The man behind the incredible Sankeys 20th Anniversary Album – live and direct
Interview : Dan Prince
Darius welcome back to DMCWORLD, where in the world are you today?
“Hi Dan, welI I have just woken up in a hotel in Madrid. Yesterday I was playing a great outdoor day party here called Replay, I played with Hector Couto back 2 back and also on the bill was Karotte from Germany and Guti live, the party was amazing. Great energy.”
Well the new Ibiza season is well under way and with it the best Tribal Sessions EVER. Yourself and Sankeys owner David Vincent had a new idea for 2014 with the line ups, can you explain the philosophy and how much work went into pulling off what many are calling THE line up of the summer…
“Well we did not want to do the same old same old typical Ibiza bookings with everyone trying to copy DC10. Myself and David wanted to bring to the island an element of the music industry that Ibiza seems to neglect, a lot of classic techno acts and Detroit techno acts. We are bringing people like Jeff Mills, Dave Clarke, Rodhad, Alan Fitzpatrick, Joel Mull to the island, of course in the main basement room residents of myself, Sidney Charles, Hector Couto, Shlomi Aber, Bushwacka take care of the house side of things and we have some great guests too. I’m really looking forward to checking out Axel Boman personally. It was a lot of work, but as my mum always says, if you want to achieve something and you work hard enough at it, you will achieve it. My mum is never wrong about anything hahhahaha…”
Come on stick your neck out…who were you REALLY FUCKING EXCITED about confirming for the night?
“The residents – my bros Sidney Charles and Hector Couto! Us three work so well together and I was excited about announcing them as my regular residents. As for guests, Axel Boman, Rodhad, Dave Clarke, Danny Tenaglia, Mario Basanov, Marcel Fengler, Francois K, Derrick May, Jeff Mills and really wanna announce our secret special guest for the closing party…but I can’t hahaha…”
So the album 16 tracks, some brilliant titles, please give us a few words on the big tunes that matter…
1 – Darius Syrossian Remix of Green Velvet – Bigger than Prince
“I wanted to start the album with impact, make a statement straight away that has is a Dancefloor mix. So be prepared, the intro I made especially and was very happy with the reaction it got on the night.”
2 – Darius Syrossian – Celebration of Life
“Ok so I wanted to make a transition from the big intro back down so I can then build the mix up, but not drop it down too much. So this track was made to set the scene of there is a journey about to start so to speak.”
3 – Darius Syrossian – Fuel to the Fire
“With this track I wanted to show that I can add musical elements and play some keys as well. The title is about those who have ever tried to stop me have only ever made me try harder.”
4 – Darius Syrossian – Danielle
“I actually made this track to play in Sankeys Manchester, knowing a drop like that with a horn will tear the place up, at this point in the mix I also wanted to pick things up a gear.”
5 – Darius Syrossian Remix of > James Barnsley – Acid Tambourine
“The original of this is by a friend and old customer in my vinyl record shop. I signed it to my old record label and I always wanted to add my stamp on it, this album gave me the opportunity! It’s also nice to break up the mix and throw in something with a minimal acid groove.”
6 – Darius Syrossian & Hector Couto – Our Rhythm
“Hector Couto is my bro and there was no way I was going to do this album and not do a collab with him on it. We wanted to do a track to show what we are about and the title is self explanatory.”
7 – Darius Syrossian & Sidney Charles – Another 5 hours
“Like Hector Couto, Sidney is another close friend and DJ who I love spinning with, so we agreed to a track for the album. It’s named after the 5 hour back to back set we did at Sankeys in Manchester that was we both agreed was absolutely one of the best shows we have both.”
8 – Darius Syrossian Remix of > Todd Terry – Bounce to the beat
“One of the tracks when I first got my decks 20 years ago that influenced my style and inspired me was the original of this. I have always wanted to remix it, and David Vincent being good friends with the ex-tour manager of Todd, made it possible for this to become a reality.”
9 – Darius Syrossian & DJ Sneak – Power to the People
“Sneak is a massive inspiration for me. Back when I got my vinyl decks in 94 and started working in a record shop, everything sounded like anthems. One day I picked up a Sneak Strictly Rhythm vinyl and it changed everything for me! To be now doing an album and have a collab with him is so special to me.”
