Hide & Seek (Five Questions with...) Exclusive Interview & Guest Mix
HIDE & SEEK is a growing Trance trio consisting of Simon Kaye (DJ/producer) from UK, Vlad Oltenau (producer) from Romania and MJ Smallman (singer/songwriter) from UK. The gentlemen released their songs on such labels as Vandit Records, We Are Trance, Critical Uprising and several others. A thriving project that systematically expands its catalog of trance music. I invite you to an interview conducted only for Visions Of Trance.
1. What are your goals in producing trance music?
Our goal in this industry is for our Music to be heard and enjoyed by people from all walks of life all over the globe and to spread happiness with our music which will hopefully Create lifelong memories for people.
2. Who was your inspiration to start producing trance music?
I guess our main inspiration for producing trance music would be either Vincent De Moor or Energy 52 as the first time I heard “Cafe del mar” and that spine chilling breakdown I was hooked on Trance from that day forward. I knew I wanted to become a trance dj and producer and spent the last 25 years perfecting our sound to become what HIDE & SEEK is today…
3. Which song are you most proud of and why?
We are proud of every single production we have written so far however last year we released a song called “Waiting on heavens call” this song was written in memory of Simon’s grandfather who tragically passed away from covid 19 and this song was written in his memory. For this reason this song means so much to us and still brings a tear to Simon’s eye when he hears it. Mj wrote some of the most beautiful lyrics to compliment the track and the end product was great! The label were so happy with the success of this track that they agreed to let us release a new remix this month at the end of January courtesy of AIRNOVA who is also the third member of HIDE & SEEK and he has certainly delivered on this new remix so watch out for it…
4. What inspires you to create trance music?
To be honest it’s always more inspiring to write trance music when the sun is shining or you’re in a beautiful place but as long as you have a nice studio space where you can focus and be creative then that’s all that really matters. It’s also much easier to write trance when you’re in a good mood.
5. What hardware and software do you use to create trance music?
As you know there are 3 of us in the group so we have 3 studios all set up differently. Simon is running Logic Pro X on Mac with a set of Yamaha HS7 studio monitors and also a set of pioneer monitors for referencing. AIRNOVA and Mj use FL studio 5 on PC computers with Yamaha HS8 monitors.
We don’t really use hardware nowadays apart form our Novation and arturia keylab 49 keyboards as most of our production kit is software based . Our favourite soft synths at the moment are probably the spire and sylenth.
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