DERSONNA
Who: Iain Anderson
Sounds: Techno, Tech House & Minimal bulging with big basslines and massive drops
When one of your first bootlegs gets played by Radio 1 you know your doing something right. When said bootleg then gets requested by Angnelli & Nelson to be played at Planet Love a mere twenty four hours later, that's when you know you have something special. The bootleg in question was one of Dersonna's early edits, a storming re-rub of the late 90's David Morales classic 'Needin' U'. It marked the start of what is undoubtedly going to be a lengthy career for the aspiring producer, with the likes of Tech-House titans Luciano, Loco Dice & Jon Rundell already playing his records.
After the success of that early bootleg, Dersonna made the leap into full production, creating slamming Techno & solid Tech House numbers which devastate every dancefloor they touch. After being picked up by numerous labels his productions started being noticed on a wider scale with one of his remixes for fellow Glaswegians Worx not only claiming the top spot on the DJDownload Chart but also one of Juno Download's top Techno picks for 2010. And what makes his sound so utterly irresistible to the big name producers and dancing public alike? We find it comes from an uncanny ability to take people right to the edge, creating that moment of utter ecstasy when the bassline finally drops and the place goes completely wild. Whatever it is, the combination of ribcage-rattling bass and smooth-grooving rhythms has got us hooked...
With his feet so firmly glued to the driving energy of Techno however and with so much success already achieved through those devastating drops you'd think he'd be happy sticking with what has arguably become his primary sound. But with a full length album coming in 2011 and plans to start tinkering with Electro, Breaks & Dubstep there is clearly a lot more to come from Dersonna, and we personally can't wait to hear it.
Check out some of Dersonna's productions below as well as an interview with the man himself:
Worx - Funk You (Dersonna remix) by Dersonna
Dersonna - Cut 'n' Paste by 3rd Abstract Records
M. Knight & Dersonna - Moorloot by Dersonna
Dersonna - Air Raid by Dersonna
S: Starting from the very beginning, how did you originally get into dance music? Was there a particular DJ, Club or track that influenced you and what initially inspired you to start producing?
D: I originally got into dance music through a friend (Alan Forrest) who was, and still is, obsessed with all things to do with the dance scene and it was him who first introduced me to clubs such as the Sub Club and The Arches and since then I’ve been pretty well hooked. He also played a big role in getting me into Dj’ing by giving me a set of his old turntables to practice with when I first got interested.
It was once I started learning how to Dj that I ended up going down the production route as I would regularly get frustrated with tracks where there might be one part of the track that I’d really like yet there would also be one section that I’d really hate. So I looked into some programs where I could possibly cut sections out of tracks and then splice them back together how I liked in order to use in my sets and ended up using Ableton. Once I started using Ableton more regularly I realised that I could be doing so much more than just cutting up tracks and that’s basically how I started producing my own stuff.
S: Your sound can be very heavy in some instances and deeper in others. How would you describe your music to people who haven’t heard you before and can you see yourself branching out into other styles?
D: When I sit down to produce a track I very rarely have a specific idea of what I'm going to make and on the odd occasion that I do sit down to make a specific type of track it usually ends up evolving into something completely different from what I originally intended, so my stuff does tend to vary a bit depending on my mood. The one constant tends to be that it always has a techy edge to it so if you're into tech house, minimal, and techno then you should hopefully enjoy some of my stuff. As for branching out into different styles, I'm actually in the middle of coming up with a new alias, Andrenos, to release some electro and more experimental stuff that I've been working on. Aswell as that, I'm also in the process of recording some vocals for a dubstep/breaks track I've made which, if it ever gets released, will probably be under the Andrenos name. I feel that using the different alias's just gives me a bit more freedom with what I create, rather than being tied down to the one style.
S: Your tracks have been supported by such big names as Luciano, Loco Dice & even Judge Jules, while your remix of Worx was chosen as a top pick for Juno Downloads Techno category in 2010. How long was it before you started getting noticed and how did you feel when these big names started supporting you?
D: It happened really quickly. I had just started out and was producing remixes of some classic tracks, as I hadn't really got the knack of producing my own stuff from scratch yet, when I got a bootleg of the David Morales classic needing you played on radio 1 and it was an amazing buzz. I couldn't believe it when I heard my name being mentioned on the radio, and then the next day I received an email from a representative of Agnelli & Nelson asking if I could send them a copy as they had heard it the night before and wanted to play it at the Planet Love festival that night, which was just unreal as I this was the first ever production I had put together. It was from then that I started to produce my own original material and get things released with labels and by far the most successful of these has to be the rmx I did for Worx which reached #1 on djdownload and was chosen as one of Juno's top techno picks of 2010. Just seeing my name alongside the likes of Adam Beyer, Umek, Secret Cinema, and Marco Bailey in that chart was unreal and has spurred me on to try my hardest to keep up that level of success and fingers crossed be able to one day call this my full time job.
S: You have a full length album coming in 2011, will this be a collection of you biggest releases or comprised entirely of new material? If so, what sounds can we expect from it?
D: The album is going to be a collection of entirely new material ranging from house through to full on techno, so its pretty much in keeping with previous releases. I'm really excited about the album as its given me a chance to progress my sound more than I would be able to over the course of a 2 track EP, instead there's 11 tracks which I think adds a different challenge. I'm actually still tweaking and tinkering with it just now as I always find it hard knowing when a track is finished :) The reactions I've had so far have been really good so I'm hoping it does well.
S: Production wise, what set up are you using at the moment? Do you get access to studio time or is it all laptop based? Have you got a particular method of approaching tracks?
D: All of my productions are done in my pretty basic bedroom setup which at the moment consists of: a set of VXT6 monitors; a Novation Launchpad; an M-Audio Axiom49midi keyboard; a SaffirePro40; Ableton 8; and a lot of VST plugins, all running through a 'build your own' desktop that I've been upgrading as I go. I'm always looking to add more and will soon have to make some room for a microkorg xl that I've ordered.
I don't really have the one specific approach to starting off a track, it just depends on what goes through my head at that moment in time. Sometimes I'll start with a bassline and progress from there others it'll be a lead then build around it, I just try and put as many of my ideas down as possible and then go through it all at the end and build a track.
S: Other than your album, what else have you got planned for 2011? Any big releases we should be looking for and do you have any DJ gigs lined up where we can catch you live?
D: Other than the album, I've recently teamed up with the Worx lads again to remix a couple of their forthcoming tracks which will be getting released sometime during 2011, one of them has actually just been released on Mu.Too records, with support from Mason & Tom Stephan, and another is awaiting release on Aurora records. I've also got a few new tracks which I'm in the process of sending out to labels so hopefully they'll get picked up soon and released later in the year. I'm working away on the Andrenos project as I mentioned earlier and I'm also looking into ways of progressing my Dj sets to contain more of a live element to them. Aswell as this I'm constantly working away on new material so I'm keeping myself busy on the production front :)
As far as the gigs go I've not actually got a lot on at the moment, in and around Glasgow, although there are a few very exciting prospects in the pipeline abroad that I'm keeping my fingers crossed over!
Dersonna's remix of Worx - 'Funk You' is out now on Mu.Too
Dersonna on Soundcloud
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