One of the most exciting bands on the planet unleash new album ‘Out’
Interview : Nicky Trax
Welcome back to DMCWORLD, where in the world are you right now?
“Hey DMC! Back in London and just back from a week in Berlin.”
Your new album “Out” is a collection of some of your finest works and remixes, what was the thinking behind the release?
“It struck us that most of our top 12” single tracks and remixes had only previously been released on vinyl and digital…and we wanted to put them all on one definitive nicely packaged CD collection. This is “Out” and it’s turned into a beautiful double album of tracks that have stood the test of time.”
What else do you have in store for us in terms of releases and new projects this year?
“The main recording project we are now working on is a new System 7/Mirror System dual project in honour of the 20th anniversary of our 1994 dual release ‘Point 3: Fire & Water’ albums, which is likely to be released next April.”
Which System 7 track do you think might be revived as an anthem for this summer?
“Probably the AlphaWave Plastikman mix – it often gets revived and never fails to smash the dancefloor.”
How do your sets change if at all when you play live around the globe?
“We like to play special sets for each occasion, particularly DJ sets. We work out a basic skeleton in advance but have lots of additional possibilities to spontaneously play what feels right at the time and what fits the mood on the dancefloor, but all with our well developed sense of System 7 style.”
Who are the tastemakers on the circuit playing your recent tunes right now and how does it make you feel when your peers show their appreciation?
“My spies tell me Richie still spins his AlphaWave mix from time to time, as does Sven Vath. Other mixes still getting good plays are ‘Space Bird’ Dubfire Remix, ‘Planet 7’ James Holden Remix and ‘PositiveNoise’ Carl Craig Remix. The best thing is seeing a crowd going mental on one of our tracks – very fulfilling.”
Where have some of your memorable sets been in 2014 so far?
“Before the Phoenix Rising UK tour in March we played at an amazing festival in a remote area of Panama, and prior to that in January we did a great show in Naples, Italy. The Phoenix Rising Asia tour at the end of last year was fantastic especially Tokyo and Taipei, and we also did a special show in a Japanese temple near Kyoto that was truly magical.”
You combine your live shows with DJing, how do you think this communicates with your audience?
“Depending on the event we do live sets, DJ sets or hybrid live/DJ sets. It all depends on the situation, but we are always looking for good interaction with the people – that’s what dance music is all about and that’s what we’re all about.”
How did you come to get involved with dance music and the scene that you’re so active in?
“It’s been a pretty straight development for us based on elements of what we were doing in the 70s and our early involvement with electronics. Bear in mind that quite a few other people from the psychedelic arts scene fully embraced electronic music in the early-mid 80s and we also moved with that flow.”
Is there anyone young and up and coming production wise we should be looking out for in 2014?
“There’s one guy called Romare who’s pretty amazing. He’s UK based but works a lot in Berlin, and he has a new approach to sampling that’s pretty amazing.”
What are your first and finest memories of the exploding dance scene around the 88 ‘Summer Of Love’?
“We were out of the UK a lot in 88, so 89 was the big year for us. Clubs we went to included Shoom, Spectrum, Rage (at Heaven) and later Land of Oz where we developed our relationship with The Orb. Also we were happy to note that the guys who did our live sound in the 70s developed the sound systems for many of the early legendary rave events and hooked up with them again. They are now called Funktion One!”
Wow! What were the game changing moments from scene to scene for you?
“Game changing moments could include seeing Jimi Hendrix playing at the Marquee Club in 1967, seeing a DJ playing Kraftwerk in a disco in 1978 – and the young crowd loving it, meeting Alex Paterson in 1989 and subsequently hearing him play our “Rainbow Dome Musick” in the prototype Chill Out room at Heaven. But we’ve never really moved from scene to scene – we’ve always had our own “scene” that’s evolved in what for us is a logical progression. What drives us is the constant hunger to get ever closer to the Holy Grail of combining our unique psychedelic sounds with super-infectious pure electronic dance rhythms, that will drive people wild when played out. This has always been our dream and as long as we retain that hunger we will create great tracks.”
Your recent ‘Phoenix Rising’ Live collaboration with Japanese band Rovo, has seen System 7 tour this unique show in Japan and Britain. How well were the shows received?
“A lot of people didn’t quite know what to expect as Rovo are pretty unknown over here, but from the first few notes we could see that they were “getting it”, which gave us extra inspiration. Our fans know that whenever they see us they will get something fresh as well as some of their favourites, and on these shows they got a fantastic package of really unique live/dance fusion. Everyone went home with big smiles knowing that they had experienced something very special.”
Your recent ‘Phoenix Rising’ album and its dance version ‘Phoenix Beats’ were released towards the end of 2013 – what tracks are you must proud of?
“For us it’s a near perfect album and every track is a favourite in its own way, but we are particularly proud of “Love for the Phoenix” – a rock-dance fusion that employs many elements from System 7’s history, and we’re going to make a new 100% hard dance version of this for the new System 7 album.”
Have you ever turned your hand to promoting your own night?
“We sometimes promote our own nights, but the only time I got into event promotion on a large scale was when I co-ordinated the first dance tent at Glastonbury Festival in 1995. Musically it was great, but all the festival politics involved were tedious to say the least and it wasn’t a role we wished to continue. So you could say that it was both the best and the worst…”
London continues to hoist the flag for clubbing with dozens of great clubs all over the capital. What keeps you happy in London?
“To tell the truth it’s not so much the club venues but more the general situation of London as a music hub that keeps us here. One venue we’d like to play at but haven’t yet is Oval Space in Hackney – we visited it last year to see Henrik Schwarz and Manuel Gottsching. We have good memories of so many clubs, particularly Heaven and our favourite small venue is the Inspiral Lounge. Favourite clubs abroad include Club Der Visionaere in Berlin, Contact in Paris and Womb in Tokyo.”
And finally, let’s get the SYSTEM 7 faithful excited about your forthcoming appearances – what is the one song you can’t wait to drop…
“Our most recent track ‘Passion’ has been a consistent winner in our set, but we also have some brand new (as yet untitled) tunes we can’t wait to try out!”
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System 7 release their new album ‘Out’ – The Definitive Single Remix Collection with Remixes from Dubfire, Plastikman, Carl Craig, James Holden, Doc Scott and tracks with Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig, A Guy Called Gerald, Jam El Mar, Alex Paterson (The Orb), Son Kite on July 7th on A-Wave Records.
System 7 celebrate their 20th year of playing Glastonbury Festival with a Live set in The Glade Friday June 27th then July 5th – Talking Heads, Southampton, UK ; July 25th – Fuji Rock Festival with Rovo, Japan; August 8th – Boom Festival – main Dance Temple stage, Portugal; August 30th – Sonica Festival, Italy; September 13th – Reverence Festival, Portugal and September 20th – Psy-Boutique Festival, Turkey.
System 7: http://www.facebook.com/System7page and http://www.a-wave.com
