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*thread reseurrection from the old Trancefix*...
Hello,well i thought some of you may find this vaguely interesting,im documenting the last 20 years or so as a 'bedroom producer'.
Ive always thought of myself as that,as in not having a proper studio,no hardware synths,not even having a music keyboard or play an instrument - just me,a mouse and a copy of Logic!
The insight may be interesting for any budding new producers out there,or maybe producers who have had similar experiences and turned pro - or even ones who have quit the scene since.
Ive documented events by years :
The Early Years
I grew up in the 80's and the house we lived in had an old Wurlitzer jukebox,which had so many different types of music on its 8" vinyls....music all the way from the 1950's....The Beatles,Led Zeppelin,Frank Sinatra - even things like The Ghostbusters Theme and Chubby Checker! I was heavily influenced by what my parents used to listened to,so two huge artists for me early on was Queen and Michael Jackson - i remember i used to listen to the 'Bad' album on my old Sony cassette Walkman as i walked around the house.
My early memories of electronic music would be when my parents used to play Enigma on a new CD player we had bought,around 1990 - i used to think this sound was quite haunting at the time,but now i look back and i think this mustve been a huge influence regarding Ambient,Downtempo,Breakbeat music.
Into the mid 90's and i started to collect the 'Now That What i Call Music' series - first on Cassette and then on CD. I used to love the dance tracks they normally put on at the end - artists like St Etienne and N-Trance. One track that really caught my ears was JX - Theres Nothing I Wont Do...although classed as 'Euro Dance',this had some really Trancy riffs and i would say an important record in the beginning for my love of Trance.
And then in early 1999,i was working at a tumble dryer factory at 16 years old as a part time job - i heard a track that came on the local radio station - it was System F - Out Of The Blue. I had no idea who Ferry Corsten was and what Trance music is but i know i fell in love with that sound and i bought it straight away on release. And as you all know,that was the start of the Trance wave in the UK that year - tracks like Gouryella and Veracocha started hitting the charts.
Shortly after,i also saw a TV advert late at night on my small portable black & white TV - it was for the very first Euphoria CD mixed by PF Project. The only track i recognised on it was Lucid - I Cant Help Myself - i had it on a Now CD from the year before. I bought the Complilation and its the CD that changed my life,i fell in love with every track - and after that i collected pretty much every Trance CD that year in 1999,along with a host of CD singles - and the rest they,is history!
1999
I started out experimenting with production on the Codemasters 'Music' games on the Playstation - i made around 100 tracks in various styles such as progressive,techno,industrial....i started out at 150 BPM!
2001
I joined a few Trance forums,including Trance.nu,Tranceaddict & Anjunabeats. I didnt post a track for a few years,but these forums were a great place for track discussion and discovering classic i hadnt heard yet,and i could also hear what other bedroom producers were making in the production forums.
In late 2001 i bought myself a couple of Numark belt drive turntables and a budget mixer - i spent the entire first day trying to mix the only two vinyls i had....Hemstock & Jennings - Mirage & the Praha remix of Outlaw.
2004
I dabbled on Ableton & Reason before i chose Logic Express as my main program.
2005
Created the 'Magdelayna' alias and starting learning Logic from scratch with no manuals as such. I made 'early works' tracks covering progressive Trance & Chillout. I took a lot of producer advice on forums such as Trance.nu & Tranceaddict - artists such as Airbase & Airwave were big helps back then.
2006
First release on Aurora Digital with a track named 'Prolific'
2007
I developed a 'spacy' Trance style and my 2nd release on Aurora reflected that with 'Rings Of Saturn'.
My first remix release was on Bonzai with 'Aerium & Krivi - Forever Playing' this got my first major support from Aly & Fila.
My radio show 'Moments of Energy' started on Danceradio.gr
2008
My collaboration track with Richard Gale entitled 'Back To The Stars' gained massive support from Markus Schulz,Aly & Fila and also Dave Pearce,on his BBC Radio 'Dance Anthems' show.
2009
Had more Aly & Fila support with 'Second Universe' and i appeared on the very first Defcon Recordings release,with a remix of 'Trailblazer'.
I moved from Logic Express to Logic Pro.
Meanwhile my radio show moved to Afterhours FM.
Created a Youtube channel.
