Suntrip Records Interview - June 2005

[tbe]

Interview with Mars & Anoebis from Suntrip Records ( June 2005)

Read full story of the label involved in Melodic and Psychedelic Trance comeback !

 

 

1- How did Suntrip Records start ? Where are you based and who are involved ?

 

MARS :

Hi

We are Fabien Mars and Joske Anoebis from Paris/France and Gent/Belgium. Jos is 22, student and party organizer, i am 27, engineer.

We were amongst the core members of Psynews.org (then called goatrance.free.fr) in the beginning of the year 2000. We had spoken a lot online but we met in a party gathering some Psynews members actually. After that we met regularly in Belgium mainly, where i spent several week-ends partying.

We first got the idea of a label - i think - after our first party together, the "Psynews Summer Launch", in June 2002.

Then we were busy with work and exams and although we were suffering from all those bad releases looking all the same, we couldn't find the little amount of energy (and money) that were missing to make our dreams come true..ahaha !

 

Well, a nice conjunction of events is that I met Jannis Filteria at the Samothraki Festival in Greece one month later. He was a pure Etnica freak. Some time later, he wrote me on the internet that he was starting to make music seriously. Ok he had been collecting some old synths for a while and had made a few nice melodies, but nothing enough to make a whole track.

In September 2003 in think, we had still not found the necessary resources to start up but Jannis sent me his first finished tracks. Well it's not the first time i was listening to beginners' tracks, and it's always the same you know, something is missing...but this time i had to admit it was a shock ! The tracks were not perfect in terms of production, but they were really sounding wonderful musically speaking, they were complete, balanced, magic.

In January 2004, Jannis did his first or second live act as Filteria in Sweden and it seems people enjoyed A LOT and Jannis was himself uplifted by this positive feedback and he composed "Stars" in 3-4 hours !!! He submitted it to me and to Jos and we thought "WHAT A BLAST !". Actually the sound was much better, the melodies fantastic, the whole track a masterpiece (still unreleased, the one on the album is a remix). I think this day we decided to start a label and produce Filteria's tracks to start with !

We had some time before Jannis could make a full length album and us to gather the necessary funds and study the label company creation, so it took up to july 2004 to set it all up.

 

Meanwhile, i moved to Sweden for a while in the spring 2004 to take further contact with Filteria. Jos also made his best to promote Filteria in Belgium, which is a very nice psy-country, and he organized a party with him Live in Antwerpen in may 2004. That was a success.

We finally signed the papers during an openair party, in some a car, in the middle of nowhere, at the very border between France and Belgium !!!

Now, Suntrip official address is in Paris' close suburbs, just one level above Psynews.org, in the same building

In august 2004, the three of us met again in Sweden for a festival. I think it settled for good our friendship. Actually Filteria is now more than a simple artist we produce

 

Well in September 2004 all went faster, i got an accelerated training for the psytrance label management art by L'Elf of turbo Trance Records, we kicked Jannis ass so that he could choose a tracklisting and Rerecord some flawed tracks, and Brian and Michael from Arabesque decided to trust us and distribute our releases. Tim Schuldt Jos knew personally was chosen to master Filteria tracks and DJ Ukiro from Sweden took care of the Sky Input album artwork. Actually i don't know how we did but we got all the money and artworks and authorizations and everything on time. Unfortunately, the CD presser was always delayed in November and there was a lot of stress then, but we managed to get pressed just in time and the CD wasn't delayed. That was a lot of work but we learnt a lot and it was actually much less trouble to prepare SUNCD02 that is now 2 weeks from release.

 

 

 

 

2- Why did you choose the name " Suntrip" ?

 

MARS :

Argh this is hard to answer. We Always wanted something about the sun. We had first thought about "Sunshower", which was the name of a party organized by Anoebis. But i don't know how i was convinced by other people we had to choose something else...So we had really no idea for a good name, we made names lists, we made online meetings to gather ideas, etc, etc, but nothing satisfied anyone...until everyone got fed up with choosing a label name. But time was running out for the label creation paperwork, and i think i finally proposed "Suntrip" to Jos one day and he accepted right away

Now Suntrip fits us well, but it still makes laugh the guy at the bank...

 

ANOEBIS : Well, as Fabien said we weren't sure for a long time, but when I heard Suntrip I was pleased It may be cliché somehow, but it fits our music really well, sunny music to fly far, far away...

