Here are some fearless answers from Looney Moon’s dj Phobos to pair with his selection on their label series on radiOzora. And you must know by now – it’s best served audioillustrated!

— What were some of the key events that inspired or got you involved in psytrance?

— Well, two moments come to my mind, the first one being of course my first psychedelic trance party. It was a “Happy People Production” party in Zurich for NYE 97/98. I was coming from the techno clubbing scene and I remember saying “wow, I’ve been looking for this kind of music for a long time!” The second one was SOLALUNA Festival 2001 on Samothraki island in Greece: this is when I started to feel that I could be properly involved in the psytrance scene as a dj.

— Musically speaking, what was the strangest inspiration you had so far?

— Since the beginning of my label I’ve been trying to put out a sound that could maintain some influences from what I consider the “golden age” of psytrance and that is from 97 to 2002. I have no particular artist in mind but only a proper kind of psychedelic music from those times.

— Your most ‘psychedelic’ or life-changing experience so far?

— Something happened to me not very far from now, but I still have to understand if it’s a real life changing experience… As soon as I figure it out, I’ll let you know for sure… hehe.

— If you had to define what pure genuine psytrance is for you, which tracks or artists would you name?

— Definitely ETNICA “Trip Tonight rmx”. That track is a perfect combination of high technology music and ethnic mystical vibes .

— Who do you consider the pioneers of psy?

— Tangeri Dream . Of course they are not a typical psytrance act but I think they opened the way to the proper psychedelic trance music.

— What are some of the differences between psytrance when you got involved and now? Have you experienced any noticeable changes in the scene?

— Psytrance, as every genre of electronic music, has changed deeply since its beginnings. I can feel a big difference regarding music quality since I got involved in the scene. Nowadays it is much better and that’s how it should be because it follows the general evolution of technology. Besides, I think people like music with higher bpm compared to the past. Hightech music didn’t exist a few years ago, for example, and it’s quite popular now. But I guess you can hear this trend in every kind of psychedelic trance music.

Talking about worldwide psytrance parties, I see less “uv” and “spiritual” stuff compared to the beginnings of the scene.

— How about the most cutting-edge newest sound makers in the scene? Who are your newest discoveries? Where is psytrance evolving?

— I’ve been strongly impressed by the last Airi album. In addition to his remarkable music quality you can feel that his work sounds new and fresh and it doesn’t follow any “classic” psytrance cliche. Therefore it’s not so easy to define . I definitely love that.
As for us at Looney Moon Records, we are always looking for new talented artists . Luckily enough we’ve found lots of them recently (Obliviant, Synkronic and Highstyle just to name a few). One of the things I’m most content with is when I’m able to discover some very good and unknown artists as it happened for Circus Bent and Jumpstreet, for example.

Regarding the last question, I think psytrance has reached a point where you’ll have to wait for some time to see another relevant change in the scene. Right now psytrance is probably going to evolve in mainstreamness, but I’m still not 100% sure.

— What were some of the greatest challenges and rewards of your musical journey so far?

— Of course the building of our label, Looney Moon Records, and developing our particular music style. At the beginning it was a big challenge because none of us had proper label managing skills, so we had to learn them the hard way, by trial and error. As you can understand it wasn’t so easy. Anyway it’s a great reward right now to see that our label is working very well and the style we came up with is well known and recognized worldwide.

— If it wasn’t psytrance, what would it be?

— Some kind of experimental techno for sure.

— You founded Looney Moon with friends in 2008 and you are still managing the label with dj Fog… Why did you feel the need and what characterizes the Looney Moon soundscapes and vibes, and the role it plays in the psytrance scene?

— In Looney Moon Records you can find a large spectrum of music sounds, from something closer to fullon like Dust or Obliviant to something deeper and more night oriented, but each act keeps the same “concept” and some attitudes of being highly psychedelic, funky and sometimes even groovy. Finally I consider the Looney Moon sound as a proper modern psychedelic sound which doesn’t forget the good old psytrance stuff and remembers our underground roots while trying to be fresh and suitable for the mainstream crowd as well.

— Which other label do you think is shaping the scene the most or doing the most for the scene?

— No one . The scene is so split into different styles and music genders that it’s impossible to point out a label that is doing the most for the “global” scene. I can tell you though which was the most inspired label in the past in my opinion… and it was Blue Room Rec. They came up with lots of killer releases in a time when still just a few people knew psytrance.

— Which one of your releases or tracks are the most characteristic of your sounds or stand the closest to you for some reason?

— I would say the “Looney Mood” compilation, because it was our first release with just Looney Moon artists in it and with a well developed ‘looney moon music style’, so for us it was something like reaching the first step of our job .

— Side-projects? Experiments with new sounds and genres?

— We have a side label, LMX Records, where we make lots of different kinds of electronic experimental stuff such as psybreak, psystep, glitch-hop, downtempo, midtempo, experimental bass music, ethnic glitch and basically whatever that could be fresh, mind opening, beautiful, inventive and enlightening.

— Collaborations or remixes you would definitely highlight or would love to do?

— Of course that’s a question for a music producer and I’m only a dj so I can’t answer properly. Anyway as a label manager I would like to try some kind of a collaboration with other labels in the future, maybe a VA compilation or an EP series as well. I would like to do it with a label whose style is completely different from ours . Just to try out some new ways on the psytrance music market.

— What are you working on at present? Upcoming?

— Mainly we are working on our next compilation. It’s gonna be our tenth physical release so it must be something special. At the same time we are looking forward to the release of lots of new EPs for artists such as Hypereggs, Whiptongue, Circus Bent, Dust, Dharma Section 8, R2 and Section8. We are soon going to release a digital compilation for studio Ra as well.

Studio Ra is the first professional music studio in Goa, owned by Janux, and in this compilation you’ll find lots of huge artists who made some tracks in this studio during the past Goa season. So… stay tuned!