Solarstone releases ‘Touchstone’

Solarstone releases ‘Touchstone’

6 July, 2010 | 3.22AM

• Written by: BeatportElef
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Two years since his album ‘Rain Stars Eternal’, Solarstone returns with a new album, ‘Touchstone’, that finds him continuing to push the Solarstone sound in an even more personal direction. Teaming up with an array of vocalists and instrumental collaborators—Bill McGruddy, Christodoulou, Julie Scott, Nigel Summers, Orkidea, Lucia Holm, and more—Richard Solarstone continues to twist together uplifting trance, progressive, and chillout elements into unique fusions.

We caught up with the British producer to find out what makes the new album a touchstone in his career.

You first released in 1995 on the legendary Hooj Choons label. How important were they in helping to get established as an artist?

Hooj were helpful in that they released my first few records and gave me some good remix opportunities, and I also got invited to some cool parties thanks to them! My sets still regularly feature Hooj classics to this day, and I dream of the day Hooj reclaims its crown as the best dance label in the world, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), the guys behind the label are not as mercenary as their competitors for this title, so it is unlikely to happen. Hooj was always about releasing great music, not about power or monopoly, thankfully.

Since 2006, Solarstone has been a solo endeavor for you. How did that shift affect the way you make music?

On the production level Solarstone has always been pretty much my domain, although collaborators have come and gone over the years.  Being “officially” solo simply freed me to do exactly whatever I want musically and as a DJ, to develop my projects and labels exactly how my heart demands it, which I think is the most healthy way for any artist to operate. I’m fortunate in that I have a solid team of label manager, press agent, and DJ agent around me who are brilliant in taking my initial ideas and making them happen, smoothing the way so I can be creative—which is what it’s all about ultimately.

What can you tell us about your collaborators on this album? Had you worked with all of them before? What kind of ideas and inspiration did they bring to the project?

I had worked with all of them apart from Lucia Holm. Lucia’s vocal on ‘The Last Defeat Pt 2’ was a real joy for me; what was most interesting was her interpretation of the music. For me, ‘The Last Defeat’ conjured up images of a battlefield when all is calm, but she interpreted it as “losing your virginity” which really struck me as poetic genius! It’s a fabulous track. Nigel Summers has been a stalwart of the Solar studio for absolutely years—he has played on some of my biggest tracks, such as the remix of Oakenfold’s ‘Southern Sun’. He is a brilliant guitarist but is also totally humble and with no ego to speak of at all; he’s a great laugh in the studio. He plays on ‘Twisted Wing’, ‘Intravenous’, and ‘Touchstone’. Bill McGruddy is a guy I released a few records with years ago, then we lost touch for a while. I brought him back in to work with me on ‘Touchstone’ because of his brilliant musicianship: he’s a bit of a genius when it comes to things like string arrangements and orchestration, added to that he is a fabulous singer and performer, he oozes star quality when he gets behind a mic. Bill sings on ‘Electric Love’, ‘Anyone Out There’, and ‘There’s A Universe’.

Orkidea and I collaborated on ‘Slowmotion’ and ‘Zeitgeist’. Tapio is one of the nicest guys in our industry and a wicked producer—he is one of the few producers with whom I ‘click’ in the studio. I trust him to take over the controls, something I have never afforded any other producer in my life! We share a love of mid ‘90s Renaissance trance music. On ‘Ultraviolet’ I collaborated with Haris C. We came up with an idea when we spent a few hours messing about in his studio in Cyprus in 2009. It was basically a riff, chord progression and a bastardized version of a vocal from his archive, which I then spent a month producing into what is now ‘Ultraviolet’ on the album.

Sometimes when you collaborate with another artist (such as ‘Slowmotion’ with Orkidea) you share the production duties 50/50, at other times (such as this one) you write the main theme of a track together and then one or other of you does the bulk of the production. When I collaborate with another artist I have to be in the same room as them to share the production duties, it just doesn’t work when you are not together, hence why I worked on this one at home.

Finally, Julie Scott. She has one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard, an incredible range, and she can write lyrics so quickly—she is the perfect writing partner. What she did on ‘Night Signals’ is beautiful, there is this passage featuring a lazy guitar solo overdubbed with a “little French girl” vocal, it’s one of my favourite moments on the album. Julie also sings on ‘Twisted Wing’. All of these artists were inspirational to me in their own way, particularly Julie who has such an interesting way of visualizing music.


Your first solo album, ‘Rain Stars Eternal’, was packed with uplifting tracks, something I didn’t hear as much of in ‘Touchstone’. Was that shift in mood intentional?

Definitely. Every artist wants each album to be different. ‘Touchstone’ is more of a “serious” record, I suppose: it’s an experiment in mood, in light and shade. I wanted to make something cinematic, widescreen and forward thinking in terms of electronic dance music. Simply repeating the content of the last album would have been completely opposed to everything I stand for. It’s important to me to follow my heart and try different things, but at the same time taking care not to alienate my fans or become musically arrogant.

Do you worry about alienating your fans, given that your music incorporates such different sounds, like trance, progressive, and chillout? Is it ever a challenge to get listeners to accept the material you produce that doesn’t fall easily into the category they’re used to?

I like to think that Solarstone fans are a sophisticated bunch who are open to hearing what I do next. Anybody who is stuck in 1999 and expecting to hear 10 trance tracks one after the other on a Ss album doesn’t understand what Solarstone is all about: it is about warm, melodic, emotional electronic music, regardless of genre or labels. But in terms of picking a scene to which I am closely identified, I have had trance music running through my veins since my days on the gay scene in the early ‘90s when Euro-trance was emerging. I love this music regardless of contemporary production fads or tempo. Some call it progressive house, some call it trance; for me, pigeonholes are for pigeons, I just make music that moves me, and hopefully moves other people too. 


When you described ‘Touchstone’ as a more “serious” album, do you see any connection between that and the fact that you’ve recently become a father?

Becoming a parent is a defining event to anybody, it makes you sit up and look at yourself and decide what kind of person you want to be. I love the fact that my son likes my music—he likes the faster stuff and also the more orchestral stuff. I was recently working on some orchestral film score music with Bill McGruddy and my son seemed absolutely spellbound by it. I’m not sure if I would exactly encourage him to become a professional musician, as the business is so tough and unsure these days, but we have plenty of musical instruments in the house if he ever takes an interest. Since becoming a dad I have become more relaxed about my music: I give less heed to other peoples’ opinions about it now, I just follow my instincts and let the music loose into the world.

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