Prism
Biography
Prism is a UK Happy Hardcore act who came to us a few years back and did a remix of Bouncy Techno track Bounce Attack for Vibemaster B and is also the founder of netlabel Toucan Music.
2009 will see Prism release two new tracks for BDWRekordings.com called "Overdose" and "Gliding".
Interview
How did you get into producing?
When I was really young my parents got me a keyboard for my birthday, and I used to love making up pop and rock songs. Originally I always wanted to learn to play the electric guitar, but then I got into dance music and as I already knew how to play the keyboard I was able to get stuck in straight away. As soon as I heard hardcore I wanted to have a go at writing my own tracks and to start with I used to use a PC and a tape recorder before I got a second hand Roland W-30 workstation in 1997.
What got you into the Hardcore scene in particular?
When I was a kid I always liked rock, but in 1992 a friend played me some rave and I was hooked. Originally I was into the more commercial stuff (Altern-8, early Prodigy etc.) and after that I got into house rather than the darker, early jungle stuff that was coming out, but got back into hardcore in '94 when I heard some of the happier stuff and my love of the music grew from there.
Who are your influences?
Lots of different influences - firstly Ham, very under-rated in my opinion, his collaborations with Brisk are always good but some of his solo stuff is outstanding, he's got a really varied style and isn't afraid to mix up breaks, drum & bass influences with proper bouncy hardcore and trance. Billy "Daniel" Bunter has been a big influence over the years and is still knocking out some blinding tracks, and for modern bouncy hardcore you can't beat a bit of Dougal & Gammer. I also write other styles and enjoy melodic trance and electro house, so I'd count Alex Morph, Marcel Woods, Above & Beyond, Fake Blood and D Ramirez as influences among others.
What Hardware do you use?
These days, mainly just my PC running Ableton Live and my trusty Access Virus TI synth. I've also got a Korg MS2000 but tend to use that for writing trance rather than hardcore. I have a Roland JX-305 too, but haven't used it for years - software is the future for me!
What Free Software is in your studio?
Plenty - I regularly use the PolyIbilit synth and Green Oak Crystal synth. I also use the free dBlue Glitch effect rack in a lot of tracks which is fantastic for getting some unusual reverses, bit reduction effects and so on. I master my tracks in-house and used to use George Yohng's W1 Limiter on everything until I got PSP Vintage Warmer and Izotope Ozone 4 last year.
What other labels have you released your music on?
I run the Toucan Music netlabel (http://www.toucanmusic.co.uk), which is where I release most of my music - mainly trance, electro house and breaks. I had an album length DJ mix released by Sonic Walker DJ mix netlabel last year. Before the netlabel scene, I had some trance and hard house tracks released on vinyl by Rough Diamond records and Solid Choonz between 2001 and 2003 under the names Hyperterminal and Silverknight. I also had some tracks released in the US by a couple of different labels between 1998 and 2000.
