2011 was an incredible year for Electronic Dance Music and Tritonal in particular had a massive success with their first album Piercing The Quite tha manage to climb at the top of many well known portals. Of course their remixes for other artists are equally successful with latest case their translation of the Kyau vs Albert classic Once in A Life currently smashing the charts. What is more their dj performances are always something special for those who have the chance to dance all night long with their twisted electro proglifting trance anthems. Its big pleasure for me to kick off this series of Best of 2011 interviews with Tritonal.
Enjoy their great answers.
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| Interview is written and conducted by Dimitri Kechagias, Radio/Club Dj/Music Journalist |
Name: Tritonal – Chad Cisneros and Dave Reed
Location: Austin, TX
Dimitri: Do you consider 2011 as a positive, negative or neutral year for the progress of the Electronic Dance Music scene?
Tritonal: To get straight to the point, we think it was most definitely a positive year!! There has been so much movement overall in the scene; EDM becomes a bit more commercial, and the commercial music becomes a bit more EDM, which is making for an advantage to many producers out there - including us! Just in the USA alone, we're seeing masses at events such as Insomniac's Electronic Daisy Carnival! So not only is the music evolving, but so are the events everywhere. However, there are those die-hard trance producers out there who are having a falling out due to this, so it could go both ways.
Dimitri: Do you believe that 2011 was a good, indifferent or bad year for the development of your personal career?
Dimitri: Do you believe that 2011 was a good, indifferent or bad year for the development of your personal career?
Tritonal: Each year that has gone by has always been a good year for us, especially in the studio. From the initial development of our sound, to seeing how it has changed now is amazing! 2011, we've had our album, "Piercing The Quiet" release and with it, comes our club remixes as well as a handful of other remixes. I think it's more than safe to say we've had a kick ass year for our personal careers. Not to mention the damage we're doing in the club scene - it's been exciting!
3- THE A to Z of the Best of the Year 2011.
3- THE A to Z of the Best of the Year 2011.
a) Best Full Release of the year(original & remixes)
Tritonal: Has to be Norin & Rad! They are making great moves in this industry and from our standpoint, their track, "The Gift" which came out on our label, Air Up There Recordings, spread like an infection in everyone's radio and DJ sets!!
b) Your personal Full release of the year
Tritonal: Our single, "Broken Down" featuring Meredith Call from our artist album also had such a great impact this year! The club mix of this is always on the ready to be fired up in our sets!
c) Best Single track of the year (only original versions)
c) Best Single track of the year (only original versions)
Tritonal: Oh my, this one is a tough one, as there have been incredible singles this year! But it has to be said that we can't get our hands off the "Smash" record by Rafael Frost! Such an intelligent melody and swift thinking put into that production!
Tritonal: One of our biggest tunes of 2011 has by far been "Still With Me" featuring Cristina Soto. The vocals are unique and the feeling of the original gets you lost in it. We love this one and personally feel it's by far one of our greatest productions to date. We also recently released our club mix of this and it's smashing!
e) Best Remix of the year
Tritonal: The Myon&Shane 54 Summer of Love Remix of Adain's "Promises" was outstanding!! It quickly became a go to record in most of our sets over the past of 2011!
Tritonal: Our track, "Lifted" from our artist album, "Piecing the Quiet". The Mat Zo remix of this is outstanding!
g) Best Producer of the year in your style that you play or any other that you may like
Tritonal: Although we do our best to remain unique in our style as well as continue to develop, one of the artists that we've been looking into a lot lately has been Arty! He's accomplished a TON this year and kudos to him for creating incredible productions!
h) Best New Talent/Big hope for the coming years
h) Best New Talent/Big hope for the coming years
Tritonal: Great question! There's a lot of new talent out there these days and in such an industry as this, where there are dozens of producers, Norin & Rad from Los Angeles, have been taking the bull by the horns in their productions and are really starting to turn heads! These guys are going to soar!
