Liverpool has been home of some of the world’s biggest musicians and Dance music’s best brands and Paul Holden & David McClelland are set to become a part of that legacy. Better known as Amos & Riot Night, they have been causing a raucous on the international Trance scene since breaking out in 2013. For both Paul & David, music has been a crucial part of their lives, both coming from different backgrounds before uniting together to create their full fire Trance sound they've become known for.
From their early beginnings on Defcon to now releasing with Armada, GO Music and AVA, and with support from some of Trance’s Titans, including a BBC Radio 1 play, this duo are on a path to conquer with their fierce, euphoric and hard hitting sound.
Their extreme enthusiasm and passion for Dance music is also reflected in their DJ sets ranging from the euphoric uplifting to the more banging and harder edged sounds. With numerous originals and collaborations lined up with some of the best producers and vocalists in the business you can be sure to hear Amos & Riot Night causing a raucous near you.
Dimitris: Can you rate 2018 for you as a year with 1 being very bad until 10 that is perfect year!
Amos & Riot Night: 9 excellent year, In our personal lives, we've had to face a few trials and tribulations, so it has been quite testing for us artistically, but somehow we've managed to pull through. For example, Paul's been working away from home a lot, him and his family have all been caught up with moving into their first home together so all focus has been on that for him. I myself have been working a lot in my own day job and have had to overcome a lot of other things too, but combatting writer's block has proven to be tough. As Paul works away from home a lot, this has also meant our output has been somewhat lower than many other artists, but for good reason.
That all being said, musically, it's been a pretty big year for us. 2 top 10 singles on the Beatport Trance charts, some very big gigs including making our debuts in Germany and Nottingham, then also our returns to Ibiza and Leeds but the biggest highlight of the year has to be when we'd warmed up for Judge Jules at Gatecrasher here in Liverpool! What a night that was playing to your home crowd, playing for such an iconic brand and also warming up for a someone many look up to as a hero in Dance music!
1) Best 3 Tracks from other artists in 2018, please give us a short comment for each track:
Amos & Riot Night: Paul van Dyk & Lostly - Amanecer. One of the best melodies to grace the Trance world this year. Absolute goosebumps hearing this out on a club and I remember being at Shine Ibiza when Paul himself played this out. Place went absolutely ballistic and this track really is a perfect definition of uptempo, melodic Uplifting Trance as it should be.
CamelPhat & Cristoph feat. Jem Cooke - Breathe. Outside of our usual uptempo Trance that we've become known for, we absolutely love the Prog stuff too. This track is very much up there as one of the best in that vein this year! Definitely has a resemblance to the very early days of Trance/Progressive in terms of the sound choice, musical ideas and also the vocals. The vocals from Jem are bloody outstanding too and cannot get this track out of our heads!
Cristoph's an absolute gent as well and Paul had the pleasure of warming up for him at Creamfields this year opening up the SteelYard arena! I myself met him in Ibiza when he was playing with the CamelPhat lads and Eric Prydz! Of course CamelPhat are local lads to us from Liverpool so we gotta support our locals and what a whirlwind it's been for them too! Being nominated for a Grammy with 'Cola' earlier this year and also their massive release, 'Panic Room' with Au/Ra too! Fun fact, it turns out that Au/Ra is none other than the daughter of legendary balearic Trance/chillout artist York! Only found that out recently!
Nick Callaghan - XLR8R. Every time Nick's put a release out, it always stands head and shoulders above everything else! That's all we've had to say on this one!
2) Your 3 Best of 2018 personal productions, give us more background info about them:
Amos & Riot Night: Ooooh, erm. We've had 4 originals out this year, however to make it easier, we'll go for the three singles that we've released.
Amos & Riot Night - Interstate Four. Our first original from earlier this year and what a way to kick off the year than with our return to Giuseppe Ottaviani's imprint! Incredible scenes whenever Giuseppe dropped this in his live sets at the start of the year and still gets crazy reactions now! First time hearing this live was at Rong in Manchester. I remember being up on the balcony with Sue McLaren, her brother and so many of my good friends at the time and was like 'whooooah'. When someone of Giuseppe's calibre is playing your tracks out in front of thousands of people, there's no better feeling than that!
Vlind vs. Amos & Riot Night - Betrayed. This track was sooooo much fun to work on! Completely different to our usual sound but you can definitely hear both of our own styles in this collab! Definitely wanna do another track with Vlind in the new year (oh wait, we started one already. May need to properly tune that one up!) Was also the first time Armin played one of our dual tracks on ASOT too and the minute that happened, social media just started going completely apeshit! This and Interstate Four both peaked at No. 8 on the Beatport Trance charts and these were major achievements in our career thus far! Was a real pleasure working on this track with Vlind for sure!
Amos & Riot Night feat. Susie Ledge - Reunited. By far the biggest reaction in our own sets this year for a track which was a complete fluke! Originally this wasn't supposed to be a vocal track, however when Susie Ledge approached us last year about collaborating together, we couldn't say no! Susie had sent us back the finished vocal and we were completely gobsmacked hearing it! It was as if it was meant to be, especially since Susie really got the whole concept of what the track was all about too (and we didn't even tell her that, except by the title on the demo that we'd sent her!). Sean Tyas has been heavily supporting this in his live sets this year too and it's gone down a real treat! I remember being there with Sean in Leeds when he played this at Digital Society and even brought me on stage behind the decks with him as he'd played this out!
3) Best Artist in 2018(DJ & producer) please explain why you pick him/her up:
Amos & Riot Night: Without doubt, this year has been the year for Activa. A true legend and it was a real surprise to see his comeback at the tail end of last year. However every single track he has put out this year has been absolutely top! Really crisp, solid productions, ace melodic work and time and time again he has proven to stay one step ahead of the game. Cannot wait to see what he brings into the new year!
