Thomas Heredia is returning to A State Of Trance with his new track ‘Let Me Go’. ‘Let Me Go’ is a combination of trance and a beautiful piano play. It’s a guaranteed trance fan favorite!
Prolific as ever, Tomas Heredia returns to A State Of Trance with another spark of brilliance. Radiating those irresistible Trance vibes through the soft piano play in the breakdown, the building plucks and the big-chord drop, ‘Let Me Go’ gets the global Trance crowd swooning in no time.
Graham Bell is coming out with his new track ‘The Night King’. The energetic track will make the trance fans go crazy!
Starting off with a filtered bass and big toms before diving into all-out Trance-scented madness, Graham Bell’s ‘The Night King’ truly is a force to be reckoned with. With an arsenal of high-impact tricks up its sleeve, this cut will make the legions of Trance fans bow to its will.
Let me take you back to January 20th 2017…does it ring any bells? Oh I am sure it does! It was indeed, the release date of the long awaited iconic album ‘My Story’ by Statement! honcho’s Ruben de Ronde ( aka the best day of 2017).
After months of teasing we finally got to download this masterpiece made of precious gems and holy moly, how we loved it.
It was love at first listening and we spent the night tweeting about our first impressions and sending love to Ruben and all the artists who were involved in it.
We didn’t sleep a wink but what a magical night it was!!
Sure, we knew some of the tunes already, but a few others were brand new to our ears, so we needed to listen and savor it a few times before being able to write something about them.
We can say in all honesty we loved the whole album but if you are familiar with our blog you know already how ‘Eska’ blew our minds from the beginning 🙂
‘Eska’ stole our hearts from the first beats and we remember Ruben’s used it as soundtrack of some of his vlogs before he released the album;
for a number of reasons it was and still is dear to us in a special way and the fact it never got to be remixed and always remained untouched made it feel even more significant.
But of course, ‘My Story’ had a lot more gems in it, each tunes was there to unveil part of the splendidly tailored record.
Wanna talk about the magic of Leave a Light On (Ruben de Ronde & Rodg feat. Louise Rademaker)?
or the sweetness of All In (Ruben de Ronde & Kimberly Hale) ?
This is not only a great tune in itself but it also got us to know Kimberly Hale, such a talented artist that we are now proud to call a great friend of us;
Open Wide (Ruben de Ronde & Donata) is still bringing us back to some sweet memories and Time has come (Ruben de Ronde & SIR NOTCH) is our choice when in need of some positivity in our day;
oh dear, we could go on forever talking about all the tracks but published an article about the album back then, and you can still find it here:
So, I bet you are wondering why, after almost 2 years we are still talking about it?
Well, we have our motivations to be honest, and so many good memories related to this album,
like when we sent this clock to Ruben to celebrate the amazing tune ‘Time has Come’
but the main reason we are blogging this today is:
Ruben de Ronde just announced the physical album is going on production, which means we can have the cd in our hands very soon! But hurry up as there will be only 100 copies available!!
Still wondering why we are so hyped about the printing of a 2 years old album? Well, the truth is, we fell in love with it from its early days of conceiving ( yeah, sounds like we were expecting a baby, I know, but this is how we felt back then), we followed the album making of step by step, we saw Ruben putting all himself in its creation, or as he would say “all the blood, sweat and tears”it costed him to realize it; the process was long and things have not always been smooth and easy, but on the way, we all learnt a lot, as time went by we built a strong relationship, the fanbase grew up, we got to know a few of the artists involved in it and we created our own Statement family, the album really gathered us together in many ways.
It’s hard to explain to all of you how much this cd means to us personally and how much we appreciate Ruben’s decision to print it,
just put it this way, to us, having the chance to keep this treasure in our hands it’s like when, after an amazing experience, you finally seal it by getting inked, yes, this cd, is our tattoo, something no one could ever steal from us, it’s engraved forever in our hearts and minds and soon, we will have the physical copy at home with us; Ruben named it ‘My Story’ but we are proud to say this is also ‘Our Story’ he made us feel part of it in a kinda unique and precious way.
In a world were an album is old after a month from its release, ‘My Story’ stands out for its unicity, it didn’t get old, it grew inside us, it united and strengthened us, it saw us growing and changing as well, it made us laugh and cry, it has been there when we were clubbing with Ruben and also when we were alone, it’s nestled in our lives.
When all is said and done, we couldn’t be more happy about this news and we are forever grateful to Ruben de Ronde for being the amazing artist and precious soul he is!