2010
'The Thoughts EP' was released on Digitized Recordings - Aly & Fila supported ''Forever More'' from that record.
I started producing more Chilled Trance versions of tracks,my remix of 'Med & Phil Metcalfe - January' on Defcon being one of them.
2011
Released my single 'Hope Still In Your Heart' - the A & Z remix had Aly & Fila support.
2012
Aly & Fila played my remake of 'Transa - Supernova' live at club Eden,Ibiza as part of a FSOE show.
2013
Signed to Abora Recordings and went on to make a lot of Chilled Trance remakes,including a remix of iconic gatecrasher anthem 'Mea Culpa - Spiritual Light' which had a release on iTunes.
2014
Recorded a vocal track with Clare Stagg - also had support of my chillout material from Solarstone & Chicane.
Was one of the winners of 'The Thrillseekers - Find You' remix competition - getting a release on the Adjusted label.
2015
My remix of 'Find You' was released on Adjusted in the early part of the year.
I gave iconic tracks 'The Message' & 'Whispers' a chilled interpretation, which earned support from Solarstone.
My Chilled version of classic track 'As the Rush Comes' won a remix competition on Trancefix.
My single 'Accessing Your Memories' was released on the label tranceform Recordings - this had support from Gatecrasher legend Scott Bond and also won the 'single of the month' in December on the Trancefix forum.
The landmark 100th episode of 'Moments Of Energy' aired in December on Afterhours FM.
I released my artist mix album 'Anthology' - this featured the last decade of my original work.
2016
My chilled remake of Gouryella's 'Anahera' drew massive praise - even from Ferry himself,describing it as a 'Beautiful Rework'.
Chicane supported my chilled rework of 'Fragments Of Bliss' on his ''Sun:Sets radio show.
Triple support from Solarstone,including my chilled remake of Trance classic 'Rank 1 - Airwave'. A track he closed with in San Francisco,on a 6 hour extended set.
My chilled remix of Tom Forde's 'Im Free' was released on Defcon.
Reached 500,000 plays on my Youtube channel.
Reached 25,000 total downloads on Soundcloud.
2017
My radio show 'Moments Of Energy' reached its 10th anniversary,with a 3 hour special mix.
More Chicane support on his Sun:Sets show.
Original tracks 'Remember' & 'Lunar Totality' released myself on Bandcamp.
Made a 22 minute concept track at 30BPM - entitled 'Suspended In Trance'.
2018
My remix of 'Fragments Of Bliss' appeared on Chicane's 'Sun:Sets' compilation CD - released on Armada.
My radio show 'Moments Of Energy' finished broadcasting on Afterhours.FM - after 9 years on the station.
My remix of 'Whispers' was released on the Electrovoya 'Time Passes' EP.
Played at Luminosity Beach Festival,on the Sunset stage - my worldwide live DJ debut.
Reached a Million plays on my Youtube channel.
2019
Won the Neptune Project 'Pulse' remix competition,released on Mythology.
Won the Push 'No Borders' remix competition,released on Mostiko.
My remix of 'Airwave - Save Me' appeared on his landmark 20 Years CD album.
Also my remixes of Airwave's 'Sunspot' & 'Alone In The Dark' released on Bonzai.
Collaboration with Altitude (Steve Gibbs) on 'We Are One'.
My remix of 'Stage One' was released on Lost Language.
Reached 10 Million plays on Youtube.
2020
Reached 25 Million plays on Youtube.
Reached 30,000 subscribers on my Youtube channel.
Released my artist album 'Anthology II' on Bandcamp.
Solarstone & Scott Bond support on various tracks.
My remix of 'Now We Are Free' reached 15 Million plays.
2021
Reached 60,000 Subscribers on my Youtube channel.
Reached 40 Million plays on my Youtube channel.
My remix of 'Now We Are Free' reached 25 Million plays.
Solarstone support.
Started a 'Retrospective' DJ mix series,playing all my discography from each seperate year.
Started a 'Expeditions' DJ mix series,shying away from Trance a little - more Techno/Progressive based.
2022
Played at the Anomaly 'Summer Of Love' festival - my UK DJ debut.
Reached 45 Million plays on my Youtube channel - plays took a big hit this year,due to the double whammy of the end of lockdowns and also the war in Ukraine.
