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Dissecting Scot Project

Reported by Latex Zebra / Submitted 03-09-08 16:05

I hate writing these introductions. Sometimes you have to come up with some astounding hyperbole to big someone up that maybe doesn’t warrant that kind of praise. Other times, like this, you have to come up with something that does someone justice who has been a pioneer on the scene for 14 years. A producer who helped give birth to one kind of music and then completely influenced the creation of another. The man in question is DJ Scot Project, a talent who has been sorely missed on the production front for the last year, but now, he is back with a vengeance. So let’s see what he has been up to then!



Where have you been on the Production front for the last year or so?

Due to some old contracts I couldn’t release any tracks under Scot Project, but now the problems are solved and with S2 (sueno), I released the first track on my own label Druck Records (druck 022). In the meantime I have done a lot of remixes, my series “for promotional use only” and my other project “TOCS”, so I have been very busy.

Do you think your sound was one of the influences of hardstyle?

The early hard trance stuff was the base for the hardstyle movement and I guess that a lot of my older tracks were an inspiration to it as well. A lot of my old bass drums and basslines got sampled, which was and still is kind of an honour for me.

What do you think of the whole jumpstyle / hardstyle sound?

I like some hardstyle / jumpstyle tracks and every now and then I play some in my sets, but in general I am more for the harder edge of trance. I still like my melodies and driving beats - jump and hardstyle is too static some times, all beats are on the “one” and it has this typical “march” feeling - which can be good for a while, but not all night.

What's best: Melbourne Shuffle or Dutch Jumpstyle?

Both dance styles are interesting to watch and some people can do it really well. The first time I saw the Melbourne Shuffle, I was a little bit confused because they just do it for 30 seconds and then stop, and then repeat the whole procedure for another 10 min then they have a break and then stand in the corner. As I said it is funny to watch, but kind of irritates me as well, as it always looks like that people enjoy the music just for just 30 seconds at a time.

Can you dance either?

I cannot do the Melbourne Shuffle or Jumpstyle if that's what your asking, I prefer to just groove to the music.

Your well known for your tough driving sound, but ever thought about playing some of the trance elements you have in your hard sets as a full pure trance set?

In general I like most kinds of electronic music and my sets always have a variation from pure trance to the harder edge. I don’t like to stick with only one style and if I have the chance to play long sets, I always play a different kind of style which can include trance, electro or techno. This keeps a DJs set alive and more interesting. A lot of DJs just stick with one style and especially pure trance DJs - it can get boring after a while, that’s what I try to avoid.

How often do you now play the breaks or acid house you first started playing?

At the moment I cannot find any interesting breaks or acid house tunes, but I am sure this genre will come back one day.

In Europe there are a lot of commercial dance acts like Cascada and Scooter. Do you think they hurt the scene or are they a good way of introducing people to Dance Music?

I don’t really get it to be honest, this music was crap 15 years ago and it still is! But it seems that a lot of the little kids still like it, and sooner or later they will explore the “good” music and all will be fine.

Commercial dance is a part of pop music and there should be no reason to talk about it in our scene, just because it has elements of dance music, it doesn’t mean you should take it seriously. It’s for the little kids and that’s it. I just recently saw a famous magazine that wrote a two page article about it, I just don’t know why they think its worthwhile to write about it. Back in the 90´s we had a lot of this stuff in Germany, now we are happy that this music has left our country. But in general, everyone has their own taste in music and it is always a part of a process, even people who like this kind of music will listen to good music one day.



Are you sticking with vinyl at the moment or are you making the move over to CDs or digital mediums for sets? What does this mean for Druck Records?

Good question and not easy to answer.

I do both, I love vinyl and we still release all our tracks on vinyl. It is a culture and you cannot touch, smell and feel an mp3. Of course we have to go with the new digital age and so we also offer downloads, I also have to play CDs as well because unfortunately, most of the releases I can’t get on vinyl anymore.

