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Frantic & Wildchild present Future starring Finland's Finest Freeform Fanatic - Proteus
Reported by benz / Submitted 01-06-05 21:06.39
There are few performers in the hard dance scene who one could truly describe as charismatic. There's only so many times you can watch DJs work unenergetically behind the decks, enclosed in their own little world, before it begins to lose any visual impact. Fortunately, every now and then a DJ appears whose passion and excitement for performing is evident for all to see. One such character is Finland's official Lord of The Dance, Proteus - a talented and popular jock who really gives it his all when he's playing.
Clearly a natural born performer, this Finnish born spinner matches his hyperactive onstage prancing, dancing and stomping with sets of ludicrous tempos, pounding, relentless beats, epic melancholy breakdowns, and a hefty dose of pure nastiness. That's not to mention the outrageous costumes and make-up he dons before battle. Like so many legendary musical figures over the years, he really believes in getting into chracter before his sets, so to speak. It's certainly refreshing to see a DJ play who brings something more than just music to a club.
Following a slew of spellbinding peformances for Frantic over the past year, the fearsome Finn returns to our fair land on June 25th for a mainstage performance at Frantic vs Wildchild present Future at Brixton Academy. I caught up with the "God of The Hellfire Club" to suss him out a little...
Where are you from? How did you get into dance music?
I’m from Finland and I live in Helsinki. Helsinki is Finland’s capital city. My musical roots are in industrial music and I have always loved the songs and tracks which have a dark and cyber kind of atmosphere. I had my first experiences with dance music at underground warehouse parties in the early nineties. I have been DJing now about 9-10 years and I first started to play psychedelic trance in 1995-1996. I have always liked harder sounds and I changed my music style to hard trance and hard/nu NRG in late 1996. There was few hardhouse DJs in Finland in those days but nobody played the styles of hard /nu NRG so I started to create my own “Proteus kind of” NRG style. Some people also call my style as a Finnish NRG style.
Where did your name come from? What does it mean?
I have been asked about this many times and what is a bit funny is that I don’t have straight answer for it. 10 years ago I was trying to find a strong and bit dark name for me. I used to play a lot role playing games when I was younger and there was a game magazine called Proteus. I took the name from there. Proteus means the music I play and the character behind it.
How would you describe the styles of music you play?
The music I play is pretty fast and energetic but same time heavy. It’s hard, dark, cyber and sorrow kind of dance music. It includes epic kind of elements like massive breakdowns and huge monster sounds. My music styles are hard NRG, twisted hardtrance, freeform and sometimes industrial. I like to combine industrial sounds with nrg to make the set more atmospheric. I love to do a lot of technical tricks like scratching and back spinning when I play.
Your onstage antics are the stuff of legends - have you always been so full of energy behind the decks? Or was there one particular event at which you just went mad for the first time?
Yes I have always been like I am and I have always been little bit crazy behind the decks. For me everything is just love to the music and performing. My appearance and image has always been really natural for me. I wouldn’t be Proteus without acting like I am.
Which other DJs have you seen who really seem full of energy behind the decks?
My favorite energetic DJs are Ting and Mark EG. They are both good friends of mine and they have their pure personal style to play and act behind the decks. Especially I remember when I saw first time Mark playing I was really blown away about how much energy he has on the stage!! From live acts Lab-4 has definitely the best stage charisma.
When and where did you first play in England? Was it Logic that brought you here for the first time? How did they discover you?
My first gig in UK was at Logic about 5 years ago and I remember I was very nervous because I played first time for British crowd. The gig went very well and then the Logic crew asked me to be their resident DJ. It was like a dream come true. Rubec from Logic was playing in Finland and I had a gig at the same party with him. He really liked my set and I gave him my promo cd. Then about two months later his wife Nadya who runs the Logic with David phoned me and asked me to come to play.
Had you been to England before then? What do you think of our country and the people you have met here?
Yes I had been only once in UK before my first gig and it was about 6 years ago. Dj Karim invited me and my friend to spent a little holiday in London when I met him In Finland.
I really like the country and I think the people are really open eyed and friendly! I have a lot of friends in UK and it’s great that you guys have similar drinking habits as we Finnish!
Have you been able to spend much time here other than your gigs? Tourist stuff, going to other clubs, that kind of stuff?
Yes pretty much. I usually only come to the UK for the gig and only spent about two days at your country but sometimes I have change to spent more days. When I have more time I usually go to London Camden Market to check some new clothes and stuff or to Banging Tunes to buy some new records. Also sometimes I just spend some time with my UK friends.
You’ve played some massive gigs recently - at Hard House Academy and Transmission for instance. How often do you get to play at smaller venues? Do you think your sound works best in big rooms?
I love all size of venues! I think my sound works both at big arenas and smaller clubs. The scene in Finland is pretty small and most of the parties and clubs are only for 300-700 people so I get to play for smaller venues too. I think it’s the atmosphere in party which makes djs sound working good in the venue even if it’s huge or small.
On June 25th you will be playing at The Future Sound Of London at the Brixton Academy in London. There are several live acts playing in the main room. Which Live PAs really impress you?
I think Lab-4 is and will be the best Live PA ever. They really put an effort to their sets and musically they are my favorite one! Also Nu Energy Collective has incredible energy on their sets and they do a really good show! I’m looking forward to hear Dark By Design's live set too. He has made really good tracks recently!
Do you get many multi-arena parties like Future in Finland or are they generally smaller scale?
Most of the parties are a lot smaller scale and we usually have only one main room and another room for chillout. Sometimes the music styles are very different during the night at the main room because Finnish people are very open eyed with the styles and then there is something for everybody. Few times in a year we can have like bigger parties with multi arenas. Finnish scene is much smaller than the scene in UK.
How many tracks have you produced so far and where can we get our hands on them?
I have produced several tracks and most of them are unreleased at the moment. You can find some of my tracks from my new commercial mix CD "The Hellfire Club" which just came out from new Finnish label called Teflon Bullet. It contains five my own tracks and tracks from Lab-4, Nu Energy Collective and Finnish artists Carbon Based, Alek Szahala, RX and Pain On Creation.
My first single 12” "London Helsinki Underground" was released last year and I did it with Kevin Energy and it came out from Nu Energy Recordings. The track was voted as the best single release in Finland at Finnish Club Awards 2004.
The second single 12" is coming out from Teflon Bullet really soon and it contains a huge anthem kind of track called Venla which I made for my girlfriend and a track called Metal.
There is a lot of work in progress and I have few tracks under construction. One of them is a team project with guys from Carbon Based and other ones are my solo projects. I'm also doing remixes for two industrial bands in near future. The bands are from Finland and Norway and I will keep the names still as a secret. Those are going to be really hard and dark!
Who makes you laugh?
My girlfriend and my brother, I love them!
And finally, please can you teach us something in Finnish!
“Nähdään pian Future! Lontoo rockkaa! Kippis!”
”See you soon at Future! London rocks! Cheers!”
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