inthemix | Features | Lange: Living large and laying low

In an industry where so many talented artists seem to bloom and fade away in a matter of months, UK-based DJ/producer Lange – real name Stuart Langelaan – has remained one of the industry’s most influential and enduring names for more than ten years. With twenty UK Top 40 chart hits to his credit and a respectable #37 ranking on DJ Magazine’s love-it-or-loathe-it Top 100 rankings for 2008, Lange has truly stood the test of time. Having just completed both his In Trance We Trust mix CD alongside Australia’s own Steve Strangis, as well as the first in his new compilation series Intercity, Lange took a few minutes with ITM on the eve of his Australian tour to explain just what life as Lange is like.

As we catch up with Lange he is – as always – in the studio, hard at work on a new track. “It’s a funny thing, studio work,” he begins. “ Particularly remixes, I can finish in a few days, but original productions often spread across a number of weeks, going back and working on more than one. A lot of things don’t reach the final stages. Sometimes you get to the point where you think ‘yeah, ok, I have to move on and do something different – it’s sticking a bit, and you need something fresh. Those things, often times you can go back later and you don’t really realize what you have until you hear it again. You go back with fresh ears and you think ‘wow, I can do something with this, definitely – a track for the new album, and so on. So lots of switching between projects, but a lot of stuff does eventually get used.”

Most recently, he’s been grabbing attention in the clubs with his collaboration with Andy Moor on the recent hit Stadium Four. “We got along really well,” Lange recalls from his time in the studio working alongside Andy Moor on the track. “We don’t know each other massively well, but we’ve been in contact over the years, and we always have a good laugh together. We did the track at his studio – Andy used the computer more than I did, as it was his system, and he’s quicker on Logic that I am, as I’m a Cubase user – but we both had lots of input… and plenty of wine, if I recall! Wine and oatcakes!”

As any one who has been following his work for any period of time will tell you, Lange has in recent years evolved his sound towards more electro-house based tempos, moving away from the faster structure traditionally associated with his earlier works. “It came from getting a little bored, really,” he confesses, “with the trance music I was hearing in 2004 and 2005. For me it was the same old thing, and I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t producing enough. After a while I realized what it was – it was that I just bored of the format, bored of that style. So, I made a conscious effort, especially when making my first album, not to direct a track in a certain direction, but to go with the flow. So there are some somewhat poppy tracks on the album, some electro tracks – I really just tried to look at music as music, and to break the usual formats.”

As Lange’s musical output has diversified, so too has the tempo at which he chooses to produce. “138 was the original BPM of the trance genre around 1998-2000,” he explains. “It just seemed the right tempo at the time – and so I did most things at 138-140 at the time, whereas now I’m looking at 128 to 136.” And what of his recent remix for Above & Beyond – the scorching Lange remix of I Am What I Am that spent the better part of the summer tearing up trance dance floors the world over? “That was forced out of me,” Lange explains. “The vocal was 80BPM, and you double it, you get 160, so to try and keep it moving, I had to go as close to 140 as I could. I was actually quite reluctant to do it at that speed, but I had no choice – and it turned out ok, as it’s gone down pretty well, having that old-school sound!”

If dance music media such as this very site are anything to by, there seems to be something of a “dance music spectrum” – from radio to underground, with mainstream acts like Lady Gaga or Vengaboys and their radio bombs on one side, and bespectacled academic techno-nerds and their largely impenetrable but technically impeccable records on the other. But where does one place an artist like Lange – who on one hand as had an appearance on the Top of the Pops, while on the other hand has flourished as a widely respected and influential underground producer with a decade-long professional career?

“I’ve always wanted to be in the more nerdy core group,” Lange explains. “I’ve flirted with mainstream radio, but I’m pretty much on the fence, I think. I’ve never deliberately gone in to cash in on cheese – contrary to what some people might think, I suppose – but when I’ve had commercial success, it’s just been either the right track at the right time, or the music just said to me what it did, and so why hold it back, you know? I don’t do things deliberately to be cool, and I don’t do things deliberately to be commercial.”

But has mainstream attention had any real impact on Lange’s day-to-day life as a creative professional? “In a way, it actually pushed me away from it a little bit,” he observes. “I mean, it was a great experience. I’m not ashamed of being on the Top of the Pops at all – I remember watching the Pet Shop Boys on there ten years earlier when I was growing up, not even dreaming of going on there, you know? It was good in some respects, in that it did get my name well known, but at the same time there was perhaps a little bit of a backlash. Certainly, when I started DJing, which was around that time, a lot of clubs wouldn’t have me. There was kind of an anti-producer kind of thing going on at the time anyways, in that they didn’t see producers as proper DJs. Which is quite ironic, given how things are today!”

As Lange gears up for his return to our shores, he has no shortage of praise for his previous Australian experiences. “I’ve played there a few times, now,” he recalls, “and every time it’s been great! I can’t wait to get back there – it should be a great time.”

In Trance We Trust Australia 002, mixed by Lange & Steve Strangis, is out through 405 Recordings on Saturday August 8th. Check the launch tour details below…

Fri 21st Aug – Room 680, Melbourne
Sat 28th Aug – Rise Nightclub, Perth