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 With Swedish producer Onova rising to fame with his hugely popular production, 'Platitude' being signed onto Monster Tunes AND Vandit, i:Vibes decided it was time to invite him for an in-depth interview...
Onova aka Christian Lejon has been tearing up the dance floors the last months with his track ‘Platitude’ (Monster Tunes) that has been supported by star DJs like Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, John O’Callagahan, Sean Tyas, John Askew. He hails from Sweden and first came in contact with music when he was 16. He and a friend found the software Rebirth and fell in love with it and started producing tracks. In addition, they started testing their music in clubs in suburban Stockholm. However after six months, their friendship ended and Christian took a break from music until he was 18. Then he discovered the software Reason with another friend and he started producing tracks again and soon record labels became aware of his talent. Soon he made a track called ‘Arashi’ as Substorm and he promoted it on the internet and within a few days Moonrising Records contacted him about a release. Soon after he took part in a remix contest for Lunatique-records to remix DJ Eco - Paradise Now and he won and yet another milestone was reached in his young producer career. 2007 has been a good year for Christian, Having several releases on labels like Monster tunes, Afterglow and Emotive sounds. He has remixed artists like Ben Gold, Redstar, DJ Eco and Andy Blueman. He has a big future and i:Vibes wanted to know more about this up and coming trancer.
i:Vibes: Hi Christian, How are you? Thanks for taking some time to talk to i:Vibes. You don’t only seem to have a talent for producing trance gems, but also at twisting your tongue. I had to laugh when I saw your profile pic at MySpace. Is that how one could get to know you if one met you in a club?
A: Hello, I’m fine thank you. Hahahaha, yea maybe, depends on how many beers ive had!
i:Vibes: How old are you and what was your childhood like in Sweden?
A: I’m 26 years old now, and my childhood in Sweden has been great, I grew up in the subs of Stockholm and lived here ever since. It’s a good country to grow up in and I love it here, except for the dark winters. Its really hard to find some inspiration this time of the year, so at the moment I wish I was on an hot island somewhere with my laptop, hahaha!
i:Vibes: Who were your early musical inspirations when you were a kid?
A: My first ever musical idols were Guns ’n’ Roses and Metallica, but I have always had a love for classical music. I fell in love with classical music when I first heard the theme song in the movie Platoon, as some would be familiar with, Samuel Barber - Adagio For Strings. And I mean the original now. I love all emotional music.
i:Vibes: What was the deciding moment where you knew that you wanted to produce music?
A: Well i discovered trance music at the early age of 15, and back then in the mid 90´s it was very "underground" and connected to drugs and people with social problems. It wasn´t accepted as it is today. I even had problems with my mother and father thinking I did drugs. But then I was most attracted to acid trance and goa trance. Then a couple of years later around ’98/’99, the scene just burst up from the deep music and just created a massive hype. All of a sudden everyone was listening to it and my love for the music grew on me more and more. I think that Paul van Dyke’s "For An Angel" has a place in everyone’s heart today.
One day I was home at a friends house and we were listening to some records, and he told me he had found a really fun program for his computer (at that time the internet and computers weren’t something everyone had, so imagine how long we have come in this short time) , and it was a progrm called ReBirth, the first known program from Propellerheads. It was very simple with only two 303 emulators and an 808 drum machine emulator, but it was really easy and fun. In no time we had made some tracks. As I was DJíng a bit here and there for fun, we started to seek out to promote our music. And the point that made me want to do more was when I saw people dancing and going crazy on the dancefloor on something that I had created, it was a unique feeling that is hard to describe, and made me just want to do more. Today it’s like a drug to me, and I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t able to create music.
i:Vibes: Do you still go to school? What else would you like to do in life, if music doesn’t work out?
A: No, I have a full time job, and as a trance producer you dont make any big money on just making music, so I just do it for the love of it.
Well I think I’ll always be making music as long as I’m alive no matter how it goes, but sure I have a dream of making a living off it. Hopefully I will get to do some more DJíng, but it’s a hard competition out there with so many talented producers and DJs. But I’m one of those people who takes it one day at a time, so we will see what happens.
i:Vibes: You are on the right way to getting more known, was it difficult getting a foot into the trance scene in Sweden? Did anyone help you on your way?
