Technasia, an act which began as a duo but now thrives as a solo effort from Charles Siegling, still tops charts when it comes to techno music. Siegling has a release lined up with Green Velvet out on Toolroom on July 13th, several remixes in the making with artists such as Umek, DJ Anna and Goncalo, and a busy summer schedule up ahead. When he is not playing gigs in Ibiza and beyond, he resides in cold and rainy Amsterdam in the winter months, being assured by fellow musician Dave Clarke that “you get used to it”.
From Parisian origins Technasia made its first success in 1996 in Asia, alongside Amil Khan, now no longer part of the DJ duo. When asked about the split and how it has affected the music Technasia's response is platonic: “the split hasn't affected the way I approach music creation; I'd say its more the current state of the electronic scene that influences my time in the studio. Whether we like it or not, the good old days of making beats or crazy tunes and having them cut right away into vinyl are over. You need to think ahead about what you are doing today in terms of production, with much less place for the actual ‘magic' to happen.”
It is quite a momentous feat to remain a current DJ for almost 20 years in the frivolous music business that we are part of today. In order to stay ahead, Technasia explains that he takes inspiration from the crowd and from his fans: “I have always stayed true to myself. I genuinely like to share my passion and these moments with my public. Beyond stardom, beyond money, this is what keeps me going. In the end you cannot lie to your crowd, the truth about an artist always comes out sooner or later.” Furthermore it's no secret that Technasia can be considered a “one man band” particularly for some of his more instrumental live sets. “I am primarily a musician. I learnt scoring and piano when I was a kid. DJing and techno is part of the music world, not part of ‘Research & Development' or ‘Computeer Engineering' - people have to remember that.”
When the first rays of summer start shining, Technasia settles down in Ibiza for the summer months. “Ibiza is the epicentre of the electronic music scene. It is also a very highly competitive environment with lots of arrogant people with power. It is a market that might scare young artists but with a bit of talent, a lot of hard work, good people around you, you can make things happen that will reverberate the whole year globally in your career.” Last year in Ibiza Technasia delivered an amazing back-to-back set with Uner and, lucky for us, we are in store for some of that same magic: “we have a good dozen shows planned around the world with projects for the summer season. We will perform one on the island at Ushuaïa for ANTS in August, so that's definitely one not to be missed. We really smashed it last year so we intend to make it even better.”
Now with a little girl to take care of and hectic touring schedules, Technasia laments that he doesn't get to spend enough time in the studio but discloses to us that he has an album release that is slowly in the making, with a release date predicted for somewhere in 2016 - definitely something for us to look forward too.
View this feature in the weekly Spotlight magazine, Issue 023.
WORDS | Maya Dupont
