ANJUNABEATS
Jono, Paavo& Tony of Anjunabeats - by Matt Skaggs

How did you guys get your start working together?

we met at university (the University Of Westminster) whilst studying on the same music course. Tony joined Anjunabeats last spring. We met him through his brother, following work on remixing one of their tracks.

What was it that drew each of you into wanting to produce electronic music?

Jono: When I was very young, I learnt to play the piano. I listened to electronic music from artists such as Jean Michael Jarre and the Pet Shop Boys, and became interested in synthesisers and electronic music in general. I also listened to a lot of jazz and funk. It was when I got hold of an Amiga, Music X & Octamed, and later a Yamaha SY85 synth that I was finally able to begin to realise the ideas that were floating around in my head. Whilst I really appreciate good songs, I find the creative potential of electronic music particularly exciting and the art of production both challenging and satisfying.

Paavo: As far I can remember I have always been interested in producing a wider range of sounds and more complex arrangements than I could get out of a cello or a piano, which were the two first instruments I learned to play. Synths and computers made this possible so it seemed like the natural way to go. - My first encounters with programming were with my cousin's Yamaha dx-21 and dx-100 in the 80's, that I still rate quite highly.

When working on a remix project, what part in the process do each of you play?how is the collaboration facilitated?

It's an interesting question as we all end up getting involved in a bit of everything. Sometimes one of the group will come up with the main idea for a track that is then further developed by the rest of the group. Obviously only one person can operate the mouse at a time, but there's a comfy sofa and plenty of keyboards to go round! In fact some of our best ideas have resulted from jamming on the synths similar to how a traditional band may approach writing a song. These days we use a lot of audio tracks and end up recording sounds from our analogue gear into the computer for further processing and mixing.

When you start a remix or a new track, what is the very first thing that you like to do? any rituals?

When remixing we normally have a listen to the original mixes and figure out what we want to do with the mix. We often then end up writing new chords for the track so that it will fit in with our style. Next we would normally work on the groove and drums for the track, making sure that it will sound nice and punchy on the dancefloor. When making our own tracks, rather than starting with a rather intimidating 'blank canvas', we normally have some idea or riff to play with before building up an arrangement in Logic.

What is the back-story for anjunabeats remixing madonna?

Tony contacted Madonna's manager to ask if we could have a go at remixing "What It Feels Like For a Girl", as we could see a lot of remix potential. She had listened to our showreel, and agreed to allow us to have a try. We didn't expect it to be used, let alone become the soundtrack to the video.

Did you have a definite mood in mind for this mix before you began work on it? what were the conversations like between you about direction?

We wanted the mix to be nice and bangin' in order to really emphasise the meaning of the song, with an uplifting breakdown to give the song more impact. This is part of the above & beyond sound - equally listenable on a home stereo as it is danceable in a club. The track ended up with a lot of car engine-like noises, which happened to suit the video. It was a great coincidence, as we didn't have any idea of the concept of the video when we made the original 12" club mix!

What was the most challenging aspect of this remix?

The most challenging aspect of this project was to make the video mix please both us as artists and Madonna! Communication the main problem, as during the project Madonna was so busy that we had trouble staying in touch. It was initially confusing to have to alter the mix so much for the video, but when we saw the finished video we were extremely pleased with the end result, and all it became clear.

For this remix, what types of sounds did you find yourselves using the Virus for?

The virus was used extensively in the mix - the distorted 303-type sound, some pads, the bass and gated pad were all sourced from the Virus b. For us, the virus provides instant results from the first few tweaks that often end up staying in the final mix.

What was it about the Virus that made you want to include it in your arsenal for this project? favorite features?

Since we bought our Virus it has become a workhorse in our studio - we have used it in every single track since. We love its modular nature and hands on interface. The variety of sounds available is amazing - far more than could be expected from something that falls under the Virtual Analogue category. Definitive favourite features apart from the great hands-on feel include the internal auxilary routing, good multi-timbrality and amazingly snappy envelopes. We've also setup the virus to be a physical controller for our virtual synths.

If you had one word to use to describe the Virus, what would it be?

It may be a bit of a cliché, but the Virus is "Contageous"! All of our producer-buddies who've seen it in action in our studio have now bought one, so it's sure to dominate future releases on Anjunabeats. We've also had some funny looks when talking about The Virus in public.

Did any external sounds get pumped into the virus for filtering, vocoding or effecting? which of your new tracks have virus sounds?

In the Madonna remix we internally routed and gated a pad sound which you can hear in the breakdown section of the video mix, and the section afterthe chorus of the 12" mix. We often use the virus as a box for external processing too - it's hard-wired to a bus on our mixer so that we can quickly route any sound source to the virus for gating, filtering, or other processing. The MIDI timing is nice and tight - something that is all too often overlooked.

Who is next for the anjunabeats treatment? who else do you have your eyes set on working with?

We're currently writing a lot of our own material and producing and remixing some interesting projects that can't be revealed just yet.

Any future plans or adventures?

Our summer's going to involve a lot of DJ-ing around the world - maybe we'll use the virus as an effects box. We're also getting ready to take the show on the road with some live gigs in the future - the Virus will certainly be in our rack. We are continuing to raise the label's profile with new signings and club nights.

Jono Grant, Paavo Siljamäki, Tony McGuinness - Thanks a lot for your time!

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