Angelic(& Citizen Caned & Orion's) Darren Tate On Crossing Over (interview)

Song writer and trance producer supreme Darren Tate talked to Mezz this week about working with Judge Jules' wife Amanda and his own new track The Journey (signed to Jules' label Serious Records under the name Citizen Caned). "I set out to make a crossover record somewhere between the classic style of trance and the new UK hard house sound," Darren told Mezz's Benedetta Ferraro this week. "I wanted the record to have both those elements in a loopy kind of fashion."

Mezz: You're involved in producing loads of different records, how do you decide which tunes are right for Angelic and which ones for Citizen Caned -
Darren Tate: "On the Angelic project, I basically come up with the ideas and then hand it on to Jules, and together we work out where to take the track. Then I go back in the studio and with both our ideas in mind, I complete the track."

Mezz: Does Jules select what would be right for Amanda-
Darren Tate: "Basically, yes. 'It's My Turn' was instrumental at first and it was working really well in the clubs, but Jules thought Amanda would have liked to get involved in it as well, so that's how it started."

Mezz: Did Amanda come up with the lyrics-
Darren Tate: "Jules writes the lyrics and the tracks are produced by me. Well, certainly the first track was… Amanda fronts the whole project, she goes out there doing PA's."

Mezz: Not an easy job, I suppose…
Darren Tate: "True. Obviously there's a lot of attention focused on her since she is Jules' wife. This is good in a way, because it gets the press interested but it could be bad at the same time and for the same reason be seen as detrimental. Unfortunately, the constant attention placed upon her husband, can take a lot away from what she's doing herself."

Mezz: Loaded described the new Angelic single as 'an unashamedly trance-tastic number', does criticism bother you-
Darren Tate: "Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. For me it's all about melody, chords and structures and whether I find a tune 'uplifting', which I think both 'It's My Turn' and "Can't Keep Me Silent" are. We set out to make the second single different, and it's already proved itself in the club chart by reaching number one, so it's worked on that level. For many people it could be just another trance track but, to be honest, instead of looking to make another pop record, we wanted it to be a club single that could potentially cross over. Jules and I usually tend to do things differently from what's around. This applies to whether we're working together on Angelic or when I concentrate on my Citizen Caned project."

Mezz: Is dance music where your heart is-
Darren Tate: "I wouldn't mind getting into different kinds of music in the future. I'm a classically trained musician, I learned piano and clarinet, I did grade 8 in music theory so I know how to orchestrate and arrange. I do have a passion for writing more developed music but there is an artistic skill involved in producing dance or pop tracks, nonetheless. The art is sometimes about simplicity, which involves the knowledge of how to produce and emulate certain kind of sounds that will work in the market place. I enjoy working in dance music right now because I'm surrounded by dance culture, and I love hearing and watching the reaction of the public when my tracks are played out."

Mezz: Are you a big clubber-
Darren Tate: "I wouldn't say so. I do go out but not excessively: I've never been into that whole rave thing. It's funny because Amanda once said to me she doesn't understand how I've managed to grasp dance music, considering I wasn't out there doing it, like many artists have been, week after week."
Citizen Caned's The Journey is out in the UK on March 19th on Serious Records.
Benedetta Ferraro
http://www.seriousdjs.co.uk (Judge Jules' DJ agency)
http://www.judgejules.net (Jules' personal site)
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