Around about the year 2002 didn’t you notice that the Trance beating your ear drums was getting that much harder? Well just who do you think that we’ve got to thank for that…….

It all began for Phil Reynolds by being inspired by the Trance sound of Paul Oakenfold and the unique style of Tony DeVit. After many hours of grafting away spinning in the bedroom, Phil graduated to playing at numerous House parties which gave him the great opportunity to learn all about dance floor dynamics. He got his big break playing at Frantic’s opening night in 1997 and as the mighty Frantic grew and grew so did Phil’s stature as he’s been their resident right from day one.

After deciding that European Trance could do with sounding a bit tougher, he became the pioneer of Hard Trance in the UK. His massive productions Instru (mental) and ‘Back to front’ took the scene by storm. He was also selected to mix Frantic’s very first album CD which generated massive sales.

Phil is also no stranger to touring the world playing in Argentina, Japan, Australia and Russia. Back home he has entertained the crowds at major festivals like ‘Escape in the park’ and Creamfeilds. Not only does he DJ week in week out playing at prestigious venues like KoKo, Brixton Academy and Turnmills but also manages to run several of his own labels. But now Phil Reynolds has decided to take things one step beyond…….

It certainly is an exciting time for dance music at the moment with us being right at the onset of the Digital Revolution and that is exactly what Phil has decided to call his new album being released on his own label Digital Creation.

The album features the whole spectrum of the harder edged music that Phil champions. It takes us on a journey from Trance, builds up to Tech Trance, and then shows its psychedelic side before going on to proper Hard Trance. It contains tracks where Phil has collaborated with leading producers such as Nick Sentience, Greg Brookman, MDA and Speherical, Trevor McHalachlan and Nick Rowland.

Digital Revolution gets unleashed out to the world at the end of July, first on CD format and then on digital download. To celebrate that, the release party takes place at Koko on Saturday July 14th. Phil won’t just be playing for an hour and disappearing; but will be there for a full 6 hours playing B2B with Andy Farley, Ian Betts, Kevin Energy, Tecknikal and Steve Blake. But the best part of it is that he will be performing a live PA giving us a taster of the album material!

We thought we’d catch up with the main man to see how the Digital Revolution is going to take things by storm!

Phil, your new album Digital Revolution certainly looks very interesting and promising what with all the different styles on there. How pleased are you with the end result?

Yeah, I’m really pleased. I picked different people to work with, as I wanted to have some variation in the music. It’s a fair reflection of me and my sound, which is what I wanted.

Can you give us a rundown of the most significant tracks and what is particularly pleasing on there?

They are all significant, but probably my favourite is ‘Open your mind’, which I wrote with Technical. We really played around with the arrangement and tried to do something different. I’ve been getting loads of comments from people as the sound clips of some of the tracks are up on my myspace page CLICK HERE to check it out!

Now of course you didn’t just pick a few tracks and mix them together, but you will have had to get all the tracks licensed and cleared. Can you give us an insight into that?

If you’re doing an artist album where you write all the tracks yourself, you don’t have to worry about licensing because you own the tracks. If you are doing a compilation album i.e mixing someone else tracks, then you have to contact all the record labels to which the tracks belong and get permission to use them.

What was it like working with the talented artists such as Technikal and Nick Sentience on the co-productions that feature on the album?

It’s always good working both artists. They are both geniuses in my eyes. They both work a little bit different from each other. I’ve always been a fan of both producers and it’s always good to work with people you have loads of respect for. Plus the fact that they are my mates and we have a good laugh when we work together.

How did you come up with the artwork for Digital Revolution?

One of my really good friends in New Zealand did it for me. Thanks Seb!!!!

Its going to be released on CD format first then on Digital download. What would you say were the advantages of those two mediums?

I think people would rather have a proper copy of an album rather than just a downloaded one. I’m doing both as I know that for people overseas it will be cheaper to get a downloaded copy than paying postage etc.

Although the album doesn’t get officially released until the end of the month, will you be giving away signed promotional copies or anything like that at the album launch night?

I have so much to do at the moment and I’m still trying to finish off a couple of tracks, so I don’t think it will be ready in time. If it is then I will giving out a few signed copies.

Speaking of that, it’s going to be held at KoKo (formerly Camden Palace) which has now been turned in to a stylish, smart venue with an up-market and cool crowd. How excited are you about playing there?

Camden [Palace] was always my favourite venue and I have always loved playing there. It has a special place in my heart and I was gutted when it closed down as a clubbing venue. So I’m really pleased that not only do I get to play there again, but also get to have my album launch party there.

You are going to be performing your live PA on the night that will feature the album material. What type of preparation will need to go in to that?

I’m still learning how to use Ableton Live at the moment. Hopefully I’ll know what I’m doing for the night!!! I still have to organise what I’m going to play and in what order etc. There is a lot of live stuff which I still need to work on. So there is a lot preparation that is gonna go into it.

Each DJ that you are going to be playing with back to back has got their own different style. Andy Farley likes his chunky stuff, Technikal takes a lot of influences from Psy-Trance; Kev Energy takes things to a very hard place. How are you going to treat each set bearing all that in mind?

I’m gonna be playing different styles with different people. I’m gonna try and build up the night musically and hammer it at the end with Farley. I’m really looking forward to be able to play all styles of trance and hard house.

Your label Digital Creation was started by you so as you could showcase your own music. How much of an advantage would you say it was releasing material on your own label as opposed to be being signed to some one else’s?

You get full control over it and how it’s promoted. You also get more money!!!

For a while you worked in Kinetic Records in Central London which is still one of the countries best known independent stores. When you were working there, did that put you right in the thick of the DJ scene so that you could build up loads of contacts?

It gave me a better insight into how record labels work and get distributed. And also everything that goes into a record store. I did meet a lot of people through it.

Dance music always needs to reinvent it self and evolve. Do you feel that the digital revolution is the exact thing that we need to push it along? And what else do you think needs to be injected in to the scene?

To tell you the truth, I think the digital revolution has killed it a bit. People love vinyl and would much prefer to own a piece of vinyl. Technology has dictated the medium to which DJ’s play music. CD’s came about as a tool for producers to play new tracks to see what they sounded like. Once pioneer produced a CD turntable that acted like a record deck everything changed. Vinyl sales died and especially in the hard dance scene most of the music went digital. Quality control with digital stuff is an issue for a lot of people. It’s easy for someone to sell something digitally as you have no production costs. If you had to spend £1000 on getting a record pressed you would think about what you were releasing. That’s not the case with digital. And the sad thing is, is that there will be a lot of DJ’s who would have never used vinyl and never will.

The first time you played tracks that now appear on the album, to a dance floor, what type of crowd reactions were you getting – were there any that particularly stuck out?

The first track which I have done for the album,’ Wanna go for a ride’ with Technikal got a great reaction. I wanted to do something different to make it stand out. The track slows right down and then slowly speeds back up again. It works really well and crowd went nuts. I’ve been getting really good reactions from the other tracks that I’ve played from the album.

The Digital Revolution is about to kick in! Remember to grab your copy at the end of July! And if you can’t wait for that, get down to the official launch party at KoKo on Saturday July 14th!

©Greg Lynn 2007
Feature by Greg Lynn