Drooid AKA Andrew Davidson AKA Sun Control Species is a fully qualified musician and engineer, having worked in Sydney since the turn of the millennium as a commercial sound engineer and producer. Now based in Melbourne, SCS has for many years been firmly established within the thriving local progressive and psychedelic trance scenes. Significantly represented by the Danish based Iboga Records, SCS has also had releases with other labels like Zenon, and he’s also travelled extensively, bringing his live act to audiences across the globe.

ITM caught up with SCS as he was preparing to perform for the fourth annual Symbiosis Gathering in California USA, to ask him a few questions about his music, his life as a musician, and his thoughts about the future as well as his gig at the launch of the Rainbow Serpent Festival this weekend.

Firstly, the title of your act is most intriguing. How did the name Sun Control Species come about?

I try to think of a different answer every time I’m asked that one. That way the idea keeps changing too! But it’s essentially that old question… if you were given a one way ticket into the future, would you take it? I wish I could still be around when we figure it out, and go to the next level. Good music helps me believe we are half way there. That, and once-upon-a-time I was pretty obsessed with these things that I called ‘spleens of light’, which is just really the interplay of daylight and sound.

You have enjoyed very rapid success in your career and have for some years been travelling the world to present your music widely. Do have particularly fond memories of any specific gig where you have performed?

Well, the project is almost ten years old now, and I released my first full-length SCS album in 2007. So in many ways, I’ve come at the whole thing upside-down from almost everybody else. I was touring for years off the strength of singles released on various labels. Add to that, these days it’s all about singles, with fewer albums being released. I realize how lucky I’ve been with touring; there are so many places I might not have been able to go if I didn’t do this. And I get to go there often! But places like the desert in Israel, a remote beach in Greece, a semi-deserted zoo in Belgium, a castle in France and an ancient forest in Japan are all special because it was so different. There’s too many to name.

You chose to be based in Melbourne. Why is that?

It was definitely the right thing to do. Victoria is pretty officially ‘home’ for me now. Not that it wasn’t rocky at the start hehe. Essentially there is more opportunity here, and not just for a musical career. So I guess it’s a mix of wanting to be around my closer friends who moved here also, and seeing a chance to push my music a bit further. It’s a great city and I love it!

There is ongoing discussion regarding the definitions of, and indeed the very notion of ‘genre’ in electronic dance music. What does it mean to you to have aligned yourself primarily with progressive and progressive trance?

I don’t know if it was ever a totally conscious thing. Maybe years ago it was. The ongoing discussion, where people pigeon-hole micro genres, is kinda irrelevant to me. I don’t care much for that, especially these days, because all the good music I hear is putting the lie to existing classifications. Sometimes I’ll make a ‘Drew-track’, which is an expression of where I’m at, and other times I’ll make a track aimed squarely at the dance floor, something that almost anyone could have written. But when you get down to it, I honestly think there can be a lot of musical maturity in any form of progressive music. There is space for it. I’m pretty much moving on from ‘straight trance’ nowadays, and the bigger picture is very exciting.

Are there any particular musicians, past or present, from whom you draw significant influence?

Yeah for sure. I listen almost as much to the production techniques as I do the music. I often wonder how the engineer did what they did as much as how the muso came up with that riff. Depends which hat I’ve got on at the time. I’ve got my favorite artists from inside the dance music scene, and I can probably count them on one hand. In the bigger world, like everybody I love all kinds of music, and spend most of my time listening to Aussie prog-rock, classical guitar, indie-electro clash, world music or whatever. A guilty pleasure I have is with good pop music even!

Does your music production have some sort of conceptual basis, and/or is it more about feeling your way?

Both. You begin working with a ‘vision’ of what you want to create, but it doesn’t always pop right out. In fact, it rarely does! So I’ll get that idea as close as I can in a really super quick time, then tinker away and refine it for days. You end up getting pretty frustrated after a time, and then out of nowhere you lock on to a riff or an idea, even a tiny single sound, and hear yourself think ‘bingo’. From there it’s a matter of holding onto that vibe and pushing it to the end. As far as the SCS concept, I find it hard to describe in a way that makes sense, but my favorite tracks I’ve done all share the same driving emotions.

How do you find life as a travelling artist? Any particular advantages or disadvantages to that?

Like I said before, I don’t come from a rich background or anything, so travelling for the hell of it would have been really hard, and I would not have seen half of the stuff I have. Doing a proper tour of a continent or something can be financially really good too, not to mention the crazy times and the way you just put yourself out there. The flipside is that you generally miss the comforts of home and all that entails, for example I’ve been in Brazil during my partner’s birthday three years in a row. That kinda sucks.

Do you tend to make clear distinctions between your time in ‘the studio’ as opposed to ‘performance’ time, or is it all somehow part of one creative process?

There is definitely a cross over point in there somewhere. Performing is like the end game, the result of your work in the studio. Generally the studio always takes preference for me, because that’s what I love to do. Day in, day out! But also, I’ve made a few really nice tracks where the core idea in it was initially created during a live set, by mixing parts from two different tracks together, and thinking it was ace!

Do you anticipate that music production and performance will be your primary activity for the entirety of your career, or might there be some other professional goals on your long term agenda?

I didn’t bother to learn anything else during school or otherwise! Its music or bust I’m afraid. What form that takes in ten years time, who knows! But my primary goal is to one day open a large, full scale recording complex and engineer into retirement. Maybe write the odd novel or three haha.

Do you believe that music can be a powerful influence for positive change, and if so, how do you see this manifesting in what you do?

On an individual level more so than any other, yes for sure. Of course there have been classic protest songs or political tracks that stand the test of time, and maybe affect a generation, but most music just affects a person alone. It sounds corny but to think that people out there connect with my music on an emotional level or whatever level is really cool. It’s also quite strange to realize that everybody on a dance floor is hearing the same thing and thinking or feeling different things about it. But you can’t – and shouldn’t – try to please everyone.

Finally, is there any personal message you would like to express to your fans?

Thanks for sticking with me. The best is yet to come.

Catch Sun Control Species at the Rainbow Serpent Launch at the Mercat in Melbourne this Sunday 4th October, as well as the following dates below…

Monday 5th October -Dragon Dreaming Festival, Canberra
Friday 9th October – Secret Sessions, Gold Coast
Saturday 29th November – Strawberry Fields, Melbourne