Headlining Flights 3rd b-day bash on the 7th of May is UK trance legend Rob Stevenson of Activa. Come join us in Johannesburg with the best that the world has to offer, and celebrate the night away for Flight’s 3rd birthday party!

A very warm welcome to Rob. For someone who travels as much as you do I’m sure it’s nice and refreshing to come to a country where you haven’t played before?
Thanks for having me! Definitely, yeah, it’s always nice to visit a new country and get to sample the scene there and how the music goes down. I am definitely in a lucky position to be able to visit the countries I have visited and be involved in the scene in these different places.

You have achieved so much in your career to date but everyone needs to start somewhere. Where did it all start for you?
I think my real start was having a collaboration track with Aled Mann signed to the old Somatic Sense label back in 2004, since then it has been a steady road to where my career is right now. It’s been really enjoyable.

Tell us a bit about the different aliases that you have produced under in the past and how do you use them to accommodate the music journey you try and create?
The main reason for the alias’ in the past has mainly been to allow me to release my high output of music within a short time span, but there has always been some, although at times, quite small distinction between the sounds.

I try to use Solar Movement tracks earlier in my sets, moving into the main Activa alias, which is what I play mostly, then into the harder Mekk V sound. Most of my aliases have been stopped now and I am slowly integrating the different sounds in my main Activa alias. I think it’s just a bit cleaner and helps everyone be directed to the main alias for all the music.

You are also working on the follow up to your debut Album “The World” which will be out later this year. How are things coming along and what can we expect to hear?
Yeah, the second album is well under-way and is called ‘To The Point’ which pretty much explains my thoughts behind it. The first album was something I needed to prove to myself I could do and I was really pleased with the result. This album is much, much different. It’s unmixed, full versions of the tracks, to cater a little more for the DJ’s this time. As I wanted to do a compilation project too, I didn’t see much point in mixing the album.

Like the last one there will be a range of music on there, but hopefully will keep the Activa tinge to the music.

It takes a lot of effort and dedication to create an album, especially when you have such a busy DJ schedule. How do you go about preparing and where do you find your inspiration?
I tend to work on the album during the week and I start at least 10 to 12 months before the projected release date to hopefully give me enough time to get everything done. I have become extremely picky with my productions now and tend to want them to sound the best they can. I think that its hard to be original in trance, however, it shouldn’t stop people putting the effort into creating high quality music. I try to put effort into the sound of my productions and don’t tend to worry about trying to reinvent the wheel.

You have done several tracks in the past. What made you feel that now is the right time to start putting albums out?
Good question, I think the main reason is that I take control over every aspect of the album from the music right through to sourcing the artwork and getting involved in the manufacturing. It’s a very involved process but once you have finish its very satisfying to sit back and look at your creation and think ‘I made that!’ It’s a nice feeling.

I think the extra touch that taking control on an album has helped define a certain time in a career or even your life at times. This World was a huge undertaking and small touches like the cardboard wraparound around the jewel case helps to set it apart somewhat from the countless CD’s churned out on a weekly basis by certain larger labels. I really think that people appreciate the effort that goes in and gives them a feeling that when they buy it, they’re really getting something for their money. Its something that I think the scene is lacking so try to add into all the projects like this I do.

You have worked quite a bit with Julie Harrington on the previous album. Can we expect more vocals from her?
Yeah, I have done a track called ‘Stronger’ which is the second single from the album It comes with a more Activa sounding club mix and more uplifting Solar Movement mix. Julie is a delight to work with and I love the results when we work together. I have always loved Miro – ‘By Your Side’ which she did the vocals on and I think that all her vocals have that kind of quality.

How difficult is it for you to find quality vocalist for your type of sound?
Without getting into the politics of the industry, it’s pretty hard. It would be great to work with certain other vocalists but there are always things in the way, whether it be a manager, or label. It can get pretty annoying but without that situation I wouldn’t have found Julie and found working with her so satisfying. I think we have a similar outlook regarding trance vocals.

You have taken over the duties as label manager at Discover records with John Askew now moving over to Perfecto. A lot of people would say that you were the natural successor to take over anyway but how did it come about and how’s the transition been?
I think it mainly came about after I moved into the position as one of Discovers main artists after the likes of John O’Callaghan and Sean Tyas went to Armada. I have always been very involved with my own releases getting into the detail of the release, right down to designing some of the artwork etc and I think that set me up as John’s successor in Chris’ eyes as he could already see how I would help run things and what kind of style I would be looking for to release.

What can we expect from Discover in 2011?
Hopefully a look back to the kind of music that Discover released in its peak, a melodic and uplifting but hard hitting trance style which made it so popular a few years back. I think with the genres move towards much more slow house sounding music, or that of the ‘Dutch’ style electro trance sound its important to keep good uplifting trance alive while still trying to keep it fresh. My personal aim for Discover is to work on the quality of the music so that even if some people don’t necessarily like the actual track, they cant argue that the quality is sub standard. I think that’s very important in these days of cheap, tacky sounding so called ‘trance’. Hopefully a nod back to older styles of trance would be nice too and by that I don’t mean the actual type of trance but the thought process behind the music, older trance had much more of an experimental and unique sound as people really had to work hard on a synth to make the sounds they wanted. Now it’s too easy to use a preset on a VST and create a fast, bad sounding track. I’m definitely trying to stay away from cheap, low quality music.

You have worked with so many artists in the past. Is there anyone who springs to mind who you would like to work with in the future?
It would be great to work with someone like Hybrid, I rate them as producers, extremely highly and although its sad to say, I don’t think there is anyone in the trance scene any more that is as good as them in terms of the sheer uniqueness of their production.

There are quite a few talented trance producers raising their hands in South Africa at the moment and I’m sure as a label manager you are always on the lookout for new and cutting edge artist and producers. What is the best process to follow if one would want to get in touch with your labels?
The best way is to contact the labels directly via the demo email addresses. For both Discover and Borderline, all the demo emails come straight to me and although I can rarely reply to the emails mainly due to time constraints, I listen to all the tracks.

I would say however that it’s important to have a high quality threshold and if you can honestly sit and compare the quality to an already released track and think it’s as good, then maybe send it through to a label. Unfortunately too many people are too quick to send their tracks through to labels and it just seems to the label that the quality is getting lower when in fact its just a larger amount of unready material. Also, take into account what the label actually releases, there isn’t any point sending a hip hop track to a trance label, its wont be signed. Trust me, that happens!

Rob you are an outstanding DJ and producer and you have engineered a number of tracks for some well established DJ’s. On top of that you run 3 record labels, to say you have a full time job is an understatement. How do you manage everything?
That’s very nice of you to say so, hehe. I really only run one which is Borderline, with Discover I only really deal with the artists and signing the material and although its only one part of the process it can be quite involved. I think because music is my full time job, it means that I spend all my time doing something to do with music. I usually work during the day on producing music and on an evening get to all the label work then dj on a weekend so there is time to do everything as long as you keep on top of it.

I do have someone who helps with the promotion for Borderline which helps a lot, it means that I can continue to do other work while the tracks are getting a good promotional hammering on the web.

You are headlining Flights 3rd b-day bash on the 7th of May and let me tell you, that there is not a more up for it crowd anywhere in Johannesburg. What can we expect from your set?
As usual hopefully my set will be uplifting and energetic, bags of euphoria as well as some tough and driving grooves. I will probably play certain tracks from my upcoming album too to give them a test in a club environment.

Check Out the events:
http://www.mrspencer.com/events/details/499-Flight%5C%27s%203rd%20Birthday%20with%20ACTIVA!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190304834341104&ref=notif¬if_t=event_invite 

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