Comfortably amongst the most consistently decent producers in the trance fraternity, Signum have been churning out some of the genre’s most exciting records since 1998, when they unleashed the thumping, dark anthem ‘What Ya Got 4 Me?’. This seminal track got picked up by Tidy Trax in the UK, where it went on to sell over 10,000 copies and become one of the label’s all time biggest sellers. This was followed up by the equally excellent ‘Coming On Strong’, and superb remixes for ATB and Lost Tribe which fizzed over with energy and melody. They had a unique sound which focused around exciting riffs and groovy, funk-fuelled basslines, and in that golden era of the late ’90s they laid the foundations for a long-running and acclaimed body of work to come.
After a few more releases for Tidy Trax, the Dutch duo (real names Pascal Minnaard and Ronald Hagen) started to edge towards a more traditional sound, but never losing sight of that pumping backbone. Stunning tracks like ‘Second Wave’ and ‘First Strike’ exquisitely demonstrated their “trance with balls” approach, and a string of releases on Armin van Buuren’s A State Of Trance imprint as well as remixes for the likes of Above & Beyond, Delerium and Armin himself kept them in the spotlight. We caught up with this awesome pair ahead of their set at Gatecrasher Classics at Ministry of Sound next Friday 15 June...
When and how did you guys meet then? Have you always produced music together?
We first met when we were around 12/13 years old, in highschool. We started talking and we found out that we were both busy with keyboards and making music. We visited each other’s home and started jamming together, and that seemed to work pretty well. We made all sorts of music, from loveballads, jazz and breakbeat to hardcore, but always just for fun.
We did that for many years but when we both went to different schools we kind of lost track of each other, until we met each other again at a mutual friends house. At that time Pascal just got a record deal at BPM Dance and convinced me (Ron) to turn in a demo tape too. I did and got signed as well. Pascal already released a record under Signum called ‘Flow of Knowledge’ and ‘The Other Side’ but since we both had our own equipment at that time, and we knew we could work well together, we decided to put it all together, and started working as a team again. The first release we did together was ‘What Ya Got 4 Me’.
Was growing up in Holland exciting for you, with all the great dance music culture the country has had over the last 2 decades?
Exciting is a big word but... yes we were right in the middle of it. We both really loved that house sound when we first heard it, and it definitely influenced us into making it ourselves. We both went to parties a lot and listened to a lot of music and that always gave us a lot of inspiration. People always said that it was just a hype and that it would never last, but it only got bigger and better. We never thought we would end up making music professionally and that our music would be played all over the world at parties, but here we are… right in the middle of it again.
Would you ever live anywhere outside of Holland?
Well , we’ve been all over the world and seen a lot of amazing places, so never say never.
Do you remember a specific moment when you decided that you wanted a career in dance music?
Ehmm... not really. We both just started making music for fun and we never thought we could make our biggest hobby our job. We just kind off rolled in to it. We just enjoy what we do and we feel really fortunate that we may do this!
How would you describe the style of trance that you play and produce? You’ve certainly always been at the more pumping end of the spectrum...
Our style has changed over the years. We started with the more mainstream trance under Signum but sometimes we did a more techy sound under the name D-Factor. We were always big fans of techno (still are btw) and we believed that the trance sound was repeating itself at some time and we just wanted to experiment with different genres, and try to combine them with trance, just to keep it exciting for ourselves.
‘First Strike’ is a good example of this, since that was a track that was really different from what we did before. We always want our tracks to be pumping and that’s a definite must. We go more to the tech trance side nowadays because that’s just more our thing at the moment, and you can also hear that in our sets and our Signum Signal releases. We also picked up our D-Factor alias again to make more experimental tracks.
You guys started to get really big at the end of the ’90s with big tracks like your remixes of ATB’s ‘9PM ‘Til I Come’ and Lost Tribe’s ‘Gamemaster’. Would you say this was a golden era for you?
Well you could say that. It definitely was an amazing time. It all happened so quickly that we didn’t even have time to realise it all. I have to say that the music scene was quite different then, and we just had the luck that we released the right track/sound at the right moment. You never know…maybe the platinum era will still come?
‘What Ya Got 4 Me?’ and ‘Coming On Strong’ were both massively popular in the hard house scene, selling tens of thousands of copies of Tidy Trax. Were your surprised about this or did music from that genre influence these tracks?
Yes we we’re quite surprised by that. We just made those tracks in the way we felt was right so we weren’t really influenced by it. We just did our own thing so maybe that’s why it sounded different and got so popular.
Your sound was very distinctive back then, with those exciting synth sounds that were very characteristic of many of your tracks in that era. Do you feel that you still have a very unique sound or musical identity?
Our music has changed through time, but that’s a normal thing if you wanna keep up with the trends and sound and new genres that appear. The sounds got bigger and better but we always try to keep our own sound and identity.
We believe we still have our own unique sound. Its only evolved and we think that’s a good thing because otherwise you’re just stuck in time. Things change…also music!
