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 Tasadi is one of the leading Progressive Trance producers in America at the moment with a brand new artist album released on the legendary Lost Language Label. We went to learn more about the man we only know as Tasadi...
If you have not yet heard the erotic and melodic beats of Tasadi yet then its about time you did. He hails from the United States and seems to have a very good talent for producing beautiful progressive music rich with emotion and full of flavour. His latest album takes inspiration from Gustav Holst's legendary 19th century symphonic suite, 'The Planets' but puts his own interpretation of the sounds from each planet on our modest solar system. It really is very good and it’s been released on Lost Language, who to many may have thought to be extinct but far from it. We set out to find out more on the album and the man we know as Tasadi.
i:Vibes: Tasadi, thanks for taking some time to talk to ivibes. Your from Dallas, Texas. What was your childhood like and how did you get interested in music?
Tasadi: Thank you for having me. It started about a decade ago back in high school, so about the late 90s. I was listening to more commercial and mainstream electronic artist such as Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, and many others, but then I bought my first 'real' underground CD called Tranceformer. As soon as I popped the CD into my car, I instantly fell in love with the sound and decided this is something I wanted to also do myself.
i:Vibes: Who were your early musical inspirations?
Tasadi: There are so many to mention really. In the late 90s, Tiesto, Solarstone, System F, and Lange were a few of my favorites. Also, really enjoyed Yanni as well as other various forms of classical music.
i:Vibes: What was the first record that you bought?
Tasadi: I believe the first record I bought was Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400, but I did go back to the record store a couple days later. There are only so many times you can hear that song.
i:Vibes: What was the defining moment where you knew that you wanted to produce music?
Tasadi: When I heard the artist album Tiesto - In My Memory. At the time, not many people here in Dallas even knew who he was. Ironic one of the tracks is named "Dallas 4PM."
i:Vibes: You are releasing your debut album “The system” on the well known trance imprint Lost Language. How did you set foot in the dance scene? Did you have someone who helped you get your foot into the door?
Tasadi: I was spinning records and making mix CDs for years. Later, I found that I wanted to expand my creativity and take the production angle as well. And I have to say here in Dallas at the time there were hardly any electronic producers (at least not many that I knew), so most everything I learned was done the hard way... self taught. But I do owe a big thanks to my friend Vadim Zhukov from Russia who really helped take my producing to another level at the time. And recently to Rich Mowatt (Solarstone) who really helped gear everything into the right direction for me.
i:Vibes: You have an interesting artist name with Tasadi. Tasadi is also the name of the country Chad in Africa. Why did you choose this name for yourself?
Tasadi: Tasadi is the combination of my first intial "T" with my last name "Asadi". It has absolutely nothing to do with Chad in Africa. Actually now that you mention it, I should send a formal letter to Chad and tell them to change their name!... jk
i:Vibes: Taking his inspiration from Gustav Holst's legendary 19th century symphonic suite, 'The Planets', you christened each of 'The System's' tracks after the nine planets in our solar system (adding in the Sun and Moon for good measure!). Each piece of music draws inspiration from an individual planet, with its movements conveying the popularly held ideas associated with the influence of them on the human psyche. This sounds all so deep and very interesting as a concept. Why did you choose to do this?
Tasadi: You know a lot of times I think many artist simply just produce a track and think of a random name for it afterwards. This of course is totally ok (nothing wrong about doing it that way), but for this album I did the total opposite. I think ever since I was a little kid I was fascinated with space and astronomy. Later when I got into music and production, I decided what a great theme to base and album off of. I planned every track on this album to sound like the characteristics of that particular planet based on the astrological traits of it.
i:Vibes: How difficult was it finding the perfect sounds for each of the nine planets?
Tasadi: Well I'm not gonna lie, it definitely wasn't easy, but once you have the theme and concept in your head of what your going after, it's mainly synthesis and trial & error
i:Vibes: On what kind of journey does “The system” take you and on what kind a journey do you want the listener to go on?
