After being an icon in the chill out scene for over 10 years, Nick Brennan (Tripswitch) has released his highly anticipated studio album. “Vagabond” strays away from the normal Tripswitch sound we have become accustomed to. After many months of locking himself in the studio, the nine track album is packed full with emotional and upbeat progressive bangers. Tripswitch has perfectly fused his chill out production skills with his new sound direction to create a one of a kind album. He’s already released two critically acclaimed albums, loads of singles, and numerous EPs.
This is Nick’s first album in five years and he has not disappointed. Catering to both his chill out and dance floor oriented fans, Nick has broken into new waters with his latest album. RaverRafting had the opportunity to talk with Nick about this newest release and all the work that came with it. More than that, we were able to get some insight on why Tripswitch has decided to ‘switch’ his musical direction. You can check out the full interview with Nick below!
For people who are not familiar with Tripswitch, how does this album differ from your previous releases? How would you define this album?
Tripswitch: I’ve been really active on the chillout scene for a long time now. Youth signed me to his label Dragonfly Records back in the early 2000’s and I built a reputation for this lush, expansive, melodic, psychedelic downtempo sound. I never really intended to make chillout my thing – I was very much a progressive house head in the 90’s and it just happened that I seemed to be quite good at the chillout thing, so it stuck! So, for me, this album’s about coming full circle – I’ve been able to get back to the club music that really defined my character when I was younger, but employing the techniques and atmosphere and I’ve learned through writing cinematic chillout music.
Are you exploring a new sound with this latest release, or possibly combining a new sound with your old roots? Was there anything specific that prompted you to make the change in your music?
Tripswitch: I think it’s worked out to be a really comfortable hybrid of new and old. It’s still got the melody and emotion of my chillout music, but it’s definitely dancefloor stuff – there’s a good groove throughout and some big moments in there.
Tripswitch: I think it’s good to stick your neck out a bit sometimes and challenge yourself. I’m very comfortable writing in a downtempo style – when you’ve been in a certain workflow for years it becomes second nature – but you’re not going to grow as a producer if you keep following the path of least resistance.
Tripswitch: To be brutally honest, a few years ago I was getting pretty bored with the lack of movement on the floor at my chillout gigs, so I started writing a few more uptempo numbers to slot in and try to get the crowd moving a bit. I found they responded really well to this idea, so I introduced more and more, and over a year or two I’d transformed my performance – way more energy in the crowd, and that feeds back to you on stage and everyone seems to have a better time!
How long did this album take to make and what’s your favourite track off it? Why?
Tripswitch: It took about 6 months to write and refine the tunes and we then took real care with the mixing and mastering process, so there was quite a bit of back and forth between myself and the mastering engineer (Martin Vice at Iboga in Copenhagen), adjusting sounds and balancing everything so that when we ran it through the mastering chain the results hit the spot. A bit arduous but totally worth the effort.
Tripswitch: It’s really hard to pick a favourite… I love ‘Glass Heart’ for its breakdown and percussion, ‘The Way Home’ for the build and general feeling behind it, and ‘Divine Falsehoods’ as it was one of the first in this style that I wrote and it has a certain understated elegance to it. ‘The Left Bank’ was one of those tracks that wrote itself once I set the arpeggiator off and started playing, but I’m really proud of the composition. ‘Big Time Line’ is a winner on the floor too…
With a more upbeat tempo to this LP, are you trying to part ways with the chill out scene?
Tripswitch: No, not at all … I’m still heavily involved in all that and touring a lot with my chillout live sets too. My own label Section Records is still primarily a chillout label too. It’s something I’ll always be doing, but it’s great to be doing something different too. I started out DJing progressive house in the 90’s before the chill thing so I’m really enjoying getting back to that now, as well as the live sets. I’ve been doing quite a few mixes for radio recently and the club gigs are picking up. I’m starting a regular monthly show on Frisky Radio in June as well, so I’m really excited about that. (https://www.friskyradio.com/show/artist_of_the_week/05-03-2016/tripswitch-at-05-03-2016) There’s so much amazing music being produced at the moment, I’m just getting more and more inspired by everything I hear. It’s easy to get the blinkers on when you’re just producing – DJing more regularly has forced me to be a lot more aware of what other people are producing.
Will your live sets still be chilled out or more upbeat? What are you plans for touring this summer?
Tripswitch: It depends on the setting – for some festivals or stages, it’s just not going to be appropriate for me to be playing a full 90 minutes of 124bpm house tracks when the promoters and crowd are expecting a chilled set. I’m quite happy doing both, the important thing is creating the right experience for the crowd. It’s great when I get the chance to do 2 distinct sets at the same event – for example at Rainbow Serpent in Australia last January, I played a classic Tripswitch chill set on one stage and then a set of the new stuff on the Market Stage – a sunset slot, where it just totally went off.
Is the Iboga label entering new territory with this album as well?
