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Features
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Interview with Mark Sherry
Reported by K8-e
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Submitted 29-08-06 15:35
I am loving tech trance at the moment. From the first time I bought a Detox tune and couldn’t quite work out whether it was techno or European hard trance I’ve loved this genre. Mark Sherry’s sound for me epitomises the techier sounding trance that has become so popular of late. With a sound that’s plenty tough enough without verging on the formulaic sound some UK hard trance has succumbed to, Mark has released some corkers on Detox and Riot! and put out some beefy remixes to boot. Keen to get the low down on another one of my heroes, I tracked down Mark for his HarderFaster debut.
Hello Mark, welcome to HarderFaster. You’re fast carving a name for yourself as a solo artist but will also be known to many people as one of the original members of Public Domain. How did you get into the scene, and into djing and producing? Take us back to the beginning.
Hi Kate, thanks a lot for the invite. I’ve been djing for just over 10 years now but it all started off back in the rave days. I loved the scene from an early age and decided to get more involved with it by saving all my pennies and buying some decks etc. I practised like mad and around about the same time I got friendly with Trevor Reilly, a big local dj because we shopped in the same record shop together in Glasgow, 23rd Precinct. I eventually got some demo tapes together and he heard them in my car at the weekends when we were goin’ up to Glasgow every weekend. After some brainwashing he offered me a warm-up slot one night at the infamous “original” Hanger 13 in Ayr in Scotland where I live. I then worked my way up the local clubbing ladder by moving onto clubs like the Aquarium (Irvine) and the Metro (Saltcoats). I really got the bug and haven’t stopped since!
On the keyboard and production front my mum and dad bought me a keyboard for my 8th birthday so I started dabbling (well really just pressing the big yellow demo button and pretending I was Jean-Michelle Jarre) and then eventually started going to proper lessons which I stuck at for around 9 years, working my way up the grades. This also tied in with Trevor again because he was in the middle of setting up a recording studio at the time when we were travelling together up and down to Glasgow. One day he asked me into the studio to see it. He heard me playing some stuff and was really impressed so we teamed up and recorded some bits together. After some really hard work and determination my djing started to take off, but I fell away from producing for a few years simply because I didn’t have enough time on my hands to do everything — keep a full time job, do my radio show on West FM (which I started doing around this period and still do today), and obviously my djing gigs at the weekends.
In 2000 I got back into production by a chance meeting with two guys, James Allan and Alistair McIsaac one night when I was in the pub. They told me they were fans of what I was doing at the time, that they were both doing HNCs in Audio Engineering (at the SAE college in Glasgow) and that they wanted to do a track with me. This was perfect because I had the idea of ‘Operation Blade’ in my head because at that time I had been dropping the New Order ‘Confusion’ track (used in the film Blade at the blood-bath scene) and had also been scratching over the top of it using an old Public Enemy acapella that said “Bass For Your Face London” at all of my gigs — every time I played it there was causing carnage so I thought I really needed to take this idea into the studio! That’s how it all started with the Public Domain side of things to be honest . . . we were the three original members of PD with Mallorca Lee joining us as our MC shortly after and as a co-producer on four of our album tracks that he had produced, along with his studio partner at the time David Forbes..
Those familiar with your recent tunes will associate you with the techy end of trance or perhaps the trancier end of techno, depending on which tunes and how you look at it. You produce under a few names, obviously under the Public Domain guise and also as Outburst, is there any distinct difference to which moniker you use?
If you compare the older Public Domain releases to the newer ones there’s a substantial difference — the new stuff is a lot tougher and techier but still has that slightly commercial edge because that’s what the Public Domain sound has always been. The Outburst stuff that I produce on my own on the other hand is full on “lets aaaave it” tech-trance which I really love producing, as well as the productions that I do with James Allan on Detox etc.
For the first time in my life I’m writing music for myself and not for any record label sitting on my shoulder telling me what to write, change, re-arrange or edit, basically making us re-work everything that we have been working on. We’ve really sweated blood on some occasions, but no more of that nonsense. I’ve got my selfish head on now — if I like the riff or sample or loop, then it goes in the track. If you don’t like it — bugger off !!! End of story. It probably comes across in my music that I’ve reached a rebellious point in my life but it’s great fun.
