Very few DJs can lay claim to being one of the forefathers of a genre – Oberon is one of these DJs.
During the 1990’s, he championed the sound through both DJ sets and productions, which fused the harder-edge of Techno with the melodic-side of Trance.
Fast-forward several years, the sound we now refer to as Tech-Trance is as popular as ever, with the UK label Discover Dark being at the forefront of the scene.
It should therefore be no surprise that Oberon heads the A&R team for the label overseeing such talent as Peter Plaznik, Chris Voro, Origin, Cristian Ketelaars, Deathmind, Johann Stone and many more.
Since returning as the only UK DJ to hold a 3-year residency in Argentina, Oberon has been heads-down in the studio producing the next wave of underground Trance together with hosting the monthly Dark Sessions Radio show.
Throughout his career, Oberon has held residencies at all of the major London underground Trance clubs including Pendragon, Antiworld and Escape From Samsara (The Fridge and Brixton Academy). He has also played regularly at clubs around London and the UK, as well as globetrotting to more than 20 countries, including Japan, Canada, Holland, Germany, Australia,
Recent productions for Discover Dark, Discover White Label and Recover have made a healthy impact on the charts of the cooler underground download stores. All of his releases have been top 10’s - an outstanding streak. His tracks have also appeared in the charts and playlists of DJs including Radio 1's Jordan Suckley, Thomas Datt, Indecent Noise and Christopher Lawrence along with a whole host of internet radio and podcasts.
The Oberon remix of the Goa-Trance classic, T.I.P.'s 'Stimuli' has received rave reviews across the board, including support from Paul Oakenfold.
This adds nicely to the massive support his many vinyl releases have received over the years, having been played by DJ's the world over and used on compilations by artists as diverse as Christopher Lawrence, Talla 2XLC and the late Tony De Vit.
2014 looks set to be a massive year for Oberon, seeing the release of both his debut artist album and several singles. He will also be taking the reigns of the coveted Dark Sessions compilation series together with a planned series of live dates.
Dimitri: Can you mention your biggest achievements in your music career in 2014 and your personal life if it is something that you wish to share with our readers?
Oberon: Discover Dark 100 was probably the biggest thing I was involved in musically this year- I knew I wanted to do something special for the 100th release, and originally planned for a 4-6 track remix EP, but one thing lead to another, then another and eventually we ended up with an 18 track album of remixes of classic Discover Dark tracks by established D. Dark artists and some new up and coming names- I managed to squeeze all of the tracks into a mix and that was released on CD. Sourcing remix packs for the original tracks took a while, and overseeing the project from conception to completion was much more work then I originally anticipated, but it was worth every minute, and I'm extremely pleased with the result.
Dimitri: 2014 was packed with releases from so many different styles, which Electronic Music style you believe is the absolute Electronic Music Style Of 2014 in the mainstream indifferent if you like it or not. Why you believe this style became so successful in 2014?
Oberon: I'm in trance, that's where I have been for all of my career in dance music, so I don't pay much attention to other genres of music, I'm simply not that interested in life outside of trance. It's been a great year for trance, with the scene making a big shift away from the melodic/ uplifting sound of recent years and into a tougher, deeper sound. There has been some amazing tech trance and psy releases this year.
1) Best Track:
Oberon: Relentless by Project 8- an incredible tune by Shane Kinsella from Dublin, Ireland
2) Best Artist (Dj & producer):
Oberon: Too many great artists to choose from !!! Peter Plaznik and Johan Ekman are two names that I can think of.
3) Best Remix:
Oberon: David Rust- Monolith (The Technicians remix) The Technicians seem to go for quality over quantity when it comes to releases and it shows in this remix, it's an amazing piece of work.
4) Best Remixer:
Oberon: Casey Rasch- I love Casey's work, he always comes up with something new and interesting and he can produce psy and tech trance to a very high quality- a great guy to work with as well.
5) Best New Talent (Dj or producer):
Oberon: There's so much great new talent out there- Gasper Pavlic (Changes/ G8) is certainly coming up this year, UP3 blew a few people away with their debut release on Discover Dark (Balrog), and there is more great stuff coming from them; Dee Henry, aka Kinetica has put his stamp on 2014 with some very strong releases- as well as Dark Air. If these guys keep up the pressure, 2015 will be another great year for trance.
