| Interview with Binary & Finary ( 12.12.2006 - 02:05 GMT UTC )
1. First of all, I would like You to introduce Yourself to the ones that will read this interview, thanks :)
Stuart: Hello to all that are reading this, I’m Stu and I hope you find this interview interesting…
Matt: Hi I’m Matt and we’d like to welcome everyone to this interview…
2. How did you guys meet ? Where and when ?
Stu: We met in Portsmouth, Matt asked me out on a date and after a bit of prevaricating, I said yes… Matt treated me to the ‘Laws’ special, which once sampled is never forgotten! :) Nah, ok seriously, we met in a music shop in Portsmouth, I was after a new piece of kit and Matt kindly asked me round to his house (so it could have been a date!!!!) to listen to a keyboard I was interested in… Matt slapped on the ‘Laws’ special, which was an early version of 1998 and the rest is history…
Matt: I’d been working for a music store in Portsmouth and I always used to ask people what they were into etc… when Stu had popped in he was a really friendly dude so I asked him if he wanted come back to mine for coffee ;P – it was early 1996
3. How long have you and your partner been working together ?
Stu: We’ve been working on and off for 9 years, man does that make us old or what? :) We went our separate ways which was much needed for both of us at the time, and got back together… its been a great journey, both the highs and the lows…
Matt: Yeah, we’ve always kept contact even when things were fragmented exchanging ideas and planning, especially through the harder times!
4. What influenced you decision to take a hiatus from production for the last couple of years until recently?
Stu: Sanity!!!! Things were getting very messed up, I had the chance to move to London to start a job, and I took it… It made complete sense to me at the time, as things in Binary were getting very destructive…
Matt: I carried on making music, samples and anything to keep the project on slow boil while the troubles that had caused the original split dissipated, I had to keep my head down and focused on the music or else Binary would have been lost if I hadn’t have gone to ground. As Stu said, it was pretty much to keep sane :)
5. When You guys did you start producing, when was that ?
Stu: Oh my god, too long ago to remember!!! :) I was about 15, creating Fractals with some washing machine of a pc… After frying my head with Fractals and certain substances (tea mainly!) it was a natural progression to start messing with audio… I started sampling things off cd’s, and then gradually made my way up to working with proper equipment… Although when I say proper I mean equipment that had to be hand coded with numbers!! The guys these days have it easy! :)
Matt: Same here…. I remember making crazy programs on a Sinclair Spectrum that would sequence sounds around the mid 1980’s … my parents thought I was truly crazy :) - I had even played with samplers around that time (but they were very limited), that had got me into sound at an early age and I took any opportunity from that point onwards to experiment with changing noises… my forte is individual noises and Stu is very good at putting them together in the mix – this gives me space to really mess about to come up with well produced sounds while he balances this in the final mix, this works well for both of us I think – we are both pushing forward on 2 different fronts to bring a good final production to the listeners.
6. You are familiar with the german trance scene tell me what do you think about it.
Stu: Well you guys certainly know how to party and the main thing I’ve always loved about the german trance scene is that sound that seems to come out… Its always brutal, unforgiving and always gets the party moving! I love it!!! I have to say off topic, your beer kicks serious backside too!!!!!!! :)
Matt: :) - I loved the atmosphere in the clubs I saw over there, and the jaegermeister :) - the German scene (which I haven’t seen enough of), seems to be one of the friendliest and cross cultural around… the love parade really reflects the open mindedness of the whole scene.
7. How did you guys start dj-ing ?
Stu: It was a natural progression, I used to dj for fun with 1210’s years ago, I used to find it a relaxing way of entertaining my mates when we were back from the pub… When Ableton came along, we saw a real chance to add some dj-ing into our production and vice versa…
Matt: I’ve never owned a deck in my life :) / my musical background comes from playing with analogue synths – (my first encounter was with a prophet 10) – I was addicted! – that was around 1989, I would love to own decks and a large collection of music, but all my time and money has gone into synths and making the music, it has made me into what I am today.
8. How did you fall into the trance scene ?
Stu: Good question, I think fall is just about right… Back in the uk in the early 90’s trance was bubbling up from underground and it was just luck to be involved in those Saturday nights driving half way round the country trying to find that secret rave… The whole party atmosphere was huge back then and every weekend was an adventure… When the chance came to write music, it was off the back of these adventures…
Matt: 1994, through local house parties and friends who started playing loads of Eat Static (a local band to me), I went to one good house party and was jet propelled into trance/dance music – and I think it was because dancing around had made me feel alive for the first time!
