'I'd rather vote for a goat!' Christopher Lawrence dismisses Dubbya.
Author: Mark Burton
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
You've just released the artist album All Or Nothing, how much more satisfying is it to release an artist album over a mix compilation- "It's a completely different thing, cause when you do a mix compilation it's basically a souvenir of a night out and you're playing other people's music when you make a mix. An artist album is all my own music, it's a lot of hard work, but it's a real sense of accomplishment when that hits the streets and you see it in the record store. It's a fantastic feeling!" His favourite track from the album is New Day, "because, I guess, of all the tracks on the album that one reflects the sound of how I feel. It's like putting my head to music!" In spite of being renowned as a trance artist he draws influence from other genres as well. "When I'm working in the studio I bring in records from house and techno. Trance a lot of times is a bit formulaic and so for me to make it more interesting I like to draw from other genres, even drum and bass. There's a track on there Untitled Dub with Noises that I was listening to classical music at the time and that was where the influences came from. I think that just makes a much better-rounded album than if everything sounds the same." There also seem to be psy-trance influences with some of the rolling basslines- "Yes very much so...that's one of my secrets! I love psychedelic trance! In fact the last time I was in Melbourne, we went to the Rainbow Serpent party and I just loved it 'cause psychedelic trance has become to me, one of the best sounds out there. For a long time psy-trance just sounded the same but now the basslines in it are phenomenal."
And the album's predominantly instrumental, in fact only a couple of the tracks have vocals. "I don't really go in for a lot of the vocal trance; a lot of it just ends up sounding really commercial. I like my trance more underground, and that's why the vocals on mine are there for a reason as more a musical element, but also a human element, but I don't like to just use vocals for the sake of it. I like to let the music tell the story as opposed to have somebody singing to me telling me what I should be doing with the music." On six of the twelve tracks that made the album, Christopher teamed up with local DJ & producer Dave Aude, and Warp he co-wrote with Britain's King of hard dance, BK. How was it working with these two talents- "It was good. I really liked working with Dave Aude. He's a friend of mine and he lives here in LA as well so yeah it worked out really well. He comes from a background where he's done remixes for Sting, Pink and a variety of other artists so he brings a lot to the table when we go in the studio. And BK's just one of the best producers in the UK right now. Ben Keen Tags