Tony McGuinness

Jono Grant

Paavo Siljamäki

Written by Jules Mari

Above & Beyond is comprised of three musicians, Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki. They embrace technology while knowing full well that their ultimate final sound is not created solely within the digital realm. Above & Beyond take the necessary extra steps to use analog at the key points - their recordings ooze the warmth that only analog can give. If ever there was a group whose name exemplifies their music, Above & Beyond IS that group. From their own musical creations, to their ability to select quality material from other artists for their label, there is no avoiding the fact that they know music inside and out. Their mixes blend seamlessly in style and musicality – and their sound is refreshingly intelligent.

Anyone who is a devout trance fan, smitten with female vocals, has surely heard Justine Suissa’s sensual vocals and her work with OceanLab. Who is OceanLab? Needless to say, it’s Above & Beyond with the addition of Justine. Her vocals add feminine sensuality to Above & Beyond’s music in a style all her own.

Want to know more aboutabout Above & Beyond, including some insights into how they get their caliber of sound? Read on for a Q&A with group member Tony McGuinness.

Jules Mari: What are they key factors in your using a particular moniker for a track whether it's Above & Beyond, Oceanlab, etc.?

Tony of Above & Beyond: Pretty much everything we do is as Above & Beyond. We used to have more pseudonyms, but now the only live one we have is Tranquility Base, which we keep alive for pure club instrumentals. OceanLab is a project we do with Justine Suissa - I've known Justine since we discovered her working in a bathroom shop and she's a wonderful singer and writer. We've done five singles and will be doing an OceanLab album next year or the year after.

With there being three of you in the group, how are the work and creativity divided amongst yourselves while still allowing your music to sound cohesive?

I think we all realize that that cohesive sound is usually the result of all three of us working together, so we tend to collaborate more than divide. Obviously, computer music needs just one finger on the mouse, so there's one person in charge at one time, but we're like Chelsea - we rotate freely!

In the same vein as the prior question, what are the key functions each of you have in the group? For example, who is on to work the mixing console during production, is there a primary songwriter, who's the technical wizard, the business person, etc.

We all do a bit of everything, from writing, jamming, production, tweaking and encouraging each other. That being said there are areas that are more distinct: Jono particularly enjoys working on the groove part of the track, Paavo has a real knack for atmospheric piano and I love writing lyrics and vocals. But it really depends on what we're working on, who had the initial idea and who likes it most as to who does what next.

With the phenomenal sound of your productions, do you do your own mastering? If so, what equipment/software do you use for the finished product, and what particular sound issues do you take into consideration (frequency ranges, etc.)?

We always use the same mastering engineer, Wally at Masterpiece in London. He does all the Above & Beyond cuts and all the Anjunabeats label stuff as well.

What is your studio setup like? Do you all work in one location, or do you work separately with your own separate studios? Is the studio(s) located in your home or an off-site location and how do you think its current location effects you creatively?

We all work in one studio, although we all have set ups at home for spare time. (What is that, exactly??) We have a twin 2.5 GHz G5 running Logic through two lovely new Apogee converters, and over a dozen hardware synths and modules all routed through a 32 channel Soundcraft Ghost analogue desk. We have a pretty large range of soft synths and plug-ins, but the analogue outboard synths, the analogue desk and our new analogue compressor and EQ is essential for fattening up the sound.

What were the differences in how you approached your prior album versus how you approached your latest release "Anjunabeats Volume 3"?

The Anjunabeats Volume series have all been approached in a similar way - we're holding a mirror to the label's recent and forthcoming releases, DJ mixed in a way that hopefully makes some sense. The album we're working on at the moment is completely different - its an artist album, an album not from Above & Beyond the DJ's but from Above & Beyond the group. We've approached it the way Underworld would have done, or Leftfield. It’s not DJ mixed, it’s not all club tunes in the strictest sense, it’s electronic music and acoustic music in the Above & Beyond style.

From your perspective(s), what are your key attributes/ talents that continue to have your tracks stands out among the many?

From our point of view it feels like extreme quality control. There are three very picky people in the group and so something needs to be bloody good for us all to like it. We are a pain in the arse about chords, sounds, lyrics and melodies. If they don't sound better than anyone else's, you won't get to hear them.

On average, how long does it take you to create a track?

90% of it is done in the first few hours. The last 10% can take a week (e.g "Surrender"), a month ("Far From In Love") or three years ("Alone Tonight")!

I've read that you all have solid formally trained backgrounds in musicianship and it clearly shows in your ability to produce quality tracks. Regarding technology, how influential is it in regards to production? And in regards to DJing?

Technology is enormously noisy in this day and age, it’s all consuming. You can't go anywhere without hearing about a new piece of equipment or hardware or software that can do something you can't do without it. And it’s very seductive. It’s easy to get swept up in that buying frenzy, and we all enjoy getting new toys. But whilst new sounds and new technology can certainly inspire you to start a new track or begin working in a new way, it’s never the thing that makes good music - good musicians make good music. When we lost our original Mackie desk in a flood and started mixing internally, we suddenly had total mix recall, so you could start loads of tracks and not worry about upsetting the desk. As a result, we started about 100 tracks, 90 of which never got finished. When we got a new analogue desk, all of a sudden we had to finish things off, and we became more productive again. With regards to DJ'ing, CDJ's have certainly freed us up to carry more music on a plane and road test new tunes without having to get them cut to vinyl. Mixing on a laptop with Ableton Live certainly frees up the DJ, but what exactly is he doing up there? Nobody knows. He could be reading an e-mail for all you can tell! Paul van Dyk sometimes doesn't even use headphones now - he just cues things up with Ableton and it comes in perfectly in time. He says that he's been beat matching for 15 years so people know he can do it. But to me that's missing the point. It’s like going to see your favorite comedian and him not telling jokes anymore because he's been doing it so long he's got nothing to prove. I think people like to see a little bit of juggling – it’s more of a show.

What is in the works for 2006?

We're working hard on Tri-State, our debut artist album. It’s been a very liberating exercise: for the last four years we've just been making club tunes and remixes, club tools if you like. In that frame of mind everything has to be around 138 BPM, start and end with drums etc., etc. For this album the start point has been songs. The tempo has come right down, drums are there when needed, sometime not at all, and we've been working on the overall feel of a body of work. There are tracks that sound like film score, vocal tracks that sound like Hymns, and tracks that pick up from what people know already. We'd love to play an Unplugged gig of the new material, partly for the fun of playing live together but also because we've spent so much time DJ'ing and producing that we'd like people to remember that we are musicians as well. Hopefully the album will do that job - we're very excited about it, and very proud. It’s amazing!

Thank you so much for the interview Tony!

Also big thanks to Jessica at Magnum PR for coordinating the interview.

For more information, go to www.anjunabeats.com and www.aboveandbeyond.nu