Jon the Baptist & DJ Chuck-E - My Year In Hard Dance

What's been your biggest achievement of the year?

After having not 1, but 2 Australia tours canceled we think playing in Norway at Sundance was a good achievement for us. Also, every track that we wrote in 2009 has had radio 1 airplay from Kutski, and some of those multiple times. Maybe the biggest achievement was hosting the Pulse festival in Builth Wells. We also believe sticking with what we love, and flying the flag for Euro Hard Trance and keeping it on track could be our biggest achievement of 2009, and now it’s great to see the revival of the said scene with lot’s of new producers coming through, and the sound being more widespread in the UK.

What moments will you never forget?

A great spectacle for us was when they opened the gates to the bionic arena at Westfest. We were playing the opening set, and before the 2nd tune was mixed in the place was absolutely rammed. The vision that will always stay with us was of the mad party crew, which was like a sea of people, charging to the front all at the same time and going crazy to the Hard Trance vibes, that’s defiantly what it’s all about!

Who's been your favourite newcomer of the year?

Last time we spoke of Wragg & Log:one, who though not really being totally 'new' to the scene, the 'duo' was a new concept. I dont think any body has been up to their standards in the last year, doing the important part- making the music! DJ wise we feel you have to have a big backing, by the likes of Frantic or Goodgreef saying ‘This guy / girl is the bollox’ to make people notice more, and to push your profile, so taking that aside for the minute we feel Australia’s ‘Nomad’ has been a great new comer producing stuff we actually play.

Who's been the artist of the year for you?

We as artist really just try and do our own thing, so 90% of the tracks we play are ours, with say another 5% being bootlegs by us. The remaining 5% of tracks we play are made up from the likes of Wragg & Log:One, Vandall, and Space Raven / S.H.O.K.K, who all together we rate as out favorite artist and the next best thing.

What's been your favourite label of the year?

Intolerance Recordings of course! The phattest Euro Hard Trance label on the planet! Most of the other best Euro tunes have been spread over different labels, so nothing else springs to mind, Trancewarez is always a good imprint for top quality 10/10 production.

What do you think has been the best track of the year?

From our studio, 'If I do' has been the biggest hit, but the 2 latest singles 'Expand your mind' and ‘The final frontier’ have rivaled her in the clubs, though these 2 monsters are set for early 2010 release. Vandall & Mars W’s 'Suffocate' has also been a big tune for us, and we love our remix of Archie & Arbour's 'Outta Control'. Each and every 1 of our bootlegs have been dance floor rockers, and we get loads of emails each week asking for them, which is only a good thing, but we are sorry, they are just for us hee hee...

What's been your favourite event of the year?

I think it has to be Slammin' Vinyl's Westfest. It was by far the best 1 yet and defiantly had the best atmosphere of the all big event’s we have played this year, from Hard Dance to Drum & Bass, Hardcore, and everything in between it was an amazing event. Set wise, we loved the closing set at Bionic in August, Energy Rush in Norwich, Sundance in Norway, Pulse festival in Builth Wells and Escape gets filthy in Swansea.

What's the funniest thing that's happened to you?

When JTB went for his hysterectomy, he got mixed up with a sex change patient and now has 2.. No, that didn’t happen, comedy is usually the misfortune sof others, and we seem to attract a bit of that! Though, some things that springs to mind are not printable, the FBI would be all over your website, and we don’t want that! Bomb, president, Gray Glitter, Al Qaeda, Roswell, ... woops..!

What do you have planned for the next year?

We will be touring Australia once again in February, and also going back to Norway. We are also going to be working with the Bionic Digital, and AWsum balck labels (as well as Intolerance) with DJ Activator and Kidd Kaos remixing our stuff!. Chuck-E is still working as 1 of the editors at Core magazine, will be working at the DJ academy DJ'ing school, and has also taken on a job with the bionic artist booking agency. We will keep our resident slots at breathe and pulse, and stay exclusive DJ's to the bionic brand. There will be loads more JTB & Chuck-E goodies coming up, and possibly an album at the end of the year, if we get enough time to have a real good go at it. Oh, and winning best DJ, best residents, best producer, best remixer, best looking, for HDA ... Right?

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