My talk with Super8 & Tab about their latest album "Unified" (Interview)

Super8 & Tab had a busy 2014 as they spent countless hours in the studio working on and finally releasing their latest album Unified. A 14 track album of melodic trance music that will take you on a journey of discovery and wonderment. It took the Finnish duo 4 years to finish Unified and I was excited to talk to them about it in detail. Please enjoy this extensive interview with Tab as he explained all of the hard work it took to create their latest project. 

EDM Canada: Super8 & Tab had a huge 2014 with the release of your much anticipated Unified album – how did it feel to finally release that album after you put so much work in the studio?

Tab (Super 8 & Tab): It was a lot of work (laughs). We started working on it after the Empire album but then we decided to take a break to create a few club tracks. We wanted to have fun in the studio before taking on another huge project. But 18 months prior to the release of Unified, we really pushed hard in the studio. But we are super super happy with the result. It's been wonderful being able to play those tracks during our gigs see the reactions from the crowd. The hard work paid off.

It's also a good learning curve as we put ourselves outside of our comfort zone for this album to create a journey. We also collaborated so many different artists which was very exciting. Working with BT for 18 straight hours in the studio was a great experience.

What you did to push yourself outside of your comfort zone for this album?

We couldn't create Empire all over again, so we tried to create a new sound for us. That's not always easy but it's a good challenge. Finding a new sound for us was one of the reasons why we wanted to do the album, while still keeping it sounding like Super8 & Tab.

Unified strikes me as album that was very well thought out as every track flowed well into the next one. Did you design it to be that way or did it just happen that the tracks fell into the right place?

It was not designed, but it was our goal. For example, we created the track “Clairvoyant” because we felt that we needed something new at that point in the album (Track 9).

You recently had the track “Rubicon” remixed by 3 artists – can you tell a bit about that?

We wanted to have a couple of guys from Finland work on remixing “Rubicon”. The first one is Orkidea, who's more in the pure trance scene and has been around for a long time. He's a really good friend of ours and we really wanted his sound on the release. The other is Yotto, who is actually working in the same studio as us. We really like his housey/progressive sound. Just in case you didn't know, Yotto is actually part of the group “Something Good”. And of course we have Jaytech, who is like a brother to us.

Can we expect any more tracks from Unified that will receive remix treatment?

“Patience” is going to be the next track that will get a remix from the album, and that track features the vocals of Julia Thompson. Tom Fall will be remixing it, who also happens to be from Finland.

How do you view the state of the trance scene in 2015?

Big guys like Hardwell and Tiesto are saying they want to do trance. I don't know what type of trance they want to do, but I think there's definitely still a place for trance music in the scene today, even more so than last year. The pure trance and the “Who's Afraid of 138”s movements are growing all of the time, and we're seeing a good market for what we're doing as well. We're also seeing how busy guys like Ilan Bluestone, Jason Ross, and Andrew Bayer are these days. The Anjunabeats sound has been picked up from all over the world and that's great news.

Anjunabeats is on fire these days – are they leading the way for trance at the moment?

Anjunabeats is releasing a new type of sound and there's a demand for that. Above & Beyond are currently on their biggest bus tour yet and they are growing all the time. At the same time, they are ambassadors of the Anjunabeats sound. So this type of sound is more popular than ever.

What can your Canadian fans expect from your future shows?

Of course we're going to play tracks from the album, while wanting to a play some old Super8 & Tab tracks, like “L.A.”, “Black Is The New Yellow”, etc. We've already starting to create new tracks in the studio and we plan to test them on the road. We are also planning to play our brand new remix of “Yai (Here We Go Again)” by Cosmic Gate and JES.

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My thanks to Tab from Super8 & Tab for this excellent interview! If you want to buy the Unified album, you can grab it on Beatport right now by clicking here. 