Tripswitch: I think I’m perhaps pushing the envelope a bit further into house territory than they’ve ever been before, certainly with an entire artist album. They still very much have a progressive trance identity, but they also have a really open-minded attitude and quite a strong history of exploring that border between progressive trance and progressive house and techno. Artists like Be Svendsen are also flying the flag for the mid-tempo end of things, with Nanoplex with a more techy sound sitting somewhere between house and prog trance. It’s a great family to be a part of.
The artwork for the album is very interesting, is there a message or meaning behind it?
Tripswitch: Thanks! Yeah it’s dark, moody and different for this kind of release, but I love it … Actually it came about from a painting that a young British artist called Jeremy Troughton posted on my Facebook wall a few years ago, saying it had been inspired by one of the tracks on my last album ‘Geometry’. I kept the idea in my back pocket for a few years, but when the album was coming together I reached out to him to see if he’d agree to using it on the album. He sent over a whole collection of works that were painted around the same time and it became clear that we had enough pieces exploring the same theme that we could go crazy with the packaging. And they seemed in some way to reflect the concept that was forming in my own mind for the title – ‘Vagabond’ – which represents the fact that I was moving between genres without any fixed resting place. We’re releasing the album as a double vinyl gatefold, so that’s a lot of space to cover and give the artwork a chance to shine. We’ve got an artwork booklet in the CD digipack and are also offering some limited edition fine art prints of some of the pieces on the album’s Pledgemusic campaign.
What and where are some of the most inspiring and memorable places you’ve played throughout your career?
Tripswitch: I’ve been really lucky. That’s one of the great things about having been involved in the chillout / trance scene, these festivals happen in some of the most incredible places. I’ve played on every continent (except Antarctica of course!), up the sides of mountains, on beaches in the Caribbean, The Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, the middle of the Nevada desert for a solar eclipse, the Australian outback… You can’t fail to be inspired in places like that.
It’s been over 5 years since your last album, how does it feel to be releasing new and different music?
Tripswitch: Bloody fantastic! It was 5 years between my first album, ‘Circuit Breaker’ and ‘Geometry’, and I had every intention of turning the next one around a lot quicker, but it seems like 5 years is my sweet spot. And its great to be doing something different this time. It’s been a bit of a leap of faith, for me and the label, but so far it’s been really well received. I have a great existing fan base who have been really open to a lot of experimentation in different styles over the years, and I’m also attracting support and interest from a new raft of DJs, labels and fans from the house scene, some of whom knew my earlier stuff but a lot who didn’t. It’s a real buzz, almost feels like it did when I released my debut album.
You also have your own label – Section Records – what are your plans here for 2016?
Tripswitch: We’ve got quite a bit going on at the moment actually… There’s a new Audioglider album coming next month, which is just fantastic. There’s a single from the album with remixes from myself and We Are All Astronauts that will land a couple of weeks before. Roberto’s got a real knack for this beautiful retro instrumental music with a kind of shoegazey but uplifting feel to it and I’m really excited about that. We released his debut album ‘Accidental Beauty’ a couple of years ago and he’s been going from strength to strength ever since with tracks and remixes on a lot of labels like Sudbeat, Stripped and 238W. We have very similar roots and tastes (both progressive and chill), although our musical expression of those tastes is quite different.
Tripswitch: I brought in a co-manager (Tony) about a year ago to share the workload, he’s been putting out some really nice dub releases on the label too and we’ve got a few new ones coming up – a mini-album of remixes from Tony’s recent Gnomes Of Kush album ‘Honey’, and some great Mexican dub from Tor.Ma and Ishdub. Then we’ve got an album of beautiful ambient music from Xpance, and I’m putting together a double compilation at the moment which should be cooked by the Autumn.
What are some of you favourite tracks to play at the moment? Why do they standout for you?
Tripswitch: I’m really loving the Particles output at the moment, producers like GMJ with Country Of The Soul are really resonating with me. My buddy James Monro has a great album coming on Proton soon, that’s one to watch out for. C-Jay’s ‘Backslider’ album on Bedrock is another brave but brilliant production, great for building mood at the start of a set. And the latest Stephan Bodzin album is just the best thing I’ve heard in years, absolutely stellar in every way. Other worthy mentions: Luke Sambe – ‘Rozaball’ (Mesmeric) is a huge tune, I’m loving playing my own remix of Aerodroemme ‘Enceladus’ (Slideways), and the Guy J remix of Henry Saiz ‘Not Last Words’ is a cracker. I’ve also got a few bootlegs I’ve done over the years that I still like to drop – there’s a mashup of Talk Talk and Cocteau Twins that always gets the crowd pumped.
Anything else you want to say to the fans, new or old?
Tripswitch: For the faithful – thanks for sticking with me and hope you’re enjoying the new direction. To those who’ve discovered me recently – really glad you found me and keep an eye out as I’ve got a load of remixes coming up in the next few months for various labels. And, tune into Frisky from June for my new show! Thanks.
Connect with Tripswitch:
https://www.facebook.com/nicktripswitch
https://twitter.com/nicktripswitch
http://www.sectionrecords.com
https://soundcloud.com/tripswitch
https://mixcloud.com/nicktripswitch
https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/tripswitch
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