Moving on, you recently remixed Vincent de Moor’s ‘Flowtation’ — a stone-cold classic that must have been pretty difficult to improve on. What approach did you take when you were asked to remix it?
Yes it’s always hard to remix a classic because a lot of people have a certain idea about it. That’s why we decide to not make a more trancy remix of it because then people would really compare the two…and the classic will mostly always win then!
We took some other recognisable parts from the original, like the percussion loop, and focused more on that, and brought the melody to a minimum. In that way we could make it more edgy… more techy. We tried to make the remix really of this time and the style it is nowadays, and we believe we succeeded pretty well.
What else have you got coming on the production/remix front?
Recently a lot of new things of us have been released such as:
Signum — ‘Syndicate/Hit that Note’; D-Factor — ‘Mystique/Tremble’; Undersun — ‘Captivating’ (Signum Signal Remix); and of course our Signum Signal remix of ‘Flowtation’. The new D-Factor — ‘Raw & Nasty’ is already planned and the new Signum is on its way.
We also made some bootlegs just for fun. We made a techy bootleg of MC Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’, which is quite funny but really kicks ass btw, and we also finished a remake/bootleg of a very old school classic… but I can’t say more about that.
At the moment we are busy clearing tracks for our first double mix compilation which is scheduled for release this summer. After that a Signum album will follow.
You will be in London on Friday 15th June to play at Ministry of Sound for Gatecrasher Classics, in the main box. Will be the first time you will have played in this legendary main arena?
Ehmm, we believe it’s the third or fourth time we’ll be playing there, and we’re really looking forward to it, ‘cause the atmosphere is always amazing!
What are your fondest memories of Gatecrasher events from over the years?
Our first debut set we did at Gatecrasher Sheffield…really mindblowing! We’ll never forget that. And Summer Sound System of course!
What are you looking forward to about this summer?
Playing at Mysteryland for the first time, we are really excited about that and of course playing in Ibiza again. We can’t wait for the nice weather hehe.
Do you have a favourite time of night to play?
Well we mostly prefer to play around 1 or 2 since we play a more techy sound.
Is there much of a Dutch community in London who might be coming out of the woodwork to see you play at Gatecrasher Classics?
Well to be honest…we have no idea.
Photos courtesy of Signum. Not to be reproduced without permission.
GATECRASHER CLASSICS
MINISTRY OF SOUND
FRIDAY JUNE 15TH
Ministry of Sound welcomes the return of Gatecrasher on Friday 15th June, back to host the second of its exclusive London parties with a stellar line-up guaranteed to have the crasher kids creaming in their furry boots!
Headlining the main room is trance legend John OO Flemming – a DJ whose career spans more than 20 years, has sold over 1 million CD compilations, and is amongst a small band of people who can say they were responsible for igniting the spark of the scene we all know and love today! Joining him is Crasher regular Adam Sheridan and Trance duo Agnelli & Nelson - their massive Balearic classics 'El Nino' and 'Everyday' have helped define the sound of the Ibiza party spirit, and with five UK top thirty hits, and countless buzz chart remixes the pair remain synonymous with the more musical end of the trance scene. Closing the box on the night, Signum the dutch producer/DJ duo continue their rise to the top!
In the Bar it’s trance dream team Scott Mac & Mac Zimms playing Back2Back alongside Niklas Harding – a clear-cut example of new generation, fresh DJ talent followed by AJ Gibson; a DJ bursting with an energy and enthusiasm that can only be matched by the clubbers! To top it all off, Nikki Wildchild and Reece Elliot bring their own style of trance madness to the Baby Box with ‘Neighbourhood Watch’.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT...PURE TRANCE!
COME GET INVOLVED AND LISTEN TO THE BIGGEST NAMES THE SCENE HAS TO OFFER ON THE LOUDEST SOUND SYSTEM THE UK HAS HEARD!
From: James Terryon 7th Jun 2007 11:37.35 Nice interview. I love these guys there tech trance productions for me have always been bang on...absolute quality!
From: Benedicton 7th Jun 2007 11:51.12 Shame they've gone so tech trancey these days, I used to love their stuff but can't stand anything they've done in years. To the rhythm was a superb tune though.
From: sexyminxon 7th Jun 2007 20:03.10 Another wicked interview Ben. Nice on to Signum, for all their hard work. Lovin all your 's. Keep up the good work and all the best for 2007 and the future x
From: carl nicholsonon 11th Jun 2007 12:42.29 What benedict said!
From: Steve.Con 15th Jun 2007 21:21.21 "What you got for me" - still one of my all time fave tunes. Not keen on the tech trance stuff stuff but fair play for their back catalogue.
From: K.A.R.L.on 23rd Jun 2007 20:11.16 Personally I think you have to evolve your sound as a producer or you end up stuck in a rut going nowhere (UK hard trance is a classic example of this), so fair play to these guys for trying different things.
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's. Keep up the good work and all the best for 2007 and the future x