Having made their entrance into the dance scene at the sprightly age of 15 and 16, German duo Kamui have had an impressive career to date. With their tracks picked up by labels like Tracid Traxxx and Overdose for release, they’ve been hard at work pushing the sound of tech trance around the globe with their touring and production work. After their first ever visit to Australia last year, they’ll be coming back over the next few weeks to tour for Pharmacy. ITM caught up for a chat.

Hi guys, hope you’re doing well. What have you been up to so far in 2007?

P: G’day everyone! We’re both pretty fine. We’ve just spent two weekends in the studio and prepared some fresh stuff for our upcoming gigs. 2007 has been pretty cool so far. We released remixes for Dr. Willis & Scott Alert, A*S*Y*S, and our own single ‘Arena’. Furthermore, another two remixes are awaiting their release which you can check out at our gigs.

D: Both of us have had a very hectic time, Pat with university and I with my social year, but nevertheless we’re regularly trying to spend some time in the studio together to produce new and unheard tracks.

For the uninitiated, how would you describe your sound?

D: In general our style is a mixture of tech trance, hard trance and hardstyle, all at 140bpm. We’re also using elements of house and electro to produce an up-to-date sound, but we’re always keeping that hard and techy edge.

You’re both quite young for having enjoyed so much success; give us a brief rundown of your career so far and your journey to where you are at the moment?

D: It all begun with Virus Inc when we were 15 and 16. At that time we produced some typical German “hands up” tracks, some of you might know ‘The Virus’, which was played by Yoji Biomehanika and many others at that time. In 2004 we got infected by “real” hard trance, inspired by a set from Kai Tracid. We produced Kamui ‘Ghosts’, which was signed to Overdose, and some other projects such as ‘Synthflut’, ‘Black Phaze’ and ‘Benjamin R’. Due to the success of ‘Ghosts’ we decided to put most of our efforts on the Kamui project and tried to develop an outstanding and recognisable sound.

P: Yeah, in the beginning we didn’t know too much about electronic dance music and we pretty much only knew the commercial side, so we started out on the rather cheesy side of things haha.

What’s been the biggest help to you guys for getting your names out there; MySpace, the record labels, DJ support, or something else entirely?

P: I reckon it’s a mixture of all of that. You don’t get international attention without releases on decent labels. Your tracks need to get played by good DJs, because otherwise it’s a hint that your track isn’t that good. And of course MySpace is a really great platform to be in contact with fans and to get in touch with people who you can work with together.

You’ve been associated with the hard trance genre, a style that has definitely had its ups and downs over the past few years. What’s your take on where the sound is at in 2007?

D: Well the kind of music that most of us would call hard trance is what was out in 2001-2004. It was quite impossible to go on developing THAT specific hard trance sound, the consequence was overkill. So some producers started producing something completely different – like house and electro – and others just went on copying themselves, then again some people started to add new elements to the “old” sound.

P: The result you get is that many people converted to electro and house, while others are crying for the old 2002 offbass-sound. Some people like the techy developments of hard trance, so we think 2007 is still a year of re-orientation. Within the last months a few new producers have proved that the will to make something fresh.

D: It might take some time but within the next 2-3 years, a face lifted hard trance will definitely come back.

Overall, are you seeing hard trance making somewhat of a comeback around the world?

D: Yes, of course. Music is a constantly developing process. It’s not standing still and there are ups and downs. Nobody knows what’s up next, but some people will get bored of 130 BPM electro/house and soft trance, others will consider hardstyle to be too much like hardcore as many hardstyle DJs end their sets at almost 160 BPM.

P: So we will sit tight and develop our medium hard sound and im pretty sure many people will come back and enjoy the good old 140 BPM tracks with us ;-)

A DJ who has been a big supporter of you guys is Scott Project. How has it impacted your career having your records played by such a big name?

P: It was and still is a big honor to see someone big like him supporting our tracks, but it’s also a confirmation and a huge motivation to continue with what we are doing.

D: We have been in contact with Frank for quite a while now, released a track on his label, and played out with him in Australia last year. It feels pretty weird when you look back to the days when you were 14 or 15 and proudly purchased your first Scot CD, and now you’re a “colleague”!

The last year has seen a massive tech influence seeping into trance and hard dance sounds. For a lot of people this has freshened things up, what do you think?

D: Tech trance has really brought some freshness into today’s trance scene. There have been a lot of really innovative techy tracks in the last 2 years, which have been a direct connection between “normal” trance and hard trance or even hardstyle.

P: Unfortunately within the last few months there haven’t been as many good tech trance releases out there, it started to become a bit repetitive, so it will be interesting to see what’s happening next with it!

What have you got planned for the next 12 months or so, how are you going to capitalise on the success you’ve enjoyed so far?

P: Except for world domination and less farting to contribute to the improvement of the climate crisis, we’ve nothing specific planned. But we will go on producing new tracks and remixes, and collaborate with other people, as well as DJing and continuing to push the harder edged sound.

D: (farts)

You’ll be coming back to Australia soon after your tour last year. How did you find the country last time you were over here?

D: Australia is simply amazing. The cities we’ve been to are very different to what we’ve got in Germany. But unfortunately we didn’t see too much of the countryside so far. Also the people are very friendly, outgoing and open-minded, so it’s fun to hang out with Aussies – and of course the 24/7 shops rock!

P: I love it too and could imagine to live there one day. I was surprised on how well educated people are about EDM. It’s great that they know what you are doing and that they discuss things and talk about it in forums. In most of the German clubs they don’t even have a clue who’s playing…

Check out our exclusive Kamui DJ mix in ITM-FM HERE, and remember to see the boys when they tour Australia:

Jun 29 – Pharmacy, Brisbane
Jul 6 – Pharmacy, Melbourne