Reported by Joanna McEwen
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Submitted 01-09-09 23:01
Paul Maddox – once a hard house newbie producer and DJ, working his way up the ranks. Now, ten years of tinkering at the keyboard later, he’s established himself as one known for intelligent tracks and thoughtful tune selection. All whilst make the dance floor jump of course!
From his earliest re-mix of N-Trance – Set you Free, he’s gone on to release original tracks, mainly through Tidy, for whom he is their in-house producer, and Vicious Circle, but also countless remixes, most notably Ferry Corsten’s Rock Your Body, Rock, Travel - Bulgarian, Dial M for Moguai – Beatbox, Defective Audio – Intoxicating, Pants & Corset – Malice in Wonderland and Tomcraft’s Brainwashed.
Whilst these and others have been included on a huge number of compilation CDs from Frantic to The World’s Greatest Hard Dance, Paul’s musical talents are too big to keep in a box. His many alter egos including the slower more chunky tough house of Olive Groove and the more delicate and uplifting Azure have seen him release tracks on Positiva and Data and not only get airplay on Radio 1 but be voted track of the year on Judge Jules’ show. Plus his minimal techno guise as Spektre saw him release a Live at Glade on Tim Sheridan’s Very Very Wrong Indeed label. Where does he find the time in between jetting off for DJ gigs across the world from New Zealand, America, Japan, Norway and Moscow? Before his set at Party Proactive on the 3 October at Area, we wanted to find out a little more on where he’s at, where here’s been and where’s he’s going to (that’s if he knows of course)!
Hi Paul, I hope you’re keeping well. How has the summer been treating you?
Yeah, it's been great so far - managed to fit a couple of trips to Ibiza in around everything else so all good.
Have you been to any festivals (playing or not)?
Not yet - I'll be going to SW4. I normally end up at a couple of the bigger ones too but I've kept my wellies in the cupboard this year!
Having played across the globe what are some of your favourite parties?
There are too many great ones to pick a single one out, but the Tidy Weekenders definitely hold fantastic, if somewhat hazy memories.
Even though you’re still young [how’s getting asked for ID for when you’re playing at Nuclear Puppy in Edinburgh a novel approach to DJing?!] you’ve managed to pack a lot into the past ten years. What have been some of your finer moments?
Getting the opportunity to play all over the world has been great, but getting recognition for my productions is worth more to me I think, so having stuff played on Radio 1 and the like would probably be the highlights.
I know you got your big break when you gave a remix CD to the Tidy Boys – and then got your first gig playing out covering an absent DJ at a Tidy Weekender! What made them give a young 16 year old such a massive opportunity, do you think?
I think a lot of it was being in the right place at the right time. They were looking to better utilize the studio facilities they had by having someone working in there full-time and I came along with a half-decent demo at just the right moment!
Being the seasoned professional you now are, can you see yourself doing the same thing? Is there anyone you’re seeing now who’s could be the next you?!
Well, I wouldn't really be in a position to offer the same kind of opportunity that I got, but there are definitely plenty of new producers making great stuff. Scott Fo-shaw and Amp Attack would be two who spring to mind that are consistently putting out great stuff and starting to get the label recognition too.
What are you plans for the next few months (or years)?
I'm actually really busy with a project outside of hard house at the moment. We are currently working on the debut Spektre album (check out www.spektre.co.uk), as well as a new label "Silhouette" for our techno material, so that is what's taking up the vast majority of my time right now.
You have a close working relationship with Paul Glazby and Guyver. How does making tracks with people differ to when you’re creating on your own?
I usually find that I'm more productive when working with other people. It's easy to go off on a tangent and lose track of what you were trying to achieve when working alone. Having another brain in the room to bounce ideas off usually keeps things moving a lot quicker too.
You’ve mentioned before how inspiration can strike in the middle of the night and you have to get up and work in your studio. What does your studio consist of?
It's based around a PC running Cubase, with Battery, Kontakt and Sylenth1 as my main sound sources. I've also got a couple of old analogue synths and a nice valve mastering compressor / EQ for running finished mixes through for a bit of extra polish.
What piece of gear do you wish you had?
I'd really like to try a pair of Event Opals to see if they live up to the huge hype they've had - other than that though I'm pretty happy with my setup at the moment.
You seem to be developing other sounds under different names, most notably Olive Groove, Azure and Spektre, all with critical and commercial success. Being such diverse sounds, describe how they work with the harder Paul Maddox that people know and love.
I try to keep my main projects on the go at all times, but I tend to go in phases between writing a lot of hard house stuff or more spektre / techno stuff. It keeps things interesting to have different styles of the go in my opinion, as doing the same thing all the time can get really stale, no matter how much you love it!
You said in a previous interview that your ideal party would be, and I quote, “For me, a club that started off with some deep proggy music, then onto breaks, then techno, then hard dance to finish would be amazing!”. Well, we don’t have the breaks this time and we’ve thrown in some psy trance, but you’ve pretty much summed up Party Proactive in a nutshell! How important are different musical influences to your ability to create quality dance tracks?
I think being able to draw on lots of different genres helps keep things fresh. It can often work really well to take an idea from a track in one style and translate it to another. It's too easy to get tunnel vision and not be able to do anything original if you're exclusively listening to a tiny band of the musical spectrum.
You’ve mentioned you’d like to meet Freddy Mercury so I assume you’re a massive Queen fan (me too, ssshhhh!). Who are your other influences, music or otherwise?
Haha - don't think my luck's gonna come in on that one! I listen to a massive range of music though and take inspiration of some form from pretty much all of it. Vince Clarke (of Depeche Mode, Erasure, Yazoo etc) has always been a particular hero of mine for being able to make such brilliantly memorable electronic music.
And were you to be one of those influences for a day who would it be and why?
Too tough to call - probably none, I don't think I'd be able to hack the comedown of going back to being a mere mortal the next morning!
Thanks, Paul. We were listening to your mix CD whilst on the beach out of little tinny speakers and it still sounded great – imagine what it’s going to sound like through the phat speakers in Area?! – Wooohooooo!!
Cheers, see ya there!
Photos courtesy of Party Proactive and the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Wow what an amazing 5th birthday party that was! Following a 12 month break Party Proactive rocked hard, we came, we saw and we partied! Our new choice of venue, AREA is clearly the right place for us to throw some fabulous parties and has certainly been given the thumbs up by all you crazy people.
A hop and skip later, we have managed to catch our breath back and are ready to set sail with our 2nd and final party of 2009, Party Proactive presents The Happening on Sat 3rd Oct at AREA.
A dazzling selection of artists composed of international and raw up and coming talent will be gracing the decks spread across three distinctly different rooms. Music ranging from psy trance, techno and hard beats to the ultra cool electro, tribal and minimal sounds in room 2 and 3 and a stunning outdoor terrace to chat, chill and smoke!
To help launch this event and get the ball rolling we are releasing a very limited number of £5 tickets and the price will quickly go up to £12 and £15.
So be quick, put Sat 3rd October in the dairy and get ready to party hard because for the last time this year the Party Proactive circus gets set to roll into town.
Flyer:
-
Region:
London
Music:
Trance. Acid Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Nu NRG. House. Funky House. Hard House. Prog House. Tribal House. Electro House. Tech House. Acid Techno. Deep Techno. Funky Techno. Minimal Techno. Techno. Breaks. Electro.
SIMON BOULIND [Egg | Aquarium | Ghost]
GOOD TIME KID [Egg | Ghost | Pacha London]
DGS [Egg | Ghost | Slinky]
& Guest DJ NATHAN FILTH GALLEY [Lost DJs | M Bar Go]
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