Dance music industry leader Sean Tyas has been making some major moves recently. Releasing two trance hits in a matter of weeks at the end of 2013 including our favorite "Lose My Logic," collaborating with up and comers like Tomas Heredia, and now today making some major announcements, it looks like 2014 is going to be one of the biggest in Tyas's career.
Today Tyas made a huge announcement: he's going to release his first artist album ever, out on his own Tytanium Recordings that will now be under the Black Hole Recordings umbrella. To celebrate this exciting news, we asked Sean to share something special with us – something of his own personal taste that we normally don't get to see. The result is a high energy mini mix featuring his favorite drum and bass tracks for your listening pleasure. Also on the heels of this exciting news, we got to chat with the artist himself about the huge year he's got to look forward to.
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EARMILK: What's your earliest memory of loving music?
Sean Tyas: I think every musician would say they’ve loved music since as long as they can remember; I guess I’d rather say my earliest memory of loving electronic music was when I was 10. My uncle had given me a mixtape, and I had 3 mixes of a classic track by Apotheosis, O Fortuna. The tape had no label on it, so I didn’t even know the name of it. I remember calling them different “versions,” instead of mixes, because I had no concept of what a remix even was! What I did know, however, was that I just loved this music; I loved these sounds I’d never heard before and the energy that was encompassed throughout.
EARMILK: Who inspired you to make music into your career?
Sean Tyas: I think there are a few. Moby was a huge influence with his music in my high school years. I can’t think of how many times I must have listened to his “Everything is Wrong” album. To this day, I don’t think anyone touches that album; the ideas were so fresh and it had had a unique melodic color. The Prodigy were and still are hugely inspirational, though Paul van Dyk was the “direct cause” that sparked my interest in actually learning how this music was made. That ultimately lead to me trying it on my own.
EARMILK: How has your approach to music changed over the years?
Sean Tyas: I don’t think it has, really. The techniques of the engineering side have matured, of course. Personally, the (lead) melody is what I’m all about, which is always in front, so that’s always done first. I can then get to creating the harmonies and other elements. Traditionally drums come later, but I’ve been getting more into starting the drum work sooner, because the current breed of plugins available just makes them sound so fat!
EARMILK: What's your biggest inspiration today?
Sean Tyas: I get a ton of inspiration simply from listening to other music. I love listening to chillout and ambient music, and am starting to get into more acoustic stuff. At the same time I’ll listen to an older album like The Prodigy – “Experience,” for example, which will remind me why I started doing this in the first place. That kind of thing fuels me like I’ve just started again.
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