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CNL Interviews: Above & Beyond March 20th, 2010 Posted by Hunter Wilson
Above & Beyond at The Forum
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Above & Beyond at The Forum
Lost in a trance at Forum: And not because I had one too many drinks, but rather because I was interviewing one of the top trance groups in the globe, Above & Beyond. Above & Beyond have remixed hits for Madonna, Dido, Brittney Spears, and Radiohead. Furthermore, the group’s hit volumes, like the Anjunabeats collection, are popular worldwide. In town for one night only, Above & Beyond members Jono Grant and Tony McGuinness took the time to meet with me in the Forum . Paavo Siljamaki was not able to attend as he was manning the radio station back home. But in the small, intimate, and lit entirely by candlelight setting, Jono, Tony, and myself relaxed on the comfortable couches, and talked music and nightlife.
You’ve seen nightlife all over the world, how does it compare?

Jono: Because of the internet, it’s become more homogenous around the world. I mean, there are definitely differences. But it’s quite good in a way that the internet means that, wherever you go, people know your stuff: you can set a bit of a parameter. But there’s nice differences, obviously. The United Kingdom, for example, they party right through the night to the late morning. Whereas some places they don’t. I mean there’s different musical tastes slightly, but there’s that kind of central thing of the internet driving it. So wherever you go, there’s that running theme.

That leads me to another question, which may be the same answer, how do you prepare for those differences, if there are some, with your set list? Do you have different things set up for different countries?

Tony: I think there are, sort of, regional tastes for certain kinds of music. Poland they like it a lot more banging than they do in New York. Say South America, they also like it quite proggy. China they kinda like it quite banging. Australia like it quite banging. But to be honest, there’s also differences between towns in those countries, and night of the week, and month of the year. So generally there’s a lot of variation within the thing.

You’ve remixed songs for some of the greatest people (Madonna and Dido), anybody you’d like to perform with in the future?

Jono: It’d be nice to do something with Depeche Mode, or something like that. I think, you know, some sort of electronic act that have been massive for years.

Tony: Yeah, it’d be great to do that. Radiohead was one of my favorites for a long time and we did a remix for them last year. It was just great to get, you know, the beats: the kind of unmixed parts of a Radiohead song, which was actually very illuminating. I mean they obviously just record all of them in a room. They just push play, and everybody plays, and that’s how they make their records, which is quite illuminating.

After all of the struggles, what has been your biggest achievement?

Jono: I guess continuing to able to do this is the biggest thing, really. Cause, you know, you have achievements along the way which seem like the biggest thing at the time, like the Madonna bit, say at the time, was the biggest achievement for the time. But that gets belittled by the greater thing that you’re doing in the end.

Tony: Yeah, I think that’s a very good point actually. We’ve not actually had that question before and I think your answer is spot on. In this day and age, to be able to make a living from music is an extremely rare thing. I think there were only, (turns to Jono) how many would you say? 10 albums last year? 21 albums last year? That sold a million in America, which you know, that used to be a lot higher than that: I think, that sounds a very low number to me. The actual career of being a musician is so much harder than it used to be. So, as Jono says I think very accurately, to be able to keep doing what it is that you love to do is our biggest achievement.

And Above & Beyond’s fans love them for doing what they’re doing. Towards the end of the interview, you could hear “olay, olay, olay, olay,” as the audience chanted for the group to come out. And Jono and Tony really knew how to work the crowd. From lighting, to visual, and of course sound, Above & Beyond were catching the audience’s energy and playing it back to them with an even higher impact. The sounds of Above & Beyond were truly amazing. In fact, you could say that throughout the night the crowd was really entranced!
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Hunter Wilson
Owner, CarolinaNightlife.com1 Posts
Charles is the Executive Director of Carolina Nightlife and very involved in the nightlife industry in NC and SC. He has been working with venues of all sizes, different brands and products, and countless events across NC and SC for over 8 years.