We highly recommend you to order your limited edition copy here:
All good things must come to an end…so we decided to close 2018 with a bang!
Music wise it’s been an amazing year, we attended many spectacular events and had the chance to interview a lot of artists;
As last interview of 2018, we wanna drag you down the rabbit hole, let’s follow us to one of the most iconic parties of the year, Grotesque 350, hosted by the dutch mastermind, RAM, who’s been so nice to sit down with us for a great chat!
TBA: Hi RAM, thanks again for supporting The Backstage Access, first of all, how was your 2018?
RAM: It’s been an amazing year, my best year so far, so I can’t complain, had load of music released, tunes and cds, got a lot of sold out shows worldwide, been touring non stop, so it’s been just fantastic
TBA: Speaking of 2018 what has been your track of the year?
RAM: Northern Starfrom me and Susana, you know, I make music that I love and unfortunately tune like that are emotional trance that are not so hot anymore, so you don’t get to listen to it so often, I missed that very much as to me this was the essence of trance; another tune I love is from my friend Richard Durand ‘The Air I Breath‘, I think it’s an amazing track.
TBA: Speaking about Northern Star, can you tell us the story behind it?
RAM: Well it’s basically my third collaboration with Susana, we started with RAMelia and then we made ‘Someone Like You’ and after two tracks like that and fans keep asking for a new collaboration we really wanted to do something special again…but you know, it’s difficult to overcome what we did or at least to do something at the same level so it took a lot of work and it was a very hard process but now we made it and we are both very happy with the result, it’s nice to see we get so much love and support for it.
TBA: What’s up next?
RAM:Well basically after this, (Grotesque350) we gonna take this show worldwide, we are off to Asia, Australia, U.S.A and South America, we gonna do shows over there and in Europe as well of course, our label is doing amazing too and we will release a new compilation, and we are also about to start Grotesque D, with more progressive house!
About my personal projects I’d say I like to think out of the box so I am working on a new project to show a darker and harder side of me, I came form the hard trance so, basically I wanna make a fusion of different style reworking all hard trance classics, something different form what I normally do.
TBA: I’ve seen something coming up like a show at Paradiso, right?
RAM: Yes basically I wanna do a show for the essence of trance which basically means for me the essential trance records of the last 15/20 years but like the emotional beautiful trance, the kind of pure trance which is unfortunately not played anymore, emotional melodic trance for true trance lovers so it’s gonna be a 5 hours show of what I call angelic emotional trance, not for people that like fashion trance.
TBA: So we are at Grotesque 350 and the anthem is ‘Youniverse’ your collaboration with Alex M.O.R.P.H. how did it come?
RAM: I’ve known Alex for such a long time and we did already a previous collab, and I thought it was the right choice to work with him on the anthem of the event as he is playing here too and on the cd as well… it was for me a logic choice to ask him for it.
TBA: Any other collabs coming up in 2019?
RAM: Yes a lot!! I think the first one is with Heatbeats, one with Natalie Gioia and Darren Porter… then one with Arctic Moon and Denise Riviera,… Julie Thompson, Christina Novelli…. loads are coming cause I am also working on a new album so I think in the album there will be about six or seven collaborations but i cannot spill the bean now otherwise there is no surprise anymore haha!
TBA : Last but not least, as a guy from Amsterdam, why did you choose to set Grotesque in Rotterdam?
RAM: Ah, because there is no Maassilo in Amsterdam haha , but seriously, basically for me this is the best location in Holland I love it here, I think it’s beautiful and even if we love Amsterdam we don’t have a location that fits good as this one.
After a few years on ice, Bob Sinclar’s Africanism label is making its grand return. Initially launched in 2001 in collaboration with DJ Gregory, the label has now reemerged under the wing of Amsterdam-based record label Armada Music to create a new wave with fresh productions and instant classics, of which Erik Hagleton’s ‘City Of Gold’ is the first.
Constructed from the stuff that legends are made of, Erik Hagleton’s ‘City Of Gold’ goes down the floor-filling road that circles round the Africanism stamp. Juggling smooth, yet groovy percussion loops with deep bass, soft synth swirls and choir-like vocal chants, this track turns any spot into a makeshift dance floor, all in tandem with the excellent remixes from Daddy’s Groove and Nico De Andrea.
