Working harder and faster with Ace Ventura
Reported by Tara
/
Submitted 25-03-10 00:01
Yoni Oshrat aka Ace Ventura originally started out as half of Psysex, helping putting psy trance and the sounds of HOMmega Records on the international music map. It’s been almost two years since I last interviewed him for HF and in that time a lot has happened. He’s got another project on the go, Easy Riders, as well as continuing to play the best psy trance and progressive parties and festivals around the globe as Ace Ventura and electro, techno and freestyle as Schatsi. His remix of Weekend Heroes’ ‘Sidewinder’ recently reached No. 1 in the Beatport psy trance charts and he’s won the psy trance category in the Beatport Music Awards in ’08¬ and ’09. With Yoni making a rare trip to London this Saturday 27 March to play at A.T.A.R.I. Project and Synthezion Rec. presents The Crystal Experience at Area, we sidewinded him for a quick chat…
Hi Yoni, happy new year! Thanks for taking time out to answer a few questions ahead of your set at The Crystal Experience.
Hi there happy to do it, and looking forward to coming back to London!
We haven’t seen you in these parts since your epic set at Matter last year, what’s been new in your life since then? Have you managed to keep your new year’s resolutions?
It’s been busy as usual, working mostly on my new project — Easy Riders with my new partner Rocky — remixing a lot of other artists as Ace Ventura, performing in Israel and abroad non stop, and all this bundled with being a dad for my 8 month old son!
How has becoming a Dad changed your life — have you found the years of sleep deprivation good training? Would you like Ace Junior to grow up into a musician, or do you hope he’ll follow a more conservative path in life?
My life has changed in many ways, as it’s quite a powerful experience to have a kid... and he is awesome. Already since the pregnancy , I started to feel a change in the studio, working harder, faster, and with a lot more confidence — it has really been great creatively and productively. I’m lucky to have a fantastic wife who takes care of my son in the best way possible, allowing me to focus on the music. Regarding his future occupation well, my dad is a musician, yet still wanted me to go work in the cinema and post-production world, but eventually I turned to music as well. The lesson is live and let live, and my son can do whatever he really wants to.
For those who don’t know you, how did you get first into DJing and producing? What is your earliest memory of music?
My earliest memory of music is ’80s music videos in the living room — my sister was addicted to the Top of the Pops style shows. Around the age of 15 I started DJing at kids’ birthday parties, moving on to clubs playing mixed music for teenagers, then came the mid ’90s with their psychedelic trance. I was hooked, going to parties and consuming CDs, and after meeting DJ Goblin, we decided to have a go at it ourselves, forming Children of the Doc, which changed into Psysex. We released four albums together before I left and went solo as Ace Ventura in 2006.
Who are your major influences, and who would your dream collaboration be with?
I’ve been listening to all kinds of music over the years, had some long periods of jazz, heavy metal and death metal, but I’ve always had the electronic bug, from ’80s synthpop, to early ’90s dance music, IDM and more abstract electronica, and of course psy trance. Years ago the influences of trance were the kings of Goa (Pleidians, Oforia, Transwave, Juno Reactor etc), then Scandinavian progressive producers (Atmos, Son Kite and the likes) and nowadays it’s just a mash up of everything, from music, movies and video games, to everyday and party experiences.
It’s hard to say about the dream collaboration. I’ve always had a fascination with the Alan Parsons Project. He is finally coming to Israel on March 5th, but unfortunately I will be far down under in Melbourne at that time. Oh well...
It’s hard to keep track of your various guises and projects. Could we please have a quick run-down of what you’ve got on the go at the moment?
It’s not THAT hard but here it is —
Ace Ventura - my main project
Easy Riders – a new project with Rocky
Schatsi – an electro, techno and freestyle project
and
Liquid Ace - a collaboration with Liquid Soul, which has only produced two tracks until now, but hopefully will have more in the future.
You’ve become known for venturing into different styles of music, first psy, then progressive and now you seem to be influenced by techno; why the changes in direction, and what might be next on the horizon for you?
Music had no boundaries… psy trance tends to limit you to a certain point, but there is always room for exploration and mixing of genres. Why the change of direction? Because it’s boring to stay in the same place for too long Luckily progressive music can go in so many directions, from house and techno to more psy territories. And in my new project, Easy Riders, we try to stretch it even further, mixing techno, breaks and even dubstep.
What’s your most memorable experience of travelling the world with your music, and what makes all the travelling and late nights worth it?
I’ve been performing abroad since 1999 so you can do the math, there have been quite a lot of experiences. Main memorable gigs have to be Boom 2006, Universo Paralello 06–07 in Brazil, T.a.z festival in Israel. The best in all of this, other than getting to interesting places all over the world & meeting so many interesting people, is seeing the crowd really enjoying your music. These special little moments you have once in every other set, where the whole floor just explodes simultaneously with smiles and hands in the air — you know it’s worth it exactly then.
What plans do you have for the rest of 2010? And beyond?
2010 is heavy on touring as usual , with a busy festival season coming up (Boom + after Boom @ PT, Ozora @ HU, Aurora @ GR, Spirit Base @ AU, Playground & Tribe @ BR, & Motion Notion @ CA). First Easy Riders gigs are also set in Greece, Brazil and Mexico. Speaking of Easy Riders, our next release is the ‘Midnight Breakfast’ EP up in May on Plastik Park, followed by the debut album and a compilation we are compiling, both on Echoes Records. A lot of new Ace releases are coming up, mostly remixes (for Zen Mechanics, Weekend Heroes, Mute, Oforia and others) as well as collaborations with Ritmo, Quanitze and Zen Mechanics. And beyond 2010? Who knows, 2012 is not too far you know...
You’re playing a live set in the A.T.A.R.I. Project & Synthezion Rec. full-on psychedelic trance room at The Crystal Experience on 27 March, as well as a DJ set in the Further Progressions room. Aside from the technology you’ll be using, how will your sets differ?
The live set is obviously 100% original music (with a few remixes thrown in for good measure) while in the DJ set I am free as a bird to play whomever and whatever. I believe it will be a strong pumping psy progressive DJ set around the 133–138 BPM area.
Changes in technology and the recession have made it much harder to make a living out of making music. What advice do you have for up and coming DJs and producers in these difficult times?
Everything has its pluses and minuses — while changes in technology made CD sales obsolete, it also allows you to produce quality music without spending thousands on a big studio. There is less profit in digital sales, but it’s much easier to release online. There’s so much music to find online though, so you will have to come up with something a little different to get noticed in the sea of tracks. The money is not in the music itself anymore, but in the gigs. To get gigs though, you will still have to make good music or at least be a good DJ. So there you have it, now go practice one of these two!
For the latest news and info about Yoni check out: www.myspace.com/aceiboga
Photos courtesy of Sarah Goodson, Taguru Izumo, Tiago Lima, Yoni Oshrat and Dominic Search. Not to be reproduced without permission.
Share this ::  :  :  : 
Follow HarderFaster :: 
Other Features By Tara:
Life’s a blast with Master Blasters Zephirus Kane & Pogo
Mebjar returns to London for Halcyon's international trance celebration at MOS
Jay OM re-builds London's Tribal Village
Infected Mushroom unveil their Army of Mushrooms at Halcyon
Rising Binary Star Psibindi brings the Astral Circus to town
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
|
|
![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