 

 

 

 

3-You released the first album of Filteria, " Sky input"? could you tell us more about Filteria ?

 

MARS :

Oh i already explained a lot before. Filteria is Jannis Tzikas, half Swedish, half Greek, soon 22.

He lives in Stockholm, loves oldschool psytrance and eighties' disco. He is really a fanatic of sound and sound engineering in general. About that, he spent last autumn passing sound engineering exams during the day and preparing the Sky Input album at night ! He has an impressive collection of old synths and fx, including old Korgs, Juno, Roland, Jupiter, Waldorf, etc... else he uses Logic Audio 5.3 on a Mac G4.

He could spend hours trying to understand how some sound or rhythmic is made in some track, and hours again trying to make it again in his sequencer. He never uses prepared sampled rhythmics. Never! He samples a lot from the Babylon 5 series ("We are startstuff, we are the universe !").

What's amazing is that he makes some of his melodies at night, before sleeping, using one synth and playing around. When he has spent enough nights and has enough melodies fitting well together, and inspiration (means it's not dark and freezing in Stockholm), he can start a track. Yet i have seen from my eyes he works quite fast, although he is a maniac of adjusting every note to the good millisecond in his Logic sequencer. I know he makes lots of tracks, lots of remixes, many will only be played live one or two times, many will never be released...i can't believe what we're missing

By listening to his tracks, you may guess he's an Etnica/Pleiadians fan. But not only that...héhéhé wait for his next album and you'll see !!!

Else, he's already played in Sweden several times, Belgium twice (and is playing soon there again at the Rhakti Dei vs Femina Mandragora festival), and Finland.

Recently Filteria has attempted to work together with other artists, including Pan Papason from Etnicanet ("Psychedelic Non Stop" on Phase 3 compilation), Ukiro (unfinished remix), me ("Visions of Mars" track), and Leo, a promising young Swedish artist that resulted in the TOTAL KILLER "Speech Module", that already has its slot on his next album

 

ANOEBIS : You said that right Well, I'm a dj and when I played the Filteria tracks the first time for a Belgian audience everybody was going mad... And that were his very first tracks, he evaluated a lot since then! (with even more mad scenes on the dancefloor) The album is the ultimate dancefloor madness, he knows perfectly how to make a very intense, exploding psychedelic atmosphere! In the mean time he started melodic goa trance tracks with more flow and story, so we hope we can please everyone with that One of his softer tracks (Tiny Universe) will be on our compilation Apsara

 

 

 

 

4- It seems that you focus on the most melodic and psychedelic edge of the psytrance. Why that choice ? Why not Full on or Progressive ( like everybody ;-) ? Can you describe the style Suntrip is releasing ? Would you call it Goatrance, or Pschedelic Trance or Old School or ? ?.

 

MARS : Now i think many people associate us with something different, an alternative to the full on scene. Yes we are really focused on more melodic, oldschool, uplifting music than all the stereotyped angry full on we can hear all nowadays. Yet our artists mostly use modern production techniques. I'd ay we're releasing melodic psychedelic trance.

 

Hmm i think our choice comes from Anoebis and I own experiences. Jos is from a country where people still love melodic music. There are still parties in Belgium where no full on track is played during the whole night and everyone screams all night ! I think they have understood "unreleased" or "new" doesn't equal to "good". As for myself, i am originally from Bordeaux and used to go to wonderful parties since 1996 involving Total Eclipse for example, which were from the same city, so my whole twenties have been immersed into all kinds of Psytrance but i never enjoyed more than back then...Rrhaaâ ! Am I nostalgic ?

 

We really don't see the point in releasing full on music. I'd rather release psychedelic rock than full on. There are already 987654 labels releasing full on. As for progressive or ambient, we are open to these styles but haven't had the opportunity to release some. I think it will be doable when we are a little bit more settled into the scene.

 

ANOEBIS : When I first started to listen goatrance, back in 1998 I fell completely in love with the positive atmosphere, the warm sounds, the crazy acid lines and the mind alternating climaxes... Since 98 I saw the scene changing and changing, first around 2000 the minimal/psy-tekk wave came, and later the full on wave. So for me as dj and dancer it was hard to find my dear beloved goa trance. Exactly that made us decide to start Suntrip, to show people there is enough room for all labels, releasing all kinds of music! And that the melodic goa trance is not entirely dead (yet). We really want to bring the melodic "old school" atmosphere back alive with artists that use the new productions!