6) Best Electronic Music Album:
Oberon: Pure Tones by Sinerider on 24/7 Records- top quality psy trance, great to play at high volume in the car- The car is my testing place for albums, if the music works well there, I know it will work on the dancefloor, and this album kicks from beginning to end.
7) Best Electronic Music Compilation:
Oberon: Discover Dark 100 of course !!!
8) Best artwork/cover of an Album or Compilation:
Oberon: Madness Express by vertical Mode would make an excellent poster for my studio wall :)
09) Best Electronic Music Label:
Oberon: Discover Dark (of course!!) for tech trance and HOMmega for psy trance.
10) Best personal selfie of the year, where, when and under which circumstances you took it?
Oberon: I took my daughter to Stonehenge for the summer solstice, it was her first time there- an amazing experience and I bagged a few good photos, but I don't usually do selfies.
11) Best music composition software:
Oberon: Cubase or Ableton, depends on what i'm doing and how I feel at the time
12) Best personal Dj Gig:
Oberon: I played a 5 hour set at Magic in Buenos Aires which was a lot of fun, and Planet Zogg's summmer ball in Sheffield was very good this year- Zogg have been running underground trance parties around Sheffield for well over 10 years now, doing their own thing, doing it their way- always a great vibe with top people. Tribe Of Frog's birthday bash at Lakota in Bristol was another outstanding date- a thousand plus of the nicest people you could ever wish to spend a night with, I was playing in the Ripsnorter room, it rocked.
13) Best Dj set of the year from other fellow Dj:
Oberon: Greg Zogg @ Planet Zogg- harder and more intense than you can imagine.
14) Best country that you have visited to perform with the most up for it crowd:
Oberon: Argentina is the best place for any DJ to play, that's it.
15) Best Radio show:
Oberon: Apart from my own Dark Sessions show, the only ones I listen to are Recoverworld radio and Trance Stoned by El- Jay, both of which are on the same station, on the same night as Dark Sessions !
16) Best Radio station:
Oberon: Digitally Imported
17) Best Online Record shop that you purchase your music:
Oberon: Beatport
18) Best Website that you visit frequently:
Oberon: www.rt.com gives you all the news that the other news channels don't/won't. I don't have a television, and I don't read newspapers, so I get all my news and current affairs online.
19) Best Smart phone/Mobile phone device:
Oberon: I have a Samsung Galaxy, but I often wish I didn't. While I appreciate the convenience of these items, I try not to use them for anything other than basic phone/ e mail/ camera purposes.
20) Best Dj equipment (software or hardware):
Oberon: Anything with Pioneer written on it gets my vote.
21) Best tip that you learnt this year for your Djing techniques or music composition:
Oberon: I'm not telling you that !!
22) Best hobby or activity that you spent a lot of time in 2014:
Oberon: I do a lot of gardening, I enjoy being in the fresh air and I find that growing things is a very satisfying pastime.
23) Best holiday destination for 2014 that you manage to visit this year either to relax or to perform in a club or festival:
Oberon: It's been a hectic, quite intense year for me in many ways, not just regarding music,so I didn't get much chance to sit on a beach and chill, but i'm ok with that, beacuse I live in a small town surrounded by some amazing countryside, so I can be somewhere really cool within half an hour of leaving home.
24) Best Book of the year preferably related to Electronic Music:
Oberon: I havn't read a book for some time now- I used to read at night before sleeping, but these days i'm so tired at the end of the day that I don't have the ability to stay awake that extra hour to read.
25) Best Movie of the year preferably related to Electronic Music that may inspire you to compose a track:
Oberon: I enjoy watching movies, but it seems like ages since I saw one, and I think the last music related movie I saw was East End Babylon, the story of the (punk/ skinhead band) Cockney Rejects- a great movie, but nothing to do with electronic music.
26) Best online/PC/video game of the year that you have played this year?
Oberon: I don't play games, don't spend any time at all on that kind of thing, I used to play Manic Miner on a Spectrum, but that was a very long time ago.
Dimitri: Finally, 2015 is ahead of us would you like to tell your plans with your future releases, tracks, albums, collaborations, Dj gigs.
Oberon: Things are really taking off with Militant Artists management/ agency at the minute, so i'm predicting a busy year ahead, which is good, because I enjoy being busy, and every spare minute will be devoted to writing/ producing tunes, running the label and presenting the radio show. :)
Thanks very much to Les for his time to reply on this interview
Many thanks to Hannah at Militant Artists for her support to organise this interview
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