On the 14th August 2009, Garuda return to Sankeys in Manchester featuring exclusive three-hour sets from Above & Beyond, Gareth Emery, and Fergie. As part of the build-up, Adam Flexer had a chat to Tony McGuinness from headline guests Above & Beyond to ask him a few questions that hopefully were a bit different to the norm.

We’re also offering a chance for a lucky winner to blag some rather tasty prizes, including a meet+great on the night with all three DJs if you happen to be there. See below interview for full details and how to enter.

Garuda: Hi Tony, and thanks for taking the time out to chat to us today. So, for Garuda you’ll be playing a three-hour set. Do you like playing longer sets compared the usual length and if so, why?

Tony: Definitely, yes. We’ve always enjoyed a range of music, and when you’re squashed into an hour, or an hour and a half, you’re really forced to decide which part of your music spectrum you’re going to play, and which records you’re going to use. Whereas when you’ve got more time, you can concentrate on what people are responding to, and basically go with the flow. For instance, a few weeks ago, we went from an hour and half at Global Gathering to two hours at Tomorrowland in Belgium, and even that 30 minutes made such a difference to our set. The Tomorrowland set was a lot more enjoyable with a much better atmosphere at the end, because we’d been on more of a journey with the crowd. Whilst people may think they simply go to ‘see’ a DJ, it’s really a two way thing, as the way the crowd responds often dictates the way your sets goes from there, and if you both lock into the same mindset, you both go to a better place. So yeah, with a short set, you really do need to plan it or otherwise you might forget to play tracks that you really wanted to play, so there’s a need to plot it out a bit more… and it’s lot more fun when you don’t have to do that. By and large when you’ve got three hours, you can go freeform.

Garuda: You’ve been in the music industry a good while. With hindsight, what would have done differently, if anything?

Tony: Ha, that’s a far-reaching question. I used to work for a record company (Warners) and it seems to me that my mindset in those days was to do the best I could for the artists, whereas on reflection, it seems a lot of the other executives instead just got as much money as they could out of the situation. Maybe I could have got paid more… but for me, the whole point of working in music was because I love music. So I got into dance A&R, where Warners really supported me and gave me a lot of freedom and that in turn gave me a good grounding for when we started Anjunabeats. When you start a little label, you do need to learn everything, from accounts to packing and picking. I mean in the early days, we’d be packing the stuff up ourselves and going down the post office and queuing up for stamps. You really have to go back to running a small business. But it’s been good: we started Anjunabeats when the economic climate was pretty bad, and now it’s bad again, and yet we’re still going, still growing, so honestly I don’t know if I would have done anything differently. Recently I was chatting to an old friend from Ministry of Sound about everything we’ve done, and without making it sound big-headed, we’ve done incredibly well. There are so many DJs and producers out there, some that started before us, some that have come since, so to get as far as we have, we must’ve done something right, meaning I wouldn’t change too much.

Garuda: DJs have been known for splashing the cash a bit. What’s the most extravagant or bling purchase you’ve made, and was it worth it?

Tony: Both Jono and I had a phase where we were getting very excited about the beautiful fake watches that you can buy in China. Going there was being like a kid in a candy store: you can buy a Patek Philippe Grand Complication – which is like a $46,000 watch – for £30. So we got into nice watches, but since then we’ve both decided to buy some rather nice real ones. I suppose we were window shopping with the fakes, and now we’ve bought real, and I think the thing about an expensive watch is that you can always get your money back – it’s as good an investment as the stock market’s been over the last few years, that’s for certain. But it’s actually quite important when you’re DJing to know how long you’ve got left, so having an accurate timepiece could be said to be an important part of the job!

Garuda: If you could pick one interview question that you could never be asked again, what would it be?

Tony: The two that people always ask – which is odd given that we’re ten years in – is ‘where did you meet’ and ‘where does the name Above & Beyond come from’. And whilst I might be slightly irritated that people haven’t done their research, people only ask questions because they don’t know the answer, so I’ll always do my best to answer them. I think that a lot of people sit in meetings, in discussions, and in life generally not knowing things, and being afraid to ask… so my philosophy is that there really is no such thing as a stupid question. So whilst some interviewers might catch me on a bad day and get a rather catty response to one of those questions which I’ve heard many times before, underneath it all, I still appreciate being asked.

Garuda: And finally, name your best and worst things about the music industry.

Tony: The worst thing that the music industry did was to fail to recognise the opportunity in the internet when it came along – largely because it was structured in such a way that it was nobody’s job to deal with anything new. The industry had been going through the CD boom of the 80s with double-digit growth every year, and when that growth slowed down, the parent companies of record labels started cutting costs and taking jobs away, which meant that meant that when the internet really hit, the music business had been slimmed down to such a degree that there wasn’t really any manpower to deal with new opportunities. I recall Doug Morris – the very well-regarded head of Universal – asking how anyone expected record companies to take the leap into selling downloads, as they’re not technology companies. But I think that’s a myopic statement: Apple weren’t a music company but they were a company that was growing, and one with an open mind, which was exactly the opposite to the music business when the internet really took off. So instead of seeing the internet as opportunity, the music business tried to fight it – seeing people as ‘stealing’ their business – and I think that was one of its worst legacies, and one that affected every part of the music industry. It wasn’t until Apple grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and said “we’ll do the shop” that things started to get sorted out. I think that period will go down in history, with people in people in business schools studying what happened until we’re old and grey, the way that the music industry failed to see that opportunity.

The best bit, is the music itself. I love music, it has an amazing affect on my life in a physical way, in a spiritual way, and that’s why everybody loves music. Because there’s something about the magic of those twelve notes, and the way that people combine them, that help people get through their lives, and I’m no different from that.

Garuda: Thanks Tony for your time – see you on the 14th August!
?Tony: Looking forward to it, see you then!

Above & Beyond play a three-hour set for Garuda at Sankeys in Manchester on Friday 14th August 2009, alongside Garuda main man Gareth Emery and Fergie.

Tickets: sankeys.info?Facebook Event Page: facebook.com

COMPETITION: To enter, just email the answer to the question “What was the month and year of the last time Above & Beyond and Gareth Emery appeared on the same line-up?” to podcast@garethemery.com . Winner will be notified by email by Fri 14th August.

Prize includes: one-off wall poster of the event signed by Above & Beyond, Gareth Emery, and Fergie, plus a Garuda goody bag (containing t-shirt, polo shit, beanie hat, and the first ever CDR of Gareth Emery – Exposure, pinched from the man himself’s CD wallet and played at venues like Godskitchen, Gatecrasher and more). Plus if the winner is attending on the night, the prize will be award in person as part of a meet & greet with all three headline acts.