An inspirational message to kick start your week…
ENTER REMIX COMPETITIONS!
Obviously this only applies to the budding producers among us… But we really can’t stress the benefits enough. Neither can Austrian duo TR Tactics. Last year they won a competition with us to remix Optiv & BTK’s Ignition. It featured on our annual spring album Drum&BassArena 2013.
Following this whirlwind win, they went on to enter, and consequently win Rregula & Dementia’s Life on Earth remix competition. The prize was a feature spot the duo’s album Turning Point.
Both of these wins, and a constant drive to push their game to new levels has ensured a slick, steady slew of attention from some very well respected labels. Including Addictive Behaviour, a label we’ve been highly impressed by since launching late last year.
This week sees the release of TR Tactics’ Addictive Behaviour debut. A firing doublet of darkness: both Absolom and Black Light rep TRT with well-chiseled, industrial-level sonic strength.
We caught up with the duo to find out more about the release and see where they’re at. Their inspirational message is clear: get out there, get involved and get confident… They should know – they almost didn’t enter the Drum&BassArena competition because they were worried their entry wasn’t good enough!
Added inspiration comes by way of a storming, vacuum-tight mix, too. Enjoy!
TR Tactics! How are you?
We are very fine, thanks. Hope you are too.
We’re good! What have we interrupted you doing today?
Not too much! We have just finished our new studio and we are working on our projects right now, so your timing couldn’t be better.
So it’s been 13 months since we last spoke. How have things been for you guys since winning our competition?
Life is still great and it’s getting better and better. We think that we’ve had a good start into the scene so far and winning such a great competition was definitely helpful.
Please bring us up to speed: tells us about all the highlights in the last year. Releases, DJ shows, general wicked life stuff…
2013 was a really big year for us. After the remix competition we had releases on Dissected Culture, Citrus and Disturbed. We also entered Rregula & Dementia’s Life on Earth remix competition, and had a gold win. Following this the guys asked us to remix their track Ocean Catch which was then featured on their amazing new album Turning Point.
We’ve also had some gigs throughout Austria that will hopefully become more frequent in the near future and we really hope that AB eventually will run a label party soon! (Hint hint!)
As you can see, last year was a good one and the start of 2014 has also been very promising. At the moment we are quite busy in our normal lives but we always make sure to have enough time to let out our production inspiration.
We don’t want to blow our trumpet so have to be careful how we pose this question… But did your Drum&BassArena win help you on the pro D&B quest you were already well on your way on?
As we said, winning your competition was really helpful and we also had so much fun producing the track. It was cool to get some samples from professional producers and also to get a great vocal for the whole thing, which was very nice to work with.
Any advice out there to aspiring producers who are also entering lots of remix competitions?
Don’t be too worried about what you are doing. Of course you have to be a bit self-critical on your tracks when making music, but in our case we nearly missed the competition because of that. Right up to the last minute of the deadline we were not sure if we should send our entry, today we are more than happy that we sent it. Sometimes it’s also good to work on more then one project at the same time because if there is a competition you want to enter, you maybe can combine one of your projects with the stems of the competition and maybe you get some wicked results out of it.
So let’s focus on your Addictive Behaviour release. How did this hook-up come about?
We think they just knew us from our earlier releases and informed us about the label launch, mentioning they would like to work with us. After their absolutely massive start with the High Rollers EP we were very interested in making something for them. We are really proud to be a part of their thing and working with Addictive Behaviour is very nice and uncomplicated.
Shouts to Clayton and the whole crew…..thanks for making it possible!
As far as new labels go, they’ve really pushed themselves out there… What’s been your favourite AB tune so far? (Prior to your own release of course!)
Yes they had a massively good start and if they keep on working like that they’ll have a successful future.
There are real quality artists on AB and we like all of the tunes. If we have to choose one favorite it would probably be Bring Down by L 33. It has a nice rolling style and is also a bit aggressive, all in all a well-balanced groove. Big up!
We ask this in every Addictive Behaviour interview: do either of you have an addictive personality? If so, what are you addicted to?
Other than good music probably smoking and drinking, nothing too serious though!
In comparison to your previous stuff on Citrus and Dissected Culture both of these seem a little deeper and more rolling. Was that the intention?
It was not really our intention….we are definitely more on the darker side of drum & bass. Of course the longer you listen and write such kind of music the deeper you’ll get in it.For us it depends on different facts to which direction a tune will go, like how we are feeling, what happens around us, maybe even how the weather is. We both love the darker/neuro side, but of course we also have other favorites and sometimes our minds can be different. Maybe this is the reason why our style is varying a bit. We think it’s a good thing because we never want to be fixed in one direction. That keeps life interesting.
Any challenges or revelations or studio lessons to learn during the creative process of these tracks?
Nothing too special, of course we still look for new techniques, plugins or samples. It is so important to keep your knowledge up to date, especially in these digital times. Life is a big learning process, as we all know.
What’s the story behind the title Absolom? The only reference I can find online is a cheesy Belgian pop band…
That’s a good question. There’s a very tiny little sound in the intro that you can hardly hear in the mix. It’s something like a stab lead out of a synthesizer and the preset it’s made from is called Absolom.We reversed and processed it a bit to make it a part of the intro. That was one of the last steps of this project and we had some mind freaking about the word Absolom, so we decided to name the tune after it.
Wrapping up… Last time we spoke you told us you both get inspiration from each other. Is this still the case or, after another year of working together, are you starting to argue like an old couple?
Haha, yes an old couple! Joke! Sometimes you have to make compromises when working as a duo, but yes, we still get inspiration from each other, our families and everything what happens around us. Furthermore we think that celebrating any successes or standing on stage together is much more fun than doing all this alone.
Do either of you have any habits that annoy each other which you’d like to get off your chest publically?
Hmmm………no comment.
And finally… What’s coming up next?
We’re quite sure there’ll be another Addictive Behavior release this year, as we really love working with them. There are also some other things planned for 2014 but nothing to talk about yet.There will be some more gigs in Austria and we really hope to get some international bookings soon.
Many thanks for the interview, as always it was a pleasure to answer your questions.Big up to the whole Drum&BassArena Crew…….keep up the good work!
Absolom / Black Light is out now on Addictive Behaviour.
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