It’s really cool that I have a small studio setup at home as well as having a pro studio along the road from me that I run with James, who I do all of the Public Domain stuff with. It’s like having the best of both worlds. I can have a great laugh in the PD studio with James and also Neil Skinner (our live MC and vocalist) when he’s up from London working with us but then I can also work in the comfort of my own home, on my own, experimenting a bit more and producing my Outburst gear with the lights off and the curtains closed, totally 100% in the zone !!
How do you achieve your sound, what hardware and software do you use?
I have always used Cubase so I’m on one of the latest versions of that which is Cubase SX (I don’t like Cubase SX 3 though). My Outburst gear is all soft synth based using Vanguard (which I have around 18 banks/soundsets for), V-Station, Pro-53, Absynth 3 and some other synths. I can really reccommend the Synthation soundsets for all of these, which you can buy at www.synthation.net I also use the Camel plug-ins which are tremendous, Ohmboys, Waves FX pack, Ultrafunk FX pack, URS EQ’s and a combination of other sound-bending distorting twisting sound breaking and confusing bits and bobs !!
When I start a track I have to start with creating a groove first and foremost. I start with the kickdrum and then build up chopped loops and sounds/hits around it to make a solid groove sometimes adding sub tones to the kick to add power and some balls. I then move on to the bassline and following that I’ll add some overlying or underlying basslines/grooves/patterns. I then move on to the melodies or riffs depending on the style of track that I’m working on, just basically building the whole track up steadily as I go along. The best advice I can give to someone is to really prepare before you start a track. Listen to all of your samples that you have in your system or on a sample CD of drums, loops, vocals, snips etc and put all of the ones that you like into a project folder. I find that this really speeds up the work process and keeps the ideas flowing while you working instead of stopping and starting trying to find samples that you like on the way — it makes your work a lot more instant and enjoyable. I would also recommend that you get a copy of Recycle. It’s the best way of regurgitating drumloops and really making them your own. I couldn’t work without it nowadays. Stylus RMX is also a HUGE programme and is one of the best on the market for loops and drum hits. I think it’s sheer class!
You’ve just had your second release on Riot! (a Mark Sherry EP) featuring collaborations with two of the hottest guys in hard dance, BK and Nick Sentience. How did your association with Riot! (one of my favourite labels) come about?
It was a great buzz for me! Ed Real has been looking after me with quality tunage for years since his Nukleuz/BXR days so it was great to catch up with him one day on MSN after we had lost touch for almost a year. He immediately signed my track ‘Fractured’ and after a few months of things going well Ed mentioned that Nick Sentience was wanting me to go down and do a collab with him in London at Riot! HQ. I had no idea that he had been playing a lot of my stuff but it turned out that he was really digging what I was producing. When Ben (BK) found out that I was planning on going down for a few days to work with Nick he also organised some time with me because he was really supporting my gear as well. It ended up being a four day session in both of their studios which was extremely enjoyable, and a learning curve for us all because I use Cubase and they use Logic, but we got there. The guys were true gents and very cool to work with.
We more or less nailed ‘Amino’ and ‘Wildfire’ in the time that we had together, although, I wasn’t totally convinced with the first riff that we had agreed on for ‘Amino’ so I ended up going home after our four days and then working on it at home in Scotland for an extra day or so and it was then that I cracked the riff that we ended up using in the final mix. I emailed the new breakdown parts down to Ben and he then re-worked them it into his Logic file. The release has had some really great support from all of the top tech-trance jocks and is still being played by Marco V, Sander van Doorn etc. We were all very happy with the collab EP so we have already discussed doing some more work together soon, hopefully this year if all goes well.
You’ve done some immense remixes. I love your mix of Scott Mac’s classic ‘Damager 02’and of course your 2006 mix of the mighty Marzz — ‘Orbiter’. Is there any tune you’d like to have a go at remixing that you haven’t already? And any more remixed gems in the pipeline for us?
