An Interview with Christian Smith

Christian Smith had a stellar 2008, during which not only did he re-emerge with friend and production partner John Selway to deliver hugely successful singles such as ´Total Departure´ and ´Updraft´, but also saw him begin a new chapter as a solo producer with the ´Flyertalk EP´ on Bedrock. With the new year now well behind us, Christian is embarking on a Tronic Treatment world tour. The reason - the relaunch of his much respected imprint Tronic. Read on for the lowdown on this and much more in our latest interview.

1. Progressive-Sounds: 2008 saw you re-establish yourself in the spotlight in a big way, with a string of singles, remixes and DJ gigs which took you to many of the key festivals and events. What were the main highlights and your proudest achievement of the past year
   
   
   Christian Smith: In late 2007, I had a long lunch with Dubfire while we were both playing at Creamfields in Argentina. I have known Ali (Dubfire) for over 15 years, even before he was part of Deep Dish, as we met in Washington DC, where I was a student at University. Anyway, during that lunch he really inspired me. He told me how he sets goals for every 6 months and always tries to improve himself. This was coming from a guy who for me had already "made it". He was making tons of money headlining big festivals and I was very inspired by his attitude. I have been very successful in my career as well, travelling the world and making a good living, but hearing Ali say "I try to improve all the time really gave me a sudden boost of ambition. I started to think strategy and most importantly stay focused and I guess to this end all this really paid off in 2008. My proudest achievement of the year was that I managed to get a more crossover appeal and am no longer considered just a "techno" DJ or producer. I love house and techno and everything in between. If its good, it´s good! Also, I am very proud of "Total Departure" that came out on Adam Beyer´s Drumcode label. It´s not often there are tracks that everybody from Digweed to Cox to Hawtin and even PVD play. If there is one thing I learnt in 2008, it is to focus and always push yourself to perform better.

2. Progressive-Sounds: In amongst the many huge collaborations you and John Selway did, came the excellent solo ´Flyertalk EP´ on John Digweed´s Bedrock. In many ways, a huge step away from the collaborative work you do but a welcome return to your solo work, which we haven´t heard much of in many years. What motivated you to start working on your own again and how does it compliment the work you are doing with John Selway
   
   
   I have always loved melodies and find that there has not been enough lately in music... especially in techno and minimal
   
   Christian Smith: I have never been a purist and I really like the direction John Digweed has taken musically lately so while the Smith & Selway sound is usually more known as crossover techno, I wanted to do something more musical but still with balls. I have always loved melodies and find that there has not been enough lately in music... especially in techno and minimal. Anyway, I am just re-building my studio room in Sao Paulo and plan to release much more solo material over the months ahead.

3. Progressive-Sounds: One of the highlights of 2008 was unquestionably ´Total Departure´ on Drumcode, but tracks such as ´Push Factor´ on Sci+Tec and ´Updraft´ on Renaissance were also well received. Each in their own right had their own defining sound or direction, ´Updraft´ perhaps being the most removed from the sound people associate with your and John´s work. Did its success therefore catch you by surprise
   
   Christian Smith: Not really. We were on fire in 2008 and after the successes of Total Departure and our remix of Kevin Saunderson´s classic Rock to the Beat, the Sci-Tec release just put our names further into the spotlight. We really enjoyed working on Updraft as it was a little different and more futuristic sounding. Its always good to push and try to evolve. We do not like repeating the old formulas.