Hello,well i thought some of you may find this vaguely interesting,im documenting the last 20 years or so as a 'bedroom producer'.
Ive always thought of myself as that,as in not having a proper studio,no hardware synths,not even having a music keyboard or play an instrument - just me,a mouse and a copy of Logic!
The insight may be interesting for any budding new producers out there,or maybe producers who have had similar experiences and turned pro - or even ones who have quit the scene since.
Ive documented events by years :
The Early Years
I grew up in the 80's and the house we lived in had an old Wurlitzer jukebox,which had so many different types of music on its 8" vinyls....music all the way from the 1950's....The Beatles,Led Zeppelin,Frank Sinatra - even things like The Ghostbusters Theme and Chubby Checker! I was heavily influenced by what my parents used to listened to,so two huge artists for me early on was Queen and Michael Jackson - i remember i used to listen to the 'Bad' album on my old Sony cassette Walkman as i walked around the house.
My early memories of electronic music would be when my parents used to play Enigma on a new CD player we had bought,around 1990 - i used to think this sound was quite haunting at the time,but now i look back and i think this mustve been a huge influence regarding Ambient,Downtempo,Breakbeat music.
Into the mid 90's and i started to collect the 'Now That What i Call Music' series - first on Cassette and then on CD. I used to love the dance tracks they normally put on at the end - artists like St Etienne and N-Trance. One track that really caught my ears was JX - Theres Nothing I Wont Do...although classed as 'Euro Dance',this had some really Trancy riffs and i would say an important record in the beginning for my love of Trance.
And then in early 1999,i was working at a tumble dryer factory at 16 years old as a part time job - i heard a track that came on the local radio station - it was System F - Out Of The Blue. I had no idea who Ferry Corsten was and what Trance music is but i know i fell in love with that sound and i bought it straight away on release. And as you all know,that was the start of the Trance wave in the UK that year - tracks like Gouryella and Veracocha started hitting the charts.
Shortly after,i also saw a TV advert late at night on my small portable black & white TV - it was for the very first Euphoria CD mixed by PF Project. The only track i recognised on it was Lucid - I Cant Help Myself - i had it on a Now CD from the year before. I bought the Complilation and its the CD that changed my life,i fell in love with every track - and after that i collected pretty much every Trance CD that year in 1999,along with a host of CD singles - and the rest they,is history!
1999
I started out experimenting with production on the Codemasters 'Music' games on the Playstation - i made around 100 tracks in various styles such as progressive,techno,industrial....i started out at 150 BPM!
2001
I joined a few Trance forums,including Trance.nu,Tranceaddict & Anjunabeats. I didnt post a track for a few years,but these forums were a great place for track discussion and discovering classic i hadnt heard yet,and i could also hear what other bedroom producers were making in the production forums.
In late 2001 i bought myself a couple of Numark belt drive turntables and a budget mixer - i spent the entire first day trying to mix the only two vinyls i had....Hemstock & Jennings - Mirage & the Praha remix of Outlaw.
2004
I dabbled on Ableton & Reason before i chose Logic Express as my main program.
2005
Created the 'Magdelayna' alias and starting learning Logic from scratch with no manuals as such. I made 'early works' tracks covering progressive Trance & Chillout. I took a lot of producer advice on forums such as Trance.nu & Tranceaddict - artists such as Airbase & Airwave were big helps back then.
2006
First release on Aurora Digital with a track named 'Prolific'
2007
I developed a 'spacy' Trance style and my 2nd release on Aurora reflected that with 'Rings Of Saturn'.
My first remix release was on Bonzai with 'Aerium & Krivi - Forever Playing' this got my first major support from Aly & Fila.
My radio show 'Moments of Energy' started on Danceradio.gr
2008
My collaboration track with Richard Gale entitled 'Back To The Stars' gained massive support from Markus Schulz,Aly & Fila and also Dave Pearce,on his BBC Radio 'Dance Anthems' show.
2009
Had more Aly & Fila support with 'Second Universe' and i appeared on the very first Defcon Recordings release,with a remix of 'Trailblazer'.
I moved from Logic Express to Logic Pro.
Meanwhile my radio show moved to Afterhours FM.
Created a Youtube channel.
