Psy Craft are true masters of psychedelic trance, having defined the genre with their albums ‘Gravitech’ (2001), ‘New Moves’ (2004) and ‘Computech’ (2006). Starting out in 1995, they’ve been with HOMmega Records since the beginning, putting both HOMmega and psy trance on the map with their awesome live shows at clubs and festivals all over the planet. They’ve remixed tracks for the biggest names in the business, including Infected Mushroom & Yahel, Space Cat and PsySex and even had one of their singles from ‘Computech’, ‘Dirtbag (Remix for Brad Sucks)’ featured on MTV.

We Love Infected 001 @The Coronet on Saturday 9 August marks the UK launch of their incredible new album ‘Art Of Work’. Tracks like ‘Follow the Line’ - feat. Michele Adamson; ‘Electromance’ – feat. Mikela; and ‘Memories Inside’ - feat. the incredible Dali - show that they’ve certainly perfected the craft of psy… Check out www.psycraft.info for a free download of the entire album.

STOP PRESS: Psy Craft have just raised their game even higher by adding a guitarist, Daniel Varfolomeyev to their live act. Russian-born Varfolomeyev started playing the electric guitar 10 year ago when he was just 13 years old. He’s now one of the best in the world: Check youtube.com for a taste of what’s to come! And just imagine for five seconds Daniel playing live alongside Psy Craft! We Love Infected 001 is the world-wide debut of this wicked new act and we can’t wait. With the countdown to We Love Infected 001 on, we had a gossip with the guys…

For those who don’t know you, please tell us a bit about your backgrounds. Where are you from and how did you both get into playing and producing music?

Our background includes a lot of music schools when we were young and a lot of playing different instruments like the guitar and keyboards. We started off learning the keyboard for seven years and then fell in love with rock music, so we both moved to learning to play the guitar. We started playing as a “mini” band which made more noise then music ;-) And then after a few years we decided to start recording and producing electronic music.

You played the guitar and keyboards before getting into psy trance. Were you classically trained as kids and do you play any other instruments?

When were kids we learned the guitar for a few years and then also the keyboard for a few years, and we used to play together as a rock band.

You’ve been working together since 1995. How did you both first meet and form Psy Craft?

We met at school. We were in the same class and decided to start doing music after we went out one night to a trance party in our city. We didn’t even know what kind of music we were hearing, because trance was very new at the time, but at this moment we both decided that we want to try make this sound.

You’ve been with HOMmega Records since it started 10 years ago and have played a huge role in putting HOMmega on the map. When did you first meet Eyal Yankovich and how did you get involved with HOMmega?

We met Eyal when we were still in the Israeli army. I remember that we used to go to his place to let him hear our tracks. Actually HOMmega for us was like ‘love at first sight’. From the moment we started to work with him till today, every step we do we do it with HOMmega together.

What does ‘psychedelic trance’ mean to you? Some would say it’s also a philosophy and a way of life, does that apply to you?

We see psychedelic trance more as a way of life — an addicted way! As much as you hear it, you love it more and more! It’s hard to find someone that’s stop loving this music after they were infected with trance music!

Your albums ‘Gravitech’ (2001), ‘New Moves’ (2004), ‘Computech’ (2006) and most recently, ‘Art of Work’ (2008) have all helped define psy trance as a genre. How has your sound changed and evolved since your first album? And how would you describe the current Psy Craft sound?

Between each album Psy Craft has grown up more and you can hear it in the music. Every album has better sound production, but we still keep our trance more musical. We try to do that by adding more vocals and guitars that we record in our studio.

What have been the highlights of your career to date? And having come so far, what goals do you have for the future?

One of the highlights for sure was that MTV played our video clip ‘Dirtbag’ from the ‘Computech’ album — it was really fun to see our song played a number of times on MTV! And the second highlight is that we played at a very big festival in Japan called the Nagisa Festival. It’s the biggest electronic festival in Japan and we were the only trance live there.

What jobs did you do before you became full-time DJs and producers? If you weren’t doing music full-time now, what would you be doing?

We both used to work in a big music store in our city, so I guess we were surrounded by musicians and music all of the time.

