Greenhaven DJs (Ten Questions with...) Exclusive Interview

   
Greenhaven DJs is an American duo that released their songs on labels such as Black Hole Recordings, Echelon Records, Red Soho and Wake Your Mind Records. The gentlemen shared information about their cooperation. I invite you to an interview conducted only for Visions Of Trance.

1. What is trance music to you?

Growing up, we connected on a deep and emotional level with trance music; we found trance to be a profoundly moving genre with infinite possibilities, beautiful contemporary sounds and majestic energy. We have always appreciated a wide range of genres, but our roots are unequivocally in trance and its subgenres. While we could probably come up with an acceptably purist definition of trance that touches on things like intricate melodies, elaborate orchestrations, and anthemic sounds, we think trance is more of a feeling than a series of preconceived checkmarks in a template. To us trance is when goosebumps occur while listening to a beautiful progression in music that brings you into a state of euphoria. 

2. How do you perceive the state of the current trance music scene?

This is actually an interesting topic. Over the last few decades we’ve noticed a unique struggle for some of the bigger names in the industry to appease a diverse array of sub genres that fall under their growing brand and/or roster. This is of course fantastic for diversity but poses a challenge for fans and listeners trying to establish a sense of alignment and affiliation. Compared with other scenes, if you tell a friend you’re going to a trance event, that could mean a lot more things than it used to mean. Whereas if you tell someone you’re going to a melodic techno or deep house event, it would be a lot easier to know what kind of music you can expect to hear. While we appreciate the diversity of trance, we also recognize it has become somewhat confusing for outsiders to understand and appreciate the broader genre; we think this might be a reason why other sub genres in dance music have comparatively broader crossover appeal with mainstream crowds.

3. What are your goals in producing trance music?

Over the last decade or so we’ve narrowed our taste quite a bit, to what we feel is more or less the style we gravitate toward. As our musical direction continues to evolve, it’s important to us to have a strong grasp on integrity. We mean this in the sense of continuing to pursue excellence in our work and improve on what we have done in the past. From the perspective of our sound, whether it’s trance or not, we are truly agnostic to change and we avoid worrying about the preconceived expectations of dance genres. We are just two friends passionate about exploring music and contributing back to the canon of work that inspired us as teenagers.

4. Who was your inspiration to start producing trance music?

Of all the artists who have had an influence on us, arguably Cosmic Gate has had the most significant impact on our music. We can also go right back to when we first met as friends in the Greenhaven neighborhood in the early 2000s; Trevor introduced Nick to some early Cosmic Gate vinyls and music videos; he was instantly hooked. We followed Cosmic Gate at shows from high school, through college and afterward. We think Cosmic Gate has never stopped evolving their sound and pushing new limits; paving the way for new styles nobody else was exploring. It’s surreal to have reached a point where Cosmic Gate organically became aware of our music and loved it. We told them, it’s largely inspired by you. There are many artists who have also had a big influence on our sound such as Sander van Doorn, Evol Waves, Dave Schiemann, Heatbeat, Wezz Devall and so many others.

5. Which song are you most proud of and why?

This is a really difficult question to answer. We are proud of all of our songs for different reasons. Some more so than others; don’t think we can answer with one song or track. One of the reasons we think artists avoid answering this question is because it might subconsciously inhibit future creative freedoms by establishing a sort of creative ceiling.

6. Will your future releases be collaborations with other artists? Are you more into solo productions?

Future collaborations are always possibilities for us on the horizon. We have quite a number of solo projects we are juggling right now in addition to a few remixes. It’s probably easier for listeners to grasp a sense of our sound from solo productions, but we also love to collaborate with other artists and learn new things.

7. What inspires you to create trance music?

There have been many influences that helped to shape our sound. We actually look back to a specific time period where a lot of trance artists were producing in a similar style that we liked a lot. 2008-2010 artists like Cosmic Gate, Evol Waves, Marcus Schossow, Sander van Doorn (just to name a few) were putting out incredibly creative work blending techno and trance, in a way that felt sophisticated in rhythms, yet dark and powerful in the vibe or style. 

8. What hardware and software do you use to create trance music?

We have two studios with equipment and software we have purchased over the years. As far as synths go, in both Trevor and Nick’s studio we use and love the Dave Smith Instruments PEK (Poly Evolver Keyboard). Trevor has another Dave Smith synth: the Sequential Prophet 6 along with Waldorf’s Pulse 2, Moog’s Mother 32 and Korg’s Volca Kick. Nick has Access Music’s Virus C and Virus TI Snow. In terms of software we have way too many plugins and samples to list here. We are Mac fans, although we sometimes go to PC for certain plugins. For DAWs we use Ableton, Bitwig, Logic 9, Logic X, and sometimes FL Studio. We’ve tried a lot of DAWs and ultimately we love them all; there are amazing native features/tools/sound to be found in each one.

9. How do you perceive the influence of social media on the career development of a trance artist?

This is a topic of great importance for all artists. We feel there’s an underlying misalignment between the goals of social media platforms and the goals of artists. Social media has lowered the barrier to entry for anyone wanting to be heard. You have a lot of voices competing for visibility metrics on platforms that were ultimately built to incentivize competition for engagement. This conflict of interest favors those willing to invest in chasing popularity alone. This is no different than a gourmet restaurant trying to invest in marketing ads, but being drowned out by the marketing spend of a large fast food chain. Conversely though, a fast food chain would be hard pressed to agree to take part in an unbiased tasting competition with a gourmet restaurant. Without any mechanism in place to incentivize quality, artists like us are forced to try our hands in what are essentially social media casinos; competing against a lot more music and heavy investment going toward beating algorithms that were always oriented toward investment in marketing rather than music.

10. Finally, what would you like to say to your fans?

To our incredible fans out there who have stuck through with us over the years, words can't express how deeply honored we are to have figures like you supporting our sound. Your enthusiasm for our music as Greenhaven DJs inspires and humbles us. We started this journey fueled by our passion for music, and to see that it resonates with you all is beyond our wildest dreams! Thank you for all the love, support, feedback, and for sharing our music.