Tasadi: I'd like to imagine it as a voyage through space. Your starting point is the Sun and you travel through the void hitting each planet (plus the moon) in order one by one all the way until Pluto.
i:Vibes: Before starting to listen to your album, I was thinking that I was going to hear an album similar to a combination of Ulrich Schnauus, Brian Eno and Jean Michael Jarre. How would you describe your own innovative sound?
Tasadi: That quite the combination. I personally never have liked to put a stamp on the type of sound I produce. I know most would probably classify my sound as progressive or trance, but I think of it as a a little blend of everything. I try to always be as original as possible.
i:Vibes: “Sol” is a beautiful opening piece of music with a never ending atmosphere and beautiful melody. What was your inspiration behind these sounds. Do you imagine the sun as so tranquil?
Tasadi: This track actually started off more of a heavy 'trancer' with big riffs and basslines, but later Solarstone and I agreed that this was sounding a touch cheesy in its current state. I decided to keep the atmosphere and flaring melodies, but wanted to change its style. So I linked with Australia's Alex Garelli, who worked some tranquil magic on top, and together we transformed it into an suitable introduction to the album.
i:Vibes: “Mercurius” sound wise sounds totally different to “Sol” with a proggy beginning, but halfway through with stimulating trance beats which reminded me a bit to the Rank One sound and then a beautiful female voice coming in. This track has much going on. How difficult was it making this? What was the most difficult thing you had to master in order to get the track perfect for you?
Tasadi: On Mercurius I teamed with Germany's Cressida, and our styles actually worked very well for the combined progressive and trance feel throughout the song. I later decided to get some vocals on top which is always a challenge to get just right. But after recording Aurielle to lay some fantastic vocals, I think it all came together nicely.
i:Vibes: With “Venus” you go back to very tranquil sounds, with an angelic voice. Who lends the voice in this track and what in general is the biggest challenge for you when making a delicate vocal track?
Tasadi: I knew a lot of good compositions would have to go into this one to make it delicate, I mean it is Venus right? The symbol for beauty. The vocalist is Jaeda K and she did an amazing job with angelic vibe which was exactly what this track needed. And I feel that actually this is the hardest part, to get the vocals and music to flow together to create the tranquility and ambience.
i:Vibes: Wow what a surprise near the end of “Venus” as you bring in the guitar and follow up with the angelic voice. Just when you thought the track was going to end, you bring out more surprises. This track is really a masterpiece. This track must of taken some bleeding to make?
Tasadi: It definitely was a big challenge. I wanted the track to have a slight twist halfway and introduce new elements that were not in the first half. This track was redone a couple times actually to get to the final state that it is in. But after all the "bleeding", we were both happy with the end result, and very please to hear you feel the same!
i:Vibes: “Terra” starts with a thumpin beat and then the break is mellow and then you return to the beat. What was your inspiration with this track. Terra meaning land a place where you find a club to go dancing? The track would fit well in a club at peak time.
Tasadi: Yes, I do feel that's one way you could look at it. But it really depend on how one personally views Terra (Earth). For me, I thought of a crazy world filled with new wonderful events every day. And with a bit of melody help from Daniel James, this ended up becoming the fastest and most aggressive track on the album.
i:Vibes: On Luna, you have another endearing female vocal. This is a very upbeat track. Near the end, you experiment with interesting sounds while having the vocal. This is another very complex track. How do you normally go about producing a track. Do you have a certain plan or does your working methods vary from track to track and from your moods?
Tasadi: I almost always start off with a plan, and what type of vibe I want to capture. Then I experiment with various sounds to put together a composition. As many producers will tell you, lots of times the final results are different from what you originally had in mind, but trying to narrow that gap saves a lot of headache and time. On this particular production, I had a concept done and knew I wanted the full on vocal production. Later I linked with J-Soul who added his interpretation and ideas on top which welded quite well.
i:Vibes: On “Mars”, you have a funky beat with interesting background sounds. It seems like you really enjoy experimenting with sounds. It seems you could easily slip into other musical genres besides trance?
