Inkfish - A helluva lot more than Feelings.

We all have the dream. It's the one that sees us writing hit after hit, and it's usually after we've been to a party that we think we're the next (insert name of favourite producer here) who just seem to be able to press a button labeled "this one will be huge!" which sends a crowd into an absolute frenzy.

For Andreas Hermansson and the rest of the members that make up the outfit Inkfish, their dream became a reality. What started out as a passion for producing music, which saw none other than Paul Oakenfold personally call his mum's home asking about the track that almost got signed to Perfecto, has now become a way of life and things are looking very bright.

Inkfish's creation starts where most of us dream; the underground parties.

"Me and a guy named Jesper knew each other from always visiting the same underground parties in Sweden" Andreas reminisces.

"One night he had two trips of acid (first time he took it, and he flipped...) I was the only person he recognised in the crowd, so he came up to me and said that he would die tonight if I left him alone. So I ended up spending 14 hours trying to calm a guy I barely knew at home... a couple of days later I met him in town and he said, "I owe you big time".

Andreas made the most of the IOU and started producing in Jesper's studio. The first track they wrote together received praise from Perfecto bigwig, Paul Oakenfold.

"(We) had a personal call from Paul Oakenfold home to my mom asking about the track which he almost signed to Perfecto. Since it was our first track, we decided to continue working together. Along the line Mattias and my brother Johan came along, and that's where we are at now."

Citing influences that range from the progressive region such as Evolution, the early works of BT, Sasha through to the techno world of Jeff Mills and beyond with the likes of LTJ Bukem, it's understandable their original work is unique to a lot of the progressive music that's out there at the moment. That's where the influences come into effect. Asked if they incorporate any influential styles into their own, the answer was of mixed results.

"Both really," Andreas says. "There doesn't really seem to be a point in making tracks the exact way someone else has done before, so we try to incorporate something different into our tracks. However, considering the amount of great club tracks that have been created trough the years it's kind of hard to create a track that has a totally unique and fresh feel to it. Since we love tribal, progressive, some quality trance, breaks and deep techno we always tried to incorporate ideas and sounds from all the styles into our tracks."

Inkfish are currently working in the studio on the new album. You can bet you won't be hearing a monotonous sound either. Electronic music genres galore, Andreas explains.

"Some downbeat vocal, some breaks with vocal and then loads of progressive house, ranging from soft to peak time. It's always hard to create an album if you usually just create single tracks, however I think we've found quite a satisfying mix that makes it work. But in the end the people who listen to it will be the judge of whether I am right or not..."

Asked whether or not there will be featured remixers on the album, Andreas says there'll only be collaborations. "We will feature one remix we've done for our own Inkfish label on a new Rising Rhythm track, and some collaborations with other artists and vocalists. There will not be any tracks on there which hasn't been partly produced by anyone from Inkfish in one way or another though."

Feelings, a track that was written with Hardy Heller, was indeed a favourite amongst enthusiasts of the progressive sound. It did fairly well around club land and brought attention to what the boys could actually do. But Inkfish, located in Sweden, it was a non-event.

"Since we live in Sweden we don't really get to see how big a track is. We just see the reactions Tags