Organ Donors prepare for Timeless with Part 1 of the HF Production Masterclass
It’s been a little while since we’ve heard from Bournemouth’s finest, the Organ Donors, on the production front. They first came to the forefront of the hard dance scene back in 2002 with their breakthrough track ‘In Power’, a scintillating hard trancer giving a hefty nod to Marmion's classic ‘Schoenberg’, on the short-lived Frantic label. Before this they had been building up their name on smaller labels, but this track really kickstarted things for them. A successful relationship with Nukleuz Records as producers and DJs followed on from this as well as numerous releases for other labels, and it soon became evident that these guys were extremely talented, fresh-sounding producers.
One of the Organ Donors key weapons is their incredible versatility. Over the years we’ve seen them produce intricate, thumping techno (‘4 Tribes’), pounding hardstyle (‘What's Up?’), dirty hard house (under their PBS guise), European style hard trance (‘Blackout’), traditional trance (‘Intoxicating Rhythm’) and all inbetween, clearly the mark of talented producers who have no problems turning their hands to different styles. On the live front they have built up a sterling reputation for themselves with their awesome dex n FX sessions, tearing the traditional hard dance DJ set rule book clean in half in the process. In short, these guys really know their shit, whether it’s behind the decks or behind the mixing desk.
Since releasing their fantastic debut album ‘Plastic Surgeons’ last year, the boys haven’t been as ubiquitous as in previous times on the production front. I just had to know why I hadn’t been getting my O.D. fix in recent times, and so I went to the root of the problem to find out! What’s more, I thought I’d try and get a few production tips from the lads while I was at it, thus killing several birds with just one stone... well 15 stones I suppose. Anyway, if you haven’t seen these guys play yet, do yourself a favour and get down to Timeless at Koko on October 1st to see them rinse out some classic hard dance anthems in their breathtaking live show. It’s seriously good shit. Can you tell that I think they are the nuts yet?
How are we on this fine morning sirs?
Why spliffing old boy!
What software and hardware are you guys rocking? (For all the laymans out there, that’s ‘computer programmes’ and ‘bits of kit like synths, sequencers etc.’)
Well our mother ship is Logic Audio, it’s in our eyes the most incredible single piece of software available bar Pro Tools. Logic itself hosts the most amazing sampler, an incredible array of Logic outboard plug-ins and software synths. You can easily write full songs without even touching another piece of equipment or software.
However we are also using an array of other apps including the screaming Vanguard, Vaz, Korg Legacy, Atmosphere and Trilogy, impOSCar, Absynth, the Phatmatic loop player and other outboard plugs.
Phew! You guys have a rep for making innovative, highly polished dance music, so we wanted to get some tips off you. What’s the normal procedure for you guys when you make a track? How do you start off, what happens once you’ve laid down your main ideas… and so on?
Usually when we start a fresh project in the studio, we will have an idea of what we want to achieve, Most importantly, a concept for a song, say a certain vocal we want to use, and what kind of style we want to try for, from there we will get crackin on with what we call the foundations, the kick drum and bass line, beats, lead sounds and vocals. We get all these elements looped up in a simple 4 bar arrangement and make sure they all sit nice together in the mix and everything sounds FAT. These foundations are what we work hardest on, getting all these important elements as good as we think we can. 19 out of 20 times we scrap everything and start again from fresh. Once we hit something we think is special, then we start arranging.
What part of the production process do you find to be the most difficult or tedious?
Coming up with new and original song concepts has to be the hardest thing in production I think, then getting good produced solid tight foundations down for the project. Once you’ve nailed these two, you’re off and it’s very exciting!
Which do you feel are the most exciting bits of software that have come around in recent years? Are there any programmes or bits of equipment that you haven’t had a chance to fiddle around with yet?
Well for us it’s Logic Audio on Macintosh. We only made the transition from Cubase a year ago. Logic has been the most single and impressive piece of software I’ve ever seen in my life, it’s just truly beautiful to use. Other than that, it’s been the array of software synthesizers that have come about these last few years. Who would of ever thought that these pieces of software would become so fuckin fat? We certainly didn’t!
Over the years you have produced many different styles and sub-genres of dance music. Do you find that each genre requires a different production technique and tact, or is it all about applying the distinctive Organ Donors sounds to different styles of music?
