Interview with PsySex

Why the name PsySex? Tell us a little about yourselves. Udi: The name PsySex was conceived during the finishing of the first PsySex track Four Days of Madness (with Dave Saragosi- Kailum), while we had some troubles with one of the machines in the studio (it was a midi problem with the "system exclusive" or in short- sysex). And on the other hand, two of our favorite things in life are sex and psychedelic trance so there you have it- PSY-SEX. About ourselves, I'm Udi Sternberg, age 22, Aquarius, living in Herzelia and he's Yoni Oshrat, age 24, Gemini, living in Ramat-Hasharon, both citizens of Israhell. What is your musical background? Udi: from the day I know myself I really loved music. When I was 3 years old I used to put madness vinyls on the antic turntable we had in our house. Few years later I started to get the idea of being a DJ after my father brought me a lot of late 80's tapes from his travels around the world. Apart from that, I've played guitar for two years and some keyboards ... Yoni: Well, my father is a musician so I grew up in a pretty musical home. I used to listen to a lot of different stuff, especially to early 90's dance music and the early techno stuff from Kraftwerk to Ramirez, right alongside heavy metal bands from Pantera to scary shit like Obituary. My favorite instruments are the drums, learned playing them for a few years. Another experience is just listening to music for a lot of years. When did you start producing electronic music? What inspired you to start communicating sonically with this genre? Yoni: In 1997. I first discovered psychedelic trance in 1994, and in 1995 I started going to parties almost every weekend. As time passed the urge to create this music grew, and then I met Goblin, during the hot raves season of 1997 in Israel. He was then a house DJ, just starting to build his own studio, planning to conquer the house scene. After we had some fun and psychedelic experiences together in parties, we decided that the future was definitely psytrance and then we formed Children of the Doc. We made some tracks until Avi Nissim (Astral Projection) picked up one of them and released it on Israel's Psychedelic Trance vol.3. Later on we met Eyal Yankovich from Hommega and planned the release of the first PsySex album, which was a bit different direction than Children of the Doc. Do you listen to other genres besides Trance? Any favorite artists/albums out there you would like to comment/ recommend to us (trance and non-trance)? Yoni: Of course we listen to other genres, but mostly to different kinds of electronic music. Our favorite non-trance labels are Ninja Tune and Warp, the quality that emerges from these labels is awesome. Favorite artists are Two Lone Swordsmen (I call it cyber music for robots, really funky electro breakbeats), Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ) and Hex-Tatic (a new kind of music- audio visual music, from Ninja Tune). In trance music the most refreshing sounds these days are coming from Pixel (Eli from Israel). Another good Israeli is Panick (Nick Laniado). Domestic & Astrix also make really good track. Digital Structures is an interesting label and the new Shpongle album is a masterpiece. How can you best describe your music, and the feelings you are trying to evoke in your audience? Yoni: Our music is psychedelic trance, and as PsySex it's first and foremost intended for the dancefloor. When we make a track we usually think what would work in a party and what will make people go crazy. Udi: We love technology and everything that's related to it (The Internet, videogames, DVD movies etc.), so we try to make our sound very clean, in a cyberish way. We add the soul in the synth lines so it won't be too cold, but it all must sound shiny and clear. OK, the new album- Hardcore Blastoff- has been recently released- tell us about it. Yoni: It's our second album on Hommega. We've been working on it for about a year. This album represents a major upgrade in our sound, it's all audio work. Our first album was made using only midi, After that we got a good soundcard and started to explore the world of audio, and Hardcore Blastoff is the result. Some of the tracks were made with other artists and that kept the work interesting. We especially had fun working with Duvdev (Infected Mushroom) on the track Dirty 80's. He is one of the most talented people we know, not to mention one of the funniest!!! Udi: We have two tracks in the album with Panick who is a very good friend and a good artist. Another track is with crazy Bansi from GMS. There's the final version of On A Mission which was done with DJ Manitu from France, and finally we also worked with my young brother Ido- he plays the guitar on Smooth Sailing and Sunset Boulevard. You've been touring a lot lately- how have people reacted to the new tracks- any good experiences? Yoni: People are loving it and we got really good feedback in the parties. Our best experience so far was the electroparade in Portugal this July, along the likes of Dave Clark and Jeff Mills. It was the party the took place after Portugal's first Love Parade- 5 dancefloors and about 20,000 people!!! An amazing experience. Our live act was one of our best, and the people were pumping until 14:00. We also love playing in Switzerland- it's an amazing country with lovely people, a good party scene and some very good green stuff. Udi: There are some very good and energetic parties in Japan, and in London we had quite a nice experience this August, in an Astral Pheonix party, very crazy people... Yoni, you once told me you prefer gigs abroad, why is that? Yoni: That's because the parties abroad are simply way better. Israel has seen some great parties but most of them were a long time ago. Today it's rare to find a really good party, anyone who's been in a good party abroad knows that the reality over there is different, in terms of sound systems, decoration, people and general atmosphere. We really have great fun in these parties. Do you have any solo projects? Udi: I made some stuff on my own and some tracks with other artists like Domestic, Xerox, Lestat (Talamsca), DJ Jorg (SST), Yahel, Illumination and more. The track L.S.Dance is such a big party hit everywhere, and is now a classic track. I notice the mention of drugs in a number of your tracks. You feel a strong connection between them- drugs and music? Udi: Psychedelic trance and psychedelic drugs have a strong connection, and anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what he's talking about. Music is always wonderful in any condition, but once you listen to psytrance under some psychedelic influence, it's a different story then when hearing it sober minded. Yoni: That's right, but I enjoy listening to trance without taking anything, the spirit of trance is there with or without the drugs. Well, maybe just a smoke or two... Well, the album is out now. Are you taking a holiday, or is making music your way of partying?! Udi: when we go to perform in other countries that usually is the holiday! We are making music all the time. Yoni: well actually, I'm taking off to Zanzibar tonight! Any future plans- A Koopa Troopa/Children of the Doc album perhaps? What direction is the third PsySex album going to take? Udi: these are the plans indeed, doing some Children of the Doc material and simultaneously developing the Koopa Troopa project towards an album. About the PsySex third album, I guess it's too early to say... http://www.psysex.co.il

Interview by Chaitu