Having just about to push out their latest singles 'Second Wave' and 'Cura Me', Ron and Pascal speak to i:Vibes about whats to come and what their past experiences have been like, so check this out!

i:Vibes: First of all, what can you tell us about both your backgrounds and your origins? In terms of where you're from, your musical influences, and your general hobbies?

Ron: Hi I'm Ronald Hagen, born on May 25th, 1976 in The Hague in Holland. I've been listening to music all my life. At the age of 12, I bought my 1st keyboard and learned how to play it and I learned how to read notes. I didn't do this at a music school but learnt it myself because I had friends who went to these schools and what they had learned in 2 years I did in a couple of months, which was pretty cool!

After this I bought a sequencer (the well known Atari), and I started to make jazz & fusion and pop music, so you could say that jazz musicians were my biggest influence. Each year I would work my ass off in the holidays so I could buy some new equipment. After doing this a couple of years and having a small home studio, I participated in some talent shows held by my local musicstore and I actually won one of them!!

At my high school I met Pascal in the first year, and discovered that he was into music and so was I. We ended up having jam sessions at each others house, and we were really into making pop music. After I had finally finished high school, I lost contact with Pascal and I discovered House music, which I bought into immediately and started going to parties every weekend.

I got in touch with Pascal again and he told me that he was into House music as well and at about the same time he turned in a demo tape at the company BPM DANCE and got a contract. He told me to do the same thing and a year later I got a contract as well. At that time we made some weird techno/trance stuff under the name D-Factor. A couple of months later we wanted to make something else and we came up with "Pressure", which ended up as the B-side of "What ya got 4 me".

Our manager told us to make a more trancey track for the A-side, and "What Ya Got 4 Me" was born. We just made it for fun and we didn't expect it to become that big and because of this the beginning of Signum came about.

As for hobbies: making music was my hobby but since it has become my work, my new hobbies are now playing video games and watching movies!

Pascal: I was born October 26th, 1976 in Leidschendam, Holland and I live in Zoetermeer. I was about 11/12 years old when my creative side took over and I suddenly became interested in keyboards.

My first song I learned to play was Axel F (from the movie Beverly Hills Cop) on my first Casio (that was really small by the way). From there on I tried to play every tune I liked by ear (not with a notebook) just by feeling. That didn't always come out right but it did teach me how to make chords. From there on it only got worse and I wanted the keyboard to be bigger and sound better. So eventually I got my first synthesizer and atari (with cubase) so I could record what I played and build tracks.

During that time I went to highschool and that's where I met Ron; in fact the very first day we met we ended up fighting and had to clean the entire schoolyard!!. He was also busy with making music and we started making things together like popmusic, jazzrock and ballads wich became more complex every time. We both graduated but stayed in touch as friends and of course to make music!

I went to study in Rotterdam (graphic design study) because I still liked to draw. Eventually I lost contact with Ron. During that time I heard that BPM DANCE (our record company now) had moved to Zoetermeer (my hometown) and I turned in a demotape thinking I would never hear from them again...well I thought wrong, 2 days later they called me and I got my first record deal.

I released some tracks on my own and then I got in contact with Ron again , he was still busy with making music but just for fun. I persuaded him to turn in a demo and he got a record deal as well so we ended up combining our studio's and that's when we made "What Ya Got For Me". We never thought that it would be that big a tune because we just made it for fun but it turned out to be just that! What happened after that you know! Because music was my hobby (and still is in a way) I just like to play videogames (playstation and
X-box) and watch a lot of movies just to relax a bit because we dj a lot now and of course have to be in the studio also making new tracks.

i:Vibes: With an extensive remixography and production history, you've remixed everyone from Alice Deejay to Blank and Jones, and have produced numerous tracks. Where do your productions and remix ideas come from, and what productions / remixes do you feel you've done the best on? Your favourite ones?

Ron: If we do a remix we take out the most important part of the track and build a complete new track around it, but it's also important that you keep the essence of the original. Sometimes it's difficult and sometimes can be easy.

When we do our own stuff, we just start out with making the beat and when we are satisfied with this we come up with a bassline and by now we have our main drive. Then we take our time to come up with a melody that sends shivers down your spine gives you goosebumps all over your body. Then we know we've got something good. After this we just start to build the track.

I think that our best remixes are: Travel - Bulgarian, Katana - Silence and KayCee - Escape. For our own stuff, we're really proud of our last productions:

First Strike, 5 Yards, Second Wave and Cura Me

i:Vibes: The recent release "Second Wave" has been a big success, with heavy support from Armin van Buuren and other DJs, what do you have to say about this production? and when will it be seeing a proper release?

Ron: It's a bit harder then the stuff we usually make, we combined a new drive with an old "Signum" Melody, As a producer you are going through different stages, just as in life. I think this production is more mature compared to our older stuff.

We also made this track to see and test the reaction of the crowd. It gives you a good indication for future productions, in terms of what works and what doesn't work on a dancefloor.

i:Vibes: Coming on Strong is seeing a remix release this coming summer heading towards the harder tip of trance. What are your opinions on hard trance and uplifting? as well as the progressive sound which is prevalent with DJs like Dave Seaman, Sasha, et al?

