If you’re into the slightly harder-edged side of the trance spectrum, it’s likely you’ll recognise the name of Scotland’s Mark Sherry from two different guises: under his own name as a supporter of the kind of driving techno-influenced trance that’s blown up so big in the past 12 months, as well as for his work under the fist-pumping stadium sounds of veteran live act Public Domain along with fellow producer James Allan and MC Neil Skinner. You’ll probably know the latter act for their chart-topping Operation Blade, but they’ve been rocking crowds with their live show for over 10 years and have plenty more to show for in their back catalogue, with the group’s most recent single Vibrations picked up by Paul van Dyk’s Vandit stable. Whatever you know of Mark Sherry, both he and his Public Domain troupe will be here for the debut of the mighty Defqon.1 Festival later this year.

“We’re working on some new stuff just now, we’ve got some brand new tracks on the go in the studio which we’ll be playing for the first time at Defqon.1. We’re looking forward to getting back downunder again,” Mark told ITM last week, speaking in the thickest Scottish drawl you could possibly imagine. “It’s myself and James playing keyboards live on stage, and we’ve got Neil Skinner as our MC, who used to be known as MC Cyclone performing with Dyewitness back in the day. So it’s all about the music really, we just put our heads down and go for it. It’s a good chance for us to showcase our new music as well, we always try and get as many tracks finished as we can before we go to Australia because it’s such an important territory for us.”

However, don’t be expecting a set comprised solely of cheesy hands-in-the-air anthems. Public Domain has moved on plenty since Operation Blade, with their new material housing a similar tech trance focus that we hear in his solo work with a slightly more uptempo bent to it. Mark says that being tied to such a massive hit so early in their career counts as both a blessing and a curse. “I guess for a while it can kind of get to you being classed as a one hit wonder, even when we’ve had chart success with other tunes like Rock Da Funky Beats. Back then, that style of music was getting in the charts all the time and the record label put a lot of pressure on us to be as successful with Operation Blade with every release. But it never works like that. So we’re still doing the same thing that we were 10 years ago, but now we’re not concentrating on getting things in the charts all the time, because that’s just not possible. It’s lucky for an electro track to get in the charts these days, never mind a hard trance or tech trance track.”

If there was a brief period of time when bangin’ hard dance was making it to the top of the charts, it’s well and truly passed, and it’s not something that Mark seems particularly concerned about either. “I think you could really drive yourself insane if you went into the studio everyday trying to write music that got in the charts. And people know we’re just not all about Operation Blade, with Public Doman as well as what me and James Allan do under our own names.”

Looking for a moment to Mark Sherry’s own solo work as a DJ/producer, he’s known by clubbers worldwide for a sound that falls somewhere between the intelligent tech trance grooves of names like Sander van Doorn and Marco V, and the more driving sounds of hard dance. It’s an approach that’s done plenty of good things for his career in the past 12 months, with interest in the tech trance sound blowing up dramatically. “It’s something I’ve had my heart in for quite a few years now. For me Marco V was one of the first guys to create this sound, and some of the stuff he was doing between 1998 and 2000 along with Mauro Picotto, the stuff these guys were doing really paved the way for tech trance as far as I’m concerned.”

There’s just been something about the tech trance sound that’s inspired a hugely creative approach from DJ/producers around the world, but Mark reckons it’s not such a mystery. “Tech trance is all about the tech groove. It’s a lot more difficult to make a tech trance groove than it is to make a hard trance groove. Hard trance is all about four to the floor, it’s all on the beat and off the beat, while tech trance has a bit more of a shuffle in there. It just takes a lot longer to build up the groove, sometimes it can take a solid day or two to create, there’s just a little more to it.”

Mark Sherry will be DJing at the ‘Hard Trance’ stage at the Defqon.1 Festival in September, with Public Domain also making an appearance at the ‘Old School’ stage, and he says we can expect big things. “I’ve played at Defqon.1 three times now, and the Amsterdam event is just unbelievable. The amount of production the Q-dance guys put into it is crazy, some of the best gigs I’ve ever played have been with those guys. There’s just thousands and thousands and thousands of people, with visuals and fireworks and lasers, the big voiceovers to do the crossover between the DJs. It’s just unbelievable.”

Mark was here last year for the country’s first ever Q-dance event in Sydney, where his style slotted in well at the beginning of the night as a prelude to the hardstyle that was to follow. With a sound that’s so driving and upfront, it’s a touch ironic that he’s effectively playing as a ‘warmup’ DJ in this context, but Mark says he’s more than happy with this arrangement. “Being a part of the bigger events like Defqon.1, you always have to be flexible. You can’t always get the peak times at your gigs, you’ve got to be able to chop it up and change it around a little bit. So I’ve got absolutely no problems with going on early, which is what I did at the Q-dance events last year. If you put me right in the middle of the hardstyle DJs at two or three o’clock in the morning I’d be struggling,” he laughs.

Defqon.1 Festival comes to the Sydney International Regatta Centre on Saturday September 19th, tickets on sale now from tickets.q-dance.com.au. Keep your eyes on ITM’s Festival Page in the leadup to the event, check out the official ‘Aftermovie’ from the Holland event below…

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