Since its launch in 2001, Africanism has been a blazing the trail for a large chunk of the House scene with its infectious funkiness, percussion-led sound and African vibe. Having released music from major-league artists such as David Guetta, Martin Solveig and of course Bob Sinclar and DJ Gregory, the label reached a number of commendable milestones, including #1 positions in Billboard’s Dance charts in 2005 (‘Summer Moon’) and 2006 (‘Hard’) and a golden record in South Africa with ‘Africanism 1’. Now restarting in collaboration with Armada Music, Africanism is immediately back on track with an instant House classic from Paris-born, London-based musician Erik Hagleton, who’s mostly known for his iconic remix of Basement Jaxx’s ‘Jump N Shout’.
Bob Sinclar: “Back when we first started the label, the idea was to give DJs something different to play during their sets, something unlike all the commercial, mainstream stuff. That notion still holds true today, but with additional focus on the new generations of music enthusiasts. It’s time for young people to discover real House music. It’s our duty to guide them into that direction with Africanism, and we’re very grateful to Armada Music for believing in us and wanting to join us in this endeavor.”
Maykel Piron, CEO Armada Music: “Africanism has always been more than just a label. To us, Africanism has been a fresh wind in the House scene, a label that introduced its own style of music and convinced DJs and listeners to step out of their comfort zone. To be a part of their relaunch truly is an honor for us all, and we’re really excited to work so closely together with them on adding some more color to the House scene.”
Erik Hagleton: “I’ve always had an appreciation for percussive African tribal music – it’s so fun and timeless – so it made sense for me to reconnect with Africanism for the release of my new single. The inspiration behind ‘City Of Gold’ actually came from a fond childhood memory. I used to watch a cartoon called ‘Les Mysterieuses Citee d’Or’, or ‘City of Gold’, and the melody of the theme was my main inspiration for the track.’’
Let us take you back to ‘1998’. Trance was booming like never before, and a few lads from the U.K. got together, wrote a breathtakingly beautiful piece on nothing more than a Yamaha W7 workstation and saw it become a seminal record that would change the lives of countless dance music fans forever. Today, that masterpiece, ‘1998’, celebrates its 20th anniversary and it does so in style with a brand-new 2018 version from Binary Finary themselves and remixes from Trance hero Marc Sixma and Italian Big Room/House/Techno maestro Dosem.
A true hit both on and off the dance floor with commendable chart positions in the U.K. (#24 for ‘1998’ and #11 for successor ‘1999’), ‘1998’ is revamped after two decades of dance floor domination. An evergreen classic no Trance fan has ever been able to get enough of – nor ever will, this masterstroke creation from Binary Finary is about to add another twenty years to its successful reign.
Binary Finary: “We are just really humbled that the little project we started all those years ago on a Yamaha workstation is still gaining attention and music plays all these years on. We are excited to hear the new remixes being played out at events across the globe. Really exciting and truly fitting for a 20th birthday party.”
PVD-HEADLINED IBIZA NIGHT CONFIRMED TO RETURN FOR ITS SECOND SEASON / NEW CLUB + DAY/DATE DETAILS
Hot off the back of the freshly-released ‘Music Rescues Me’ album,Paul van Dykhas more good news for fans today. Having enjoyed a highly successful 11-week debut run (culminating in him picking up DJ Awards Ibiza’s 2018 Trance Master title), The Supernova Group confirmed thatPaul van Dykwill be joining the SHINE family for another season in 2019. Having headlined the Ibiza night throughout the summer, SHINE will be back at a new venue, and further will see Paul return to his customary TRANCE THURSDAYS residency slot on the White Isle.
On SHINE’s first season, Paul reflected: “SHINE brought a breath of fresh air to Ibiza in 2018. To break out and do something new and under our own steam was a wonderfully liberating experience for myself personally and, I think, all involved. The team was right, the vibe was right and the DJs SHINE brought in to play were second to none. Trance and its global family were back on the island in its truest form. That all showed in the reception the night received.
On my last trip to Ibiza this year I dropped into the recently fully redeveloped Eden. I was blown away to see how the venue was modernized and refined. I’ve played the best and most exciting venues in the world and the new Eden is exactly that. Alongside San Antonio’s continuing regeneration, I am sure SHINE will host a world-class 2019 production there. Trance and Eden have a close relationship/shared history that goes back decades. In tandem with the desire to have the night back on Thursdays, I’m delighted to say that SHINE will be moving to the club for the upcoming 2019 season.”