A: Well the trance scene in sweden is not very big and we don´t have that many EDM labels here, so I had to seek over the border to have a chance to get noticed. It’s not that easy if you dont have connections, and at that time I didn´t have any at all. I started out with promoting my music in forums etc etc, and doing a remix contest. And one day I got a mail from Bruno Bergeron, founder of Moonrising records, telling me he was on his way of starting his own label and that he had listened to one of my tracks, Substorm – Arashi, and wanted to sign it. This gave me a push to make me want to do more, and from there on it has gone mostly my way, but with its ups and downs. So the road has been long, but it has been worth every minute.
i:Vibes: How is the trance scene at the moment? Is it growing? You have many established artists, but also new ones coming along: How do you get along with your colleagues?
A: Hmm, it’s good but can be better, and it’s growing more overseas I think. Here in Erope we have had trance for such a long time and the new generation of listeners have a different view on trance and today, things such as sound quality and uniqeness of the track is very important to them. We have more advanced sound systems today and things like sound quality and uniqeness play a very important part in making a good track. This demands more from the producer, and takes more time. Today it isn´t enough to have a solid idea and a kick ass melody, if you can´t get it ”on paper” with the right sounds and a good mix a label won´t sign it. Due to the fact that the new generation of producers are coming, the competition is hard. So you need to be on top of it all the time if you want to make it.
However I am thinking I’m one of few that doesn´t go with the flow, I love melodic trance and this is what I enjoy to produce. So if I just have maybe one fan out there I’m happy hehe... But I want to take melodic trance to another level and make it more interesting again and hopefully get the melodic trance scene to what it was once before.
I have made a lot of new friends since I started making music and even more now that I’m more noticed. DJs and producers in this scene are generally very friendly and everyone helps one another and supports each other, so I would say I get along very well with them.
i:Vibes: It has been some years since you won the remix contest at trance.nu, how has your sound developed since then and what do you still want to improve on in your sound?
A: I learn new things every time I make a new track, and I think that there is always something that can be better. Things like hard kicks and a solid bassline play an important part in today’s trance music, and getting all sounds to play along is always a challange. So improvement of your sound is essential today if you want to make it and stay. I think that one thing that has improved my sound is that I have learned to understand how different sounds behave, and that the most important thing is to learn how to use your own gear, understanding how your monitors/headphone sounds etc etc. It takes time to learn this but once you do, it gets easier to be more innovative and make improvments to your sound.
i:Vibes: How would you describe your sound? Are you only uplifting, or is your sound more complex?
A: I would describe my sound as energetic and uplifting, as this is what I like a trance song to be. But blending complex sounds and uplifting melodies is a good mixture and this is what I’m focusing on at the moment. Taking the complex sound of tech trance, the energy from prog and the feeling from uplifting and mixing them alltogether! But I’m learning new things all the time and I take on every new project with a different approach.
i:Vibes: You first fell in love with Rebirth and then Reason. What made this software so special for you in terms of creating the perfect sounds for you?
A: Well at that time I didn’t know much about what was out there, when the first version of Reason came I was blown away on how easy it was to use. After I got my hands on the first demo version I went out and bought it the day after its release. I could take my creativity to another level, and this is where I began my journey into producing trance. This program is perfect for the beginner, since you have all you need in one program, and it’s easy to understand the basics in production. However, with time I found it very limited since it doesn´t support VST and audio recording, so a few years back I swiched to a program called Ableton Live to be able to use external hardware and playing with samples, and produce without any limitations.
i:Vibes: Your break through came with “Arashi” as Substorm. Were you surprised with this success or did you have a feeling when you had produced the track that it would become a hit?
A: No not really, 'Arashi' was the first track I made after I left producing in Reason. It was more of a project to learn my new program and gear. I posted it in different forums just to get some feedback on the track. So I was gladly surprised when I got the mail that a label wanted to sign it. The release of the track was very delayed due to a lot of different reasons and gave me some time to make another version of it, the 'Moonrising Club Mix'. But when it was finally released I was very happy with the support that it got.
i:Vibes: Soon you started to produce as Onova. Since then you have produced seven tracks as Onova. How did you come up with this name and does it have a special meaning to you?