It was a great honour for Scott to ask me to remix ‘Damager’. I caned the original to death! I had loads of fun remixing it and it really set me up for some more remix offers like Marzz and Ratty (‘Sunrise’) etc. etc. One of my all time favourite tracks is the DJ Ricci remix of Transformer 2’s ‘Pacific Symphony’. It was the last track of the night played every week at Hanger 13 that I’ve mentioned before back in the original rave days. I have so many memories of this track getting played. It was a time when all the classic stuff was getting released like Hardfloor’s ‘Acperience’, Ramirez — ‘Hablando’, Glam — ‘Hell’s Party’ etc. It was such an exciting time for music and I think a lot of the originality and feeling that was present in the tracks back then has now vanished from today’s dance music — which is very sad. I am going to look at doing my own rework of this track, when I get the time anyway. It will just be for my dj sets because I don’t know the guys personally, but if you’re reading this, gimme a shout !! Haha!
On a tech trance tip Marcel Woods, Marco V and of course yourself can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. What artists and labels are doing it for you right now?
Everything on Detox, Spinnin, Be Yourself/High Contrast, Riot!, Silicon, Five AM and Tekelec is really floating my proverbial boat just now. Any labels, artists, or remixers that are trying different ideas or different production techniques in their tracks are all getting my big nod of approval. If I hear one more appergiated detuned riff in a track I will really start to cry, there’s so much boring trancey drivel around just now, it really cracks me up. But the labels I’ve mentioned are really breaking the mould and are really only releasing stuff that’s a break from the norm, real edgy music with balls.
Sander van Doorn, Mac + Mac, Marcel Woods, Valentino Kanzyani, Scot Project, JK Walker, Fred Baker, Vinylgroover, Jowan, Gleave, Fabio Stein, Krzysztof Choclow, Ryan Blair and Maori are all names that are constantly appearing in all of my dj sets just now and also on my radio show. Again they are all artists that aren’t scared to try new ideas in the studio. The more established ones that I’ve mentioned have moved with the times production-wise but have also managed to retain their familiar formulaic production styles, which is a clever thing to accomplish.
The newer kids on the production block that I’ve mentioned have really grabbed my attention because they are pushing their sound to the max without imitating other producers and are really not afraid to turn dance music around making really original sounding compositions. Tech-trance is where it’s at for me just now. Tech-trance, techno and electro are the only styles that I’m playing.
Also what about upcoming talent, who should we be keeping an eye out for?
I would definitely say that Terry Ferminal (Mark Sinclair and John Wilson both from Ayrshire Scotland) are ones to watch out for. Mark has just signed his first release ‘Nymph’ to High Contrast in Holland (home of Marco V and Marcel Woods and so on). It’s been hammered by me, Sander van Doorn on his Essential mix and also Marcel to name a few. They’ve also just signed another track to Vandit which is gonna be absolutely huge. It’s a massive big vocal trancer sung by Mark himself. I’m actually working on a collab with Mark just now, watch this space.
Another pair to look out for are Gleave Dobbin and Ryan Blair from Nothern Ireland. They’ve really been knockin’ them out recently and have been gaining heaps of support from me and a lot of the big guns. I know that Gleave is established already as Coast 2 Coast but I feel his music now is really where it’s at. It’s great to see some fresh talent coming through like Ryan producing some really exciting stuff and not opting for the paint-by-numbers trance that so many new producers make these days.
Fabio Stein from Brazil is also one to watch and has a great release forthcoming on Maelstrom called ‘Tran–4’. Krzysztof Choclow from Poland is another quality producer working his way up the audio ranks, keep your eyes peeled for these dudes. And last but not least, the young Mr Michael Dow is defo another one to keep an eye on, He’s doing some amazing tech-trance just now, really well produced filthy gritty productions.
What’s in your box at the moment, what top 5 tunes are you not leaving home without?