Tasadi: This track was actually a lot of fun to do. I went after the theme of a space ship landing on Mars itself, and things going wrong. Lots of experimental sounds, alarms, and grooves came together to create this track. Yes, as you can hear every track falls into its own genre, no?
i:Vibes: “Jupiter” is also a very upbeat track. What instruments and studio equipment did you use for the System? What piece of equipment was the most important for this album?
Tasadi: Lots of desktops, laptops, mics, synths, and traveling went into the album. Mainly, running Logic Studio on a quad-core mac along with some various hardware synths including a Virus TI and a Nord Lead, but the most important piece of equipment for the making of this album was my coffee mug!
i:Vibes: “Saturnus” has a nice atmosphere from the start going into the break. How important is it for you creating that special atmosphere for a track?
Tasadi: Here's one that initially was a totally different track that what it is on the album. The original version was discarded, and I started a complete fresh project along with the help of Noah Stewart who is really great at creating catchy melodic compositions. Pieces and ideas blended creating a special atmosphere that we were both very happy with.
i:Vibes: “Uranus” has a classical beginning filtered with harder beats. This track sounds more rough. The break is very beautiful. What was your inspiration behind this track?
Tasadi: This track has quite the story behind it. This was actually one of the first tracks produced on the album. The inspiration came to make a composition that with many changes throughout it. We knew we wanted lots of big riffs and melodies on top of breaks. It was originally named something else, but later went through months of redos and long sleepless nights which turned into the final version "Uranus" for the album.
i:Vibes: On “Neptune”, you have another vocalist. You have 11 tracks and really spoil the listener with all kinds of sounds. How difficult was it finding the right flow?
Tasadi: Well I wanted every track to be unique in its own way. But tried to manipulate styles and sounds so there is actually an overall flow and theme to the project as a whole. I personally never really enjoy an album that almost every track is more or less the same thing over and over again. So I think the trick is the find a balance between creating every track originally and independently of another, but still have an overall style for the complete project.
i:Vibes: I was expecting a mellow closer, but with Pluto you finish with harder, but slower sounds. Pluto is the farthest from the sun and the coldest of al planets. How much did the history of the planets play a role in choosing the music?
Tasadi: Although Pluto is the farther and coldest planet of them all, I should note from an astrological perspective it's actually one of the the most explosive ones. Standing for transformation, regeneration, and flat out explosively... That's exactly what I went for on Pluto. And the history or traits of the planets played a huge role in choosing the music. This will all be explained in further detail inside the album booklet.
i:Vibes: What future releases can we expect from you?
Tasadi: I have a couple singles upcoming in the near future on my label Sedna Recordings. Plus I'm currently working on a few remixes of some big trance classics for an upcoming CD mix compilation. Don't want to get into too many details at the moment, but something to keep an eye out for.
i:Vibes: What is your opinion of the German trance scene? What artists do you respect?
Tasadi: I've actually been to Germany a couple times and the scene is great I think. It's very unique in its own ways when you compare it to the UK or Dutch scenes, but has lots of great and respected artist. Obviously lots of big names, from Paul Van Dyk to one of my favorites that I personally have worked with (as mentioned earlier) Cressida.
i:Vibes: With what artist would you like to be locked away in the studio for 24 hours?
Tasadi: Vincent Van Gogh? ;-)
i:Vibes: What are your five alltime favourite tracks?
Tasadi: Whew tough question. So many to mention, but a few that come to mind … Push – Strange World, Yahel – Voyage, Tiesto – Suburban Train, Solarstone – Speak in Sympathy, and BT – Godspeed.
i:Vibes: What are your hobbies?
Tasadi: Even though music is a job I really enjoy doing it. Furthermore, some hobbies include playing and watching soccer, traveling, and relaxing with friends and family.
i:Vibes: Thanks for the chat! All the best for “The System”!
Tasadi: Thank you very much for the interview and the thoughtful questions and comments!
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