Miguel Ramirez
In this brand new regular feature, we interview trance addicts from across Australia and explore their love and passion for the genre.
What better way to kick off this exciting new feature than to interview the founder of Trance Music Appreciation Society (TMAS).
Meet Lorin, the mastermind behind TMAS, and trance enthusiast. His passion for trance and community has led his online venture to become a huge success in the industry. Having over 26,000 members worldwide and a team of dedicated admins, TMAS aims to foster appreciation of trance music, and over the years has been transformed into Australia’s leading online community page.
We kicked off the interview asking Lorin to reveal the song that first got him into Trance.
“It’s hard to say what the first real ‘trance’ tune was that I listened to, perhaps you could say it was Darude – ‘Sandstorm’ playing at the bumper cars at my local theme park when I was very young. But the first song that actually got me into trance would be ‘1998’ – Binary Finary. I heard it on a World of Warcraft YouTube video and I was absolutely hooked, and I instantly started looking up more of Tiesto’s early Trance Energy sets.”
The trance addict also revealed the first trance album he laid his hands on.
“The first album I got was Tiesto’s ‘Elements of Life’. At that stage of my life I was obsessed with Tiesto’s early work (how could you not be!) You just can’t beat early Tiesto for that awe-inspiring magic feeling.”
We also discovered what trance truly means to him.
“Trance to me, simply refers to the state of mind it puts you in. Any trance fan will know what I’m talking about, that feeling of wonder and natural euphoria, when the melody and sounds bring you into a state of ‘oneness’ with everything.
I don’t think people should be so restrictive and elitist with genres either. I think there are many songs which put you into a state of trance which would not necessarily be classified as such. I think a good recent example would be ‘Opus’ by Eric Prydz. Even though he produces progressive house traditionally, I feel that this song could really be classified as trance. As Armin says, don’t be a prisoner of your own style and i’m all for diversity! Having said that though, you also shouldn’t just suddenly branch off into commercial big room/EDM either… (R.I.P Tiesto)
The king of TMAS also shared his three all-time favourite trance tunes.
“This is just about the hardest question you could ask me… so i’m gonna choose 3 for you! Just like food or people or cars or anything subjective, things are good for different reasons! So I would say, “Suburban Train” – Tiesto, “Saltwater” – Chicane and “Seven Cities (Armin van Buuren Remix)” – Solarstone, and the list goes on…”
Not an easy task, Lorin revealed to The Trance Project his favourite trance DJ’s and producers.
“I’ll go by categories for this one to make it a little easier for me. In the uplifting/140 category I will choose John O’ Callaghan, Bryan Kearney and Soundlift. In the ‘feels’ category I choose OceanLab and Chicane. In the Anjuna-style category I’ll go for BT and Ilan Bluestone. Big room/tech/energetic sound goes to Marlo and Heatbeat. Psy-trance I choose Ranji and Coming Soon. And all around awesome I choose Solarstone, Aly & Fila and Armin, of course. The list could be 3 times longer though!”
Lorin had an incredible experience at FSOE 400 in Melbourne, and revealed to us that it was his most favourite event ever!
“The best event I have ever been to was FSOE 400 in Melbourne this year. The production was perfect, the crowd was so friendly, I got to see Aly & Fila who I just can’t ever get enough of, and I got to take an awesome trip to Melbourne, which is an amazing city. There were a lot of TMAS (Trance Music Appreciation Society) members around doing the same thing so I got to spend some quality time partying with them too.”
He also shared on what he most loves about our amazing trance scene in Australia.
“It’s hard to say what I love most about Australia’s trance scene as compared to anywhere else in the world as I don’t have too much to compare it to, but from what I have seen, Australia’s trance scene is just the right size to have a good sense of community as compared to say overseas where they might have many more people and it would be easy to feel disconnected and alienated. I think in general Australians are more laid back too which definitely helps when it comes to meeting new people at events. Come down to a trance event in Australia and you are guaranteed to leave with a few new friends! From what I have seen, the quality of people who like Trance music is exceptionally high, and I can imagine it would be the same overseas too.”
Become a TMAS member today!
Visit TMAS online store here.
