apr 29, 1999

Astral Projection

Interview by Bertie Cairns
thanx to Tony from Transient Rec.

Q.: Are the authorities still cracking down against trance parties in Israel? Have you been affected by the police or military attitude? Why do they / did they not like trance. ?

A.: Unfortunanetly "yes" and even worse worse than in the past. The numbers of trance followers in israel has grown into unbelieveabley and teh police do not seem to know how to handle the situation, other than closing parties in full swing. Yes, we were affected by police attitude mostly in the past, Avi even got arrested twice and had a very unpleasant (to put it mildly) experience. We think they don´t like trance because they automatically relate trance to drugs (drugs beeing a problem they are supposed to enforce) and they believe that every person who likes trance is automatilcally a drug user. go figure.

Q.: Is there hope for peace in the middle east?

A.: We feel that in the days rabbin was prime minister the chances for perace were greater - this chance was murdered with a great leader. We think that with the current government peace is far fetched. We are not happy with the current government and feel that leadership must change in order to achieve peace. We are hoping that with the coming elections in may there would be a change that would lead to a better and more peaceful middle east. We want peace !

Q.: Have either of you astrally projected?

A.: Not literally, yes - through the music.

Q.: What inspires you when you work?

A.: Basically, everything under the sun. From music to movies, from family to friends, places we´ve been to, you name it. Changes are it enspired us somewhere along the line.

Q.: How long have you been into dance music?

A.: We are in music for the past 15 years.
Avi.: I started out mainly in industrial and electronic music.
Lior: I had a perle for Rock and actually worked in this genre (in new york i worked as midi man and in digital production).

Q.: What do you think of the british trance scene at the moment?

A.: We think theres a lot of confuison in the UK trance scene at the moment. Artist are trying many new directions and experiemental ideas which is good in itself. However, it is not the trance that we know and we feel a directions has not been found.

Q.: Which DJs would you kill to hear and which would kill if you heard them?

A.: We are glad you asked. In the trance scene we had the previlige to work and perform with top names and acts. Since we play the globe, we got the opportunity to work with erveryboda who is somebody in trance. We are greatful for this. We don´t really want to kill anybody, but we do not appreciate DJ´s who don´t understand the crowd and the feel of a party, who play without any logical connection to the scene of a party. For us, playing at a party is like watching a movie unravel: the way the party begins and ends and the whole story in between. A DJ has to check the pulse of the party constantly.

Q.: Favourite bands? prime influences?

A.: The list is endless, but names such as X-Dream, Delta, Man with no name, electric universe are some of our favourites. We love DJ´s Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling. Our list includes also Simon Posford, DJ Dino, Etnica and sorry if we didn´t mention anyone. Favourites & influences from the past are also endless but names like: Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode (the early days), Psyhic TV, Yazoo, Human League etc.

Q.: I've heard isreali girls are the most beautiful in the world is this true? the editor wants to know if the blokes are any good too!

A.: Very true ! Same goes for the boys, only they have more body hair...

Q.: Why do you collect old bits of electronic sound equipment? what si your favourite?

A.: We love those old analogic machines. We feel they enchance the astral sound ti make it warmer and much more unique. Yes, similar results can be acieved with the new equipment, but for us it´s not quite the same. We love our old Roland series, EMS, Korg, Expander. It helps that theey are about our age...

Q.: If Jean Luc Picard had to fight Janeway (Voyager) who would win if there was a klingon referee.

A.: Jean Luc Picard, just because we don´t get yoyager in israel.

Q.: Does the sun and temperature affect your music?

A.: Of course ! You may have noticed the sun as a main object in all of our CD covers. We love the sun and hot weather israeloffers (free of charge, just live here). The sun for us is a symbol of power and positive vibes.

Q.: is all astral projection music about escapism or are some tracks more earth bound?

A.: We feel that Astral´s music connects us what we are about. When we compose, these moments represent our true selves and it may be seen as espism since we simply disconnect from outside influences. Feed-Back from co-trance-lovers who feel connected to our music say the music affects their lives to the point of change.The bottom line is that some people use our music for escapism and some connect better to earth thorugh our music. We feel our music is diverse with the prime message being: happiness, love, freedom and positiveness, which is somewhat more earth bound finally, even though we compose under the influence of "our world", our music is for everyone - earthbound or not.

Q.: How does travel influence what you do?

A.: Most of our trips are between 2-3 days for work, so the atmosphere of any place doesn´t adhere too well, but when we are on vacation we try to be exposed to anything that is near.

Q.: Where would you live if you had to leave isreal in a hurry.

A.: Are there any sears avaiable on the next flight to the universe ? We love israel despiter all the problems and difficulties.

Q.: we have an alien who writes for wax what would you like to say to him?

A.: Hi, We Ccome inpeace, glad to meet you, we´re also aliens - israliens.

Our TOP 20 list:

1. Kraftwerk - Radio Activity. - The begining electronic era. Kraftwork influenced us from day one till today!
2. Yazoo - Situation. - Vince Clarke' preception of technology simply did it for us.
3. Depeche Mode - Live In Silence - They were innovators in electronic music in their first days - somewhat of a breakthrough for us.
4. Human League - The Lebanon. - We'd love to REMIX it.
5. Duran Duran - Girls on Film. - They got style and every time we are interviewed for any type of media, we tell each other to pose like Simon Le Bon, this gets us laughing.
6. Soft Cell - Martin. - They refreshed the New Wave sound and that too influenced us somehow.
7. Madonna - Ray of Light -What can be said - that hasn't been said before about the QUEEN of music. She represents motivation, ambition and success for us.
8. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Give it Away. - It's the funkiest thing around - ever!
9. Prince - Purple Rain. - THE Innovator in music. His diversity reminds us that music has no boundaries.
10. Psychic TV - Ov Power. - It is really this band that started us in "acid-house" 13 years ago. The first "acid" single we bought was "Superman" which opened our eyes to dance music.
11. Trilithon - Children of the Future. - Because of these "KINGS" we compose trance - too bad they do not release anymore.
12. Light House Family - High. - We first heard it in Portugal in a convertibale, when they were not well known. It made us feel like we were inside a movie, and felt that it will do amazingly well - which it did.
13. Spectral - Kundalini. - We awaite their next album.
14. Overlords - God's Eye On Goa. - Same goes for this one.
15. L.D.C - Plasma. - We had the previlige to meet him at "The Dorian Grey" Club while he was a DJ. We were extremely saddened to hear he died in a car accident.
16. Faithless - God Is A DJ. - We just remixed this, and they love it and plan to release it world wide.
17. M.W.N.N. - Telleport. - He is our friend and we get extremely excited when we hear we are going to play with him.
18. Electric Universe - Aqualine Spirit. - We remixed this in "Another World" and love this track.
19. X-Dream - Rain. - We feel they are the best it gets in trance.
20. Astral Projection - Let There Be Light. - We love to see the effect this track has on people during a party. Although it's an old track, it still works.

Bertie Cairns