With podcasts, productions, internet TV shows, CD mixes, and a label family that keeps chucking out anthem after anthem, Above & Beyond have dominated the trance scene for the last five years, building up a dedicated and passionate fan base the world over.
Last year alone they played over 30 gigs across South America, the States and Europe, mixed their first label compilation for their Anjunadeep label, and seized the Best Group title at Miami’s annual International Dance Music Awards.
The trance trio will fly out to Ibiza they play a special three hour set for Cream Ibiza at Amnesia on 1st July, followed by the Cream Ibiza Radio 1 party at Privilege on Saturday 7th August.
Here we catch up with Tony from the trio to talk Ibiza, clubbing and dancing for Privilege.
What can you tell the Cream clubbers about what's in store to entice them to the Island this year?
Well it’s the first time we’ve played a three hour set at Cream Ibiza and taken over the whole night at the club, so we’re really looking forward to it. The club night itself is always something really special so our longer set time is going to give us a chance to really let our hair down.
Also, we’re going to be hosting an exclusive beach party the following day. It’s just our way of a thanking everyone who booked their holiday that week to come out and see us.
How would you describe Cream Ibiza to someone who hasn’t been there before?
It’s one of the top nights on the island and it’s probably the one I’ve been to the most over the past fifteen years that I’ve been going to Ibiza.
There’s always a solid line up and it’s always well supported. You go to Ibiza to see top DJs and be with like minded people, and I think the Cream night has always managed to do that.
If you look at the line up they’re all DJs everyone wants to see and if you look around on the dancefloor you’re always surrounded by fabulous people. Also as an extra added bonus for the men, there’s the amazing go-go dancers in the Main Room!
Talking of the Main Room, what is it that you love about that particular room - apart from the dancers that is!?
The Main Room is just a great set-up, the position of the DJ booth, the legendary ice cannons and the L.E.D features are just part and parcel of the night. If you’re a clubber and you love trance it's one of the rooms you would have seen in movies and the one all your friends would have talked about. It's just a really special place to play.
- Date: Thursday 1st July 2010
- Event: Cream Ibiza: Above + Beyond at Amnesia
- Venue: Amnesia
- Artists: Above and Beyond, Andy Moor, Calvin Harris, Jaytech
The Main Room also provides a great experience for DJs as you can really get involved with the crowd and don’t feel separated from their clubbing experience. I didn’t initially want to go into DJ’ing as I was having too much fun clubbing, but DJ booths like Amnesia’s simply provide a new podium to dance on and the night feels very similar to us as it does to the clubbers.
One of the amazing things about Amnesia is that it's completely unassuming. If you look at the building from the outside it doesn’t look anything like what you would expect a nightclub to look like, and certainly on the inside until the music’s playing and the people are in there it doesn’t become the Amnesia that we all know and love - but that’s what clubbing is all about.
Since you have been visiting the island and Cream Ibiza for such a long time, do you have any fond memories from there?
That’s a difficult one as there has been so many! I would say one of our best memories is from a holiday we had over there in 2002. We went to Cream Ibiza to see Paul Oakenfold play as we knew him quite well, and we happened to bump into him just before he was going on in the Main Room.
Although we were just on holiday we had a bootleg with us that we had just completed of the Perfecto mix of U2’s ‘Lemon’ crossed with vocals from our remix of Chakra ‘Home’. We gave it to Paul, not expecting him to play it that night but four records in he dropped it! We were just starting out at the time so to hear our record whilst we were in the crowd was great.
Also our first set for Cream Ibiza is obviously another favourite memory we have.
Cream just announced their big Radio 1 party at Privilege. Are you excited to play in Ibiza’s biggest club?
I can’t wait! I know Privilege really well as I actually used to be a dancer for the club back in the day so I’m really excited to play in the Main Room along with the line up that’s been put together.
Will you get to see much of the island?
I’m going to be there for a few days longer than I need to as I’ve managed to get a weekend off, so I will be visiting a few friends over there and going to a few clubs nights.
What track makes you think of Ibiza?
Apart from Hysteric Ego ‘Want Love,’ I would say definitely Nalin & Kane ‘Beachball’. The original mix is such a fragile record and the structure of it is so unusual for a dance record that it amazes me how well it works. It has such a fantastic melody - it’s as if it was made in Ibiza! We actually played a mix of it at our last set for Cream Ibiza so maybe we will get that out again this year.
You have a huge international following, why do you think this is?
What we do is not unique but I think there are clear differences between what we do and what others around us are doing, especially in terms of production and the kind of songs that we write.
We just try to be the very best at what we do. We never really try to be the biggest, we just want to connect with people by making good music and luckily for us this seems to work. We’re big because lots of people like us and that’s lovely, I don’t think we’ve tried to engineer being big.
We’ve had some fantastic lucky breaks and opportunities such as our mix for Madonna and our BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix and I think any opportunities like these that have happened to come our way we’ve executed quite well. Also I think the way we run our label and how precise we are about how good things need to be that come out of there is important.
You’ve recently played at Glastonbury. Do you prefer playing to large festival audiences or club audiences?
Both of them are enjoyable for different reasons. As a DJ it's great to play to a large audience but to me that’s a weekend experience whereas the day to day experience is playing in clubs to our core audience where we can try out new music and develop our sound and production.
What djs/artistes are inspiring you at the moment?
Mat Zo who is signed to our label Anjunabeats is really good, because he can turn his hand to absolutely anything and make it work. He’s like Prince! He enjoys throwing a bit of DnB into his set and in many situations it wouldn’t work but when he does it the crowd love it.
Another DJ who we have just singed is Arti, he hasn’t done any sets yet but he has worked on over ten productions and remixes for us so we’re expecting big things from him.
Above & Beyond perform Cream @ Amnesia in Ibiza on Thursday 1st July. Advance tickets on sale now through Skiddle.
Tickets are no longer available for this event
You can find these artists/djs playing at the following events:
- Calvin Harris: Cream on 3rd Mar
- Above and Beyond: Above & Beyond - Group Therapy 2012 on 7th Apr
- Jaytech: Above & Beyond - Group Therapy 2012 on 7th Apr
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