Mexican producer, Sebastian Salas J. aka Eeriegeist has recently joined SquareLab Music with his forest-psy forces, so we can expect to hear even more from the young artist, who we are now In Focus on through this audioillustrated Q&A.

• What were some of the events or experiences that set you off on this journey?

Some time ago, when I started partying and raving in Mexico, there were only few psytrance events and parties I can remember properly,  but there was a special one called Kupuri Festival where I had one of my first psychedelic and festival experiences. Just after this one I felt the necessity in myself to develop and create psytrance music.

• How was your alter ego born, what does it mean to you?

After some years of making music I finally came up with this idea and I knew that the only way to really express my ideas and develop my mind through music was with psytrance forest music. So the name stands for ‘eerie’ which means ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ in English and ‘geist’, which means ‘ghostly entity’ or ‘soul’ in German.

• Who have your greatest teachers been, your greatest inspirations? Who has had the greatest influence on your musical soundscapes?

Back in the days when I was discovering the world of music production, I received a lot of advice from Mariano (Animalien) who was practically one of my first teachers. After that, I took time to write lot of music and collaborations with great friends and people that helped me grow a lot. I can also mention Daniel (Critter), who has been my latest teacher while making music together and sharing knowledge and experiences.  Speaking about my musical background influences, I grew up listening to psychedelic rock and funk music, playing the guitar and learning music since childhood.

• How has your sound, your taste in music developed throughout the years?

Attending a lot of good festivals and hearing lots of great artists has brought a lot of inspiration, and after years of this I have acquired a more developed sound in my music and my musical taste as well. I also think life experiences and events that have happened since I started with music helped me a lot to mature my sound.  At the beginning, I started making melodic psytrance with another project called Zweep, but with time my sound changed a lot, becoming faster, groovier and more serious, giving life to this new project called Eeriegeist, which brings a more complex, arranged musical journey.

• How about those mind-blowing, life-changing experiences that have shaped you and your sound?

I can talk for a long time about psychedelic experiences and life itself that have changed and shaped my mind through the years and eventually the music I write since these experiences, but if I had to define just one moment that marked the beginning of this project, I would say it was just after listening to EVP music accompanied with the necessary stuff on a perfect festival location, and of course, the energy created at this moment on the dance floor was super strong… After this event I immediately felt that I needed to do this or at least try it, and some days after the experience the project was born with a clear objective.

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

I think the most recent music I wrote is the best and stands closest to me, at the moment this music is unreleased, but I think the last productions are the best definition of what my project is about.

• What projects are you involved in? (Or would love to experiment with?)

Currently I’m only working on my solo project, including also collaborations with some great names in the scene, but at the moment I’m experimenting also with different tempos like psytech or zenonesque music.

• Who do you think are the most cutting-edge newest sound makers in the scene? Who are your newest discoveries?

I’m loving a lot of new sound-makers in the scene right now but I can name a few ones like: Critter, Oksha, Gadikt, Yohanan and Render.  About new artists that I recently found interesting I can name acts like Krapul, Kusabi, deSh and Mental Bugs.

• Which artists remain the ultimate classics for you in the scene (or in music generally)?

For me some of the best and most classic acts I can name are: Fagin’s Reject, EVP,  Synthetik Chaos and Parasense just to name a few.

• Scene at home?

The psytrance scene here in Mexico is often difficult, artistically speaking, specially for new producers, as organizers rarely respect the hard work that goes into making music. It’s hard to propel music projects sometimes, as often there are not that many good opportunities for playing. Besides this, talking more about the party spirit, you can find some lovely underground scenes and festivals around the country.

• Most memorable gigs, experiences?

Last summer I had the opportunity to play for the first time at European festivals and these have been some of the best experiences so far in my career. I can mention Fusion Festival in the south of France, a beautiful location with friendly and family vibes all over a 3-day-gathering with non-stop psytrance forest music. I remember this gig a lot, especially because just few hours before my presentation a big storm and freezing wind arrived and even though being on the dancefloor was super hard, everyone kept supporting and dancing, making it a once-in-a-life-time experience to be remembered.

• What do you think about our scene (psychedelic gatherings and community) and their role in our lives, if any:)?

I think psychedelic gatherings and the community created through this are really important in society and of course in our lives, as maybe it is the only way for people to open their minds to more possibilities in life experience and knowledge, helping us develop as super humans who can transmute or generate big changes into this beautiful but sick world we have to live in.

• What are some of the greatest challenges you faced so far as an artist or producer? How about the moments that you felt were the greatest rewards so far?

One of the biggest problems I often have is the lack of time, as making psytrance music is really time demanding, and sometimes it is concerning to think you are probably losing a big time of your life in front of a computer. All of this worries go away when you finally play the first track of your set in a place where people are really enjoying and understanding your music, and at this moment all the efforts are worth it and it’s the best reward I can have every time I do it.

• Musically speaking what’s still on your bucket list? If it wasn’t this, what would it be?

My goal is to keep making music, to travel and play it to people and generations around the world, and of course, keep sharing and enjoying with everyone I meet on the road. If I wasn’t making this, I think I wouldn’t be doing anything, psytrance saved my life.

• What are your other passions in life?

Besides making music and growing in this psytrance community, of course, enjoying time with the people I love the most: family, my girlfriend, my friends, my cat and dog.

• What are you working on at present? What are you looking forward to the most?

Currently I’m working on my new EP, which will be released at the beginning of 2020. Besides this, a lot of new music and collaborations are in the pipeline.

I’m traveling next summer during the festival season to Europe and I’m looking forward to getting to share my music at some great festivals there.