DJ Al Storm Profile

First appearing under his original DJ Storm alias around 1996, Al Storm has a glittering production CV matched by very few in the rave scene. With early production skills taught by the likes of Fade, Ham, & Luna-c and releases and remixes for just about every big label/artist at the time (including the remixes of Force & Styles 'Fireworks', Seduction's 'Sub Dub' & Vinylgroovers classic 'Time after Time') and was responsible for the hugely popular 90’s anthem 'Beating of my Heart.

Over the last 14 years he has continued amassing an impressive discography of well over 100 releases. Despite DJ'ing all over the world, and producing relentlessly, Al Storm has still found time to build up a healthy client list for his engineering work, a list which includes: Seduction, Slipmatt, Billy 'Daniel' Bunter, Ellis Dee & Swan-E, Ultrasonic, Ramos & Punch, Altern-8, Kutski, Uplift Etc, and has undertaken a significant share of the engineering work on the hugely successful Helter Skelter / Ministry of Sound compilations, and Seduction’s mixes on the acclaimed Hardcore Adrenaline / Hardcore Nation series.

Having run several labels over the years including' Raindance Records, Destructive Force, Cloned, Underground Recordings, in 2001 he started his current label 'Warped Science’ with label & studio partner 'Mike Euphony, which already boasts a healthy line up of artists such as Bang, Impact, Orbit1, Heaven 7, Fracus, Darwin, Flyin & Sparky, Seduction, Nu Foundation, Audioscape, Weaver, Ultravibes, C-Kay, SMS, Gammer, and has already been scheduled up to its 60th release by the end of 2008.

As well as a hectic time as a label manager, Al Storm has remixed & engineered remixes & Productions for a huge variety of high profile artists covering most styles of the Dance music scene. Such legendary names as......

Cascada, Groove Coverage, Hixxy, Darren Styles, Ellis Dee & Swan-E, Slipmatt, Billy 'Daniel' Bunter, CLSM, Scott Brown, Shades Of Rhythm, Urban Hype, DJ Seduction, Clubraiders, Visa, Bang!, Heaven-7, Fracus, Ultrasonic, Ultravibes, The Prodigy, Altern 8, Switch, Candee Jay, Alex Gaudino & Crystal Waters, Rozalla, Fedde Le Grande,Trixxy/RedHead, Nikki Mak, Ultravibes, Brisk & Ham, Draft & Method, Sy & Unknown, Euphony, Liquid, DJ Slam, SMD, Nick Skitz & Melissa Tkautz , Stu Allan, Boogie Pimps, Matt Darey, Supermode, Ratpack, Q Project, Ramos & Supreme, Gordon Edge, Dougal & Mickey Skeadale, Orbit1, Force & Styles, Divine Inspiration, Lisa-Marie Experience, Stonebridge, Solu Music, Vinylgroover & Trixxy, Luna-C, and so on!

Plans for 2008 include an Australian tour in Feb (Sydney, Melbourne & Perth) & November, alongside Breeze, Squad-e/Hypasonic, THC Crew, Ramos & Supreme, Lou Lou, Whizzkid & Technikal. and you will be able to catch Al live at events such as : Fantazia (Scotland), Tasty, Raindance, Bounce Heaven, Vibealite, Best Of British, Nemesis (Wales), Natural Born Ravers, System X (Irelend), Raver Baby/HTID, Twisted & Brainfire (Scotland) Uproar, + Many More in 2008.

Albums Mixed & Produced to date:
(2008) Hardcore Nation - The Next Generation Al Storm, Kurt & Joey Riot , Al Twisted CD (Nukleuz/Media Recs)
(2008) Bonkers Down Under - Al Storm, Neophyte & Suae (3xCD) (Central Station)
(2008) Hard 2 The Core - Al Storm, Euphony & Spinback Mix (3xCD) (Warped Music)
(2007) Hardcore Underground 2 (Al Storm & Fracus Mix)
(2006) Old Skool Rewinds - Al Storm & Spinback Double CD (Rumour Records)
(2006) Bang! - Shooting Star (The Album) (Mixed by Al Storm & Euphony) (Rumour Records/Stormin Tunes)
(2005) Ultrasonic - Annihilating Rhythms (Mixed & Produced by Al Storm & Euphony) (Clubscene/Rumour Recs)
(2004) Now..Thats What i Call Hardcore - Al Storm & Euphony Double CD (Majestic-USA)
(2004) DJ Storm - The History (High Emotion-Japan)
(2003) Happy Hardcore vol.III - Al Storm & Euphony Double CD (Tower Records-Australia)


