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Masters of darkness A+D+A+M LAB4 & Proteus are back in black for this Saturday's HHA8
Reported by Tara
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Submitted 15-10-08 14:12
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Two of the world’s greatest hard dance producers return to London this weekend to headline our biggest hard house event of the year. The boys have been working on something very special for the occasion and with the theme for this Saturday’s Hard House Academy 8 being Back in Black you just know things are going to be hard, fast and more than a wee bit dark. Break out your black bogan singlets and leather trousers as A+D+A+M LAB4 and Proteus get excited about Saturday’s shenanigans...
You’re playing together at HHA this weekend. What sort of music can your fans expect?
Harri: Adam is doing a full live PA and in my set we’ll play live instruments together on top of my djing. The music will be our own, plus in my set I’ll play some new tunes from our FINRG label. It will be dark, hard, fast and techno and punk and rock ‘n’ roll he he hee!
Where have you played together in other countries and how did it go?
Adam: I have played drums for Proteus three times now in Finland, twice at the massive Laser Point events in Helsinki. It took me a month of three hours training/practice everyday to get fit enough to play drums non-stop for a 60 minute Proteus set as well as £200 worth of broken drum sticks! It was all worth it though!
Harri: We have done two really big Proteus live shows with full band in Finland in 2005 and 2006. I had the great honour to have Adam joining me on those gigs and he played massive drums through the whole set. All the tracks were played fully live with two keyboard players, guitar player, drummer plus percussion. I played keyboards, percussion and controlled the computer stuff. It was amazing and hopefully we can do the whole live set together in UK soon! I did also similar full live show recently at my album release party last August in Finland.
You’ve both played live music for a number of years. What set-up will you be using this weekend? Will Adam be playing the drums? And Harry the electric triangle?
Adam: There will be drums and guitars plus a few surprises. It’s always difficult because often massive plans are discussed and planned out, but due to budgets or health and safety and logistics we have to real things in a little... only a little though…
Harri: It’s still a bit of a secret so I’m not sure can we reveal everything yet, but we will play more than the electric triangle he he hee! There will be heavy instruments for sure.
This weekend marks HHA’s 8th birthday. Having played at so many Frantic events over the years, what’s been your favourite?
Adam: So far, it would be either the first we ever did at Bagleys, maybe 1998? Or the last HHA that we did with LAB4 and the Robot when we did the drum and bass version of Frank Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ with Titan the robot on lead vocals.
Harri: For me definitely the first HHA that I did years ago. It’s an unbelievable moment when you walk on the stage at Brixton Academy. I remember being so nervous that I couldn’t feel my legs and it was one of my best gigs ever, definitely!
If you had all the money in the world to buy Will, Chloe and Co. a special HHA birthday present, what would it be?
Harri: I would buy them Brixton Academy he he hee!!! Plus some roses and chocolate! And a few beers of course, maybe a million pints! He he he!!!
Adam, you and Les were the biggest live hard dance act in the UK for a long time while Harry, you were responsible for pioneering the sound in your native Finland. Who or what inspired you both to start playing such hard and fast music? And who or what inspires you to keep playing now?
Adam: It’s always been the people on the dance floor that have inspired me. Having come from a rock band background where your goal from the start is to get people bouncing and having fun, that’s what we always looked for and when that happens it’s the most rewarding and inspiring experience. Also, tempo-wise, around 1994 there was a lot of ravey trance coming from Europe around 160 bpm and we were also listening to Thunderdome which was all around 180/190 bpm and faster.
Harri: This is funny because Adam and Lez were the biggest influence for me in the mid-90s! When they released their first vinyl single ‘Transformation’ on the German POD label I was totally amazed. The sound they had on the main riff was absolutely out of the world at that time (1996)! Also bands and artists like Ministry, Front Line Assembly, Karim and Captain Tinrib have had an enormous impact in me. Love for the music keeps definitely the shoes dancing and fingers playing these days! I also still get a lot of inspiration from those same artists and there are a lot of great new bands, artist and djs that inspire me all the time.
Harry you’re a big Chris de Burgh fan and have played everything from psy trance to metal and Adam you’re also known for experimenting with a number of different styles. Do you have any special bootlegs up your sleeves for this Saturday?
Adam: Now that would be telling! Maybe a 180 bpm version of ‘Harri in red... is dancing with me...’
Harri: Bootlegs are very popular nowadays, for example Phil York and Gaz West have done unbelievable reworks of classic tunes. I love their stuff! There will be few nice ones in our sets too, definitely. Maybe not Chris de Burgh this time he he hee!!! ‘Lady In Red’ rocks!
You’re both well known for your incredibly high energy live performances. What’s the craziest thing each of you has done on stage?
Adam: I did a few gigs with NO alcohol! Often after the more raucous gigs that have involved keyboard smashing and jumping off speaker stacks that don’t seem so high in the dark, you wake up the next day without the benefit of adrenalin (or alcohol) and you are suddenly awash with pains from cuts and crash landings. Keyboards look easy to smash but some of them are built like tanks and bite back. Nothing ever seems crazy enough when you are on stage. I did flash to Yoji once who was stood backstage at a massive gig in Holland and I didn’t realise that the camera feed to the main projections was also witnessing the same site as Yoji — that was just stupid rather than crazy though I guess!
