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Tony Thomas - The drum beats aren’t slowing down
Since the early 90s, Tony Thomas has been steadily churning out tunes and remixes and he is now well established in the dance music scene as one of the main purveyors of tribal and tech house music. With well over 200 productions to his name and countless remixes on many major labels, Tony has no intention of slowing down yet.
He has around 20 releases already scheduled for 2005 including remixes for Steve Porter, DJ Hal and an exclusive remix for Francois K of his massive club bomb "Mindspeak" to be released by Wave USA. He has also produced many other remixes over the years including Slam’s 'Alien Radio' and remixes for Oliver Lieb, Oscar G, 16b and many more.
Tony also finds time to run three record labels, one jointly with tribal partner Mastik Soul known as Moxi Records, plus his long standing New Era label and a new label project called Cubic Records. Just a few weeks before flying from the UK to Melbourne, Australia to play his first gig down-under, RA catches up with Tony for a quick chat to find out more about what makes him tick.
Being the first time your playing in Australia which is pretty much on the other side of the world from where you’re from, what do you perceive the Melbourne crowd to be like?
I presume everyone will be upside down and I will have to wear special glasses to make everything look the right way up again.
Here’s a question I’m sure you’ve already been asked a million times over; how do you do it? Looking at your numerous aliases/groups, production and remix credits, how do you find the time to churn out all that material?
I breathe Helium and work very fast. I also care about what I do.
So what got you started in electronic music? Did you get drawn into it from outside influences or was it just by accident?
I had a fascination with electronics as a kid and was very into the mad new sounds of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream that were around at the time (70’s) and I wanted to be able to make those noises too.
"I got my first synth when I was 18 and it all got complicated after that !"
Which came first, production or DJing?
When I started producing there was no real dance scene at all. DJing came much later for me when acid house came along.
I see that your new label Moxi Records started with fellow producer Mastik Soul already has 3 releases within its first year. Anything upcoming for the future?
I am concentrating more on my new label Cubic right now with 10 releases scheduled already from many different international artists. Moxi is on hold for a while due to distribution problems.
What would be the weirdest event/place you’ve ever DJ’d at?
The maddest place I played was a natural cave in the Dominican Republic that has been made into a nightclub. It is multi chambered with stalactites and stalagmites and is millions of years old. It is even lined with fossils of ancient sea life. It was like playing in the bad guys’ base from a James Bond movie! The sound in there is perfect because of the irregular shape of the chambers.
And the best event/place you’ve ever DJ’d at?
My best gig is at Mania, Sunny Beach Bulgaria on the Black Sea coast. They are the best crowd in the world for me so far. I play there every summer.
For those Australian clubbers who’ve never heard a Tony Thomas set before, any parting words on what they can be prepared to expect from your record box?
Plenty of ancient brutal basic primal rhythms full of energy.
Tony Thomas plays at Brown Alley on Friday 29th July, at the second coming of The Drum Is God party, organized by DJ Promo which last year went down as one of the best tribal house gigs in Melbourne. Joining him will be Pedro G (Portugal), Enrique Soto (Spain), DJ Promo (UK), Nick Dem Q (Bamboo Music), and Rollin Connection (Darkbeat).
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Published / Friday, 15 July 2005
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