Listen to Anjunabeat's amazing first release of the year featuring Super8 & Tab and 7 Skies

Super8 & Tab are taking the trance world by storm thanks in part to their latest album release "Unified" in late 2014 that was exceptionally well crafted and filled with emotional tracks. "Rubicon" is another strong release that fits the bill of what type of sound that Anjunabeats love to release and it's only fitting that they picked it as their first release of the year, check it out: 

"Rubicon" has it all and I hope that trance fans around the world embrace this track by Super8 & Tab and 7 Skies. 

Here are 3 trance albums that require your attention

Over the last few months there have been several fantastic trance albums/compilations that might have been overlooked. I have listed 3 below that you should check out immediately if you want to hear some of the best trance music released in the 2nd half of the year: 

1. Super8 & Tab's "Unified" Album

This album is perfect. One of the best of the year. From the first track to it's last, Super8 & Tab have carefully crafted a tracklist that flows so easily that once it's over the only thing to do is to press repeat. 

2. Giuseppe Ottaviani Presents "Go On Air"

This is an album almost made entirely of unknown producers that Giuseppe Ottaviani personally crafted together in a 35 track release. Prior to release, all of these tracks were unreleased so if you want to hear the freshest trance music out there, go check this compilation out. 

3. Solarstone Presents "Pure Trance 3": Mixed by Solarstone & Bryan Kearney

Created by Solarstone, the Pure Trance brand has only been getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. This sound is specifically catered to the purist trance fan who wants to keep trance as melodic as possible and sticking to its roots. This compilation is partially mixed by Bryan Kearney, who is no stranger to the harder styles of trance. But in "Pure Trance 3", you can expect to hear the softer side of Bryan Kearney which shows that he can play much more than 140 BPM trance. 

Super8 & Tab talks about trance becoming underground again

Here's an interesting quote made by the Finnish trance duo Super8 & Tab when they spoke to inthemix in a recent interview: 

"...Trance still has a huge following these days, and even though it’s not in the mainstream like it might have been in the past, this means it’s suddenly cool and ‘underground’ again… "

The concept that trance is now considered underground again is something that I've been thinking about for a while. I think it can be a good thing as trance producers who have real love for the genre will continue innovating and pushing the boundaries, while die-hard fans will get to see their favourite DJs perform in a more intimate club setting. 

Super8 & Tab will be playing at this year's Digital Dreams Music Festival on June 28th in Toronto - click here for more information. 

Interview: Jaytech

Jaytech is known for his uplifting and melodic progressive beats, and for his smooth trance releases. Long associated with Anjunabeats, Jaytech (James Cayzer) has been a long time favourite of Above & Beyond and many other trance acts that enjoy his beautiful melodic style. He hails from Australia but now has established himself firmly in Berlin as he is in the midst of setting up his studio there just in time for his upcoming album release which is due out in the Summer. EDM Canada has managed to catch up with Jaytech just ahead of his Friday event in Toronto as he co-headlines the Code Red Tour with Super 8 & Tab at Maison Mercer. Read on as James discusses his background, the upcoming album, his love for Star Trek and Star Wars, real "progressive house", and much more: 

EDM Canada: Give me a brief history of Jaytech.

Jaytech: Well I started in sunny Australia, I grew up in Canberra, the capital city. I was always involved in music as my Aunt and Mother first got me involved in piano when I was at the age of 5. I had a very classical music upbringing as I used to play piano in competitions in Australia. I was always heading towards some kind of career in music. I was also a massive computer nerd at the same time so when I hit my teenage years I attended my first all ages rave with Ferry Corsten playing, who was the first DJ that I ever saw. So that's the first time I discovered this electronic trance music. I decided then and there that when I grew up that I would be doing that type of music, to travel the world, share music with people, and be based in Europe. (laughs) That sudden decision came to me when I was 14 years old. I've just been working at it ever since. My whole take about music is that I wanted to be the whole Star Trek of the music world. Star Trek always inspired me because it wasn't afraid to be intelligent and to have some depth to it. Dance music sometimes loses its way a little bit because dance music is a sort of commercially oriented and a mass appeal driven market. Most of the dance music I listen to or that I see is designed first and foremost to make people dance while I want to try to tell more of a story to it. For me the story is one of the most important elements in my electronic music over the last 10 years.