Since you first started making music there have been many technological changes in the way music is made, played, promoted and distributed. Do you still play vinyl at all? What set-up to you use to play live?

Today we use only CDs for our DJ set because it’s not impossible to find tracks on vinyl. For our live show we use the guitar and keyboard.

What hardware and software do you prefer to use in the studio? Do you have a favourite bit of kit?

In our studio we use only one program: Cubase. It’s the best one for editing, cutting and making music.

You’ve remixed tracks by Infected Mushroom and Yahel, Space Cat and PsySex, What, in your opinion, makes a good remix?

I think the most important way to make a good remix is to bring your own style to the track and make a twist — not just changing the bass line and saying “here we’ve got a remix!”

You’re presently giving away you new album ‘Art of Work’ for free. Isn’t this financial suicide for you as producers and for HOMmega? What is the philosophy behind giving away your music?

Our philosophy is that today not a lot of people buy CDs — today everybody downloads music from the internet in different qualities, getting only a few tracks from the album. So we decided to make it easier for them :-) and give our entire album away for free at a good quality, so people will get all the tracks and not only the ‘hits’ that are on the net.

‘Art of Work’ contains some electro influences, especially on ‘Electrodance’. Are you big fans of electro and can you see it continuing to grow this year?

Because we have musical backgrounds we always love to try different styles and different sounds. So one time we’ll do a rock song and the other time an electro track. Who knows what our next project will be...

Tracks like ‘Memories Inside’ and ‘Frozen’ are bordering on being more rock than rave. Would you ever consider forming a live band along the lines of Infected Mushroom? I take it you’re both big rock music fans then?!

We both really love rock music and listen to it a lot during the day, so we get a lot of influence from rock and you can hear it in these tracks. We’ve just added a new professional guitar player to our band that will join us for some of our tours around the world and he going to make a big different to the Psy Craft live show.

On ‘Art of Work’ you’ve collaborated with some of the best vocalists in the business: Dali, Michele Adamson and Mikela. Why so many collaborations? Would it not be easier to just stick to one vocalist, or do you find it more inspiring to work with a variety of different people? Is there anyone you haven’t collaborated with yet that you’d like to work with?

We love to work with many people because you always get a different energy and different ideas. So the music is always going to go in a different direction and we really love to explore it. And Mikela is Alon’s girlfriend so it’s much easier!

In a review in DJ Magazine Eyal [Yankovich] has described ‘Memories Inside’ as “Dali’s best produced vocals to date,” which is one hell of a compliment for you all! How did this track come about and did it take long to put it together?

I think we decided to do this track at one of the terminals somewhere around the world waiting for a plane! But the work didn’t take so long. Every day Dali came to our studio waking us up like a mother! And then we’d start work. She has a really good energy so every day in the studio was fun and very funny.

The festival season is upon us again in the Northern Hemisphere. What’s been your favourite festival to play at over the years?

We always love to play at the Mother Crew festivals in Japan, especially at the SOS, it has a really good vibe and a great location.

Are you playing at any festivals this summer?

This summer we are play at the SOS festival in Japan, the Garancsi Lake Festival in Hungary and also at Spiritual Healing in Germany. So I guess this summer’s gonna be full of good parties and vibes!

What do you wish you’d known when you started out in the music industry that you know now?

Hmmmm that’s a good one. Maybe the fact that it’s not like it looks from the outside. I mean, people think you’re having fun all the day, but they’re forgetting you’ve just landed after a 12 hour flight and you don’t even know which country you’re in! And that two hours later you’ve finish you need to come back! But still it’s the best job on the planet and it fills me with happiness every day.

You’re playing with Infected Mushroom at We Love Infected 001 at the Coronet in London on Saturday 9 August. Why do you love Infected Mushroom? And what can your fans reading this expect from your set? Will you have any new productions to showcase?

Well to start off with, I want to say that we really love Infected Mushroom. First, because of the great music they’re making and the great refreshing ideas in their music; and second, because of the great people they are. Our fans need to get ready for our new live set with a lot of new tracks. And they’ve got a lot of dancing to do!