I would have to say Marninx pres Ecco ‘Intuition’ (Martin Roth remix) on Dark-Noize, more extremely powerful stuff from Roth. Exelios’ ‘WOL’ (Mac Zimms remix) on Progressive State. Zimms really can do no wrong, along with his brand new mix of 4 Strings — ‘Take Me Away’. Side-Dish — ‘Pressure’ (Marcel Woods remix) on Midtown, it has bigger balls than a celibate mammoth! Krzysztof Choclow — ‘Taurus’, big tough and melodic tech-trance, and just to be cheeky I’ll say my brand new remix of BBE’s ‘Seven Days and One Week’ forthcoming on Tunnel, because its been getting a great reaction at all of my gigs and also because the original is one of my favourite tracks of all time.
As part of Public Domain you sold over 2 million copies of ‘Operation Blade’ and achieved chart fame, is it hard to live up to that sort of success and the commercial tag that is then associated with it?
It has got a certain stigma attached to it, yes, but we have managed to shake a lot of that off now. We never intended to become commercial, it just happened overnight. We toured the world off the back of Blade but we still tour today performing our tech-trance/hard dance live show, so it’s all good in the hood. I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if we never got in the charts again. It could really drive you crazy worrying about sh*t like that with the pressure that labels put you under, and believe me it almost did!
It also has its benefits though, I mean I wouldn’t have done half the gigs that I’ve done if it wasn’t for that success I reckon but the good thing is that now I’m doing the more credible stuff I can go back to the places that I’ve been booked for before and do my own thing as a dj under my own name instead of PD if I want. It’s not a problem at all. I’ve met a lot of really cool promoters and club managers in my time now and they have really stuck by me, either with PD or myself. The commercial tag isn’t there now, Armin, Guy Ornadel and Dave Pearce have picked up on our new single ‘I Feel Love’ off a very limited mailout, which is great for us.
You’ve done live performances as part of Public Domain, are there any plans to do any of your Mark Sherry tunes live?
No there are no plans just now. I’m quite happy with the way things are, having our Public Domain Live show leaving my own stuff to play out in my dj sets, although in saying that we have recently incorporated some of our Detox releases like ‘Red Alert’, ‘The Message’ and ‘Biosphere’ into the new PD show. To be honest I prefer djing to performing live slightly more anyway but we always try and combine both wherever we can like a big event, for example I will DJ for 45 minutes and then after that we’ll play live as PD for 45 minutes with me and James on the keyboards and our MC Neil Skinner. Maybe some time in the future I will have the notion to put a Mark Sherry live show together and if I do it definitely won’t involve any white rabbits, juggling or fire breathing!
You’ve had a weekly show on West FM (96.7FM) for a number of years. It’s one of Scotland’s biggest hard dance and trance shows. What’s it like being a Radio jock?
Yeah it’s great, I love it. I always really look forward to the weekend for my gigs obviously but also recording my show. I spend the whole day on a Friday preparing the show. I listen to all of my new promos and pick out the ones that I’m going to include on the show and also at my gigs then burn off CDs of the ones that I know I’ll definitely play (which can take a really long time these days due to most of the labels sending you mp3 links). I only play 320kb MP3’s or WAVs so I usually have to chase people up to get these as a lot of people still only send out low bit-rate ones, which can end up being very time consuming. It’s a lot of work to make the show as best as it can possibly be. It goes out on air over the whole West Coast of Scotland and reaches across some parts of the central belt like Glasgow and even as far East as Edinburgh. It’s a really cool slot to have because there isn’t really much in the way of hard dance on the air in Scotland at all now, never mind peak time on a Saturday night. You can listen to in online at www.westfm.co.uk from 9pm every Saturday.
What do you get up to in your spare time?
To be honest I don’t have much spare time these days, but I love going to the gym when I can for a run or a swim and to get stuck into some weights to de-stress myself. I find it’s a big, big help being fit especially when I’m doing a lot of travelling. The complete opposite of all of that is that I love watching DVDs with a Corona in hand and a huge bag of Doritos and salsa dip . . . but I suppose I do kinda work in my spare time as well, preparing drum loops and samples to use in my tracks etc, and checking out some new music online. It’s amazing how much time everyone spends sitting in front of their computer these days. You don’t realise how dependant you are on it until something goes wrong with it and then you’re well screwed!
