Dimitri: Can you mention your biggest achievements in your music career in 2015?
Alex Wright: Releasing my debut Always Alive single 'Temptation', which was supported by Alex M.O.R.P.H., Allen & Envy, Daniel Kandi, Photographer, RAM and many others.
Dimitri: Do you like to cook? What is the best recipe that you cooked this year? If you don’t usually cook who is cooking it for you and which is your best food for 2015?
Alex Wright: I do like to cook healthy food, my favourite dish being fried rump steak in peppercorn sauce with chips (+tomato sauce), red, yellow and green peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and garden peas. Great for those post-gym sessions! I must also mention that my mum makes the best roast dinner, I am really excited for Christmas Day already just thinking about it! As for my best food of 2015, I went to Turtle Bay last week and loved their Trinidad Curry Chicken. If you like hot food I thoroughly recommend it!
Alex Wright’s BEST OF 2015
1) Best Track:
Mark Sherry - Pillars Of Creation. A perfect, well-rounded production in my opinion with a strong theme and an awesome Techy drive to it. It absolutely blew the roof off the Terrace at Egg the other week at Trance Sanctuary!
2) Best Artist (Dj & producer):
Jordan Suckley
3) Best Remix:
Alexey Selin - White Crystal (Allen & Envy Remix). Simple but effective, love their take on the Pure Trance sound. The change in dynamics from the low pads to the lead and then finally to the drop is genius and I can imagine must sound amazing in a club!
4) Best Remixer:
Allen Watts. Very consistent producer with his own sound, love his supersaws.
5) Best New Talent (Dj or producer):
Standerwick, he just keeps getting better and better.
6) Best Electronic Music Album:
Boom Jinx - No Answers In Luck. I knew this guy would deliver a fantastic listening experience from when I first heard about him working on an album all those years ago, finally it's hear and it's even better than I had ever imagined!
7) Best Electronic Music Compilation:
Pure Trance V4
8) Best artwork/cover of an Album or Compilation:
Anjunabeats Volume Five is my favourite, it's so iconic. Especially as Above & Beyond are my idols haha
9) Best Lyrics in an Electronic Music track:
Above & Beyond - Can't Sleep. Love it's sophisticated, balearic, melancholy feel. One of the first vocal Trance tracks that really caught my attention and drew me into the style of Above & Beyond.
10) Best Vocalist/Singer featured on Electronic Music track:
Sarah McLachlan, even though she is a singer / songwriter, her vocals sound unreal on Tiesto's remixes of Sweet Surrender and Silence.
11) Best Electronic Music Label:
Anjunabeats, they have always done everything properly. A prime example of a successful Dance music label.
12) Best Electronic Music Video:
The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
13) Best Online Social media for communication with your fans:
https://www.facebook.com/alexwrightmusic/
14) Best Twitter or Facebook message or Instagram message you received from a fan or friend or you have read on someone else’s account:
"Hey Alex, Your latest 3 track E.P. is brilliant. Hope you are well and you will more make stuff like that." - Espen Andre Løfblad
15) Best music composition software:
Each to their own!
16) Best Club Event or Open Air Festival:
Trance Sanctuary at Egg London
17) Best personal Dj Gig:
Playing at an illegal rave in Derbyshire in summer 2013 that my mate helped organized. He drove me and his other mate up to Nine Ladies Stone circle on the night of the summer solstice in his van with a lighting rig and sound system, and we set up just before sunset. I was first on, and saw over a hundred people run down over the hills and start partying, no police found out about it, and we kept going till 7AM!
18) Best Dj set of the year from other fellow Dj:
Mark Sherry at Trance Sanctuary two weeks ago, full of energy and creativity with lots of manipulation of the tracks.
19) Best country that you have visited to perform with the most up for it crowd:
I've had minimal DJ experience so far, so I will have to say the UK!
20) Best Radio show:
A State Of Trance (The live milestone broadcasts are so well put together)
21) Best Radio station:
Digitally Imported
22) Best Online Record shop that you purchase your music:
Beatport.com
23) Best music related website that you visit frequently:
Don't really go on music websites, Facebook and Youtube are enough for me to find links to interesting articles and videos.
24) Best Smart phone/Mobile phone device:
Not sure, I'm not an expert but my Samsung Galaxy S4 is great!
25) Best Dj equipment (software or hardware):
Pioneer CDJs all the way. Reliable if looked after properly and the industry standard.
26) Best new sound or sample that has been used in Electronic Music this year perhaps introduced first by you?
The vocal in my track 'Temptation' which was lifted from Dance Conspiracy - Dub War. I've been wanting to use that vocal in a Trance track for ages as it sounds so euphoric.
27) Best tip that you learnt this year for your Djing techniques or music composition:
Use good sounds to start with to make the creative process easier and be sparing with EQ.
28) Best piece of advice you got in relation to your career in 2015:
Have mentors and surround yourself with people who have a similar goal to you, who are of equal ability, lower ability and higher ability so that you can learn from them and help others out.
29) Best hobby or activity that you spent a lot of time in 2015:
Going to the gym and eating well to gain mass and muscle!
30) Best holiday destination for 2015 that you manage to visit this year either to relax or to perform in a club or festival:
I didn't go on holiday this year unfortunately!
31) Best Electronic Music magazines in printed form not online:
DJ Mag
32) Best Movie of the year that may inspire you to compose a track:
Spectre
33) Best online/PC/video game of the year that you have played this year?
I don't play games, I don't have the time unfortunately!
34) Best soundtrack for video game of the year:
Not sure.
35) Best joke you heard this year related to electronic music:
"DJ Shocked After Being Paid In Money" by Wunderground. In all seriousness though, a proper event company will pay all of theirs DJs if the event has made a successful profit in my opinion.
Dimitri: Finally, 2016 is ahead of us would you like to tell your plans with your future releases, tracks, albums, collaborations, Dj gigs.
Alex Wright: Many more remixes, collaborations and originals in the pipeline!
Many thanks to Alex Wright for his time to reply in this interview
Many thanks to Enhanced Music for their support to organise this interview
Read Alex Wright's Trance Encounters guest column exclusively on Flux BPM Online click here
Read Alex Wright's Trance Encounters guest column exclusively on Flux BPM Online click here
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