As part of the research for Evolution of the Beat I recently interviewed Tony Burt, one half of production duo Silver & Burt. Silver & Burt were renowned for bringing a harder European trance sound to the UK with releases such as the Ultimate Wave and remixes such as Equinoxe 4. Tony also ran Above the Sky Records with a vibrant roster of artists that helped pioneer the same European sound in the UK. As Tony recently returned to his native New Zealand I spoke with him there by phone. It was a fascinating, insightful and occasionally controversial conversation with a man who combines a clear passion for electronic music with deep knowledge and expertise. Here are some the highlights of the conversation.
ETB: Why did you and Matt Silver start producing?
TB: We wanted to create something different. All around us in London were endless hard house club nights like Frantic and Feevah which all playing the same kind of music, and much of it was poorly produced. We weren’t fans of the hard house and we wanted to create a more polished sound with more melody. In my online music store I was selling lots of hard house, but I had a large amount of people world-wide buying more obscure but high quality European trance. We wanted to bring the quality of the higher production values of those German & Dutch tracks to the UK.
ETB: And how would you describe your sound?
TB: I guess you could say we ended up with a sound that was somewhere between Hooj Choons and Nukleuz. Our sound was both German and Dutch. We took elements from each. We always used the ‘Dutch Clap’! It was our take on the very dry clap that so many Dutch trance tracks used. That clap sound wasn’t going on in the German sound then. We took that and the very compressed bubbling bass line from the Dutch sound, and mixed that with the more complex rhythm patterns and harder sound from Germany.
ETB: What did each of you and Matt bring to the production partnership
TB: When we started producing myself and Matt were listening to same music but brought very different creative dynamics to the relationship. I’ve always had a very different style from Matt. I’d also listened to a lot of techno in 90’s (e.g. IQ) and also liked original 80’s electro. When we get together in a studio we’ll produce something that probably neither of us would have produced on our own.
ETB: What is your musical background?
TB: I was surrounded by music as a kid. My dad was really into music. He listened to everything, he even listens to my stuff and gives me feedback on it. My dad introduced me to a lot of cool music when I was young, such as Jean Michelle Jarre. Before I went to England I was listening to a real spectrum of music, but I was always pulled to the electronic side.
ETB: Do you play a music instrument?
TB: I’ve learnt keyboards when I was young. I use to love the old Supertramp, ELO and Steve Winwood stuff! And Jean Michelle Jarre of course. Jarre was awesome.
ETB: And of course you went onto remix Jean Michelle Jarre’s via your remix of Shane 54’s version of Equinoxe 4
TB: Yes. It was awesome to be able to remix him. Our remix peaked at 12 in the national charts in Spain, with Robbie Williams in 13th position! We were getting flown out to Spain every couple of weeks to play at parties.
ETB: If you had to pick out one highlight, one moment from your dance music career so far, what would it be?
TB: It was the first time we played ‘Perfect Wave’ was at the Zurich Street Parade – massive system. There were about a quarter of a million people in the square. We came into the square on one of the parade trucks at about 6.30pm and we had about a 40 minute slot. ‘Perfect Wave’ was our first production together and hearing it played over that sound system to all those people was a fantastic feeling. Seeing people hanging out of windows, the crowd….. And the euphoria after coming off the truck and after the set was immense. Of course there were many moments in studio when we’d look at each other and go ‘holy f**k that was awesome’ with big smiles on our faces! But playing Zurich Street Parade has to be the ultimate moment I think.
ETB: What do you think of trance now as a genre?
TB: There was certainly a move towards a more clichéd sound that peaked in ’99 with acts like ATB. There was lots of hype and then the inevitable press backlash. I thought that would be good for trance, splintering it into sub genres, driving new creativity. But the clichéd sound came back, even worse and even more commercially successful. There was no creativity or originality. The technology has become so much better but it’s not being used to innovate…it’s helping people be lazy instead. So many of the big DJ’s and producers just haven’t pushed innovation. Many trance sets now sound very formulaic, all up and down and up and down. Trance music producers have got really lazy and egotistical with their “Vote for me in top DJ awards”. Producers and DJ’s now produce a couple of cheesy trance tracks and use their social network support base to vote for them, but their records and create the buzz.
ETB: Do you think trance is spent as a genre?
TB: The genre isn’t spent. Myself and Mat always had a saying that ‘If it’s not popular here it will be popular in Korea!’ There will always be somewhere it will be fresh and new.
ETB: What does the future hold for you production wise?
TB: I’m working on a lot of techno & glitch type stuff at the moment, dissecting stuff and rebuilding it again. But the next big thing I’ll do is an electronic album with Mat. We’ll take our Macs to the beach here in NZ, set up our makeshift studio and get inspired for a few weeks. No set genre. Anything will go. And when we’ve done it, hopefully some people will listen to it and think “hey you guys are still out there, and this is where you’re at now’.
ETB
