Guy J Interview – Loopmasters Release Guy J “Transitions”

 Guy J Interview – Loopmasters Release Guy J “Transitions”.

Guy J Interview

Guy J Interview – Loopmasters Release Guy J “Transitions”:Guy J has become one of the most sophisticated and emotive producers in electronic music over the last decade, with a body of work and a sphere of influence that belies relatively short time in the spotlight. Whether it be his sensual, hypnotic take on house music, his deeply textured techno or his wondrous ambient material, his work is always touched with a magic and emotion that few rival.

2012 sees Guy kick off an exciting new project with his close colleagues and friends at Bedrock: his very own imprint “Lost & Found”, a sub-label for John Digweed’s long running mothership where he’ll release music by himself and his favourite producers. Then there’s the small matter of a release on Cocoon, one of the most highly regarded labels in techno and beyond, and some exciting collaborations in the pipeline with some other inspiring artists.

He’s also launched a new series in partnership with Loopmasters which sees a full blown Artist EP released together with all the loops, hits and stems used to create it. Guy J – “Transitions” is a beautiful collection of four deep hypnotic House and EDM tracks together with all the associated sample used in the production of them.

Guy J Interview

This brand new concept takes four fully produced tracks from Guy J and gives you all the components used to make those tracks for you to dissect, remix and restructure all completely royalty free. Included are all the usual formats normally seen in our award winning sample library’s such as Loops, Hits, Rex files and Sampler Patches, giving you not only four fully mastered ready to play out club tracks but all the audio used to create it to play with.

In Detail: 367Mb 24Bit Quality Loops and Hits and 4 16Bit Fully Mastered Songs, Stems and Loops for each Track. Songs include Cloud No9, Faces, Rose and the Title Track Transitions.

This is a unique chance to buy not only high quality wav versions of what is certain to be a well-played EP but Guy J has included all the samples enabling producers worldwide a sneaky glimpse into the tools he used to create it.

We caught up with Guy to talk about his new label, his new project with Loopmasters, and his live show:

Hi Guy, thanks for taking some time out to talk to us. I’d like to start by asking you about your new label “Lost & Found”.  What’s the significance of the name and what can we expect from the first few releases?

“Lost & Found” as a name came to me very fast this time, usually I’m slow when picking names. I think it gives more value to the tracks coming out on the label –  every track is being picked out of a lot of great music out there. If you want to check it out, you can listen to Lost & Found music here: http://soundcloud.com/lostandfoundrec

You’ve decided to start making stems from your releases available along with the tracks and you’ll be selling these through Loopmasters. It’s an interesting idea. What made you decide to start offering your music this way?

Like the label I’m starting, the Loopmasters package is a way to start giving back to the EDM scene. With Loopmasters I can share ideas and let people take it in their own direction, to do what they feel with it, which is very exciting.

How do you envisage people will make use of the track stems – in the studio or DJing, or both? Are there any copyright restrictions regarding how they can use them?

Well, basically they can be used both ways – you have the full tracks, you have the stems of percussion, synths, bass line – so people should feel free to do what they want with them. It will be interesting to hear some “remixes” or “edits” by other producers. There aren’t any copyright issues from our end.

Let’s talk about your studio. What sort of gear are you using these days and is there anything you couldn’t imagine working without?

I’m producing on Cubase (and always have been), using the RME soundcard, Adam A7 monitors, Virus TI, Elektron Machinedrum & Poly Evolver. I don’t think I could do without my Virus TI, it was and still is my main piece of gear in the studio. I made both my albums that came on Bedrock using almost only this.

You’re using Ableton Live in your live performances – obviously Live’s Session View and the ability to jam with clips is useful in a performance setting – is that what made you decide to use it? Are there any other features of Live that you find are really suited to live performance?

I use Ableton for my DJ sets because it’s just amazing. You can bootleg live, you can use as many loops as you want – there is an amazing flow using Ableton – you can extend parts you like, you can use different parts from tracks you like… I find it the perfect way to DJ these days, it’s not about beat matching or anything like that, it’s how creative you can get with your sets.

There’s an on-going debate about the “different sound” that comes out of various DAWS – as a performer jamming your studio tracks live in a different DAW than you created them in are you conscious of this? Is there a noticeable difference to you, or do you think it’s all in the head?

I think today it’s best to use the software that you are most comfortable with. I don’t think people stand in the club and take note of how the sound is by what software the process uses – there are many great tracks produced on every type of software you can name. Credit must also be given to the person who does the mastering.

Word is you’ll be sharing your Ableton Live setup template with us shortly. Can you give us some insight into what we can expect?

I’m releasing 4 tracks with Loopmasters and giving all the track stems. I’ll take the stems into Ableton and create a set with the stems, trying to push creativity with Ableton, so people who get it can get an idea about setting up a set in Ableton. You can be very creative with Ableton so I’m very excited doing it myself for this project.

It sounds like you’ve got some nice solo and collaboration projects upcoming. Will some of these be coming out on “Lost & Found” and will you be presenting them in the same way – as both full track releases and stems?

I’m looking forward to releasing a lot of great music on “Lost & Found”, but I’ll also be happy to put music out on other labels when the situation is right. Regarding the stems, I might do something like that in the future on my label, but for now, I’m focusing on doing that with Loopmasters.

Thanks for taking the time. To close, a quick question – there’s been a debate recently about live performance in EDM being nothing more than a fairly orchestrated pushing of buttons, with very little risk or deviation from a planned performance.  Do you agree? What are your thoughts on this and the way technology interacts with live art?

I respect whatever and whenever an artist is doing something on stage and deciding to call it a live show, it’s very individual and there’s always going to be plenty of discussion about the whole “live” thing. My own opinion is that I think there should be an instrument on stage to call it a live show, to play live music. But you never know how much hard work has been put into a project with, so called, “just buttons to press”. I think it’s easy to tell when you hear a certain DJ set or a producer putting more effort into his or her show. It doesn’t necessarily mean its better but you can be sure it’s not the same.

THNX  :) You can always keep in touch with what I’m up to here: www.facebook.com/guyjofficial  

Find out more in this video interview with Guy J

 —————-

Ableton Live, Logic Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Reason, Cubase & ProTools tools  –  royalty free loops, samples and sounds from Loopmasters – the sample boutique.