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PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records!
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A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London!

Riley & Durrant's Electrik Playground

Reported by Tom Cypher / Submitted 03-12-08 14:11

2008 has been an exceptional year for both Nick Riley and Andi Durrant, who have continued to reign with their global DJ status, produce and host one of the UK’s most listened to dance shows on Galaxy FM. They have been responsible for keeping the industry fresh by supporting new underground talent, and now they bring all you budding producers an exclusive sample pack ‘Progressive House Producer’ for Loopmasters.



Hi guys! You have just released your own sample pack for Loopmasters recently, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Nick: We got a call from Loopmasters asking if it was something we were interested in and we said yes! It took a lot longer to make than we initially thought and contains over 330MB of samples covering house, electro, tech, deep, progressive and trance sounds and patches.

This is your first sample pack for Loopmasters, can we expect more in the future?

Nick: Definitely – we’re going to look at putting them out on a yearly basis

What is your studio like and what hardware and software are you using to create your music?

Andi: We’re lucky to have a really nice space to work in, especially as we spend more time there than in our own homes! We share a studio with the Utah Saints in the centre of Leeds. We’ve been good mates with the Utahs for a few years and they’re big inspirations to us, so we decided to put all our gear together and open a bad-ass studio at the beginning of 2008. We’ve got loads of old analogue stuff and classic kit like Roland 909s and Junos, with much more up to date synths like the Virus Ti. Despite all that though, the majority of our music is done within Logic, Reason and Ableton. The hardware tends to get sampled back in to the computers.

You’re about to launch your own label through your club night ‘Electrik Playground’ - do you have anyone signed that we should look out for?

Andi: We’ll be putting out a lot of our own stuff through Electrik Playground, alongside our fellow resident Adam Sheridan and some brilliant new talent like Mark Maitland and Denney.

You both met at the turntables at Gatecrasher in Sheffield 2002 and have been working together as producers and DJs ever since. Was it love at first sight?

Andi: Not really - we were DJing separately on the same line up at Gatecrasher and there was some confusion over set times or something which resulted in Nick taking an instant disliking to me!

Nick: That’s a bit harsh, but I can say we did not see eye to eye from the off, but that soon changed and within a couple of months we had set a company up together, built a studio and written a few tracks.



Are there any solo projects on the horizon?

Andi: We don’t really have much time for any solo projects to be honest. We have so much going on with gigs, music and radio shows that every day of the week is booked up. We do both spend time in the studio on our own working on ideas for tracks, but we always come together to finish them.

Nick: We do have another couple of projects that are done under other aliases, including some film and TV scores and some pop tracks, but I am not going to spill the beans yet!

Your show on Galaxy FM has gone from strength to strength, tell us a little bit about it.

Andi: In May we started our new Friday night show on Galaxy simply called “Friday nights with Riley & Durrant”. Its a 3 hour show broadcast across the Galaxy network, we still have a nu breed section where we showcase the scenes hottest new talent as well as a club chart, Sounds of the Underground, a load of classics and a half hour guest mix with the worlds biggest DJs and producers. It’s basically a big house party covering all aspects of dance music

Nick: It was also great for Andi to be named “Music Broadcaster of the Year” at the Sony Awards earlier this year, and his Warmup show is now the most listened-to dance show in the UK on a Saturday evening.

Andi: Galaxy has just launched 2 new stations in Scotland and the south- coast, which is fantastic for us and exciting times for everyone involved.



You have toured across the world, in some of the most impressive venues including headlining last NYE at a monster beach party in Malaysia, where has been your most memorable place to play?

Nick: Probably the one you have just mentioned; last NYE in Malaysia. We did a live gig with the vocalist from our album, Gina Dootson and also MC Switch – from Manchester. It was pretty mental playing to 4000 people on a stage that was on the biggest man made beach in the world. Its gigs like that where you have to take a step back and remember how lucky you are. But sometimes it’s hard to enjoy it at the time when you’re so nervous that it’s all going to work!

You support a lot of new talent from the underground scene with your radio show Nu Breed, as well as this summer taking them over to Ibiza to play with you at Privilege. Is supporting up and coming DJs/ producers really important to you?

Andi: Definitely, if nobody gave these guys a chance the scene would soon get very stale from both a production point of view as well as DJing.

Nick: We know how hard it is to crack into the scene and there are so many talented artists who never get the break they deserve, so it’s well worth giving people a helping push.

Andi: It also helps us keep really on top of new music – nowadays all DJs are getting the same tracks – and they’re all on Beatport within days, so it’s good to push the new talent through so you’ve always got something different to play before everybody else.



What can we expect from Riley & Durrant in 2009?

Nick: Lots more tracks and remixes and also some new concepts we are tinkering with as we speak. This year we spend a lot of time in Ibiza and on the road, so 2009 is all about locking ourselves away and making music.

Andi: We should probably start work on our 2nd album really!


Riley & Durrant's sample pack 'Progressive House Producer' is out now! Check this release on Loopmasters

Photos courtesy of Riley & Durrant. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Tom Cypher:
Perfect Stranger Takes a Leap of Faith With His New Album
Marco Scherer's Patchwork 17
Lee Mortimer goes Loopy.
My Digital Enemy
Studio Talk with Organ Donors
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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