A: Ehm, hehehe... the name was just something that came to me and I thought it was cool and an easy name to remember. It doesn’t mean anything special as far as I know. First I had thoughts on just 'Nova' which is a mini star that attracts gas and energy from a bigger star which makes it fusionate. But I thought it was a bit boyish so I added the 'O' which represents the fusion and 'Nova' for the little enegetic star that creates the fusion. Yes I’m very fascinated in space... Hahaha!
i:Vibes: Sean Tyas produced some monster tracks and then kept producing more and more and many critics said that he was not so innovative anymore and his sound was always the same. Well after a while he produced some more monster tracks like “Drop”, “One More Night Out” and great remixes silencing his critics. You as Onova have also produced many tracks in the last year. Do you think that is a healthy way considering you never know how the public may label you with so many releases? Do you think that your large scale output of releases is smart at the moment so early in your career?
A: That thought has never really crossed my mind, I just produce when I feel like it and there are many tracks that I have made that haven´t made it all the way. As I have mentioned before I don´t do this for either fame or money and I really don´t have any strategy on where and when I should or would release a track. But I still have much material that I want to make something of, and if the labels and the listeners like it, is yet so be seen. I mean the time will come when you aren´t as popular anymore, so why not make the best of the time you have in the spotlight. But I promise everyone out there that there is a lot more to come.
i:Vibes: “Platitude” is an amazing piece of music! I just love it! It has been played by every top DJ. Did you know that this could be the big hit you were waiting for when you finished it?
A: Thank you, it never gets old to hear that... hehe. No, 'Platitude' stands for unorignal and the idea with the track was to make something simple but effective. The whole track was built around the melody and I thought it was catchy and was pleased with the result, so I sent it to some labels, but i didnt get any big feedback on it. But I thought it was fun when a bigger label like Monster Tunes wanted to sign it, and just a couple of weeks after the deal was sealed I was sitting and listening to A State of trance with Armin van Buuren and all of sudden I started to hear something familiar being mixed in, and after that the hype just has been huge around that track, and it was at that point I knew that this could be something.
i:Vibes: Was “Platitude” a difficult track to make or did you bang it out quickly? What was the most difficult thing in making this track?
A: Ehm it wasn’t so hard to make the track no, I had a very clear image on how i wanted the track to sound and how the arrangement should be. I think that the hardest part was to make the main lead, since I wanted it to have a "pluck" sound that evolved to a big energetic riff. So I needed to layer up three synth sounds to get that specific sound that I wanted, then to bring even more energy to the track I needed to add a fourth synth riff. When working with sounds that have the same waveform it’s easier for them to "crash" and tweaking them so they didn´t do that was a bit of a challenge.
i:Vibes: Sean Tyas banged out “Platitude” in the Techno Club in Frankfurt and the crowd went wild. What inspired you to make this track? Does it have any special meaning to you?
A: Yea I was glad to hear that when Sean told me about it. I made it when spring was showing its face outside and after a long dark winter the inspiration started to grow on me as well, and the track is an image on how the summer feeling is for me. I wanted to make something that people could remember and something to bring out that "happy feeling" which I have missed for a long time in the trance scene, and I guess I wasn´t the only one... It didn´t have any special meaning to me when I made it, but all you listeners and DJs out there have made it very special to me!
i:Vibes: Paul van Dyk's label plan to release “Platitude” on Vandit. How happy are you about this happening? Vandit is one of the top trance labels in the world and not just anyone can release on Vandit. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you found out that Vandit wanted to release “Platitude?
A: Well it still feels very unreal, and I can´t really describe in words how that feels for me, but I feel very honored and happy about it. Yea, I actually was here in my studio when I got the news, I have just started to "take in" everything that had happened around that track, and I remembered that I thought to myself, ”is this track really that good? Woow!”, hahaha...!
i:Vibes: You produced “Inspiration” with Digital Nature. What can we expect from this track? When will it be released?
A: Yea, well we had an idea to make something together, and I wrote some material. The idea was to mix his techy sound with my uplifting, and we were very pleased with the result. You can expect a very energetic track with a catchy uplifting melody. At the moment there is no release date set since we don´t have a label for it yet, but we are dealing with a label as we speak, so hopefully sometime at the beginning of 2008.
i:Vibes: You have produced a lot of tracks as Onova in 2007. When will they be released and what else can we expect from you in the next months?
A: Yea, well first out we have 'Platitude' coming up 10th of December, then my remix of Andy Blueman 'Nyctalopia', don’t know any exact date on that. I just finished my remix of Ben Gold´s new track 'Ten 4' and will be out later this year. Then I have a track I made a while back called 'Niveus' that has been delayed into sometime in the beginning of 2008.
