After losing their records on their trip down under in 2003 Solarstone have bravely decided to return this December – albeit with a CD wallet this time instead of a record box! ITM tied the uplifting trance duo down for a few short words.

For some people it’s their first electronic CD they hear which creates their lust for the music. What was your first experience with electronic music, which then grew on the two of you?

We were both heavily influenced by people like Jarre and Vangelis – something which probably comes over in our music!

You’re touring Australia in December, is there anything we can expect such as maybe some unreleased tracks or new remixes you’ll be spinning?

Yes! Some new stuff, we have a lot of material circulating at the moment, but we’ll be playing lots of old favourites. Our crowd tend to want to hear the classics as we don’t DJ that often.

Will this be your first time in Australia?

No, we had a disastrous trip last year due to us losing our records – so we’re 100% CD based now and this year should be better. We didn’t experience the local scene that much last time, but the people and fans we met at the gigs were all extremely nice to us!

When you first began producing, what software did you use?

Cubase on an Atari ST – we paid our dues! Music production these days is incredibly advanced from where things were when we started 15 years ago – but it’s also very easy for people to make something very average, something impossible back in the day.

How do you spend your free time when you’re not creating magic behind the decks or in the studio?

Free time? What’s that?! Answers on a postcard please…

What labels are you signed to currently, and which ones have you been signed to previously?

We have our own labels Deepblue and MadeInEngland. We try to avoid signing tracks to other labels although we’ve signed stuff to labels like Hooj, Lost Language and Perfecto in the past.

Who are your top 5 all time favourite DJs or producers?

Oakie, Sasha, Ferry Corsten, Trevor Horn, BT, Vince Clark, Quincy Jones, Agnelli & Nelson… A&N and us have a deep mutual respect.

Is there any new talent, which we can expect to hear of in the future?

Vadim Zukhov, Recluse and Alucard are all great artists about to break through.

Apart from Solarstone, you’ve also produced some tracks under a few other aliases, do you feel it’s essential to do this, so you don’t turn out to be too commercial?

If by commercial you mean selling lots and lots of records then we’d happily be ‘commercial’! The aliases are more for when we develop different styles and don’t wish to alienate our following – hence Young Parisians and Z2, they’re all quite different sounds.

You’ve gained tremendous support from some of the other big names, do you believe labels are putting you under more pressure now, with the past success of some great hits such as Seven Cities, or your collaboration with Scott Bond – 3rd Earth?

No, if people put pressure on us we usually tell them to fuck off! We do things in our own time in our own way.

Whom would you love to get in the studio with you to work on a collaboration?

Yikes! That’s impossible to answer to be honest, Ferry Corsten? Now there’s a man who knows his onions.

What are your favourite 5 tunes of all time?

New Order – ‘True Faith’, Orbital ‘Belfast’, 808 State ‘Pacific State’, Roy Ayres ‘Running Away’, Barbra Streisand ‘Woman In Love’ – honest!

What’s your view of Tiesto performing at the opening ceremony in Athens?

Great! Next stop, the moon.

You can catch Solarstone playing in Sydney this Saturday December 4th at Gas nightclub.