place, I think that would
be the most basic characteristic. Positive music with loads of layers, always psychedelic,
and most importantly, with an oldschool touch
throughout. More recently we’ve been exploring the lower bpm range, but with all the before
mentioned ingredients still there.
PM: What is your insparation when you produce music? If any.
DC: That’s an easy answer, my shining example
has always been Man With No Name, the vast
catalogue of amazingly beautiful music he managed to create in the nineties is just mindblowing. He was miles ahead of the competion in his
time. Astral projection as well of course, and my
good friend U-Recken truly is a great inspiration
to me.
PM: Let’s talk a little bit about production.
What we will find at your studio as of today?
DC: Not as much hardware anymore, I used to
own a TB-303, jd-800, Juno etc, but they’re all
gone. What’s left is a virus ti2, and all the UAD
dsp processing power needed for reaching industry standard production level :)
PM: The eternal question: Hardware or software?
DC: These days, there’s hardly any difference
anymore, especially in the dsp department. The
whole hassle and tangle of running it physically
through cables and recording just isn’t worth my
time or money anymore, compared to the benefits it brings. The die hard gearheads will surely disagree with me, but everyone’s entitled to
their opinion of course.
DC: Pretty optimistic actually, I must say, the
amount of well-produced music these days is
really on the rise. The golden age of full on was
between 2002 and 2005, after that it went into
a real nose-dive and I was risking to lose my interest due to the sheer amount of cheesy music being released. And though the production
value, even from the biggest names in that early
period, was pretty bad compared to today,
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the ideas were great. And today it’s all coming
together, you’ve got world-class production with
still great and innovative ideas, and thankfully
with the goa-revival of recent years, the quality
on a musical level is kept pretty high at the same
time.
PM: Any new music on progress?
DC: We’re currently working on an ‘Astral Projection - Dancing Galaxy’ remix, which is almost
finished. I’ve got high hope s for that one, the
people really seem to enjoy it on the dancefloor.
Then there’s an ep coming with U-Recken, and
later on a versus track with spirit architect. Some
solo tracks are also still in the pipeline though.
We just released a full album in February, but
we expect to release at least two or three more
eps this year. Inspiration is booming!
PM: Thank you for your time guys! Psychedelic eMag wishes you all the best!
DC: You’re welcome!