Harri: Lots of funny things have happened over the years. I’ve broken my fingers twice on the stage: once at this year’s Global Gathering and once at Dance Valley 2005. The hardest damage I got was last year at an amazing party called Riff Raff in the UK. I broke my left elbow in the middle of my set when I fell down from about a one-meter long platform onto the stage. The funniest thing has been when I broke my pants and even underpants during my set at Logic @ Fridge a few years ago! My ex-manager Kym was horrified he he hee!
This Saturday night marks my seven-year anniversary clubbing in London, with my first event being HHA October 2001. Seven years on, how would you both say your music has changed and evolved since then — if at all?
Adam: I feel like I’ve gone a bit full circle... When I started writing my new album I decided to go back to my early memories and emotions of writing dance music when there were no pigeon holes, labels or set styles. I feel that through the years with Lab4 we pushed enough boundaries and created our own space in the universe but when I started ‘Drink Me’ (available now from www.adamlab4.com) I felt I had nothing to prove but just fun to have...
Harri: Yep evolution goes forward except that I still have the same socks on every year he he he! It’s good to try new things but at the same time it’s very important to keep your own trademark sound in it. I like it hard, fast and dark and I will keep that in my music forever but also I want to do different things. I bought a new electric guitar last year and I have been learning to play that a lot and I will definitely want to do some band stuf in future. But always still doing Proteus hard as hell hard dance dj sets. One of the best things in the world of music for me is the raw monster, no mercy synth riff! They’ve never lost their hardcore he he!
Who can play the hardest and fastest, Harry or Adam?
Adam: Harri.
Harri: He can play harder and faster, who can run faster he he he! We both play different tracks that go with very versatile bpms so we don’t compare each other with that. It all depends on the set, party, crowd and feelings!
This Saturday night the theme is ‘Back in Black’. Do you have special new fetish outfits all sorted or will you be coming to London early to go shopping in Camden?
Adam: I’m thinking that maybe pink is the new black so maybe I’ll drop into Anne Summers and kit myself out in some new slinkiness....
Harri: I would love to go to Camden because here in Finland we don’t have so cool fetish shops like you guys have. I just bought new ‘non real’ leather underwear so I might use that on Saturday.
’Back in Black’ is also the name of an album by legendary Ozzy bogan rockers AC/DC. Were you AC/DC fans back in the day? If so, what’s your favourite AC/DC track?
Adam: Bogan!! Ha ha I love that name — ‘BOGAN’!!! ‘Back in Black’ was always my favourite AC/DC track. I still love that album.
Harri: Thunder! Na na na naa na na naa!! He he hee!!! I like AC/DC’s ‘ThunderStruck’ track! Seriously I have never been a really big AC/DC fan, but they are definitely a band that is one of the most legendary in the rock scene. As you mentioned earlier I’ve always been more of a Chris de Burgh fan ha ha haa!
You both work on a number of different projects using various aliases. What are you working on at the moment that you’d like to plug?
Adam: My arse... only joking... I am a few tracks into a new Adam Lab4 album (to be debuted at HHA), but also very excited about my band The Horizontal Instrument... and also have a housey,electro, trancey thing on the go (see links on www.adamlab4.com)
Harri: Adam has several unbelievable great various projects and I think he is musically super talented! Myself I do more just different types of tunes and remixes under my Proteus name. I have done many remixes for Finnish rock/metal bands and that way my production can sound different. I still always try to keep a hard Proteus feeling in them. My brand new album ‘The Nature of the Beast’ includes few of these remixes. I love to do remix work for bands and I’ll keep doing that in future too.
The name Proteus means “the old man of the sea” in Greek mythology and Adam you’ve been around the dance scene for a good few years now. What advice do you wish the young up-and-comings would start listening to?
Adam: It’s always natural to try to copy what you love and what inspires you, but instead of copying, try to create something completely different that stirs the same emotions in you as what you love/inspires you. If you love dance music, maybe write a rock album and vice versa. I try to give myself the same advice on a regular basis, it sounds simple but it’s not easy… but often works.
Harri: ”Old man” he he hee! I’m 31 so probably I don’t have so much wise advice in my pocket yet. But then again I started to dj pretty young at 16/17 years old and to do different music stuff so probably you could say there is pretty much hard working experience on my shoulders. The best advice I have is that always do and play the music YOU love and trust yourself and be humble and never ask or except too much. Nothing comes with a gold spoon and keep working hard always and give your 100% at every show!
Finally, why should your fans reading this come to Brixton on Saturday night to see your live set?
Adam: Well, I’ve been focussed on this event since February, as have the guys in the Frantic office when we sat round a table and reminisced about all the biggest and best parties that we had organised or been part of and the amazing feelings we were left with having been evolved such great parties and we just wanted to do some more of the same again and hoped that people would feel the same.... It’s all well and good reminiscing but why not go and re-live?
Harri: HHA 8 at Brixton Academy is probably the most important hard dance event this year! Load your bass drums and sharpen your saw sounds because we will kick ass on Saturday!
www.franticuk.net/hha8
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