BnB Interview: Christian Smith

Written by the B&B Crew

There's not much Christian Smith hasn't witnessed when it comes to the evolution of electronic music. He's been DJing for over 18 years, has released dozens of acclaimed dancefloor bombs under his own name as well as in co-op with John Selway, and succesfully runs the Tronic label that most recently dropped evil cuts from Wehbba, Marco Bailey and of course THE quintssential 2010 summer anthem: Christian Smith's massive remix of Carl Craig's At Les.

A lot of things inspire Christian as an artist, but one of the things that will always keep him going is his unconditional love for the game, for DJing (three decks, no less, mind you), for creating forward-thinking house and techno in the studio and traveling the globe to rock sold-out venues to their very foundations. Triggered to start DJing after frequently visiting Sven Vaeth's legendary sets at Frankfurt's Dorian Grey club in the 80s and being a regular visitor of New York's early 90s rave scene, Chris took to DJing in 1992 and soon after released his very first record: Overdose under his Neuromancer moniker. Things took a different direction when he met fellow DJ/producer John Selway in '93, and the duo soon went on to climb international charts with a series of vibrant, energetic techno bangers. As for Tronic, the label went on to become a rich source for uncompromising club tunage in during the second half of the nineties, and to this very day still is one of the labels DJs turn to when in need of top of the bill house and techno.

Fast forward to 2010. Many years after having established himself as a skilled DJ/producer with an international vision on the sound of contemporary house and techno, Christian has made it to the highest ranks of the DJ league, yet his passion for electronic music has never been tamed the slightest bit. Go check out Christian playing at the South West Four festival on August 28/29 on Clapham Common in London if you have the chance!

Christian speaks to BnB about his tronic label, his current hometown Berlin, Social Media and of course his Tronic imprint...

1. Hi Christian, how are you doing these days?
Very good. thanks for asking. Right now I'm actually on a train going from Stuttgart to Strasbourg. I'm playing in France for their Bastille national holiday. Should be a blast for a tuesday ;)

2. How’s the summer been treating you so far? Any cool on-the-road-stories you’d like to share with our readers?
Plenty, sadly more about getting stuck in airports and testing my endurance, but I really can't complain. It's early July only and I already played at Space, Ibiza, did a few festivals, and many more gigs coming this summer. One thing though, the weather has been crazy hot in Berlin. Like 38c's and of course my flat does not have any a/c. So it's been a struggle to get anything done during the week, but thankfully I can also work when I travel like I'm doing now.

3. We’ve heard you’re residing in Berlin for the next couple of weeks. How do you experience living there?
I actually spent allot of my youth in Frankfurt. My father was a pilot and working for Lufthansa. So needless to say i am fluent in German, and now that all this minimal hype has gone down I figured, why not give Berlin a try. And i really like it there. I know allot of people there, and a few friends as well.  I think I might get a second apt. there so that I have a good base in Europe when I'm touring. It's still very reasonable for a big European city. One thing is certain though, I will avoid spending winters there as they are dreadfully depressing in Berlin.

4. You’ll obviously be touring a lot the coming weeks. Any gig you’re especially looking forward to?
A few actually. I am really looking forward to playing in Israel this friday. I went there a few times over the span of my career, but haven't been back in 6 years. So i'm really looking forward to rocking it there as they party really hard there. I am also really looking forward to Dance Valley in Holland, Audioriver in Poland,  and South West Four in London. Summers are very busy with festivals. I do like clubs allot as well, of course, but in summer it's time to promote your name and brand etc., so festivals are good for that.

5.  You’re obviously a very busy man, especially during these summer months. How do you make sure you don’t crash and burn?
Very simple. I just think at all the people that aren't as fortunate as me and have to spend all days with boring day jobs. I am the luckiest person alive doing what I love for a living!

6. You recently remixed Carl Craig’s At Les, which we heard was on top of your remix wish list for quite some time. Can you tell us more on how you got to remix this track? How did you experience the production of the remix?
Remixing Carl Craig was a huge honor for me. Remixing one of his biggest tracks of his career was an even greater honor. Classics of this nature can be intimidating to rework so I did for I thought was smart. I stayed very true to the original. As they say if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. So I made a remix that stayed true to the original while giving it my touch. I was so extremely happy with all the amazing feedback all across the board.

7. We’ve been hearing a lot from the Tronic front lately with releases by Slam, Darren Emerson, Wehbba to name but a few. Can you tell us more about what you have lined up for us in terms of label releases and projects?
Tronic has been off the hook in 2010. Wehbba made his debut album which just got released and is amazing. I have also released my debut album in March. And there ahve been around 12 singles so far, and there is much more coming from artists such as myself of course, Steve King & Dimitri Nakov, Marko Nastic, Funk D'Void etc.

8. What more can we expect from you in the future? Are you working on any special projects perhaps?
I'm working my ass off! I just counted the remixes I have made since my album they amount to a staggering 15. Most of which have not been released yet.  Some of the artists that I remixed include: Plastikman, John Digweed, Laurent Garnier, Wehbba, Marco Bailey...the list goes on. In the meantime I also try to keep up with my original work. I do not just want to get stuck in doing remixes because it's not as creative as making original tracks in my opinion. So i have releases lined up for Tronic, Bedrock, and 100% Pure.

9.  We’ve noticed you’re quite an avid Facebook user! What’s your opinion on the popularity of Social Networking sites and how do you use these as an artist/label manager?
These days you have to go with the flow. If you avoid all these media types you are losing out on tons of promotions. It's also a great way to keep in touch and communicate with your fans. I really like Facebook and Twitter because they are still not full with spam as Myspace has become.

10. To conclude, is there anything else you would like to share with our readers? Anything goes!
I just wanted to give one piece of advice to all the people staring out in this business. It's not what it seems to be and it's very hard work. But if you have the passion for it go for it and devote all you have on it. At least for a certain amount of time. If you don't give it a try you will never know. Also, in terms of producing music, it is not very important that you getting expensive equipment. What is important is the acoustics of the room in which you make music in and the monitors you use. There is no need to go and buy costly analog compressors etc. with all the amazing plug ins we have available today. So if you make music (and let's face it, if you don't you don't stand a chance in the industry), just be sure to get a good sounding room, a decent pair if monitors, and a good computer. Thats all you need! Good luck! :)

Check out Christian Smith's discography on iTunes.

Carl Craig - At Les (Christian Smith's Tronic Treatment Remix)

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