For Bookings & Info Contact:

warpedscience@hotmail.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/alstorm
http://www.warpedscience.com

Al Storm Interview

www.myspace.com/alstorm
www.warpedscience.com
Contact: warpedscience@hotmail.co.uk

How did you first get into the scene?
It was around 92' through my older brother who was into a lot of the early Belgian Techno stuff, through to the Prodigy stuff, strangely enough the first event that I ever went to was a Fantazia, in November 92' ' I was only 13 at the time so have no idea how i managed to get in!. After that i was at places like Sterns in Worthing & The Rhythm Station in Aldershot week in week out.

What was the first record you ever bought?
Haha so long ago! .. Hardcore/Rave wise, I think it was 'Orca - Dances With Dolphins EP' (also a big Fantazia tune years ago I think), I picked it up from the 'Lucky Spin records' Shop in Kings Road, Chelsea , and is still one of my favourite EP's to date

How would you describe your music?
Energetic, Fresh (Sometimes!), Varied, Sometimes Strange!, and Dancefloor Friendly

What other artists do you rate?
Aside from the obvious big names you see everywhere, there's loads of good new artists coming through at the moment, from all over the world, Ultravibes (Germany), Fracus, Orbit.1 (Australia), Darwin, Nu Foundation (Ireland) & Sparky to name a few.

I see with the upcoming gigs you have you are off to Australia soon, what other countries have you played apart from the UK ?
Have been lucky enough to play quite a few places abroad over the years.. Germany, America (though I'm currently banned! .. DON'T go there without a work visa, there not very nice to you if they catch you!), Spain, Australia, Canada, and Japan

Do you have a particular favourite party you've played at on your travels? and any funny stories you can share ?
Got to be New Years Eve, in Sydney @ The Wonderland Theme Park, think it was 2001/2002, the first time i had gone out there to play, the venue was enormous, entire outdoor Theme park, Rollercoasters and everything! had never seen anything like it, i played on the main stage just as the sun was coming up, was amazing to see 10k people in front of you like that, unfortunately i think they ended up shutting the Park down a year or 2 after. As Far as funny stories go , isnt too many! (though they are probably more amusing for other people to hear about than they were for me ) i tend to be more cursed with travels than anything, everything from losing passports & being refused entry/banned to being bitten by deadly spiders !

Whats the maddest thing you have ever done after a gig? or want to forget you have done after one?
haha I'm sure there's been plenty of things i have done after or during gigs that i regret or want to forget (usually abroad .. for some reason that can bring out the worst in me at times :P) but .. I'm not telling you what they are!

You have done or engineered remixes of some classic tracks by the likes of Shades of Rhythm, Scott Brown, The Fat Controller to name a few ,are you working on anymore at the moment? and is there any tracks in the pipeline from al storm himself ?
Plenty! I'm lucky enough to work for people through Engineering, that have access to being able to remix classics tracks from people like The Prodigy, and Shades of Rhythm, always nice to be able to remix tracks I've loved since I got into the scene. As far as my own stuff goes, I'm in the studio 24/7 at the moment, probably the biggest few tracks at the moment are:

Cascada - What Hurts The Most (Al Storm Remix)
Al Storm - 'Surrender'
Groove Coverage - Poison (Al Storm Mix)
Al Storm - 'Shadows'
Bang! vs Al Storm 'Breaking Through' (Feat Nikki Mak)
Heaven 7 vs Al Storm 'You're the Feeling'