4) Best Remix in 2018, please explain why you liked it so much:
Amos & Riot Night: That would have to be Giuseppe Ottaviani's remix for Aly & Fila's track with Sue McLaren, 'Surrender'. Loved the original from tail end of last year, however Giuseppe's remix just gives that extra lift and packs a real big punch! Has gone off a real treat in our last few sets and the songwriting from Sue & Ste (Massa) really is something else on this one! A modern vocal classic for sure!
5) Best Remix that you have produced in 2018, please tell us why you believe is your best work?
Amos & Riot Night: I'd only produced the one this year and that would've been my bootleg of Aalto - Rush. A true Anjunabeats classic and really wanted to give that modern edge but still staying true to the golden vibes of the Super8 & Orkidea remix!
6) Best Remixer for 2018, please tell us why you choose him/her:
Amos & Riot Night: Definitely Giuseppe Ottaviani. Always applies his Midas touch when working on a remix, as evident with his remixes for John O'Callaghan and Aly & Fila from this year!
7) Best New Talent in 2018 (DJ or producer), please explain the reasons why you choose him/her :
Amos & Riot Night: Hmmmm. Good call. Would definitely have to say Metta & Glyde! Completely blew us away with their style of melodies, really solid productions too! Heavily supported by Sean Tyas throughout the year and very much reminiscent of the older Trance vibes from back in the early days but with that razorblade modern production.
Another new one that we've been really keeping a close watch on is a new kid on the block called Rysto. We'd received a promo of one of his tracks earlier this year and was blown away with how solid his production was. Since then, he's had some top quality releases with Degenerate and Tangled Audio to name but a few. Definitely one to watch for into the new year!
8) Best electronic music compilation in 2018, please explain what exactly you liked about this compilation(the elements you appreciate):
Amos & Riot Night: VII Vol 1 of course! Not just saying that because we had an original on Sean Tyas' disc, but it genuinely is one of the biggest compilations to grace the Trance scene for a long long time now!
9) Best vocalist/singer featured on electronic music track in 2018, please tell why you appreciate this singer/vocalist and why:
Amos & Riot Night: Damnit, it's not fair having to go for one so breaking the rules a little here and gonna choose 2 of them.
Firstly, Susie Ledge. What a pleasure it was working with her on 'Reunited' this year! As mentioned above, that track was a complete fluke, but one that proved to be quite successful for all 3 of us! Susie's lyrics are very heartfelt and her delivery when performing them is to sheer perfection! She's also had releases with some real biggies in the Trance world as well, most recently collaborating on ReOrder and Stoneface & Terminal's respective artist albums! I've been working very closely with her in terms of securing some vocal projects looking forward into the new year and it's been a real treat working with her!
Secondly, Sue McLaren. Her discography really speaks for itself and the tracks she's collaborated on have easily been some of our favourites in recent years! Sue's lyrics, whether written solo or in collaboration with other songwriters, have always seemed to give us the chills (and I mean that positively!) and again, her vocal performance on these tracks has been absolutely brilliant!
Both Sue & Susie are really lovely people to be around in person as well. It just so happens both of these vocalists are from the same part of the country; Newcastle! Anytime I've been up there lately, I've always made the effort to see Sue & Susie, but also our very good friends/fellow Trance folk Gareth Weston, Jak Aggas and Claire Willis too!
10) Best electronic music label for 2018, please justify why you choose this label and what was so special in 2018 about it:
Amos & Riot Night: Degenerate Records by far! Not just saying that because we've had a release with them, but every release on that label has been absolutely top class! Very consistent and looking to work very closely with Sean Tyas and the Degenerate team going forward into the new year!
11) Best online social media for 2018 and why you believe is the best particularly in 2018?:
Amos & Riot Night: Twitter. Very easy to connect with fans and artists alike!
12) Your Best personal DJ Gig for 2018 (if you are active as DJ) and why you believe is the finest(if you have uploaded your DJ set on Soundcloud/Mixcloud/YouTube please provide the link):
Amos & Riot Night: In terms of sets, would definitely have to say our set at Cuckoo in Nottingham. For this, we'd co-headlined alongside Dan Stone. Really educated crowd and I've had the pleasure of both attending and performing to that crowd. Everyone in that room is just beaming from ear to ear and you can't help but do that if ever you went to a Cuckoo event! Looking forward to their next event in the new year too!
13) Best DJ set from other fellow DJ in 2018 and why you believe his/her set was so fantastic?:
Amos & Riot Night: If one has stood out, it has to be seeing the return (for one night only) of Sebastian Brandt at Synergy in Glasgow! That set really sums up our style of Trance perfectly; absolutely brilliant track selection.
Dimitris: Can you mention briefly your plans for your future releases, tracks, albums, collaborations, DJ gigs for 2019!
Amos & Riot Night: Looking forward into the new year, some big things are happening for sure. Hopefully Paul will have finished his new studio so who knows, we may be back with new music as a duo. There are several tracks that need to be finished up so I've been working on them a little on my side. Hoping 'Out At Sea' gets a full single release on Degenerate, and that may be happening soon actually having heard from the boss himself!
Just in the process of finalising a massive vocal with Destia and a really big vocalist. Working on a couple more solo originals as well, plus some nice collabs lined up for the new year! Gig wise, we're back in Liverpool in February making our debut for our good friends at WeAreYou. Have had a real good time at their events as a clubber and cannot wait to play to one of the best crowds in the UK by far! Playing along a massive lineup including Sneijder, Shugz, Liam Wilson, David Rust and many more!
Really cannot wait to see what 2019 brings!
Thanks so much to Amos & Riot Night for being so kind to reply on this interview.
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