Adam Sheridan Interveiw from trance.nu Adam Sheridan's life story reads like a trance fairytale where the main players include Paul van Dyk and Ferry Corsten. A six-year residency at renowned palace of hedonism, Goodgreef, his three deck mixing, genre crossing sound and fine production skills have made him stand out from the crowd. This has allowed him to launch his own label, Soundstage Music, with his massive record 'La Fiesta'. And he's still only 23. Read on to find out more about this, clambering on speakers and running out of petrol, all in his dreams of becoming a trance hero... t.nu: Firstly, congratulations on the launch of your new label. What made you decide to take this step? AS: Thanks guys! I wanted to create something that I could be in full control of. A lot of music comes out of my studio, I get to see what works best on the dance floors so I thought it would be a really cool idea to launch my own label and release the music that is doing the business for me in the clubs. Basically I wanted more artistic control over my work and this is the best way. t.nu: Have you got a `mission plan' for the label, of what you want it to represent? AS: The sound of the label is going to represent the style that I perform whilst DJing, A nice mix of Trance, Techno and Dirty House. For each project I will be creating two mixes. I'm going to try and take each mix in a different direction from the other kinda like each mix will compliment the other, where you could also get away with playing both versions in a 2 hour performance. For example the First release on the label “La Fiesta” the original has the big theme in the middle with really twisted chords whilst the remix is a lot slower which builds and drops without the theme been used. t.nu: What can we expect to hear from your label, is it mainly going to be your own releases, new artists or established artists? AS: To start with yes, I'm just going to release my own projects. I'm thinking about setting up another artist alias to release on the label. There are a couple of projects down the studio at the moment that are really cool but I don't think are quite right under the Adam Sheridan name. As time goes on I would really like to get some of my favourite artists and producers to do some remix work for the label but for the meantime it's just going to be my work on there. t.nu: Are you going to have vinyl releases or is it digital only? AS: Yes we are going to have both Vinyl and Digital, I think it's still important for an artist to be available in record stores. We have done an early pre release of La Fiesta on Vonyc.com and Beatport. t.nu: The first release produced by yourself, 'La Fiesta', has been a big hit with the likes of Eddie Halliwell. How have reactions been in general to this? AS: The reactions have been really cool. When I first sat down and produced La Fiesta I never expected that it would be a release, I saw it as a more underground project that I was just going to use for my DJ performances. The reactions were that good, PVD & Eddie gave it a radio plays so we decided to give it a full release. t.nu: Have you got any other releases lined up yet? AS: I'm currently working on a track called Supernova. It's got a live bass in the break then keeps building and dropping to pure filth, its good fun. There's also a track called Unit 7-11 which is very banging, has a big major key riff slapped in the middle which works really well, quite Nu Skool sounding! I think this is one of the projects I am looking at under a different artist alias. t.nu: How did you first get into dance music, DJing and producing? AS: I've always loved dance music from a very early age, even when I was 7/8 years old I use to like all the commercial stuff. I first took a liking to the more underground stuff back in 93/94. My older cousin used to inundate me with Carl Cox and Sasha CDs, I remember the Sasha Global Underground 95 was the thing that inspired me the most to start mixing music. I loved all the music on these albums but you could only buy the music on vinyl back then so I was kinda forced into buying turntables. t.nu: Who were your early influences? AS: Will definitely have to say The Prodigy, Underworld, PvD for sure, Carl Cox, Sasha and also Pete Tong and all those wonderful Paul Oakenfold Essential Mixes! t.nu: Tell us about your first gig… you were only 15 at the time..? AS: Yes, I could barely see over the top of the turntables. It was a night in Manchester now known as Goodgreef. I played for the first hour and after the guys offered me a residency straight after, I was chuffed! At the start of my DJ career I played a lot of back rooms and smaller clubs. t.nu: Your first production you handed to Paul van Dyk while he was playing at Gatecrasher and he then dropped it later that night… how did that feel? AS: It was a very special night for me, that moment has been one of my biggest inspirations to date, Paul has been one of my biggest inspirations full stop. It was one of the first tracks I had produced. Paul was doing one of his legendry 6 hour sets at Gatecrasher so I got the track cut onto Acetate. I was gutted when I got in there cause they had changed the DJ box around, they made it a lot higher so you couldn't reach up to pass him the track. I had to climb on top of the speaker to give it to him, it came on about 3 o’clock in the morning I was pretty speechless for the rest of the night! t.nu: Your DJ career went from strength to strength from there, do you have a particular favourite club that you've played at? AS: I don't really like to favour one club from another, I have played so many cool venues and I can't thank all the promoters and clubbers enough for giving me this opportunity! t.nu: Your first major success as a producer was 'Lektrik' which you managed to get signed to Ferry Corsten's Purple Eye label… how did that come about? AS: I did Lektrik with my studio partner Joe. I had sent Lektrik over to Purple Eye, they were saying they were interested but weren't committing to anything. We heard Ferry was on down at Passion in the UK. So we drove down, barely made it in one piece gave him the track, run out of petrol on the way too but then on Monday morning I got the call; Ferry loved the track and Purple Eye Signed me up as an artist. t.nu: Looking back on the last year, what were the highlights for you? AS: Definitely the closing set at Creamfields, I love Creamfields the atmosphere is wicked, Northerners now how to party! Also I played at PvD’s Love From Above party and then straight onto to do his float at the Love Parade, that experience was unforgettable! t.nu: How do you think things have changed since you first got involved in dance music? Do you think it is easier or harder to break into the music scene now? AS: I think it's very difficult to break through as a DJ now. There are so many good talents out there that go unnoticed. I do think it is a lot easier to get music out there though now. With all the digital releases these days artists are getting their music out with practically no cost. I also think it’s a lot easier now to set up a studio. For someone that is interested in writing or producing music all you gotta do is purchase Logic and you got everything you need to give it a go. t.nu: What do you think of the current state of dance music and trance in particular? AS: I think trance is having a bit of a re-shuffle at the moment. There is some really good stuff out there, producers are bringing in different genre elements into their productions which I think is working nicely. I think trance just needed a bit of a re-fresh, everyone was trying to write the same record which got really boring. I lost that excitement when the posty delivered all the new CDs and Vinyls on a morning. t.nu: After having achieved so much at such a young age, other than building up the label are there any other challenges you have set yourself? AS: I want to perfect my DJ performance, I'm currently using Ableton. I was using Final Scratch. I'm just trying to find the best system at the moment. My main priority over the next year though is definitely going to be the label. I'm also looking into doing a downloadable mix that will be available on i-Tunes. If that goes ahead we're going to be looking at a release before summer. t.nu: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions and best of luck with the label and your future career. AS: Thanks a lot guys, my pleasure. Thanks for reading X Adam launches his brand new label 'Soundstage Music' with his own 'La Fiesta' out now! More info check www.soundstagemusic.com or www.adam-sheridan.com. Written by: Jon Nix, aka frombeyond for the trancers