Pascal: First of all we have to say that we think that the remixes of "Coming on Strong" are more hard house than hard trance. We like the hard trance sound and we also play it but it has to have a good melody - that's our main criteria and that also counts for the uplifting stuff. We also like the progressive stuff because they are usually really well produced but we like the more harder progressive (so you don't fall asleep :))

i:Vibes: The sound of trance doesn't seem to have a distinct sound at the moment. Where would you personally like to see it headed? and is this matched by your upcoming productions?

Ron: We think that the sound of trance has become a lot harder lately and a lot of German products are very hot at the moment in the UK. Personally we would like to see heavier beats (more techno driven beats) and proper melodies (this is already happening at the moment). And we hope to see / hear more surprises in arrangements (a lot of producers use the same build-ups every time)

i:Vibes: You've been booked in for 3 of the biggest festivals in the UK in the upcoming months (Homelands, Summer Sound System and Global Gathering), and you've obviously played around the world quite a bit, what are your views on the UK clubbing scene and how does it compare to the other places you have played such as the massive Zouk in Singapore and Tresor in Berlin?

Ron: We think that the best place to DJ is the UK. The crowd is very critical in terms of what you play in the sense that they know their tunes, and how you mix. This is a good thing because it keeps you sharp and you have to come up with a new set every time.

The rest of the world is less critical for instance if you play in Malaysia or Japan you can play some older stuff and they won't even know it's a couple of months old. But it obviously doesn't mean that you can perform less.

i:Vibes: Any memorable DJ experiences you guys can remember over the past couple of years you've played?

Ron: Yeah!, we must say almost every time is memorable but our tour in Japan was amazing (It took us a week to recover from everything we had seen and experienced). The first time we played abroad, in Israel, it was really great as well and our UK debut at Crasher if we thought about that we get goosebumps all over again, and since that moment we have been addicted to the UK.

i:Vibes: Signum is a guise you 2 have worked on, and in the past you guys have also released under Ron Hagen & Pascal M, including the massive "Forever" which made it as one of the big tracks a few years ago. Do your productions under Ron Hagen & Pascal M have a different approach to Signum?

Ron: In the beginning they had a different approach, the stuff under our own name is a lot softer, more melodic and has a more "ballad" kind of feel to it. Now if we have a track that does not fit the "Signum" sound, we'll look if it can be released under our own name or under D-Factor.

i:Vibes: In terms of own productions and remixes, whats in the pipeline for the upcoming months? and is there any plan for a solo artist album?

Pascal: We are busy with some remixes but we can't say anything about it yet because we don't know how long that's gonna take and also because we want to spend more time doing our own tracks. We recently bought a new digital mixer and we are still busy finding out how everything works but we got a lot of new tracks planned for this year , also under the names "Ron Hagen & Pascal M" and "D-factor" and of course "Signum".

We want to make a solo album but there aren't any plans as of yet. We just want to make some more new tracks first and when we release an album we want it to be really diverse with a lot of new stuff on it. For the upcoming months "Second Wave" is gonna have an official release with new remixes on it and after that "Cura Me" is gonna be released, but first Tidy Trax is gonna release "Coming on Strong"" again with a lot of new remixes.

i:Vibes: How about possibilities of future collaborations with other artists? anything like that in the negotiations?

Pascal: No, nothing planned yet. The thing is that we want to focus more on making our own music just for now, we want to do a collaboration in the near future but with whom we don't know yet.

i:Vibes: Anyone in your books as the definitive DJ's DJ??? And how about the producer's producer? (any producers you see time and time again never to fail)

Pascal: We think that Carl Cox is the Biggest DJ also because he inspired us to start DJing. And also Dj Remy, Armin, Ferry, DJ Tiesto and Marco V are all really good. The producers we like are Marco V, Tiesto, Armin, Ferry Corsten, Chicane, and BT (the trance master)!!.

i:Vibes: Your latest production Cura Me has been picked up by some of the top jocks already including Armin van Buuren and Tiesto, where did the influence of that come from, and what were you opinions on the Katana Remix which is the only other mix which has been released on promo so far? Are there more mixes to follow?

Pascal: "Cura Me" was something different for us and we also wanted it to sound a bit different so that all kind of Dj's would play it, so it was good for us to hear that Dj's like Armin and Tiesto are playing it. We know that it isn't really the typical "Signum sound" you would expect from us but we just wanted to do something else for a change and that's how "Cura Me "came about. We are really satisfied with the mix so now we hope that other people feel the same, we just have to wait and see. The "katana mix" is a bit more progressive but we think that it's really good and will also work on the dancefloor and yes for now the "Katana mix" is the only remix of it so far but maybe in the future there will be more, it just depends on how well it is received.

i:Vibes: Anything else you guys would like to add to this?

Pascal: Yes, we are currently busy with our own website and it's gonna be finished in about 1 month ,just for the people who wanted to know . It's gonna be "signum-djs.com". And thanks for reading guys!

Thanks to Lee & Beccy @ Mostwanted for arranging and sorting this out!

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