Digital is good and bad at the same time. Back in the days it was hard to get the good vinyls in some countries, these days it is easy to get the latest tracks everywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. MP3s are cheaper and much easier to carry compared to heavy vinyl and I think that was one of the main reasons why the international jet set DJs switched to digital. You don’t have the fear of loosing of your records and it s easy to carry as hand luggage.

These days it is easy to release a digital track; it costs you nearly nothing to do it and this is good for the young artist who does not have the money to release vinyl. With the CDs and mix programs these days you can do everything much easier, and you can do some different things compared to vinyl only. You don’t need to be able to beat match - sadly some new DJs cannot beat match anymore - and you can focus on effects, but this in itself can be annoying some times, as some DJ’s are destroying their tracks by over effecting them. But there are also a lot of negative aspects as well. All those download stores are full of crap tracks and it is so hard to find the good ones in between the flood of average and bad productions. When you release a vinyl, you think twice about it since you don’t want to waste your time and money on a bad or average track.

Another point is that a lot of the new artists who release only digital, don’t make any good money. The download sales are not as big as most of us were expecting; some tracks do well and some download stores earn good money, but I guess most artists cant survive only from the digital download income. To get the same income with digital downloads compared to vinyl sales a couple of years ago, you need to sell a minimum twice as much as you would on vinyl. The industry thought that a cheap sales price for MP3 would motivate people to download more tracks, of course they do, but it is a different story for the single artist! If you sell a track for only .99 cents, the artist won’t earn enough, (the label is taking money from it, the download platform is taking money, the credit card company is taking money etc.) so you as an artist end up with a very few cents and imagine how many downloads you need to get a realistic income for your creativity, love, passion and time you spend on a track!



Another problem is the illegal downloads, these days, everything digital (programs, movies, music etc) can be found for free everywhere on the web. I think the new generation doesn’t really know or care about what a bad impact they have with illegal downloads. Artists cannot live from doing music, music companies don’t get enough money to create new software or hardware, it's a vicious circle.

I don’t really have a solution for this, I don’t want to turn back the clock and as I mentioned before, MP3 are not a bad thing at all. Maybe vinyl has to be supported more from the big leading role DJs. Vinyl is getting more and more exclusive, it is like driving a Ferrari and its your choice as to what you want, a Ferrari or a Skoda!

What changes if any have you had to introduce to your label processes because of the changes to the scene?

We offer both, vinyl and digital, it’s the choice we offer, and MP3 is a good alternative for the ones without a big monthly budget. They can spend money on a wider variety of music or maybe they cannot get the latest vinyl in their country but I wish everyone would buy vinyl only!

Why do you think vinyl has remained so popular in mainland Europe?

Vinyl is still a culture, it is something special and kind of an exclusive thing. With vinyl, you can separate yourself a little bit from the masses. You can touch, smell and feel it and I also like the cover artwork. Everyone has CDs or MP3s, it is nothing impressive and a huge vinyl collection is still more impressive compared to a one terra byte hard disk full of MP3s. Like I said before, Ferrari or Skoda.

Have you ever thought about live performances as well as DJ sets?

I did live sets in the past, but I figured out that it is not working properly. Electronic music is mostly pure computer music anyway and you cannot play fast sequences live like a real instrument. So there is just a limited possibility on what you can do live. Switching sequences on an off on my laptop, adding effects etc isn’t satisfying for me. The other problem is that most of those “live” acts are just looking silly, just watching the laptop is like you doing e-mails or chatting with your friends. Whenever you see someone is jumping around and entertaining during a “live” set, you can be sure the music is just a playback, that’s why I prefer to DJ only.

Does a love of the 303 Acid Sound run in the family?

Recently I did a remix for Public DomainOperation Blade (release is coming soon) and I used my 303 for the first time in ages. I still love it and it is still one of the best hardware synths you can play around with. I think I will never get sick of the acid sound and every decade this sound comes back.