What's your studio set up ?
I've downsized it considerably over the last few years, lot less Outboard gear than before, over the last few years Software and a Decent PC is all you really need, but its nice to have a bit of old Hardware to Fatten things up a bit.
Kit List:
Apple Mac, 8 Core, 4 Gig ram running 'Logic Studio 8' and 'Cubase 4' (various other plugs & fx) Apple 30" Cinema Display
MOTU Traveller Soundcard
Roland V-Synth XT (Weird .. and can turn your voice into a choir of monks..... handy.. )
Access Virus TI (Beast)
Waldorf 'Blofeld' Synth
Native Instruments Kore Controller
Roland XV-5080 (Good for just about everything, 'The Musicbox')
Roland JP-8000 Keyboard (Supersawtastic!)
Roland JD-800 Keyboard (Old School machine, can get most classic rave sounds out of this, and THE house piano)
Genelec 8040a Monitors (Laaarvely! crystal clear sound)
Nord Lead (Filthy & Noisy)
Korg M1 Keyboard (Classic Piano Sound, and loads of great old noises)
EMU X-Board 61 Midi Controller (Picks & Chooses when it wants to work... not cool)
and a few external hard drives which will probably break when i really need them and lose me years of work! (again)

When your not behind the decks ,travelling from gig to gig what do you do to chill out ?
Haha I don't really get much time to chill out, so much stuff on at the moment, and its generally all music related, taking care of the labels, Engineering, getting my own tracks done, albums, all takes up massive amounts of time, I think 'sleeping' is the only time i get to chill out (though I do sleep a lot, which tends to annoy people when I'm supposed to be working for them at the time!).

What would you say you fav tune would be from the past, what's your present fav and do you have any in your record box that you see as being big in the future?
Haha so many, one that stands out for me though from about 92 would be 'Sy-Kick - Upside', has the best Rave riff I've ever heard. Present Fav's at the moment (tracks of mine) would prob be a couple remixes I did, one of 'Groove Coverage - Poison' & The Remix I did of the new Cascada single ' What Hurts The Most' both came out really energetic, I was really pleased with the end result!, of other peoples tracks id say 'Dougal & Gammer - Wii Go Crazy' .. class.

The scene is UK has grown from strength to strength over the last few years do you think the scene is now bigger than a few years ago ?
Yeah its definitely grown the last few years, I think a lot of the Ministry albums, and the Clublands Hardcore have played there part, helping get the music out to a wider audience, hopefully it will carry on growing more over the next few years

What can we expect from al storm in 2008 your plans, gigs?
Gig wise, have got quite a few bits lined up, obviously Fantazia, Bounce Heaven/Vibealite, Best Of British, Raver Baby/HTID, Natural Born Ravers, Twisted & Brainfire, Uproar, 2 Australian Tours (Feb & November), possibly the States & Canada again if i can sort out my Visa Problems in time. With music, just plan on carrying on as i have been, pushing the labels, and getting as much quality material out as possible, few album projects lined up as well. I've just mixed a section of 'Hardcore Nation - The Next Generation' comp for Nukleuz (Al Storm, Joey Riot & Kurt, Al Twisted / Fracus, Darwin/Jakazid) & an album for Central Station in Australia (Al Storm, Neophyte & Suae), and a couple of other album plans in the pipeline, so a busy year ahead!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years time ?
The Caribbean would be nice! ;)

If you were putting on a major event along the lines of Fantazia all stars what would be you dream line-up and who would you like to play alongside?
id probably go back to 1992.. any of the line ups back then would have done me fine!

If you were stuck on a desert islands what would be the three things you would miss ?
Xbox, Girls & Studio (sad eh :P) .. and Bacon! (no one should be without Bacon :D)

Do you prefer vinyl or cd's?
I still pick up a lot of older tracks on vinyl, but for Hardcore at the moment its definitely CD's, just saves me a lot of money, i get so many bits done, to get them all cut to a Dubplate like I would have had to years ago to play them, would cost me a fortune! .. with CD's now I can finish a track same day and then play it that night to see how it goes down, though i do think CDJ's are more for Producers who wanna test out/play there own stuff or some bits which aren't available on vinyl, so vinyl still has a place, and a lot of labels rely on sales of vinyl to keep them releasing the music.

If you were in heroes what would be your superpower of choice ?
haha.. the power to send myself to sleep, and wake up at will, could get in an extra few hours of sleep a day then!

Interview conducted by Sweats for Fantazia 2008