Starting off our interviews this month fasionably late, we have the legendary frontman of Elasticman Records, Illogik.

Illogik has stood the test of time, from running his own label Elasticman, which has seen the likes of James Lawson, Justin Bourne, Colin B, Ian M, and Marc Johnson all making an apperance, to having releases on pretty much every major hard house label to date. On the DJIng front, Illogik has taken his skills to a whole new level working with effects, scratching and tricks that could only be matched with the likes of Rodi Style.

Now with out any further ado, Illogik

Welcome to The Beat Ranch, this being your first time here, will start offwith our usual starting question, where abouts are you from and how is thescene out there at the moment?

I'm from Leeds in the UK. The scene over here is not too bad at the moment there are some good nights going. The scene has suffered over the last few years but things are picking up and the music is getting better again.

What got you into the hard house scene? Do you remember your first event?

My first event was Sundissential and I guess it was Tony De Vit that got me into the music as he was the only one playing the harder stuff.

Did you listen to any other genres of electronic music before hard house?

I listen to all types of dance music, I like tech trance and also drum and bass, but like all sorts as long as its well produced.

What came first for you DJing or Producing?

Dj'ing came first and then after a shot while I realised that by producing records, it would be good for my name and help promote me as a DJ so I started making my own tunes.

Who influenced you in the early days of DJing?

Slipmatt, Carl Cox , DJ Sy , Sahsa , DJ Shadow

When you first played out to a crowd, how did it go?

Well I was nerve racking thats for sure, I can remember getting most of my set ready for the night so I knew most of what I was going to be doing. I wouldnt have been able to do it other wise as I had no experience.

Your set at TW15 was slammin to say the least, with all the tricks, effects and scratching (simluar to that of Rodi Style), it was mind blogging to think that one man could do all that. Where do you see the future of hard house DJing?

The future of hard house DJ'ing lyes in the hands of technology, the companies like Pioneer bringing new functions out, really changes the way DJs like me DJ. I would like to say that I will be able to totally remix records at some point. I can do this now to an extent but i would like to take it further without having to use programs such as Ableton as I feel that using cd decks is far more exciting to watch.

In terms of production you have had releases on pretty much every major hard house label to date. If you could explain your style of music tosomeone who has never heard it before, how would you describe it?

I would say its hard but full of energy and musical with lots of melody in it. I take great thought into my records and while some producers finish tracks in a day, I will take 2 weeks.

Can you give us a little run-down of your studio? What are some of your favorite bits and pieces to work with?

My favorite pieces of kit are my Walforf synths and my Nord. I'm on the hunt for a Roland JP8080 now as I'm back on the hardware as I'm sick of plugins not being able to create a big enough sound. I have a quad core pentium and I use Cubase 5 which is amazing. I have 4 sets of monitors. ha ha. Yes 4. I have 4 set up in my studio, 1 pair of Dyn Audio BMA15s, 1 pair of Yamaha AMS100's which I use to mix down. At my home I have some KRK's and also some JBLs which I use to check mixes on in a different enviroment.

Do you ever use an engineer for production, if so who?

Generally I do all the work myself now. I still work closly with Paul Janes. We do tracks together and test mix downs on each others systems. I have done a few things with Dave Owens too but find that I'm on a roll at the moment and have too much work to do so I'm getting on with it myself.

You have been running the label Elasticman for quite sometime with the likes of James Lawson, Marc Johnson, Justin Bourne, Colin B and of course yourself all makin an appearance on the label. What direction do you want to take the label in the coming year?

I want to open the diversity up a bit and have lots of different style mixes of a release so it will appeal to alot of people. I have started doing this recently so you should see different style mixes coming your way soon. I also want to bring back my old sound, classic hard house sounds. Its wicked when you play it now and to alot of people, it sounds new to them, so I'm doing to be doing alot of stuff like my older stuff but slightly more up to date with better production.

What Elasticman tracks should people be on the look out for in the coming months?

Dave Owens remix of Hole In The Speaker. There will be a remix of Dance With The Devil at some point by Equinox, thats if I pull my finger out and send him the samples. I have signed a few old Andy Farley tracks from yesteryear which will be on Elasticman Platinum and theres lots of other stuff too. Also Faith which is a track I did ages ago will be out soon, I'm just waiting on a K-Series remix (which will be the very last K-series Production). So keep an eye on Facebook and Myspace for news on the releases.

With vinyl on the decine and digital starting to really take off. Do you think the quality can still there in digital labels? If so can you give examples?

To be honest I dont, not for a few years. The only people that can keep the quality are the producers that have been doing it for a number of years (10+) as they seem to know the score. Tracks also need mastering properly for mp3/download which many people dont do and the track's quality does suffer from this. When vinyl was released every track was mastered, now it seems like 1 out of every 50 or 100 is mastered for download. It is important.

You have kept your mixes away from the public eye it would seem, why is that?

I very rarley put mixes out for the simple reason that I feel they aredetremental to the way the scene has gone, the more free mixes that are out there the more people will not want to buy albums as most of the tracks are floating about on some djs free mix. Also I do mix albums for other labels and also Elasticman so I feel these albums when they come out are more special to buy as I dont have lots of mixes flying around. More of anincentive to buy the album in stead of "I'm not buying it, I have loads of his mixes".

Any last words?

Support the producers and don't file share, music is cheap now and by supporting the producers/djs that are making the good music, it will help make the scene survive for longer. It is not as bad as it was but what gets me angry is when someone buys a vinyl release and records it into their computer and then puts it on a file sharing site. This is just silly and one day alot of the top djs will just say they are not making music anymore. I already have just started making tunes just for me to play out for my dj sets and I would not do this if it wasnt for the file sharing thing. Any way rant over, I would hope this is going to stop soon as is just one of those things that takes place in the early days of mp3 download sites. Onwards and upwards !

Illogik's MySpace

Elasticman MySpace

Click here to buy Elasticman releases at BangingTunes.com

Click here to buy Elasticman releases at TrackItDown

Past Interviews