Catching Up With...Brennan Green + His Fantasia PT1 Mix

Brennan Green has come a long way since he recorded his first record on Balihu back in 2001 and collaborations with other producers from the scene like Danny Wang and Lindstroem. Last year, Brennan co-produced Kid Creole & The Coconut’s long player 'I Wake Up Screaming’, reflecting many a producers dream in being able to work with style icon August Darnell. For current releases check Brennans Art Department ‘Tell Me Why’ Remix out now on Crosstown Rebels vinyl release. In the grip of Lasermagentic fashion who like to do things their own way, we’ve got a special interview with select questions from John Hiller & Neil Thornton put to Brennan Green and he wraps it up with an absolutely sterling example of what to expect in Room Three this Saturday below. DOWNLOAD: Brennan Green Fantasia PT1 Mix John Hiller & Neil Thornton Vs Brennan Green Over the years, you have become Lasermagnetc’s most frequent guest at Fabric. How did this ‘special’ connection come about? Really? Must be pity. Thanks guys. Can you tell us about how you the Arthur’s Landing project came about, a collective of musicians who were once involved with Arthur Russell? I met the band through Daniel Wang who was close to Steven Hall at the time. Steven played guitar for me a few times and when they started to put the band together they asked me if I'd be interested in producing them. So I suggested they come over to my studio and attempt a new version of 'Is It All Over My Face'. Your releases have touched on Acid & House Music, Dub, Disco Music & Songs, Post Punk & even Latin Music. Do you get bored easily and/or do you believe that as a producer it is a good thing to experiment with that many seemingly unrelated styles? I get bored playing one tempo and one style when I DJ. I like to mix it up but keep the vibe rolling. But as far as production goes, in dance music all these styles influence each other. You can find African, Latin and classical influence throughout disco and house music. And as opposed to listening to house music to inspire making it i like to go further back and discover the roots and deconstruct the classics and maybe I can find something new to inject into it my productions. As a DJ your preferred BPM seems to work around the 115 mark. How do you like to 'peak' your audience? Intuition. No other way to play. Give and take. I guess in a way I lead them down a certain path but I'm at the lead of a spooked stage coach. I wouldn't have it any other way, really. What are your 2012 plans for label Chinatown? Is it still important to you to be releasing vinyl? What are your career challenges at the moment? It's been a challenge getting through all the remixes and productions to get to my own work. For the past 3 years 80% of everything I've worked on has been for others. Only now have I cleared my plate for some Me time. I'm really looking forward to this. I learned so much from working with the musicians from the Arthur's Landing project and also working with August Darnell opened my eyes quite a bit to the complexity yet simplicity of proper song writing. To get the releases I have lined up out this year would be nice and this of course includes my own stuff. You have been traveling extensively lately. Can you share your top 3 recent vinyl finds with us? I'm mostly searching out studio gear while I'm travelling I found a Korg X5D, Focusrite Compounder and a cheap Xoxbox with (russian parts) this time around. But as far as vinyl goes just last week I did find a mint copy of John Carpenter's The End. Not an insanely rare record or anything but a nice find none the less for 3euro. My friend called me a lucky bastard and that was enough. You seem to enjoy doing mini tours connecting with different fan bases in Europe and Japan. Any tips for the road as you must spend quite a long time away from home. What are the biggest ups & downs for you? The downs are few and far in between. I love to travel, I love to fly. The "ups" is always being able to catch up with friends. If I didn't tour as much as I do who knows when we'd all meet again. Most of the places I work at while on the road I've built a personal relationship with, which is part of the reason I get to return. This is only one of the benefits of organizing everything myself. For example this trip to Europe started with a friend's wedding in Stockholm. I thought I could throw a few gigs together to help cover the travel costs just to be apart of their special moment. It ended up turning into full blown tour. I can only thank my friends for helping make it all possible. Including the Lasermagnetic crew! Brennan while touring Japan recently did you manage to see any of Nobuyoshi Araki's works? I think you would fine his work interesting I wasn't aware of it but NOW I AM. I'm quite found of the work of Takashi Amano's work. Both as photographer and aquascapist he has an incredible talent for taking you out of this realm. I was lucky enough to visit his personal gallery in Niigata last year. I didn't want to leave. Is it true that you were once a member in a boy band? Ya, but where are they now?