i) Best Remixer of the year on personal or others peoples tracks
i) Best Remixer of the year on personal or others peoples tracks
Tritonal: Kyau & Albert have been personal favorites of ours, and their remixes never disappoint! Their latest remix of Above & Beyond feat. Zoel Johnston "You Got To Go" is a masterpiece!
j) Best Established Label of the year(not started in 2011)
j) Best Established Label of the year(not started in 2011)
Tritonal: Haha! We were just talking about this a few weeks ago. The Enhanced Music record label is putting out killer material! Promos and the amount of good material out there has taken quite a fall, but Enhanced always raises the standards. Kudos to Will Holland for such an amazing power label!
k) Best Newborn in 2011 label of the year
k) Best Newborn in 2011 label of the year
Tritonal: Hmm, good one here. There are SO many labels out there and it can be tough to keep up.
l) Best dance album and mixed compilation of the year in the style of music that you work with…
l) Best dance album and mixed compilation of the year in the style of music that you work with…
Tritonal: 'Enhanced Vol. 100' Compilation this past summer of 2011 :)
m) Best Music Video of the year(this can be personal/you are involved with or from other artists)
m) Best Music Video of the year(this can be personal/you are involved with or from other artists)
Tritonal: Well we are currently in the works of creating our own music video, but one music video that has really caught our attention this past year was the "Sun & Moon" one by Above & Beyond. Really well crafted and tells a good story :)
n) Best social network of the year that has been amazing for the promotion of your work
Tritonal: Hands down it's Facebook! We have done so much pushing on this particular network this year and it has brought us much success! Our Facebook alone gets more attention than our website. ;)
o) Best new software or hardware that was introduced in this year and you recommended it to others.
o) Best new software or hardware that was introduced in this year and you recommended it to others.
Tritonal: Wow, well there's a lot of great software out there. We love the Native Instruments bundles and Komplete 8 just came out recently. We would recommend that to anyone on any day ;) It really has everything you could ever need and Native Instruments just keep on pushing the envelope when it comes to sound design!
p) Best and worst djing or production experience that happened in 2011
p) Best and worst djing or production experience that happened in 2011
Tritonal: We love these types of questions, as we have had quite a few experiences to tell! First, our best experience as previously mentioned was Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Now, our worst experience, not recalling where exactly it was, was when one of the turntables we were using went out and we kept having to go back and forth between one table and creatively figuring how to fade in - was quite awkward to be honest! But we look back at moments like these and laugh because it's a memory that still makes us smile :)
q) Best country that you performed this year (if you are a dj you can tell us your own if you don’t dj you can share with us the experience of someone from your label)
q) Best country that you performed this year (if you are a dj you can tell us your own if you don’t dj you can share with us the experience of someone from your label)
Tritonal: Korea!! During our Piercing The Quiet tour we had the privilege of playing there. It was a sold out show and the venue, lighting and sound system was top quality! The best part of the night though, was when everybody knew the lyrics of our productions, but yet they couldn't speak a word of English! The feeling of this will last a lifetime. We look forward to returning!
r) Best club or open air festival that you attended or you even performed this year
Tritonal: Anything that has been put on by Insomniac has always been a locked down memory for us. This past year, as it's been mentioned a lot in this interview, was indeed EDC Las Vegas. Having 80,000 people jump to your music is such an incredible experience!
s) Best hobby or other activity for 2011(game/movie/book/going to gym to keep fit or any other hobby )
s) Best hobby or other activity for 2011(game/movie/book/going to gym to keep fit or any other hobby )
Tritonal: It's such a funny question because creating music is still such a MAJOR hobby to us! However, we both do like to keep our figures and stay healthy by working out when we can; eating right and getting plenty of sleep is crucial. But we do have side hobbies; Dave likes to nerd out on video production/gaming & work with cars, while Chad likes spending time with his wife, Carol, and staying fit - we always like to keep the balance in our lives :)
t) Best radio show of the year and Best radio station that you always check out(fm or online)preferably that plays the kind of your music
t) Best radio show of the year and Best radio station that you always check out(fm or online)preferably that plays the kind of your music
u) Best online or ordinary record shop that you used to get your music of the year
Tritonal: You can't go wrong if it involves Beatport! It's been our go to shop for the past few years :)
v) Best CD player or any other equipment that you use for djing (this can include software for digital mixing)
Tritonal: For our radio show, Air Up There, we use Ableton Live to mix and for our live sets, of course, we use the CDJ2000s!