2010
'The Thoughts EP' was released on Digitized Recordings - Aly & Fila supported ''Forever More'' from that record.
I started producing more Chilled Trance versions of tracks,my remix of 'Med & Phil Metcalfe - January' on Defcon being one of them.
2011
Released my single 'Hope Still In Your Heart' - the A & Z remix had Aly & Fila support.
2012
Aly & Fila played my remake of 'Transa - Supernova' live at club Eden,Ibiza as part of a FSOE show.
2013
Signed to Abora Recordings and went on to make a lot of Chilled Trance remakes,including a remix of iconic gatecrasher anthem 'Mea Culpa - Spiritual Light' which had a release on iTunes.
2014
Recorded a vocal track with Clare Stagg - also had support of my chillout material from Solarstone & Chicane.
Was one of the winners of 'The Thrillseekers - Find You' remix competition - getting a release on the Adjusted label.
2015
My remix of 'Find You' was released on Adjusted in the early part of the year.
I gave iconic tracks 'The Message' & 'Whispers' a chilled interpretation, which earned support from Solarstone.
My Chilled version of classic track 'As the Rush Comes' won a remix competition on Trancefix.
My single 'Accessing Your Memories' was released on the label tranceform Recordings - this had support from Gatecrasher legend Scott Bond and also won the 'single of the month' in December on the Trancefix forum.
The landmark 100th episode of 'Moments Of Energy' aired in December on Afterhours FM.
I released my artist mix album 'Anthology' - this featured the last decade of my original work.
2016
My chilled remake of Gouryella's 'Anahera' drew massive praise - even from Ferry himself,describing it as a 'Beautiful Rework'.
Chicane supported my chilled rework of 'Fragments Of Bliss' on his ''Sun:Sets radio show.
Triple support from Solarstone,including my chilled remake of Trance classic 'Rank 1 - Airwave'. A track he closed with in San Francisco,on a 6 hour extended set.
My chilled remix of Tom Forde's 'Im Free' was released on Defcon.
Reached 500,000 plays on my Youtube channel.
Reached 25,000 total downloads on Soundcloud.
2017
My radio show 'Moments Of Energy' reached its 10th anniversary,with a 3 hour special mix.
More Chicane support on his Sun:Sets show.
Original tracks 'Remember' & 'Lunar Totality' released myself on Bandcamp.
Made a 22 minute concept track at 30BPM - entitled 'Suspended In Trance'.
2018
My remix of 'Fragments Of Bliss' appeared on Chicane's 'Sun:Sets' compilation CD - released on Armada.
My radio show 'Moments Of Energy' finished broadcasting on Afterhours.FM - after 9 years on the station.
My remix of 'Whispers' was released on the Electrovoya 'Time Passes' EP.
Played at Luminosity Beach Festival,on the Sunset stage - my worldwide live DJ debut.
Reached a Million plays on my Youtube channel.
2019
Won the Neptune Project 'Pulse' remix competition,released on Mythology.
Won the Push 'No Borders' remix competition,released on Mostiko.
My remix of 'Airwave - Save Me' appeared on his landmark 20 Years CD album.
Also my remixes of Airwave's 'Sunspot' & 'Alone In The Dark' released on Bonzai.
Collaboration with Altitude (Steve Gibbs) on 'We Are One'.
My remix of 'Stage One' was released on Lost Language.
Reached 10 Million plays on Youtube.
2020
Reached 25 Million plays on Youtube.
Reached 30,000 subscribers on my Youtube channel.
Released my artist album 'Anthology II' on Bandcamp.
Solarstone & Scott Bond support on various tracks.
My remix of 'Now We Are Free' reached 15 Million plays.
2021
Reached 60,000 Subscribers on my Youtube channel.
Reached 40 Million plays on my Youtube channel.
My remix of 'Now We Are Free' reached 25 Million plays.
Solarstone support.
Started a 'Retrospective' DJ mix series,playing all my discography from each seperate year.
Started a 'Expeditions' DJ mix series,shying away from Trance a little - more Techno/Progressive based.
2022
Played at the Anomaly 'Summer Of Love' festival - my UK DJ debut.
Reached 45 Million plays on my Youtube channel - plays took a big hit this year,due to the double whammy of the end of lockdowns and also the war in Ukraine.
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