 

 

 

 

5- Would you release any other style ?

 

MARS : I think an ambient compilation will come one day, and why not some progressive in the longer run, as i said. But definitely not mainstream music, and anyway both Jos and I must agree on releasing something.

ANOEBIS: Well indeed, we heard some very good ambient, and I personally like Swedish forest music (style Ka Sol) very much too, and Finnish weird experimental stuff... So we'll see what the future brings We both have to agree of course, but that was not really a problem so far

 

 

 

 

6- What label or artist do you appreciate actually ? Anything to say about Etnica/Pleiadians ?

 

MARS : I particularly appreciate Twisted Records and i think Simon has still a lot in store for us. If you weren't at the Twisted Records party one year ago, you definitely missed a hell of a party ! Shponglucinogen, Prometheus, Tristan, OTT are amongst my last hopes for a better Psytrance. Else, Tranceform records is in the same melodic boat as us and has wonderful artists to release. I just wish Kalle could release more cds !! I also love atmospheric progressive music like the Digital structures of Submachine/Motoring or Plusquam, Iboga, Gravity+, Spiral Trax. About more Full on stuff i really love super complex stuff like what Shift/TwistedSystem does. About ambient music, i love all the Ultimae releases, but also Interchill, and more recently the Cell album on Indica music. well about Etnica, i bought their latest album and like it. Ok they're not what they used to be but times are different same goes for the crew. I just wish they simply don't release a third Pleiadians album. Nowadays, it simply couldn't match IFO & FOL (unless Filteria joins Max and Maurizio of course, hum).

 

ANOEBIS : Of the labels that still release melodic music today I also like Tranceform records very much of course, but also some Sundance (Talpa!), Kagdilia (Pure Planet!) and Avatar with their re-releases Of darker and more experimental music my favourite labels are Schlabbaduerst, Stone Age and the Scatterbrain/Kluster album! For progressive I like some YSE (Blue Vortex, Soul Surfers) and Midijum Records. But the Ambient question is the hardest one, there are many good releases lately, Shpongle of course, but all Ultimae, Entheogenic, Angel Tears,... There's so much good music in fact!

 

 

 

 

7- You made a label party in Belgium in march, how people reacted ?

 

MARS : I was at the entrance a big part of the night, i can't really tell. I think people liked Ka Sol a lot and Filteria quite much. Overall i think the party went well. Too bad the sound system was not of the highest quality.

 

ANOEBIS : The same story for me, I was mostly running around, spinning records or sitting at the entrance... :s But I have good memories about the party, as Ka Sol blew me away completely! The atmosphere was really good, just enough people came to fill the place without getting overcrowded, and during Filteria I'm sure the climaxes made the people crazy! But like Fabien said, the sound bounced too much back from the walls :s There is a DVD from this party, if people are interested, let me know!

 

 

 

 

8- What's your point of view about the psytrance scene, especially in Belgium, France and Sweden.. 3 scenes you are linked with ?

 

MARS : If you want my opinion, France scene is too narrow minded. Parties are hardly interesting, it's impossible to have Filteria invited for example. Besides some bad Djs will stand before the players for hours playing shitty boomboom for hours. My God ! Belgium has many scenes : progressive, full on, oldschool...everyone can choose, people are far happier, there are far less trouble, etc. It's always a pleasure to party in Belgium. As for Sweden, i haven't been to many parties there but it seems there are 2 facets : clubbers and freaks. I participated to some small festival there and it was so nice. People are really open-minded there.

 

ANOEBIS : I have been playing all over Europe last few years, and I think the best party countries in Europe must be Finland and Belgium... The only places where still 80% of the people are dancing like mad at 8 in the morning after a night with heavy psychedelic music! Also it is great that in Belgium you have all kind of parties, concentrating on different kind of music... Full On, Progressive, Melodic (old/new school) goa trance, Dark trance,... France, that's a different story, there is definitely something missing in the scene of Paris compared with other scenes, but I haven't been to other scenes in France so I don't have a clear view on it. About Sweden, I did only 1 party there so far but it was very good! I hope to do some more soon, in the forest...