I do spend a lot of my spare time on my PC because of my producing and also my business, including looking after everything that comes with the djing parcel, so it’s always very good to get away outside or just down tools and get away from it for a while. I feel like the guy in the advert that’s trying to escape his couch except I’m really getting chased by a 6 foot tall PC that wont let me get out the front door!
A few quick fire questions:
Favourite gadget?
My Sony camcorder, never go to a gig without it.
Most embarrassing CD/record in your collection?
Well I could double this question up and say that the first record I ever bought was The Beastie Boys — ‘Fight For Your Right’, haha, suppose its quite a cool record though, in some ways!
Favourite film?
Star Wars. I’m a die hard fan — f*ck off Trekkies !! heh heh!
Indian or Chinese?
Chinese every time, although I am partial to a South Indian garlic chilli chicken every now and again.
Finally what’s your plans for the rest of 2006 and where can we catch you playing next?
I’m/we’re working on about eight projects just now. Myself and James have almost finished a new tech-trancer in the same vein as ‘Red Alert’ on Detox called ‘Reflux’ so that’s coming up soon.
I’ve just finished remixing BBE as I’ve already mentioned so that’s coming out on Tunnel records on the 14th of August. Sander, Marco V, Jules, Savage, Scot Project are all supporting it so far.
Another remix I’ve literally just finished is of a track produced by good mate, a fellow Scotsman David Forbes. It’s called ‘Super Imposed’ and has just been signed to Silicon, which we are both very excited about. The original mix is a wicked BXR-ish style stomper and my Outburst remix is a tech-trance mix with really dark stabs and some twisted madness.
The new Public Domain single has just been signed to EMI. It’s called ‘I Feel Love’ and is an acid-tinged tech-trance remake of Donna Summer’s classic. It’s been getting support from Armin, Guy Ornadel, Anne Savage and Dave Pearce so far.
We’ve also got a track called ‘Intoxicated’ which is an un-named artist project as yet, mainly un-named because the style of it doesn’t really fit into the PD or Outburst bracket due to it being very tribally and Underworld-ish, more news soon.
On the solo Outburst front I’m dabbling with 2 new really techy projects which I’m really happy with so far. I’ll get them finished this week I reckon.
And last but not least, I’ve just been asked to remix the new Dumonde/JamX and DeLeon single so I’m really happy about that!! Again, more news soon.
Here is my latest gig update Kate. Thanks a lot for the interview, cheers!
26th August — Dancevibe @ The Heb (Stornoway)
27th August — Essence RETURNS @ Fury Murrays (Ayr) with Barry Connell (Goodgreef)
9th September — Swell @ Ice (Kilmarnock) with Simon Foy
29th September — Goodgreef pres. Native @ Basement Club (Middlesborough)
7th October — Reloaded @ Club Ty-coch (Ammanford - Wales)
14th October — Fusion (Orkney)
20th October — Oxa (Zurich - Switzerland)
21st October — TBC
28th October — Smirnoff festival (Venezuela) TBC
November/December — Australian tour part 2 (2006)
24th Nov — Newcastle (Australia)
2nd Dec — Ultraworld (Melbourne) (Australia) with Dave Clarke, Scot Project, Tomcraft, CJ Bolland, Kamui and K90 Live.
8th Dec — (Australia) TBC
9th Dec — Enchanted Forest (Adealide) (Australia)
Check out Mark Sherry’s web site @ http://www.marksherry.co.uk/
Photos copyright Paul Underhill and Mark Sherry. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By K8-e:
The One and Only Eddie Halliwell
PunchFunk & Geushky Presents "Let's Make Rave" with Ian Void & Chris Vaux
Cream @ Amnesia - Ibiza 2010 - Reviewed
Pure Gold: Interview with Will Gold
Turning the Corner - Interview with IAMX
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.
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