You're well known for driving forward the hard trance sound. What do you think the future of dance music is and how do you think you'll be able to continue shaping it?

Music is always in progress, styles coming and going, with new influences every day and a lot of new artists are pushing it forward with (more or less) new ideas. Dance music will never die and I don’t see that I will loose my passion for electronic music. Rock and other styles cannot satisfy me and I guess a lot of people all over the world think the same. This is keeping all kinds of electronic music in the move and mine also.



In the UK the scene has declined slightly with people getting more into bands and festivals rather than going to clubs. Is this something you're seeing in Europe as well?

No not really. You cannot compare a good club nightclub to a live band or rock festival and band or rock music in general is not satisfying to me on a long-term basis. Both can be good, but the experience is a totally different one. I don’t see electronic music lovers switching to rock music suddenly, at least I hope not.

What was the inspiration behind naming tunes after the alphabet L, U, Y, X etc and do you plan on using the whole alphabet before you retire?

The first track I did was just an instrumental track (X) and I had no idea how to name it. I chose “X” which stands for the “unknown” and I decided to stick with it as I thought nobody else had done it so far. I am sure I will complete the while alphabet before I retire (but at the moment I cannot see myself retiring).

Any plans for a second album soon and how will it differ from the first?

The second album A2 is in progress and I hope to have it ready by the end of this year. I don’t want to release an album which I am not 100% satisfied, so that’s why I am taking my time. I have already finished a couple of tracks and of course it will be slightly different to the last album from 3 years ago. It will be a mixture of my new harder edge of trance sound and some tracks people are expecting from me.

How do you approach remixing tunes that are already considered classic?

I try to give them a new touch. Giving classic tracks a new sound without taking away the original feeling is important in my opinion.

What kind of music do you listen to when you relax?

I like to listen to most kinds of music and sometimes I like chill out stuff, lounge music or listen to good rock / band stuff. But I unfortunately don’t have that much time to listen to music just to relax, and if you work 20 hours in the studio and after a party weekend, you are happy for silence for a while.

Quick questions:

Is there anywhere you haven't performed that you would like to?

There are just a few countries on the map I have never played so far, so maybe Peru.

If you could have written any tune what would it be?

Back in the days I wish I had produced the Michael Jackson album Thriller. I loved Quincy Jones back then, but there is a lot of great music I wish I had produced!

If you could remix any tune what would it be?

There are too many tracks I would like to get my hands on, too many for this life I guess.

Are there any artists you would like to work along side?

Of course there are some artists I would like to work with, one of them would be Kraftwerk, the pioneers of electronic music.


Photos courtesy of DJ Links. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Latex Zebra:
From Little Acorns to Mighty Oaks - How Chilled in a Field has grown
Bar 414 unveils a new dimension with Base Mosquito
Brandon Block gets Funky 414 London!
The HarderFather speaks! Meet him yourself at the HF vs The Residents Xmas Party
How To: Be a Promoter in six easy steps - Part 2
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.
Comments:

From: Martin Begley on 3rd Sep 2008 16:22.40
Heard him at the fridge a few years back. Thought he was truly awful!

From: Dean Zone on 3rd Sep 2008 20:06.15
I want his babies!!!


True pioneer and he will always be legend, made more classics than any other producer you can name IMO!

From: Matt-Endemic on 3rd Sep 2008 21:18.22
Totally aggree with Dean, Scot Project is awesome =D Thought this article was really good aswell. Nice one

From: Hanky on 4th Sep 2008 17:20.25
when is he playing zoology?

From: ~deleted1390 on 4th Sep 2008 18:44.04
He's not. Well unless he asks.

From: ED_case on 9th Sep 2008 08:58.43
Legend. There are very few DJs and producers with a truely unique sound - but he's one of them.

From: Euphoria on 9th Sep 2008 16:47.14
Keep Rocking Frank! Smile

From: Daniel K on 10th Sep 2008 20:31.56
Not worthy...

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