 

 

 

 

9- Tell us about your new release ?

 

MARS : Oh yes yes yes here it is, "APSARA" is our 2nd release.

All the infos are there : http://www.suntriprecords.com/pages/releases/SUNCD02/

 

It's a compilation with 9 tracks, 7 artists are known or already released, 2 are newcomers. The style of the compilation is melodic of course, but not as mad as Sky Input. It's definitely music that "floats in some way". All tracks are between 120 and 148 bpm and i think each one can be associated with a different landscape.

I'm very happy with this compilation. It was released on June 6th in all major shops, thanks again to our dear (God save the Queen) Arabesque UK. Tim Schuldt took care of the mastering again, Margot Schaefer made an awesome work for the cover (she is a German psychedelic painter living in Belgium, and she often takes care of some parties decos there. Her website : http://www.margotschaefer.com).

 

And here is the tracklisting :

1 Aes Dana - Digitalys 07:22 @ 120 BPM

2 Yesod - On the Edge of Time 07:05 @ 142 BPM

3 Khetzal & Chai (Avigmati) - Babylone Beach 09:14 @ 145 BPM

4 Lost Buddha - Metamorphosis 08:57 @ 139 BPM

5 Filteria - Tiny Universe 09:01 @ 143 BPM

6 Ka Sol - Scraqp @ 08:31 142 BPM

7 Ypsilon 5 - Titanium 10:04 @ 148 BPM

8 Goasia - I'm Ready 08:18 @ 144 BPM

9 Radical Distortion - Communication ! 07:51 @ 136 BPM

 

Overall, Aes Dana has the most breathing track, Yesod the most oriental, Khetzal the most twisted, Lost Buddha the most travelling, Filteria the most spacey, Ka Sol the hardest, Ypsilon5 the most metallic, Goasia the highest, Radical Distortion the most Shiny !

 

This compilation is really a big psychedelic trip like none has been made for a long time now ! We hope you'll notice how original it is and appreciate the journey.

 

 

 

 

10- And after this one, what are you planning ?

 

MARS : Héhéhé now it's no secret we are going to release an album for Khetzal in September or October. Khetzal is Matthieu, a French artist, close to Lyon city, very wise & open minded, ex-violin player, a real maestro. He has already released both ambient and kicking tracks on the compilations Fahrenheit 2, Peace Therapy and Spiritual Moves 4.

We got a promo from him when we were preparing Apsara and it was definitely not like other promos. This one was a full length album, all ready, all perfect, you can't imagine, literally outstanding ! So we couldn't hesitate, we are very happy to have Khetzal with us ! We are also planning to make a release party for this album with Khetzal Live of course !

If you want to know everything, we're meeting next week-end, Khetzal, Anoebis and I to set some steps for this release.

 

 

After that, I think everyone will be ready for the next Filteria album, probably by the end of 2005 or beginning of 2006. Jannis is already working hard on it and i must say half of the album is ready and some tracks are pure masterpieces (like "Speech Module" or "Mind Expansion" or...héhéhé...a wonderful remix of some old mythic track). Filteria style has evolved, his sounds are so various, his melodies are so twisted, the tracks are all like fine lace. Less madness, more musical achievement, yet still very Filteria-like, you will see.

 

And after that ???? Well we have some plans, some opportunities, more that we can afford actually, we should be happy !

 

 

 

 

11- What artists (or labels !) would you like to work with ?

 

MARS : Hallucinogen !!!!

Well actually i think i'd like to have one MFG track on some future compilation as i know they still make some excellent music.

 

 

ANOEBIS : MFG must be my all time favourite group, so having a track of them would be a real honour! We also heard Subcouds live last summer, and he still makes some kick ass music...! And one of my dreams would be the release of the never released Crop Circles album... Who else I'd love to work together with; Electric Universe, Blue Planet Corporation, Chi-ad, Talpa, Derango, OTT,..! I could go on forever

 

 

 

 

12- Anything else you would like to say ?

 

MARS : Thanks to all those who've supported us from the beginning, especially you Tibo, you're our first critic.

Also, keep on having good vibes with psytrance and parties. We're all in this scene to be wise and to have fun.