10 – Darius Syrossian remix of Pierre Codarin – Wear it Loose
“The original of this is by a good friend and the opportunity to remix the original came about but I was on deadlines for this album. But then I thought why don’t I just remix it for the album? At this point in the mix I wanted to come out of the last 3 tracks that had that jackin Chicago groove and move into more darker territory. This track was made specially for this transition.”
11 – Darius Syrossian – Fail of the Smiling Assassin
“People who know me know that I have always titled my tracks to poke fun at something…this is one of those.”
12 – Darius Syrossian – Motivar
“Probably one of my personal faves of all of the tracks. More on a techno tip here and this track about how motivated I was to do this album in 3 months, get Tribal Sessions up and running again and make it a great party. I wanted a fresh start and I was very motivated to make it happen.”
13 – Darius Syrossian – Truth Prevails
“This track is not a typical production people would expect from me; some breaks elements and an 80s analogue synth and a progressive feel too. I wanted the mix to pick up and be more emotive at this point, also the title is self explanatory, Truth ALWAYS prevails…”
14 – Darius Syrossian – Rise
“Again another track where I wanted to show I can be more diverse with my productions. I was inspired a lot by Axel Boman when making this track, I was listening to his work the night before and the next day in the studio I wanted to make something emotive and feeling and with great depth.”
15 – Darius Syrossian – Thank you David
“This track was written to say thank you to David Vincent the main man behind Sankeys for giving me the opportunity to do this…he has given me total freedom not only with DJing but also brought me in the programming of Tribal Sessions – from the bookings to the music. He e-mailed me saying you are now music director which made me laugh, that definitely deserves a thank you track in my book.”
16 – Darius Syrossian – Jazztime
“This is the final track on the album and the reason I played it as a ‘one more’ tune when doing the live mix, is because the previous tracks were a journey. The mix went very emotive towards the end, I just wanted to then stop it and go back to a feel good, summery kind of typical track that I am known for, and this was perfect.”
Great words Darius. So Disc 2 features 16 Sankeys classics from the last two decades with the tunes chosen by yourself and Mr Vincent. What were the first tunes written down on the list and how many did you have to discard in the end, couldn’t have been an easy album to decide on!
“We actually got pretty much all we wanted, there was a couple we got but didn’t use because at the end of the day the mix had to flow well. It isn’t just about the tracks you get, the mix has to work as a good mix as well. There was 1 track we wanted that was on Villalobos’ own label and I have it on white label vinyl and we knew we wouldnt be able to get it –hahaha – SIS – Trompeta but we tried anyway. Hahaha…”
How can we get hold of the album?
“It has just out on Monday July 28th in all good record shops – the physical copy comes with x2 CDs and a booklet, or you can download from places like iTunes and Beatport of course, but nothing beats a physical copy.”
And finally, outside of Ibiza, where are the big Darius Syrossian gigs you are looking forward to the most?
“Well I haven’t announced this yet so you are breaking a bit of a story here. I have decided that after summer I am going to do a full 13 week RESIDENCY EVERY WEEK on FRIDAYS in Manchester at Sankeys. Basically it is gonna hurt me financially as a lot of clubs around the world are offering big money for me to go there and play, but for me it is not about the money why I do this, basically something I have always wanted to do in my career is have a proper residency where I get to play the same club over a period of time. Fridays for 13 weeks are perfect for this, of course saturdays I’ll tour but Fridays I want to do this from Setember to December. Remember in the old days all the great legendary nights were built on weekly residents, Hard Times had Miles Holloway and Elliot Eastwick, Basics had Ralph Lawson and Huggy, Ministry when it was good had Xpress 2 and Rocky & Diesel, The End had Layo and Bushwacka – and if you go even further back, look at the legendary New York parties…Danny Tenaglia had his own residency, Junior Vasquez and even further back Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan. It is all about the connection with the crowd! For example, I recently played 8 monthly shows from December to June in Manchester, all shows were sold out – but by the time June came and I walked into that party, the atmosphere was electric. There was some kind of crazy energy in the room and I when I walked into the booth I could see all these people that I recognised from every other party at the front, they were hardcore regulars and it was such a great feeling, they knew what I was gonna do…and I knew how they were gonna react to what I played. That’s when I thought OK, I think the time is right to do this residency thing. Other than the residency, on Saturdays I’ll be touring all over the world, my diary is filling up fast so I better keep eating my greens so I can hack the touring schedule, hahahaha…”
Thank you Darius. See you down the front!
“My pleasure Dan, see you down the front mate…”
www.sankeysibiza.info
www.sankeys.info