At the moment am remixing a new track from Sebastian Brandt, also a new track from Digital Nature. Then I have a special project going on, but that info will have to wait, but I promise that you won´t be disappointed... hehehe. So there are a lot of things happening, so keep your eyes open.
i:Vibes: With what producer would you like to be locked away with in the studio and why?
A: Hmmm, I think I would say Sean Tyas, because I think he is very talented and I know I could learn a lot from him. But sure I wouldn´t mind maybe joining Paul van Dyk or Armin van Buuren in the studio, that would be a dream come true!
i:Vibes: What artist do you see making a huge impact on the trance scene in 2008?
A: Hmmm, that is a hard question, there are so many new upcoming talents, but I think that melodic trance is making a comeback and one I think is coming on strong at the moment is Sebastian Brandt, having some massive tracks coming up later. Also producers like Daniel Kandi and Cold Blue / Solar Sun are ones to keep an eye on in 2008!
i:Vibes: When you’re in the studio, is there a certain way that you go about producing a track? How do you come up with your special magic for a track? Some producers start with a melody, or bassline. How do you do it?
A: Well I always start out with a melody and build my track around it, and I focus very much on the climax, and the main part of the track, since this is often where there are most sounds playing at the same time. It’s important that this part sounds good and that all these sounds mix well. The magic is to create a good climax in the track, squeezing out most of the energy in the track so you really can feel it. Then when I’m pleased with what I’ve got I make the intro and outro, and last I do the break.
i:Vibes: What studio equipment do you have and what piece of equipment besides your PC could you not live without?
A: My current setup is a PC, 2GB RAM, AMD 64 2.5 GHz dual core. At the moment I’m producing in Ableton Live 6. On the VST side I’m using Novation V-station, Z3ta+ and AR Bassline. Soundcard is M-Audio Audiophile USB. Studiophile BX5 as monitors, and Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro as headphones. MIDI keyboard is an M-Audio Axiom 49. Besides my PC, would be my Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro, a must for every producer, a good pair of headphones.
i:Vibes: You’re also a DJ. How involved are you with your DJ career?
A: Not very much at the moment, I’m doing some guestmixes on different radioshows here and there, but I just don’t have the time I wish I did. And I’m not very known from DJíng yet, but hopefully I will be able to DJ more in the future because I really enjoy it.
i:Vibes: What is the most important thing for you as a DJ?
A: To make people dance? , hehehe... There are DJs who play for themselves and there are DJs who play for the crowd, and I believe that the second is what makes a good DJ and I think that Armin van Buuren is a good example of that. So what is important to me is to keep track on what people like to hear and bring it to them, and try to make a journey of my sets!
i:Vibes: What could one expect from you in a two hour DJ set?
A: I think it depends on the crowd, and an important thing that makes a good DJ ability to read the crowd during a set. I like to keep up the energy in my sets, let it be tech or uplifting, as long as the crowd are more in the air and on the floor!
i:Vibes: Where do you see yourself in five years?
A: Working full time, having two kids, living in a house and driving a volvo... Hahahaha... Just kidding, I really don’t know to be honest, I’m one of those people who takes things one day at a time and I don´t like to plan my future too far ahead, but I hope I will be even more involved in music, maybe having my own label.
i:Vibes: What are your current five favourite tracks at the moment?
A: Sebastian Brandt - Never Alone
Digital Nature & Onova - Inspiration
Ben Gold - Ten 4 (Onova remix)
Evbointh - One wish ( Daniel Kandi and Mark Andrez 1st remix)
The Digital Blonde - Legato (Adam Coppack & Akira Kayosa 2007 mix)
Digital Nature & Onova - Inspiration
i:Vibes: What are your five all time favourite tracks?
A: Rank 1 - Airwave
Paul van dyk - For an Angel
Svenson And Gielen - Beauty Of Silence
System F - Out of the blue
Binary Finary - 1999 (Gouryella remix)
i:Vibes: What are your hobbies?
A: Music is a my biggest hobby, it takes up most of my free time, but I also love to travel, Snowboarding, film and webdesign.
i:Vibes: Thanks for the chat Christian and all the best in the future!!!
A: The pleasure was all mine, thanks for having me here, and thank you!!
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