 

ANOEBIS : And if you have some comments, criticism about our releases, or you know some good artist making music that would fit our label... Don't hesitate to send us a mail! Anoebis@suntriprecords.com or Mars@suntriprecords.com!

Also a big Boom Shankar to everyone that bought our first cd! And the Belgian party freaks, without you guys I wouldn't have ever thought about a label!

[Shaft]

Some nice information there. Thanks for carrying out this interview.

[amphiton]

Thnx!

[psychosphere]

been immersed into all kinds of Psytrance but i never enjoyed more than back then...Rrhaaâ ! Am I nostalgic ? ....................................

 

.............................................. This compilation is really a big psychedelic trip like none has been made for a long time now ! We hope you'll notice how original it is and appreciate the journey.

 

- Definately not nostalgic there, anyone that has sampled the old stuff with his ears and soul has like a ghost cast away in a world of darkness waiting for the his transition to the next stage of enlightened psy trance. Yes all of us that tasted the sweet melody of 96-97 that siped into our minds presenting to us the thirst of eternal bliss arising from good goa trance music.

After 98 nothing could really cut it for me either, I started gathering as many old CDs as possible, cause I thought I'd never listen to that music again. In 2003 to 2004 I found out I wasn't alone. I started meeting people at paarties, with exactly the same ideas, talking about old compilations, the one completing the others thoughts.

Thanks guys for doing this big step for us all. Even though I first came into contact with the Transform releases trying to aproach the old skool style, and boris blenn slowly remembering his skills, yours just blew me off immediately, both the filteria, and the apsara compilations. They gave me the feeling of that SSTI1 compilation, maybe a bit of that old subcouds tune with some Elysium spirit thrown into them, and I think MFG did take part in the influence thing.

Producing old style Goa trance while at the same time making use of new equipment and methods of composition is what everyone should be doing at the moment. I am still a bit confused on why they are not, I believe it's the natural evolution of our music, and definately holds it's future securely.

Glad to hear you are going for a second filteria album, and the Khetzal album sounds promissing too. I believe you should go for an Apsara II while you're at it.

I believe that if you do that and keep on with a release of a constant name and persisting on the exact same type of melodic old/new music, everyone will soon be calling the music "Apsara Trance" or something. If you haven't seen it yet, everyone likes it, and everyone is looking for a proper name to express it, somehow, old skool doesn't sound right, and goa or psy trance defines the whole scene. So strike fast and hard, you deserve it and we'll like it !!!!

 

P.S. Keep me a copy of any future releases, can't wait for some good old/new stuff!

[Basilisk]

Big respect Joske, Fabien... just got the new compilation and it's the genuine stuff! Very nice work and the future plans sound excellent.

[WereBear]

What i can say is, thank god you guys exist! Here in Portugal its almost impossible to listen to goa trance. Not even in the biggest trance festival in the world (boom festival), plays goa trance. In 5 days of music, only Transwave played for 2 hours only.

But in may festivals you can notice the same line-ups. The "xa-la-la" trance is just exhausting, playing full on for 14/16 hours its just a dumb flat line.

 

Anyway, i discovered goa by filteria. Hurray for Suntrip records, long live!

Its been a passion since then. They will always have a listener here.

[NT]

Wow, i never realised all of you guys were so 'young'

[Tatsu]

Very interesting interview, I think we should move (or copy that) to the interview section so it doesn't get lost.

 

Edit: copy and pasted the interview to the interviews forum.

[RTP]

I just read the interview for the first time

 

feel a bit stupid, because it's already quite old and I never registered that it exists ... but it's a very good interview nonetheless! Much information there!

[Anoebis]

Wow, i never realised all of you guys were so 'young'

well, as a matter of fact I'm now 24 so not that young anymore héhé, but I started young with the whole goa movement, that's true (16-17)

Thanks everyone for the warm words, it are those words that give is the courage to go on, even though we sometimes feel very "out of line"!

[dunkey]

Is it any chance to renew interview with Suntrip team with 2009 approach?

[dunkey]

thanks

[Anoebis]

Here is the English version of the Freeze Magazine interview:

 

http://www.suntriprecords.com/media/misc/S...cember_2008.pdf

 

 

Have fun

[piginspace]

thanks for both interviews.

 

one question if i may:

any plans with that unreleased filteria - stars track? would like to have a listen to that one.

[psytones]

Respect!