Artist description 2 Irish Producers/DJ's that began back in the early 90's Hardcore/Breakbeat era, nowadays producing the most uplifting Hard Trance and bouncy Hard House around.

Music Style Hard Trance / Hard House / Oldskool Hardcore

Musical Influences Slammin' Vinyl - Kniteforce Records - Tidy Trax - Hotwax Traxx - Cheeky Trax - Nukleuz Records - Tinrib

Artist History It all began when XS got into computers at the age of six, starting out on a Commodore 64. 3 Years later he had bought an Amiga 500, when one day he bought an Issue of CU Amiga Magazine and they were giving away a full music composition program called Octamed v3; a tracker program. He began using this program at 9 years of age (1988) and after a few years of messing around making tracks, the Rave revolution was taking place. Even though he had been brought up listening to 60's, 70's and 80's music, straight away the love for Dance music arose. Oldskool Hardcore was where he was heading… Back then all of his tracks used to be from 180bpm - 200bpm, which was ludicrous looking back on it now. In 1996 himself, and a good friend Dan MacDonnell, formed a group known as Sonic Trip. XS was 17 at the time and Dan was 15. XS was responsible for the producing and Dan was great at organising things, getting things done. Of course, they had other non-active members for a few years, some did a bit of singing, others dancing, and others trying to manage. We were all into Hardcore, although that style of music began to go downhill in 95, pity… A couple of years later they were both finishing school and heading off their separate ways, so XS kept on producing anyway and bumped into Eoin Banahan (DJ Banny) around summer 1997. Eoin had just been messing with decks for a few months when XS met him. This was great because XS didn't care a great deal for DJing at the time but thought a DJ would be good for Sonic Trip after hearing Banny. Banny had heard XS music before he met him and thought it had potential. So, after a few months it was clear that the two of them should join up and start producing/DJing together. At that time, Trance was what everyone was listing to. They used to hang around in Richie Floods house almost every night for the next 2 years getting better at DJing and producing some weird shit. Richie was into Hard House/Trance at this time and consequently Banny and XS developed a like for Hard House too (more so when Trance began to deteriorate). We were all listening to a Dublin based pirate station called Kiss 105.8 FM at the time, and a mailing list started up with top Irish producers and DJ's on it called ie-dance which was run by Kiss DJ Rob Early. XS subscribed at the start and met Dean Sherry through this who got him a show on Kiss FM. This was because he did Dean a favour and because Dean was great for supporting local talent especially producers, who were rare enough at the time. That happened around November 1998. What it meant to XS was that he could play Sonic Trip tracks on the radio but he didn't have any records. So, Banny & Richie (the two vinyl junkies) and XS used to go in on a Sunday 6-9pm playing all sorts of styles… Although being computer literate and also having acquired a set of CD decks (to mix their own productions) XS used to download a lot of tracks off the Net, and burn them onto CD, considered at the time to require no skill in the art of mixing; how narrow-minded people were… After DJing on Kiss for about a year, Banny got an extra show at Kiss on Friday 8-10pm. This helped him cope with all the promotional distribution he was receiving in the post from many labels. More time meant all would get their air play. (He gets lost with what's what in the amount of white labels he receives when he doesn't write the names on them from the reaction sheets & press release's). When Darren Flynn left Kiss as Station Manager and Jay Pidgeon took over, Hard House began to get hold in a big way. Jay set up the first Irish Hard House label called Raff Da Gaff Records with a guy called Raff. They had heard some of Sonic Trip's tracks and did up a contract soon after. This happened in 2000. To this day they are still waiting for a Sonic Trip release on Raff Da Gaff Records, which they are told might happen in the coming months with Raff Da Gaff's new distributors, Alphamagic. Fingers crossed. Around this time, Ed Jenkins of Nukleuz Records heard a track of theirs called 'Beat Da Rebel' which he was extremely impressed with and wanted to sign. However, due to a lack of communication between a few different people, this fell through. 'Beat Da Rebel' has yet to be released… Late 2000, XS met Ken Tobin, considered to be one of the best Hard House / Hard Trance DJ's in the country. After a couple of months, early 2001, they began producing 'Get On Da Floor' at XS' house and at times in the Raff Da Gaff studio. They spent maybe a day at most, per week, on it for over 6 months. After all the other tracks that XS has produced with other people, this is the first to be released. It should be Fevah House No. 13, out in March 2002. Besides Sonic Trip productions, XS plans for the future include more productions with Ken Tobin amongst others and will probably produce alternative styles under a few different aliases. There are also a few other Irish DJ's that have been nagging XS to do a track with them, maybe some day! Back at the studio right now, Banny is nearly a pro using 'Reason' and XS has began learning it so expect something different. Parts of their 'Trappy Lill's Madness' remix was done using this excellent piece of software. Also, MED Soundstudio v2 is nearing release date... On the DJing side, when playing around the country under Sonic Trip, having played over 20 gigs in 2001 (their highlight playing Temple Theatre's Crypt 3 times) they play a lot of good bouncy promo Hard House, uplifting Hard House / Hard Trance anthems and stuff that would please the crowd, but they also play the best of their own productions throughout their set's. Their sets start off quite funky and build up from there getting a lot faster as the night progresses. They play back 2 back when DJing in clubs, which works well, it keeps the crowd interested because there is more variety. Something else they began doing about a year and a half ago is mixing with four decks, Banny on the record decks and XS on the CD decks. They make up their own CD's with breakbeats, vocals and anything else interesting, and mix them over what is being played on the record decks to create a completely unique set which sounds nothing like anything else. Another thing, which they've started doing in clubs is their own big screen visuals. These visuals are synchronised with the music being played, in real time and look great with the style of music that is played. A lot of their own graphics are used but they can also create graphics for sponsers etc. which is ideal as an advertising medium. Currently they use the Advanced Visualisation plugin for WinAmp. For more info about XS, Banny or Sonic Trip, check out the rest of the website, which includes Real Audio full length previews of their tracks, a Funny Pics page, a Funny Vidz page (of illegal Irish outdoor Raves & more), Charts page, a past gigs page and more…

Group Members DJ XS - djxs@sonictrip.net DJ Banny - djbanny@sonictrip.net

Instruments Entirely produced on a PC with MED Soundstudio v1.4

Albums 'Back In Time'

Location Dublin, Leinster - Ireland

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