Miguel Ramirez
Leading pioneer of tech-trance, Mark Sherry, will hit the harbour city this Saturday for his debut at Stereosonic.
The trance maestro will be part of Gareth Emery’s Electric For Life radio show take over in Sydney, broadcasting live audio and video from the Atlantis arena. The special take over will also feature Gareth Emery, Andrew Rayel, MaRLo and Emma Hewitt Live.
In a recent interview with The Trance Project, Mark shares his excitement for the festival tour, looks back upon his career highlights of 2015, opens up about trance, Australia’s scene and reveals his upcoming production plans.
Stereosonic tickets on sale here.
Hi Mark, we hope you are doing well, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us. We’re thrilled to have you back in Australia this summer for Stereosonic – what are you most excited about touring with Australia’s biggest music festival?
“It doesn’t seem real when I say this, but this will be my 20th visit to Australia since 2001 and I can honestly say that I’ve felt very excited about every single of those tours but this is the biggest one of my career. I can’t wait to get over to play in each of the 5 cities!”
What do you love most about Australia’s trance scene?
“I think it’s definitely the crowds, they are very similar to Scottish crowds…in other words MENTAL haha. When a track goes off to a Aussie crowd it really goes off! From what I could see, the trance scene had faded quite a bit in Oz over the last 3 or 4 years I’d say but I’ve noticed a massive boost again, even just in the last 18 months. I’m happy to say that it looks to be really kicking off in a big way again, which is great to see! I’ve spoken about this with quite a few DJ’s now and we’ve all noticed the growth and big improvement.”
Looking back upon 2015, what have been your highlights and biggest successes?
“It’s been a phenomenal year. I’ve played so many great shows and venues around the world. I kicked off 2015 by playing at ‘A State of Trance’ in Utrecht and since then I’ve done loads of gigs for brands such as Subculture, Godskitchen, Full On Ferry, Space Ibiza, Connect Ibiza, Privilege Ibiza, Damaged and Mental Asylum and Circus Afterhours in Montreal and Ozmozis in Toronto”
“I also took my own Outburst Records label night on tour in October, which kicked off with an ‘open to close’ set in NYC with ‘Esscala’, which was followed by ‘Element’ in Washington DC and then in the UK I took over the terrace at ‘Trance Sanctuary’ in London. Every show was rammed from start to finish, so it was a huge buzz for me! I’ve also recently played at amazing events in Buenos Aires at ‘BAT’, Dallas with ‘Texas Trance Addictz’ and also in Paris at ‘Trance in France pres No Border’…very busy year!”
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You recently unleashed a preview of your collaboration with Paul Denton, “Hostel”, which will be released just in time for Stereosonic. Where do you find inspiration to create such mind-blowing productions?
“Yeah it’s out now and as I write this it’s sitting nicely at #12 in the Beatport charts! With this track we wanted to do something that was influenced by Sander van Doorn’s old tech-trance style, so this is what we came up with! I constantly listen to new artists and other types of music to get inspiration and ideas for new productions, but I also look back at the older stuff sometimes to try and find ways to bring back some of the forgotten techniques and sounds into a modern sounding track, I love doing that!”
What’s the secret to staying in the music business for the long haul?
“Keep your sound fresh, work your absolute ass off, stay true to your sound, produce the style/s that you love, don’t do it for the money…and most importantly never ever give up!”
Which artists inspired you when growing up and what was the first record you ever bought?
“My dad used to listen to bands/artists like Dire Straits and Paul Simon, when I developed my own musical taste in my teens I listened to INXS constantly (and still do), Simple Minds, Public Enemy and loads of dance/rave music of colurse. Nowadays I love band like Coldplay, The Prodigy, Kings of Leon and artists like Eminem. My first vinyl was The Beastie Boys ‘Fight For Your Right to Party’ classic haha.”
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What does trance mean to you?
“Well my whole life revolves around it so it pretty much means everything to me. I also really love techno and other types of music though, but trance is a really huge part of me and has been since it began. It does something to me and whatever it is that it does, that feeling hasn’t faded one single bit in over 20 years!”
You also run Outburst Records. Could you tell us a bit more about being a label owner and where Outburst Records is going now?
“It’s been a really great year and just now on the Beatstats website we are currently the 10th top selling trance label, which is unbelievable! We launched Outburst Records in August 2014 and we now have over 30 releases under our belt, that’s alongside the 13th release on it’s sister techno label ‘Techburst Records’. It’s a lot of hard work curating all of the releases but it’s also very enjoyable, rewarding and satisfying. I’ve got a great team of people helping me with the admin and promotional side of things, so that lets me keep my head down in the studio to make my music. The label has gone from strength to strength this year and will continue to do so.”
“Keep your eyes out for more tours, merchandise and of course great music!”
What’s the best advice you can give to producers that want to have their tracks released on Outburst Records?
“Don’t follow the trend, be original and please PLEASE only send us demos if you are familiar with the label’s sound (tech-trance for Outburst, techno for Techburst). There’s nothing worse than getting sent loads of demos that are all completely the wrong sound for the label ie. deep house, progressive trance, house/EDM etc etc… When I used to send demos to labels, I knew EXACTLY what kind of sound they had, what their recent releases were, what artists they have signed and who was supporting them etc. Some people seem to be so desperate and lazy these days, it’s sad to see, but…occasionally you get that absolute beast sent to you and all the time you’ve spent trawling through the bad stuff becomes worth it haha.”
What’s the next move for you production-wise? Can we expect more singles, an album, or both
“I’d love to do an album, but this takes a long time and a lot of planning..but maybe next year will be the year. Expect loads of singles on both labels. I have my first ever techno release coming up on Techburst with Gene Karz and also have loads coming on Outburst incl. a collab with one of my favourite producers Alex Di Stefano! ”
Any last words to your Australian fans?
“I really can’t wait to see you all again, I’ve been in love with your country since I touched down in it back in 2001 and im very excited about being a part of the Stereosonic tour this year. I have to say a huge thanks to my good friends MaRLo and Jano for having so much faith in me and my tech-trance sound, I wouldn’t be on the tour if it wasn’t for them – see you all soon, let’s do this!”
Stereosonic will continue to create an incredible experience for punters, with breathtaking production and immaculate festival grounds. Don’t miss out on tickets!
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