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William Daniels
INTERVIEW with DJ & producer Cold Blue by William Daniels
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| Interview by William Daniels |
Cold Blue is the fast rising standout act to look out for, delivering quality music by way of some of the leading labels in Trance including Subculture, Kearnage, Future Sound of Egypt and Damaged. His unique brand of Uplifting and Tech Trance has projected him to being one of the most talked about artists in Trance this year.
Building on this he has an already solid set of releases forthcoming over the remainder of 2017 including new original music on Subculture and Future Sound of Egypt as well as remixes for Subculture, Pure Trance, Armada and Outburst. Already supported by John O’Callaghan, Armin Van Buuren, Aly & Fila, Bryan Kearney and Solarstone, the next level for Cold Blue is conquering the touring circuit. With shows already confirmed at Ministry of Sound, London, Coloursfest Glasgow, Subculture, Argentina and Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, Cold Blue has everything in his arsenal to build on his critical acclaim to become the breakout act of the year.
William: Hi Tobias, thanks for taking the time out to answer these questions for Flux BPM Online readers.
Cold Blue: Thanks for having me, hello! :-)
William: Whereabouts are you in the world right now and what can you see out of your nearest window.
Cold Blue: Sitting in my attic flat studio room in the old town center of Mainz, Germany. Seeing blue skies outside, it's going to become a hot summer day today!
William: For those who may not know you, how did it all start for you in the music industry.
Cold Blue: I've spent my whole life making music, since the earliest childhood, as I grew up being surrounded with music instruments. In my teenage years I finally got a computer and all the music software needed to really start producing my own music which lead to the first record deals with small trance labels about 12 years ago from today. The first breakthrough came in 2007 with “Seven Ways / 11 Days” (feat. Pedro Del Mar) on In Trance We Trust / Blackhole.
William: You have been producing music for over ten years now with your early releases being picked up by the legendary In Trance We Trust label. In what ways has the music industry changed from then and where do you see the scene headed.
Cold Blue: One of the most significant changes is the mass of releases these days, which raises the bar a lot for every release. It's way easier to release music these days and at the same time it's probably as difficult (or even more difficult) as ten years ago to get noticed and build yourself an audience.
The passion in the scene has been great ever since, people just love the music and are very grateful listeners and followers, which makes me a very grateful musician.
I'm very happy to have such a passionate family of trance lovers as an audience for my music. :-)
William: How would you describe the Cold Blue sound.
Cold Blue: I would describe it as high energetic, forward driving, very emotional and rich in contrast.
I try to tell a story, create a journey through different emotions, leading the listener to wonderful places, to dark areas, trying to provide the whole range of feelings that life has to offer for us.
I also try to deliver a good amount of energy, to get yourself through all this! :-)
William: What is it that you love about Trance.
Cold Blue: I feel like no other genre represents my feelings and personality the way like Trance does. As above, it's the combination of the powerful energy and the emotional range that makes it very 'complete' for me.
William: Can you give us an insight into your studio setup, what programs do you use and do you prefer Hardware over VST softsynths.
Cold Blue: I work on a PC setup with Reason as my only all-in-one software. No hardware, no VSTs... a little extraordinary perhaps. It works very well! :-)
William: You have recently been signed by Music First Agency and as a result your profile has risen quite dramatically this year, how does it make you feel to be on an agency with such respected artists.
Cold Blue: It makes me feel very proud and lucky, that they believe in me as a person and in my music. They put a lot effort in pushing me as far as possible while still giving me 100% musical freedom, which is the perfect combination for me to shine in what I do.
The team around Music First and JOC's Subculture label created a comfort zone around me that let me focus on my art and helped me to make music as authentic as never before.
It's still like a dream and I think I need more time to realise all this and really feel all the emotions in this new situation. :-)
William: 'On The Outside' on Subculture is very different from the signature 'Cold Blue' sound. Can you give us some background on your inspiration for this unique track.
Cold Blue: That's a very interesting question, because I feel that 'On The Outside' is 100% me, and it is as signature as it can get, following my earlier work such as 'The Pessimist', 'Lucidity' or 'Gold Rush' last year.
It's just a different chapter of the whole journey, where tracks like 'Once In Time', 'Wonderfall' or 'Black Rock' are more on the bright side of life. :-)
William: If you were to travel back in time, what advice would you give to yourself when you were first starting out in the music industry.
Cold Blue: Music is a very emotional thing and most probably my preferred channel to express my feelings, way more accurate than I could ever do with spoken language.
At the same time I often used to take an intellectual approach to music creation, rather than only using my brains as a tool to translate what I FEEL into music.
Only recently, 1-2 years ago I started to explore the power of emotions as THE guide through my creative process. And as THE guide through life in general, by the way.
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| Cold Blue |
Other than that: Just enjoy the creative journey and don't worry about goals at all.
All this might be very subjective and is the way that works best for ME. So no general advice given here. :-)
William: Your favourite night out as a DJ, and as a clubber.
Cold Blue: Tough question! There's LOVE everywhere! :-)
William: What is one mistake that you see a lot of up and coming DJ's / Producers making and what advice would you give to them.
Cold Blue: I think there are no mistakes, unless you DON'T learn from them. :-)
For me it's important to consciously feel what I feel and know what I want. Authenticity is the key, I guess. That's the real success.
William: Where can we catch you over the next few months.
Cold Blue: Scotland (Coloursfest Glasgow) and Ireland (Affinity & Beyond, Galway) in August,
Birmingham, Manchester, London in September and October, and Subculture Argentina in November!
There'll be much more to be announced shortly, so it'll be worth checking the social media. :-)
William: Tell us something that not a lot of people know about Cold Blue.
Cold Blue: I'm an expert in Irish sayings!
William: Finally, tell us your best joke.
Cold Blue: I don't know any jokes, I'm a very serious guy! Just kidding...
William: Thanks very much for taking the time out to answer these questions and we wish you the best of success in the future.
Cold Blue: Thank you! :-)
Thanks to William Daniels for contributing to Flux BPM Online with such an interesting interview. Thanks to Cold Blue for answering them so nicely. It's definitely worth reading!
Additional info:
Check the latest William Daniel presents Fu2ra - Machine Language out on Damaged
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