Interview with Psytekk

Who is Psytekk? Psytekk is Hanan Biton, 21 years old. Originally from Dimona but now living in Beer Sheva. What does the name mean? Psytekk means psychedelic technology. For how long have you been listening to trance music? I've been listening to trance music since the age of 14, which was about 7 years ago. I was also always producing music, but turned professional only in the last 2 years. How do you define your style? Now that's a difficult question. There's full on music, there's night music and there's something in between. I made a few remixes lately which turned out to be quite full on. Where do you get your inspiration? I try to get as much inspiration as I can from myself, and less from other's styles. But if you ask me which artist influences me, I'd say GMS for example. Tell us about your new album. I got a new album, called Good Purpose released in USTA. This is basically an album for night music, except for two tracks which are more morning oriented- The remix I did to Beat Hackers and Dynamic Reality, which is actually called Closing the Door, the label changed the name. Why did they change the name? Well, it's the last track so they wanted it to be closing the something.. :) What about the nice cover art you got on your album? I guess it's from a comics. The talented people at USTA thought of it themselves, they showed me, I liked it and gave me authorization for it. The rest is history. :) How did you get to USTA Records? Me and Elad Ohana (one of the Blackout duo) gave them a demo CD of our music. They liked it and came back to us. What do you expect from your label? The same every artist expects from his label. The label should promote the artist and his music, get him booked to as many as performances as possible. On this opportunity I'd like to say that USTA is a great label, run by Zoo-b I and really love them. What makes your music special in your opinion? I try to present a story in my music, a story which has both a beginning and an end. Not just a beat, melody, and that's it. I want that there will be something to pull you to the track- something that will be nice to hear. What are your expectations from yourself? My expectations from myself are to grow and develop in this field. I'd like to be known better here in Israel and worldwide. Keep it going with the music, and release more albums. Can you tell us about your collaborations? There are a lot... I made some remixes to Bizzare Contact- Ice Age, for example, and Eye Contact with Electro Sun. Another remix is to a Delirious track, which should be out on Hommega soon. There is also a project I'm working on with Bizzare Contact and Electro Sun. Other than that, there are a few tracks I'm going to release in a compilation with artists such as Wizzy Noise, etc. What about the remix to Tomcraft's Lonliness? I wouldn't even call it a remix. I did it only for fun, because you can't release it anyway. For that you need to reach Tomcraft and talk to him, and it's complicated business. I did it more as a hobby, because I like this house track. I had to give it a trance version so people of the trance scene will hear this track, understand it and like it. Are you making music for the dancefloor or for home listening? There is music that I make for home listening, such as the album. It has many tracks which are ok for the home. They are not that full on. There are also newer, more dancefloor oriented tracks as well. Basically the entire album was finished a year ago, but it took time to release it. What made the change? Why are you making dancefloor music now? Listen, first of all there are the remixes. Basically when you remix something you have to make it in such a way that will fit to the original track, and since the original track were full on tracks the remixes came out full on too. It's also nice to change the atmosphere, instead of darker style tracks (like in the album) to make stuff which is more danceable. I'm interested to see how people will react to this. Where do you perform? Many places... Greece, Dimona, Arad, Tel Aviv - Zamir & The Comfort clubs. I had a great party with X-Dream there. What's your relation to X-Dream? I also have some tech trance tracks in the album, even though not as X-Dream. I also like their style a lot, they are among my favorite artists. Anyway, I played with them at the Comfort in my release party. I also played at the Zamir in the decade to USTA party together with Astral Projection, Miko & Xerox. I played at the TLV with Skazi during Purim Holiday. Next month I'm off to Italy to play abroad. At the Independence Day I'll play here in Beer Sheva together with Tsuyoshi and the Yehudim (a local rock band) and other celebrities in a big festival. I'll also perform in a party in the Ramon Crater, which is a beautiful location. Do you think trance is still underground in Israel? I don't think it's underground at all. USTA for example means Underground Sound of Tel Aviv, but now it became mainstream. Trance is well known and it became a scene of itself, if you notice all the clubs are playing trance today. What is the last CD you bought? That's a hard question... Basically I don't collect music. I like to hear other artists when they send me music, or when I hear them play at parties, but I don't collect music. What is your opinion about MP3 files? It's not good for business, it's not good for the artists. On the one hand, it's good for publicity because in the net everything spreads quickly. Everyone passes on music to his friends. It helps to promote you and get your name known. On the other hand, if you want labels to release music and have it profitable business you need to show respect to the artist and buy the music that you like.

Interview by Mike A