Describe your style.

Jaytech: It's always melodic because of my classic background. It's always been based around chord progressions and I think chord progressions and melodies sit at the centre of most of my musical ideas. It's a little bit geeky and I think my sound is a little bit DIY (Do It Yourself) because when I started I had no formal idea of what I was doing and when I started writing music with computers, nobody was taking it seriously and there were no resources on how to do it. A lot of the core aspects of my style come from learning how to do things in a very experimental and unorthodox way.

Do you start your tracks from a live instrumentation background or do you just start messing around with your computer?

Jaytech: I try to make the approach different for every type of track. In the past the sort of standout records that I've had had a different process of making the track every time. The software that I used was very different as I'm always back and forth between different programs. At the moment I'm leaning more towards Ableton Live but I also use Logic quite a bit. Some of the idea that I do have been floating around in my head for quite a long time. Musicall the tracks for my next album are just complete in my head before I'm even putting down my first notes. With the clubbier tracks I tend to start it with the kick drums and beats, and just go from there. I think it's good to mix it up as well because it lets people see different sides of your artistic imprint. I think it's good to have a very different approaches because it makes for more variety in the tracks.

You're working on a brand new artist album this year, what can you tell me about it?

Jaytech: It's getting pretty close as we're looking for a summer release. There's going to be a lot of electro-progressive stuff on there as well as some material that people will come to expect from me. It's going to be a very danceable album. I think the driving force behind this album is to have these tracks to play out at big events, festivals, and get a great response. There will be some recurring artists from previous albums as well as some new ones - there's a bunch of vocals already recorded. It's coming down to producing everything now in the studio which I'm doing now.

Can you name the collaborations that you will be having on your new album?

Jaytech: I'm pushing to get this collaboration I did with Boom Jinx as part of the tracklist on the album because I think it would be a really good fit. I never had a collaboration on an album before as I've only used other artists to perform things like guitar parts before. But the track I did with Boom Jinx a few years ago called “Milano” is one of the most identifiable tracks either one of us have had. I think this track I did with him is of the same callibre and it would be a shame not to put it on the tracklist. So I'm going to see where that goes. Either way that will be a cool new release from him and I.

What about vocals, any names you'd like to share at this time?

Jaytech: I definitely have some stuff with Steve Smith who I worked with on “Stranger”. There will be some new lead vocal tracks from Serenade as well. She featured in the last album as a more backing vocalist because they were recorded in less than ideal conditions and didn't use her to her full potential. For this album we recorded a few vocal numbers for 2 tracks in a studio in Melbourne that I was listening to via Skype. I was patched in for the whole setup while she was singing and I could everything that was going on during recording. The results from that have been really good.

What kind of story do you want to tell with your upcoming album?

Jaytech: Funny you said that because I wanted to use the album as a platform to tell a story. The story of the first album was telling the world about Jaytech and what I'm all about. The second one “Multiverse” was more about showing the world the different kind of styles that make up the sound that I'm known for. So the third one will be less about myself and instead use it to tell a story. At the centre of the album concept is the idea of a kind of space opera. I'm inspired by things like Star Wars and Star Trek, or any kind of space opera like the Fifth Element, some anime, and even Daft Punk's earlier albums and the stuff they've done with that. The idea of a futuristic sci-fi opera has always been big to me. The story of this album is to tell of an ideal future that we could possibly have coming for us if we can get our act together. Painting the picture of a bright future that we could have through technology and coming together as one human race.

Will this album be geared more towards the dance floor than the last one?

Jaytech: Yes. I think it will be. The last album was more about having more clubbier remixes made from the lead tracks in order to be played out in really big events. This time I want to find a bit of balance that allows me to sort of have that musical story, mixing in that home listening element with tracks that are ready to be played out at big festivals and get a good response.

You're going to be touring North America with Super8 & Tab on the Code Red tour, is this the first time you're touring with them?

