Tom is a legend here, I have seen him play countless styles and really rock the house every single time:
Those of us who expected Tom Trago’s second album to follow the same trajectory as his first opus, 2009’s Voyage Direct, were sorely mistaken. The sample based Detroit-meets-disco vibe is largely non-existent on Iris, replaced by a diverse stew of styles that range from vocal hip-house workouts to ambient interludes, via a spot of garage and late night electro-funk. The end result shows a producer clearly comfortable in his own skin, prepared to experiment and challenge himself musically. While Voyage Direct had no original vocal contributions, Iris has six – including Chicago house legend Tyree Cooper, Romanthony (the man behind the vocals on Daft Punk’s “One More Time”), and emerging star Olivier Daysoul. There’s even room for an unexpected vocal debut from well loved Amsterdam producer San Proper.
Perhaps the biggest legacy from Voyage Direct exists not in sound but name; the Rush Hour-backed Voyage Direct series has seen Trago turn his hand to the world of A&R, curating releases from the incredibly deep pool of Amsterdam based talent. Trago’s close working relationship with the Rush Hour empire is obvious – all of his original 12″s and albums thus far have been released on the Amsterdam based imprint or labels directly affiliated with it. Indeed he is arguably now just as entrenched in the city’s music scene as the label itself, acting as a linchpin for the city’s network of emerging producers and DJs. Juno Plus called on Trago to dissect the making of Iris, and discuss the Amsterdam electronic music community and what the future holds as DJ, producer and label chief.
Iris touches on loads of different styles, and there’s only a couple of tracks that seem like a natural progression from Voyage Direct. How did it all come together?
Well, I wanted to set myself new goals and try new things. I had already done the Voyage Direct album, and the idea of making another album like that, only a bit better, didn’t appeal to me. I really wanted to work with vocalists – that’s one thing I didn’t do on Voyage. The thing is, I’ve listened to so much different music since I was young, so I tried to look at my broad scope of influences and make my own output a bit broader. I also wanted to make tracks that had a certain hybrid feel to them, crossing two or more genres, and thus not easy to define or pigeon hole. Just good music.
The production throughout the album is spot on – did you learn a lot from the process of making Voyage Direct?
Yeah definitely, and producing Iris taught me a lot too. I grew in the production process, especially when it came to mixing, because I did it all myself. It was a tough process, but I mean that’s what you make albums for, right? The last album was quite sample based, and on this album I tried to use my synths and drum machines a bit more. The last one was heavy on the MPC and Logic, but that wasn’t the case on Iris.
You say there wasn’t much of a sampling element – did you play the instruments yourself or get people into the studio to help?
I played them mostly myself. I get a lot of feedback from close crew, friends who come to my studio. I’ll play them the tracks and they’ll help me on simple things like getting the bass right or whatever.
I like how the piano lines on “Lost In The Streets Of NYC” from Voyage Direct were composed using the piano your mum gave to you when you turned 18. Is it still in your studio and did you use it on many tracks in Iris?
The piano was used to compose tracks on Iris, but not record them. It’s here in the corner and it’s always helping me on simple melody stuff, so in that respect it’s still a big part of my production process. It helps me when I work on the MPC and it’s still here for me.
As you mentioned there is a very strong vocal element to Iris. There are a couple of big names and a couple of surprises; firstly I’d like to ask you about Tyree Cooper. How did that hook-up come about?
Actually I met him a few times in Berlin, he lives there now. I was always a fan of his older work, and I mean the whole hip-house thing was funny to me in a way.
Where you a hip-house fan? Every couple of years it seems to threaten to have a revival…
I was too young, but I remember it was my first kind of endeavour with house, because I was about 7 or 8 when he was dropping his hits. I just remember having this happy feeling listening to that kind of music. (On Iris) I tried to approach that style from my own perspective. I thought it would be cool to see how my music and Tyree’s vocals would work together.
You also have Romanthony on there – was that an intentional move to give the album a more radio friendly feel?
Actually he was working with Christiaan from Rush Hour on a Best Of Romanthony compilation, so they were already in contact. He got some of my music and I think he asked Christiaan about me, and we were put in touch. From there we agreed to do a song together, so I sent him a few tracks and he picked one and did his thing with it. It’s a summery anthem – to be honest I didn’t know where we were going with it, what you hear on “Steppin’ Out” was just the natural outcome of the process. I learned a lot from doing things that way. It’s funny because it’s been picked up by Dutch radio stations, but other people really dislike it. It’s a track you either love or hate, I guess.
I guess when you have an ostensibly underground album dabbling in pop-friendly moments it’s always going to divide opinion.
Yeah, and that’s one of the things I wanted to convey; that I really enjoy cheesy pop. Well, not even cheesy, just good pop music and R&B. I’m not a guy who’s only listening to Theo and Moodymann all the time. It was definitely a choice, to show people that it doesn’t have to be one of the other; you can like both. If it’s good music that’s all the matters.