Of the night’s move to Eden, the club said: “We are delighted to be hosting SHINE Ibiza for the first time in San Antonio. We are dedicated to offering a diverse range of club nights to our Ibiza crowd. We can think of no better team to bring Trance to Eden than with legendaryPaul van Dykand the SHINE family for 2019”.
SHINE promoter and MD of The Supernova Group Nick Ferguson echoed that, saying: “We are very excited by the opportunity to move SHINE to Eden for the 2019 season. The club has recently experienced a fantastic redevelopment and resurgence, as has San Antonio. Eden is well run, by people that believe in trance and are passionate about working with an exciting new brand!”
Paul will once again headline the night and a first raft of supporting DJs will be announced early in the New Year. Season 2 of SHINE begins with an opening fiestaon July 11, 2019and will run for 11 #TranceThursday nights through toSeptember 19.More info to follow early in the New Year.
Making his mark on the A State Of Trance imprint, Alex Kunnari teamed up with star vocalist Mike Schmid for an inspiring Vocal Trance gem. From the sizzling melody to the warm vocals and back, ‘This Fire’ is a song that will keep burning within Trance fans for a long time.
Alexander Popov shows he never lets us down with his single ‘Always Connected’ from his ‘Intention’ album. Together with LTN and stunning vocals from Cari, Alexander Popov made a track that is meant to be in your favorite playlist!
In tandem with LTN and vocalist Cari, Alexander Popov proudly presents another stellar single from his ‘Intention’ album. Characterized by a perfect balance between the raw, electro-scented bassline, angelic vocals and powerful melody, ‘Always Connected’ truly is a song that sticks.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an international PR at Armada Music? Who are the guys behind all your favorite artists? And what do they do exactly?
Well we had the pleasure to have a nice chat with two of the best PRs in the business, just to quench your thirst of curiosity and we’re ready to share the juicy details!
TBA: When did you start working at Armada music?
Lisanne: I started working at Armada Music on January 2, 2017. I finished law school, but felt I needed to have more creativity in my life. I love Law and will never regret choosing it as a study, but my creative / musical heart needed attention. I worked in the entertainment business on the TV side first, but soon discovered that there is only one place that will make me happy every day: the music business. So here we are!! And to be honest, I don’t think I will ever leave the music field.. 🙂
Justine: For me, it was early 2016. I was working in fashion, but needed a change of scenery. One day, I was at this Pablo Nouvelle concert in Paradiso in Amsterdam as a fan and got overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of a certain group of people dancing in front of me. They had a great influence on the overall vibe of the crowd that night and somehow really caught my attention. At a certain point, Pablo Nouvelle announced he recently signed with Armada Music and while saying that, he pointed towards this specific group of people standing up front. It turned out they were working at Armada Music and were there to support him. You could tell they were very proud of him and enjoyed working for him, which was why I told my friend ‘I want to work there as well!!’. The day after, I sent this exact story in an open application letter to Armada and the rest is history.
TBA: Can you describe us your job?
Both:
As you know, we both work for Armada Music – currently the biggest independent electronic dance music record label, founded by Armin van Buuren, Maykel Piron and David Lewis. At the label, we represent a wide range of acts (e.g. Armin van Buuren, ARTY, Andrew Rayel, Fedde Le Grand, GoldFish, Lost Frequencies, Loud Luxury, Morgan Page, Ørjan Nilsen and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano), as well as the label itself on a PR & Promotion level.
Together with the Product Managers, we try to create a hype around the tracks that get released via the label. It’s our responsibility to put the word out there, get the tracks known and streamed as soon as possible after release. Therefore, it’s our job to arrange promo tours, (online) interviews, radio/tv visits, social media take-overs, meet & greets, contest/giveaways etc. At the end of the day, we want our releases and artist roster to grow and become well known/more popular on a global scale.
TBA: What is the most challenging part of it?
Both: The most challenging part of music PR is to create the right PR angle/story to go with a release. For us, it’s important to build on a good story to make you stand out from the huge amount of music that is being released each day.
TBA: What is the funniest part of it?
Both: Creating that story/unique angle around a release can be quite fun sometimes.. We try to collect as much information as possible beforehand about a specific release and/or artist and sometimes you’ll find out about some funny, juicy details. Apart from that, promo days and festivals are definitely the most fun as we get to go out there and build on the relationship with the artists we represent.
TBA: How is it like to rub elbows with so many big DJs ? (And did you ever get use to have Armin around?)
