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deepFREAKS - A Sound Alliance
With all the new talent that is making it's way on to the market, artists have to provide that special something different to be heard. Sound Alliance are doing just that and their efforts have not gone unnoticed. James Zabiela took a liking to Sound Alliance and their addictive progressive, tribal, tech-house sound and included them on his GT001 compilation for Groovetech. Since then they have been signed to Distinctive Records with their tracks 'The Hit' and 'From Home'
Sound Alliance are now apart of the deepFREAKS artist agency and have big things planned for the future, but don't take my word for it, read for yourself.
What are the roots of Sound Alliance, how did you come to be where you are today?
- The roots are simple clubbing. Chris and I met at a club in Nottingham called Media, on a Paul Oakenfold at Renaissance night. We both shared a similar passion for music and clubbing on the whole and things grew from there. I was already djing at a small club called The Lenton playing raw unadulterated prog records to a load of stoned people, and Chris used to get me wicked tunes because he got on well with the guys at a record shop in town. The real fun started when I started playing at the Bomb on a wicked Tuesday night we used to run called Blackout and when Chris showed me some tracks he¹d been making on the playstation. It was at this point that Sound Alliance was born I’d say.
You have some of your tracks available for download on your website. Do you believe the internet has helped Sound Alliance gain momentum in the dance music industry?.
- Certainly I really think people these days take email and the internet for granted. Its ridiculously easy to find out information and networking on the net through message boards and email. As for our web site, our good friend Leo made it and we are well happy with it, we put the tunes on there in pretty grubby quality so that people can hear more than a farts worth quickly and so they can see what we have on sale in the shops at present and what may be coming up.
For those who are yet to experience the Sound Alliance sound, please describe it a little for us?
- We are both pretty deep people Chris and I and I feel it comes out in the records I play, and the tunes that Chris makes. Our sound is on the tribal, proggy side of tech house, loads of dubby basslines and full of energy. From my experience of clubbing there are loads of amazing acts and dj’s who don¹t quite get the energy going enough for me so this is what we are trying to offer when we play out.
Where do you draw inspiration from, be that artists, DJ's and beyond?
- This is a difficult question to answer, because there are two of us and we both have a broad span of musical taste. I really like band music for the vocals and the showmanship value. In terms of club music production, I personally love Agoria at the minute, like everyone else I hasten to add along with the label that he¹s signed to Pias. I’m really into UBU, all the Swag lot (Nathan Scot, Gideon Jackson and Terry Francis etc), Air Frog and Hexadecimal are also favourite in the box. Chris¹s production takes massive influences from Way Out West, Hybrid and Soul Mekanik, not by direct sound but more by technical complexity. In terms of performance we both love all the residents at the Bomb (Kelvin Andrews, Dave Congreve and Matt Tolfrey), Fututreshock,, Tyrant (Craig Richards and Lee Burridge), Tom Middleton, Sasha and Digweed. Eventually though we do want to be fully live like Underworld or Groove Armarda who are both amazing!
If you could re-mix the work of any artist in the world, who would it be and why?
- I would personally like to remix band music like Oasis, Coldplay, Ash or my mate's band who are up and coming called Waiting For Chan just because it feels like it would turn out really different, rather than remixing a house track if you know what I mean. I think the kind of thing I have got in my head is kind of Stone Roses, Ian Brown, Massive Attack¹y sounding stuff. Chris really wants to remix Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here and Depeche Mode - Big Muff
Having the combination of a DJ and a producer, what does your studio consist of?
- A computer and some decks! No really that’s all we use, as well as a CD deck of course. Chris uses only software to produce and as for the decks and effects side of our act, Chris has just gone from using a hardware sequencer with two samplers and a midi keyboard to using a laptop with the midi keyboard to play tracks live in the set and to add other sounds to the records that I’m playing.
James Zabiela has shown great support for Sound Alliance. Having played some of your tracks in his sets at Space in Ibiza, Gatecrasher and Cream, as well as including 'From Home' and 'The Hit' on his GT001 release on Groovetech records. Do you feel James has played a part in your success?
- I feel that every part of our success is down to James support of our tunes, its how all this went from being a hobby to being a potential career as well, which deep down is what we both want. It was through the exposure he gave us that people outside our circle of friends heard about us, and we got a deal with Distinctive. He is a fantastically friendly and amazingly talented guy who I really take my hat off to.
How did the signing of 'From Home' to Distinctive records come about? Will we see more tracks from you released on this label?
- James Zabiela was playing our track down at Plastic People one night in London and Richard Ford (Head of A and R for Distinctive) was there and he emailed us the following day. Simple as that, and it really upholds what I just said before about James he's a legend! We will most probably have our second single out on Distinctive before the end of the year, but which single it is we do not know at present, keep you eyes pealed on the distinctive website : www.distinctiverecords.com.
With dance music being so successful the world over, is there anywhere in particular you hope to play at?
Space Ibiza and Australia the vibe out there is good, I’ve heard a lot about parties on Bondi Beach. I think there are some good places in Germany too that I’d like to play. The festivals seem like a lot of fun Homelands is my favourite festival here in Britain and it would be a thrill to play prime hours there as well. Chris really wants to play at Glastonbury and Sonar.
Coming from the UK, you have access to a wide range of quality dance music releases. What approach do you take for Sound Alliance to get noticed amongst such a large and diverse market?
- I don’t think we think about it that way, we just do what we like we aren’t trying to break boundaries or start a new genre, we just love music so much that we want to put our version of that across to people. However looking at it with a little more business sense I’d say that having a really different sounding remix of your single can be a great benefit for instance Hexadecimal mix of From Home. It opens up the market value of your record.
2003 is already half way over, do you have any particular goals you hope to reach before the year comes to an end?
- We don't have any in particular we are quite humble and happy with the way things are going. I think we really want to get more gigs abroad, and get some relatively big remixes under the belt before 2004 which will hopefully be good to us! Chris hopes to be able to hear or even be alive in 2004.
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Published / Tuesday, 08 July 2003
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