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ARTIFICIAL INTERVIEW

Anjunabeats trio reveal their 'Prototype'

There's a new electronic group on the musical block, mixing up the thoroughbreds of house and trance to create a different animal altogether. The young-gin trio, comprised of Andrew Bayer and Norin & Rad (Nick Sember and Bruce Karlsson), go by the name of Artificial.

Though the three are successful beat makers in their own right, all working under the Anjunabeats umbrella, the young crew have fused their output to distill the essence of their natural talents into a mighty, world dominating synthesis.

After premiering 'Prototype', their first track together, on Above & Beyond’s ABGT50 podcast, it's released this week. Buy it here.

How did you guys start making music as Artificial?

Andrew: “Nick, Bruce and I have been friends for a long time and we’ve always been collaborating behind the scene a bit. We’d always send music back and forth to each other and A&R each other's music. We finally asked ourselves, 'Why aren’t we working on tracks together?' For our first track 'Prototype', we sent it back and forth a couple times, and ended up finishing it together in Above & Beyond’s studio in London.

“Then we went through like three weeks of working on tracks every day, and wound up developing a sound that combines our musical backgrounds. We felt that it was really important to put it out under a different name. It was something that was so fresh and new to us that we wanted to have that represented by a new project name. That’s how Artificial came about.”

Nick: “We were bouncing a couple of different versions of the track for a while, but when we were finally able to work on it in London we were able to put the finishing touches on it, side by side instead of over Skype. All three of us are really happy with the way it came out.”

Is this the first of many Artificial tracks?

Nick: “Yeah, we have a lot of stuff in the works, along with another completely finished track. I think it’s going to be a pretty big project for us in the future.”

Andrew: “I’m going to be head out to LA in February, so we’re going to have a lot more time in the studio. We have a lot of really great ideas for the project and the team in London has been coming up with some great ideas as well. It feels really nice to have a collective effort, all within the Anjunabeats family.”

Is this the next big trio? Above & Beyond 2.0?

Andrew: “That's kind of been our whole ethos for this project. We’ve been really strict, so that the musicality still comes through in the tunes we make. So many people these days are like, 'Where’s the drop?' You can even go on YouTube and there are comments that will say, like, ‘Drop at 4:30.’ Don’t you want to listen to a little bit of the music before you get to the banger section? With Artificial our goal is to retain musicality, but still make big room music that’s playable in clubs and stays true to the melodic, uplifting sound of Anjunabeats.”

What made you decide to release 'Prototype' so quickly after its first play on ABGT50?

Bruce: “The whole Anjunabeats family, the A&Rs and Above & Beyond, was really supportive and really liked the sound. Everyone’s main goal was to push this out now, because its such a fresh sound. We got such a great response from people after 'Prototype' was played on ABGT50 that we decided to release it as soon as possible. Releasing it that fast just seemed natural.”

Andrew: “When people hear it for the first time, they want to be able to get it in high quality and not have to listen to a set rip.”

Is there going to be an Artificial tour in the future?

Andrew: “We plan on doing some serious touring as Artificial in the near future, but we can’t exactly when yet.”

How do you feel about the term trouse?

Andrew: “We definitely try to combine what we like like best from house and trance, but it isn’t really an accurate description. The word just sounds ugly.”

Bruce: “I think people have used that term more as a negative phrase, rather than a positive one. Trouse has become a category, or type of set, that we are trying to stay away from. With this new project our goal is to do something unique and trouse doesn't do it justice.”