Lisanne: I love to spend time with the artist, because I love music. To be around people who love the same thing as much as you is always great. That is in general the thing I love most about my job. Hahaha, yes I am used to having Armin around, but always love it when he is at the office because he is such a nice and funny guy.
Justine: It’s always a challenge of course with so many DJs and tracks being released every week. But I think the most important thing here is to actually believe in the music you represent and like Lisanne already mentioned; have a passion for music in general. Being passionate about what you do definitely makes your job a whole lot easier. I think Armin is one of the best examples of someone being really passionate about his career and having him around definitely has a positive, inspiring effect on the entire team here.
TBA: A day in the life of Lisanne and Justine …. let’s go wild and tell me everything:)
Lisanne: Well, most of the days aren’t as exciting as most people think, I guess.. I get up, walk to work (with Justine) and grab a cup of coffee. Then I try to get all my e-mails sorted before lunch and make sure I have a to-do list ready for the rest of the day. The music business is a fast-moving business and things don’t always go as expected, so we need to be able to respond to this fast. Having the inbox in order makes this easier. In the summer, we have a lot of festivals in the weekend and in October, we’re obviously really busy with ADE. But most of the days are spent at the office in Amsterdam. For me, that means liters of coffee and typing my ass off.
Photo by: Floris Heuer – www.florisheuer.com
Justine: I think Lisanne’s description is quite accurate.. spending 24/7 on our phones and computer talking to media partners, artist management, event organizers, promoters etc. and setting up meetings to discuss strategies and promo plans. Definitely no 9-to-5 job as we work with a lot of different time zones. Besides that, Lisanne and I are having a lot of one-on-one sessions where we brainstorm and try to think of new ideas/ways of promoting releases and the label in general.
TBA: ADE has just been over, how was this edition for you?
Lisanne: This was my second ADE. I was better prepared for all things that were going to happen and knew better where I got myself into. ADE is hectic, but one of the best weeks of the year for us. During the day, we have loads of meetings and we schedule a lot of press moments with our artists. During the night, we try to attend the parties or events where our artists are playing or the ones that our partners are hosting. We don’t get much sleep done during this week, but because of all the things going on and the positive vibes all around, it makes it quite easy to keep going.
Justine: I couldn’t agree more. ADE is definitely the best week of the year for me! For us it’s the perfect opportunity to meet up with everyone that we’ve been working with all year (that aren’t exactly based ‘around the corner’) and to meet new people as well. Apart from the meetings/panel talks/events/parties we attend during that week, we also organize and host the ‘Armada Invites ADE marathon’ in our very own in-office club, which is very exciting to work on as well!
TBA: You have to deal with a lot of people, artists, managers, press and so on, it requires a lot of patience, positive attitude and energy I think…. how do you keep yourself going all the time ?
Both: It really helps that we are both extremely passionate about what we do; this definitely makes things easier. It’s important to keep in mind that we’re all trying to reach the same goals here and that it’s important for us to work together to be able to achieve these goals.
Teamwork is key, and this way, we try to keep inspiring and motiving each other on a daily basis.
TBA: ASOT900 is approaching, how much are you involved in that ? And what are you gonna do?
Lisanne: ASOT900 is the biggest indoor trance festival in the world and a proud project of Armin. Because I am responsible for the promotional side of not only Armin, but all the trance acts at Armada, I will be organizing and coordinating press opportunities for all of them during this night. With it being such a big event, loads of media partners from all around the world will attend, which gives me the opportunity to build on the relationship and create promo opportunities for our artists and the A State Of Trance label. I will probably ask Justine to help me out during this night, as this is always very hectic and it never ever goes according to plan.
Justine: Like she already explained, Lisanne is in charge of all the PR & Promo around this event but like every year, I will definitely be there as well to help her coordinate and assist where needed.
TBA:Lisanne, would you tell me a secret about Justine ?
Lisanne: Hahaha! Not going to spill the beans here, but Justine has a very easy way to go undercover and sometimes uses this when it’s Sunday and she doesn’t wants to be recognized.. 😉
Justine: Hahaha, so true!
TBA: Justine, would you tell me a secret about Lisanne?
Justine:Besides her passion for electronic music, Lisanne’s guilty pleasure is listening to Dutch Folk music.
She’s attending every show, standing front row, singing along to literally every song they play, haha!
Oh and 1 more things: if you ever meet Lisanne on the dance floor, make sure to ask her about ‘The Vacuum Cleaner’. Trust me; it will be a mind-blowing experience!
Photo courtesy of Floris Heuer and Bailey Frank Hyatt