Click the poster for ticket information

Jaytech: Yeah. I've done one-off gigs with them around the world a bunch of times but this is the first time that we decided to pair it up and do the tour together. We got a collaboration track called “Code Red” where the tour name actually comes from, and it also symbolizes us joining forces for this tour. Creating “Code Red” was a load of fun as we sent back the project back and forth between our studios about 20-30 times and just kept on chipping away at it. It turned a bit into a trance monster and in fact it's probably trancier than the tunes I've done in the past. (laughs) I'm really impressed with those guys did with the track as the real production value came from them as I came up with the melodies and chords – things like that. They took those ideas and turned it into an epic track with big lead synths, and stuff like that. It's a really cool fusion of our styles I think. They played it out for the first time at a gig that we were playing at the Ministry of Sound in London a couple of weeks ago and the response was really really good. Definitely looking forward to playing it out some more on this tour.

Will fans get the opportunity to hear you test out your brand new tracks set for the album on the tour?

Jaytech: Yep, they will. I'm going to try to do it in a discrete kind of way. With new unreleased stuff we have certain guidelines that we have to follow like making sure we're playing those tracks that aren't being recorded or streamed online. Anywhere I can I will be sure to be testing out new stuff.

Besides the artist album and the Code Red tour, do you have anything else planned for 2014 that you'd like to share?

Jaytech: I will probably be spending a lot more time in the States this year. I just moved to a new studio in Berlin and I want to get it to a place where I can consider it being a professional mixing and mastering studio that is capable and reliable. So that's very exciting and important thing for me. Apart from that I will be travelling and possibly doing my own imprint as well. To create my own imprint for progressive house because it is a very underrepresented style of dance music at the moment. There is definitely room for a new imprint that pools the progressive house talent out there because there are some people doing some awesome stuff in that genre that don't have any guidance on how to move the sound forward. I'm always trying to find music with depth and intelligence to it so I think this year will be the year that I will be putting something up myself.

Are you still doing A&R for Anjunabeats?

Jaytech: Not really anymore because Anjunadeep has moved into a more deep house direction and Anjunabeats themselves have a very comprehensive A&R team working on trance music in general. Nowadays if I hear something cool then I make sure to send it their way.

Does it ever bother you that Beatport labels so many tracks under the “progressive house” genre label? Would you prefer that they change the definition to highlight the stuff that you are doing?

Jaytech: I'm not really bothered by the classification of it. It is one of those things that I think there wasn't any malice or intent for that kind of music to invade progressive house. It does confuse things a bit when you search for a progressive house blog and you'll get tracks that are complete opposites of each other. The only thing that I really don't understand is the fact there was a pretty big petition to Beatport to do something about this fact and do something about incorrectly classifying progressive house. Beatport did respond and said “yes, we agree”, and that we'll do something about it but then they never did. It got to a point where they agreed but they didn't really do anything about it. (laughs)

How long ago did that petition occur?

Jaytech: About a year or two ago. All it really comes down to is that the lines between all of the different styles constantly fluctuate. Even trance records nowadays probably resemble what was progressive house 5-10 years ago. The only important thing is that the music is getting out there and people are listening to it.

Are you still going to create more trance music in the future?

Jaytech: As much as I've always been centered around progressive house and melodic kind of house music, I think the world that I'm operating in has always been the trance world and it's a world that I love. I didn't necessarily set myself to conquer the world of trance but it has become the platform of a lot of what I do. I think that all of these new styles of complextro, dubstep, trap, and all of this stuff has come about – it has brought awesome new ways of writing music into electronic music. The trance scene has remained largely the same as it's always been about coming together and dance, to let go of everything that they are worrying about in their life for a while. The trance scene has been the same this whole time and I think it's going to get better from here on out. 

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My thanks to Jaytech for taking the time to talk to EDM Canada. 

If you live in Toronto you can catch Jaytech and Super 8 & Tab on the Code Red Tour this Friday (Feb 28th) at Maison Mercer - click here for more ticket information.