Above & Beyond: Gearing up for a spiritual homecoming 
exclusive interview with MSN, Above & Beyond discuss their musical inspiration and what the Goa crowds can expect from them this winter…
Tell us about your experience in Anjuna last time you were in Goa… It obviously must have a left an impression on you guys considering your record label is named after it! How has Goa been an inspiration to you as artists?
Actually we’ve never been before, the influence was purely remote. Goa is such a legendary place for any UK clubber with a sense of heritage and history; it was hugely influential to the trance scene. Paul Oakenfold’s “Goa” mix put the place on the map for a lot of people and that mix was a kind of template for us when we did our own Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 in 2005.
What’s the story behind the three of you getting together to form Above and Beyond? How did you guys come up with the name Above and Beyond?
I was working at Warners and had just started making electronic music with my brother after years of us both being in rock bands. A couple of our early Nitromethane productions caught the ear of one of the A&R men there and he asked me to remix Chakra “Home”. Meanwhile, Jono met Paavo at University and had just started working together, releasing the first Anjunabeats track. My brother actually put me on to Jono and they did a remix of one of the Nitromethane tracks (“Time to Die”). I was really impressed by their technical skills and asked them to help out on the Chakra remix. And it went great! When we’d finished we needed a name for the mix and so I was looking round Jono’s room for inspiration. On the wall was a web page of a guy also called Jono Grant that had popped up when Jono put his own name in Google. He was a motivational trainer from America and his slogan was “Above & Beyond”. I took one look and said “That’s it!”
How do you go about your live performances, what kind of equipment do you use up on stage? What’s the difference between this and your DJ performances? Will you guys be DJing for Sunburn or will you guys be performing your songs live?
We’ve done a couple of live dates as Above & Beyond & OceanLab; we play keyboards, sing and play guitar over a stripped down version of the track. We'll do live again one day, but we mainly DJ these days.
This year, you played to a crowd of 30, 000 at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles… what was that like? Do you guys approach playing at a festival differently from a regular club night?
It was incredible! We closed the festival and had everyone singing along! For a festival you need to acknowledge the broader audience who might not be so familiar with your newer stuff or the more esoteric upfront stuff you’d play to a regular audience, so you tend to be a bit more commercial in that respect
Tell us about your label Anjunabeats and its imprint Anjunadeep… What sets your label apart from all the others?
Relentless, absolutely anal quality control. Unless we all absolutely love a track we don’t sign it, and once signed, our artists still have to go through a rigorous A&R process with any follow up, until it is as good as or better than their first release. And that’s why 95% of our releases have had 4 or 5 star reviews in DJ Mag and Mixmag in the UK.
Vinyl seems to be becoming extinct… what are your views on the digital revolution? What is your business strategy for the label when dealing with wax?
Physical product gives people a way of getting the music and at the same time buying into the label and the artist in a very visible way: it’s like a badge. So the demise of vinyl is creating a hole. We’re well aware of the importance of downloads and have been selling them on our website for many years, but recently we set up a business called CDJShop which makes beautiful CD single versions of all our 12 inch releases, so we’re trying to attack it from all sides.
Word is that you will be hosting your very own stage for the Sunburn festival… What’s this all about?
We wanted to bring Anjunabeats back to it’s spiritual home in a meaningful way, so we’re bringing some of the best artists from the label to come with us and give people the full experience. It should be good!
In 7 words describe the kind of sound we can expect from you on the beaches of Goa… Danceable, emotional, melodic, uplifting, surprising, gorgeous music!
Above and Beyond: Gearing up for a spiritual homecoming - MSN Life & Style