Yes it definitely requires different kinds of productions methods to produce different styles, and it is very difficult, we just persevere and put a lot of time into the studio to try and achieve these different styles. Whatever kind of style we work on, we always try and strive for some originality, and try to put our own OD mark on the style. Hopefully it comes off.
Where do you get your ideas from? Do you find inspiration from different styles of music or does your music very much reflect your own ideas?
Oh our ideas come from far and wide. Our musical taste literally spans the entire musical spectrum I think. I also think it’s impossible to write music without being influenced from somewhere, even if you don’t know it.
What do you feel is the most crucial element for making the production of a track really top notch? Are there any general rules you play by?
I believe there are three main areas of production, all as important as each other. These are: engineering skill, arranging skill, and raw ideas!
You have to have a great idea for a track, something original and yet accessible to the DJs and record labels. It then has to be produced well so it sounds top on a home stereo and club system, then it needs to be arranged properly. This process really makes and breaks a song… DJ friendly, dancefloor friendly, the builds have to build right, the drops have to drop right… people say it’s all in the arrangement and it’s true. If your track isn’t sounding right, then re-arrange it and make it sound right! But then again, if your production isn’t good, then it will never sound right! And round in circles we go, it’s a hard hard game. Jesus we been bangin our heads against walls for years over these production elements — it can be very frustrating!
The important question now… we haven’t heard much from you since the release of your fantastic debut album ‘Plastic Surgeons’ on Nukleuz a while back… what have you been doing, and when are we going to get some new material from y’all? We’re gagging for some!
Ha, thanks man, I think it was a combination of a bit of time out, a year up to the album we were putting something silly like 14 hours almost 7 days a week into the studio trying to get our Plastic Surgeons album finished. That kind of time can kill a little something inside of you I think. It was almost a bit of a reward to be able to relax a bit after the album, reflect on the project and also concentrate on our live work which has now taken off so well.
We also used the opportunity of our time out to transit to Logic Audio and Macintosh in our new studio, something we had been wanting to do for a while but couldn’t due to album deadlines, Now we’ve made the change it’s all systems go again. Our first single from this new platform is our ‘Turntablism’ project which we have just signed to Tidy — it’s a hard funk tech style production and features a lot of scratching and a tutorial style vocal, it’s as different again from any other of our productions and being received really well in the industry with support across the board. We also had Public Domain on the remix duty and they have done a fantastic remix for the flip.
We have also just finished a harder little number with our good friend and Goodgreef resident Alex Kidd — it’s a more hardstyle style production and features the classic Technotronic vocal ‘Pump up the Jam’. A little old school but certainly been working on the dance floor the few times we’ve played it now on CDR. We are also working on projects with Dark by Design and DJ Scot Project.
Eeeeexcellent. Why is that you don’t play a lot of your own tracks in your live sets? In the 3 times I have seen you play I can only remember a couple of your own productions getting played…
We have never played our songs just because we made them or to boost sales etc, we treat our music like any other music in our record bag and only play it if we feel it works in the set and on the dance floor at that moment.
Before we let you guys go, let’s talk about your upcoming appearance at Timeless on October 1st, which will see you bring a classics slant to your usual live set up. Can we expect lots of your own material?
Well we probably play our ‘Rhythm Divine’ single with our Dex & FX edge. It’s just been such a success story on the dance floors for us we can just never resist playing it. Also our DFX special version of our forthcoming ‘Turntablism’ track on tidy, and the new ‘Pump Up The Jam’ on CDR.
Have you guys played at Camden Palace/Koko before? What memories do you have of the place?
We have never played the Palace so are extremely excited to be playing there for the first time. It’s such a legend of a venue and we’ve spent many an hour wandering the corridors and watching the event from the dance floor. It will be exciting to see the venue from the other side for sure.
Do you do any straightforward DJ sets anymore these days or do you stick to the tried-and-tested full on Organ Donors experience?
Yeah we love what were doing now, it’s still very original and we’re working so well together on stage and had so much practice, we would basically be in competition of each other and in danger of diluting ourselves if we were to do two different shows, so its better all round that we put all our efforts into one big show.
And finally, which one track are you both particularly excited about dropping at Timeless?
Its definitely our DEX & FX special mix of our new track ‘Turntablism’. It’s been going down so well for us, it’s very different and very crowd interactive and such fun to perform live.
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