4. Progressive-Sounds: Would you say the breaking down of genre classifications over the last few years has allowed producers like yourself to showcase your versatility in the studio, with tracks like ´Flyertalk´ and ´Updraft´, as we´ve mentioned previously, both leaning more towards the tech house and progressive sound than some of the seminal techno classics you´ve produced over the years. Also, do you at times think the attitude of the purists in the techno scene has in some ways been a possible limitation to the genre´s growth and success
   
   
   Christian Smith: I love the fact that genre classification is no longer a big issue. For me there is nothing more boring than a DJ just playing one style for 3 hours. Both mine and Selways backgrounds come from a big variety of styles with Selway engineering Deep Dish´s first singles in the early 90´s while I made records for Nervous and Yoshitoshi. At present everything is a big grey area stylistically and I believe this pushes us DJs to prepare our sets more thus playing more interesting and better music. Variety is key for me. Also, the fact that techno has slowed down to the speed of house music has really opened up its doors to many new audiences. If you listen to a Digweed set there will be around 40-50% techno tracks and then if you listen to a Richie Hawtin set it will contain around 30-50% house. Long live the grey area!

5. Progressive-Sounds: Moving forward, you are about to re-launch your Tronic imprint after a hiatus of almost two years with the "first" release being new remixes of the classic ´Move!´. How do you feel these new versions compare in contrast to the original and what other releases can we look forward to on the label in the coming months ahead
   
   
   While the Dimitri Nakov & Gabe remix will undoubtedly appeal to the more progressive world, (Digweed plays it in every set), the Steve Angello remix has a monster house groove.
   
   Christian Smith: I got very lucky to have two amazing remixes of the track. As the original was very simple, it was a very hard track to remix but both Steve Angello and Gabe and company managed to deliver storming remixes. While the Dimitri Nakov & Gabe remix will undoubtedly appeal to the more progressive world, (Digweed plays it in every set), the Steve Angello remix has a monster house groove. I am very happy that both remixes compliment the original yet have totally different styles. The original was our first real crossover hit. It was in 1999 when techno people were total purists. Move! must have been one of the first techno tunes that really crossed over from Sasha licensing it to his Global Underground Ibiza compilation to Jeff Mills and Surgeon playing it every set.
   
   The future for Tronic is looking very good if I might say so myself ;). I have releases and remixes from Umek, Andy Chatterley, Mark Broom, and, of course, there will be more Smith & Selway output. Whereas you saw many releases on different labels last year you will see more on Tronic this year and less on other labels. The only three labels that we must and want to deliver follow-ups to are Bedrock, Drumcode, and Sci-Tec..

6. Progressive-Sounds: I understand you´ve spent much of the last month in the studio working on new projects, both of your own and with John, with rumoured follow ups to ´Total Departure´ and ´Flyertalk´ said to be amongst them, in addition to some new remixes. Can you give us any insight into the new productions and remixes from these sessions that we might hear sometime in the next few weeks and over the coming months, and what other releases that are currently hitting the shelves and digital stores
   
   Christian Smith: Haha, well yes I can give you some insight. Digweed doesn´t know yet but the follow up to Flyertalk is done. I have played it four times over the past two weekends and all I can say is that Bedrock will have another big release. We also made some other tracks in which we used tribal loops, big phat tribal loops with modern production. We have been getting amazing reactions to these tracks as well. We are definitely aiming to release more music in 2009 than we did in the last year but one very important thing however is that our quality control remains very high. Just because we make a track, does not mean it will get released. Each track we release we first play out several times, test it, make minor changes/tweaks in the mix, get them pre-mastered and refine until we are totally happy with it.

7. Progressive-Sounds: Finally, with news of the Tronic Treatment world tour now confirmed and due to start in February, can you tell us a bit more about the tour, and what destinations and venues you are looking forward to playing most. Plus, will there be a mix compilation to coincide with this at some point throughout the year
   
   
   I will not slow down this year, if anything I will step it up a few notches.
   
   Christian Smith: 2009 will be the year of hardcore touring! Although I love spending time in the studio, I think that touring is equally important to promote the music I am all about. There will be around seven Smith & Selway releases to promote and I will be playing all over the world, from South America to Asia, to Europe, North America and Australia. I still do not know when the mix compilation will be released but one thing is for sure, you will also see select Smith & Selway LIVE shows at a few festivals. I will not slow down this year, if anything I will step it up a few notches.