w) Best vocalist in a dance track of the year
Tritonal: Oh my goodness, Richard Bedford! Such an incredible talent and vocalist!
x) Best magazine or web site that you always check out for music related stuff (to read reviews/interviews/ and learn about technical equipment)
x) Best magazine or web site that you always check out for music related stuff (to read reviews/interviews/ and learn about technical equipment)
Tritonal: There are a ton of great sources to check out new reviews, tips and tricks - one that we have looked into recently has been Computer Music.
y) Best fan of your music of the year or best crowd in your performance(perhaps you don’t know the name but you can describe when you met or why you consider this person as your best fan of the year
Tritonal: We've had quite a few hardcore dedicated fans this year that have come out of the woodwork - we love it!! No need to mention names, but you know who you are ;) A few months after our album released we noticed our crowds were increasing and must say that even though the memory of EDC will always be engrained in our heads, having nearly 2,500 Koreans sing the lyrics to your songs takes the cake for the best crowd!
Tritonal: We've had quite a few hardcore dedicated fans this year that have come out of the woodwork - we love it!! No need to mention names, but you know who you are ;) A few months after our album released we noticed our crowds were increasing and must say that even though the memory of EDC will always be engrained in our heads, having nearly 2,500 Koreans sing the lyrics to your songs takes the cake for the best crowd!
Dimitri: Can you please let us know your plans for 2012 for your djing, productions or label?
Tritonal: We have quite a full year ahead for us in 2012! We have new singles coming down the pipe already and with booking group AM Only on our side now, we'll certainly have many new places to play! There's so much for us to do this coming year and can't wait to show you guys what we have in store :)
Dimitri: On the other side is it possible to tell us the track, album, artist/dj that you believe were the worst of the year and why?
Tritonal: Well, we certainly have made some terrible mistakes ourselves in the studio as anyone has haha! =) Something that we take in affect in our daily lives is knowing that there isn't a rule to making, designing any craft of music to a certain degree. Yes, to us, we know what we feel would be "right" and "wrong," but that's merely our opinion and not necessarily a "rule." Therefore, we do not believe to point out the "worst" in something that may be meaningful to the artist. That being said, there have been some rough productions out there but truth be told no matter what year, we all have had that ;)
Dimitri: Please give us your wishes for 2012 and your small piece of advice for anyone that reads this interview and aspires to get into music production, djing, or music production in general.
Tritonal: Well, we hope to still keep strong in 2012 as we have a lot of things that we're aiming to accomplish. We have a lot of new sound design ideas and musical ideas to put in place and cannot wait!! As far as anyone getting into production, just always be ready to learn something new everyday. No matter what level of production you're on, there's always definitely something new to learn! Keep your head high and be very patient with yourself, as you can in no way force magic to happen in your tracks without a patient mind!
Tritonal: Well, we hope to still keep strong in 2012 as we have a lot of things that we're aiming to accomplish. We have a lot of new sound design ideas and musical ideas to put in place and cannot wait!! As far as anyone getting into production, just always be ready to learn something new everyday. No matter what level of production you're on, there's always definitely something new to learn! Keep your head high and be very patient with yourself, as you can in no way force magic to happen in your tracks without a patient mind!
Many thanks to Tritonal for finding the time to reply in this long list that I believe it’s a nice guide for the year that is coming slowly to its end.
Many thanks to Erin Osovets at Theory X for helping to organize this interview and presented it to you.
Many thanks to Will Holland for this top support through the years. Enhanced music keeps on climbing high.
Additional info: www.facebook.com/tritonalmusic
www.twitter.com/tritonal
www.tritonalmusic.com