9. Now please tell me and try to remember, what was Your best gig ever since you started djing ?
Stu: If I’m honest the best was the gig we did in Poland… I had always missed out on the gigs back in the days, so this was my first ever gig… in 2005, in Poland in front of 15,000 people… It was manic! All the equipment failed, we were 10 minutes late getting on due to equipment screw ups and then it went in a flash… Afterwards I was given a load of beer by the guys who put the gig on, and then I was able to reflect… It difficult to sum up in words what you are able to achieve at times… A lot of mental preparation had gone into doing this gig and with all the problems and all the stress it was just amazing to come out the other side with such positive feedback…
Matt: I loved the Malta gig as it was my first trip to anywhere warm! - the atmosphere was electric (as we’d had many months work going into the set) and we were really starting to work in a way as a team we hadn’t done before. Stu had started using Ableton live and ‘Reason’ was working well for me live – the end results put smiles on everybody’s faces. The people were very friendly also – absolutely fun from the moment we landed to the moment we left. Also the PA there was very loud and clear, my adrenaline was pumping from the moment we did the sound check :)
10. Tell us how Your studio looks like, as in, what hardware and software are You guys using to create such smashing tracks ?
Stu: Studio? :) I’ve come from a kitchen in London to a bedroom in Sydney! :) I have moved over to Australia and as we are getting out feet on the ground, we are just waiting to get a place so I can get a studio… both of us have never had a place to call a studio, we work with laptops, software and the odd piece of hardware, although in saying that most of our samples are from piece of hardware Matt sampled… We find software so flexible to write, and get ideas together… Then we can choose how best to finish them off…
Matt: Mine is exactly the same – very minimal, it has gone that way because of a lot of groundwork into our sounds. I use Reason to develop tracks, these tracks then get passed between myself and Stu until they are ready to go into Nuendo for final touches of some hardware and Vsti synths. As Stu mentioned we use a stock library of sounds that we tweak as we go along to keep things fresh and interesting. The studio setup is about change slightly over the next months – the same minimalism, but some investment into higher quality soft synths and software.
11. What do you guys think about the use of drugs and if that is something important in clubs nowadays ?
Stu: Hmm good question… I’m all for whatever people’s choice is… I think everything that’s done in moderation is ok, anything that’s done out of necessity or over indulgence is wrong, and people should take a look at why they are consuming them in the first place… I’d be a hypocrite to say say I disagree with their usage, I just don’t agree with the people who go over the top and end up not even remembering the night before…
Matt: I know they are out there, and there is little we can do about it! – I agree with Stu as moderation is pretty important, and probably being aware that you have to stop one day :) - I’m not sure if drugs are still as important, but people will always experiment with them if they get curious, I don’t think clubs are as bad as they used to be – the scene has cleaned up massively.
12. What can we expect from Binary & Finary in the future ? in a few words please tell me if You guys have any projects that we should know of :)
Stu: Well we are getting Binary Finary Recordings off the ground, we are on the lookout for good quality music, that might be a bit different, or slightly away from the norm, we have one release already which has done well and have another couple lined up we are very excited about… We are doing a couple of collabs that should see the light of day early next year so all in all we are trying to keep out of trouble :)
Matt: There is also a whole host of new material that is being developed in the background, I’ve been jumping around the studio to most of it :)_
13. Do You know, or are You aware of... who is the dj that spins Your tracks most of the time ?
Stu: Not in the slightest! I still find it incredible that 1998 is still in people’s dj bags… It’s a massive lift to get messages to people saying they dropped it in a set and the crowd went nutz… In the darkest of times for Binary, this has always lifted us both…
Matt: Same here! – It is great to hear feedback after so long – it has kept our heads above water, a big thanks to all those people :)
14. Whats Your advice to people that want to start produce trance or djs and also where should they start from ?
Stu : Don’t give up… Write for yourself and anything else that happens is a bonus… It difficult to say where the best place to start from is… From the dj point of view, hassling your local club to let you play is a great place to start… For writing, getting your own style is the tricky part, sounding like everyone else might not get you noticed… Send off your works to dj’s, and keep an eye out for their track listings to see if you were played… Send off your tracks to as many people as possible and get their criticism and comments… But as long as YOU are having fun dj-ing or writing, then you’ve made it…
Matt: Practice :) - that’s my biggest advice, do it meaningfully and like you love it! As for breaking into a scene, make demos and get feedback, don’t be afraid of asking professional opinions and try to keep your mental attitude positive about your own abilities. I used to spot my weakness (lets say ‘programming funky snares’) and sit down and write a piece of music based around funky snares and try to excel at it, I would repeat this with everything I could… even today I have projects that reflect this, to me, each track is a story of a musicians state of mind.
Other common sense advice would be to find out how songs are put together, some basic theory, keyboard skills and some ‘jamming’ over music – that so of thing is really good for being creative. Looking back over my development, jamming has been the key for me to come up with spontaneous sounds and melodies – it breaks you free from theory (which you need to learn first :)) – I could talk forever about it, I love teaching.
Interview made by Cosmin Lukacs aka Dj K8oard (TranceSound.net admin/founder)
Links:
Binary & Finary official website
Binary & Finary @ MySpace
Binary & Finary official website
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