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Psy trance superstar Dali makes her Party Proactive debut
Reported on Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Rock chick versus psy trance maiden, Dali has created a sound uniquely her own. Fusing tough guitar riffs with rolling psy trance baselines, held together by her own soaring vocals, Dali’s music combines raw energy with hypnotic melodies. The only woman on the Israeli HOMmega roster, Dali’s recent album, ‘Hectic’, has pushed her firmly on to centre stage.
Energy driven, musically inspired performances are Dali’s trademark — past events have incorporated live drumming, guitar and vocals — and her passion for making people dance is overwhelming. Spreading her sound across the globe from Antiworld (UK), the Gathering Festival (Japan), Infected Odyssey (Mexico), Brazil, Russia, Portugal and Rave-o-lution in Israel, Dali is fast becoming recognised as a psy-force to be reckoned with. Having her debut release, ‘Colors Band’, remixed by Astrix laid further testament to this. In short, this lady rocks!
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Hi Dali, thanks for taking the time to do this interview.
You’ve been drawn to music since you were a child and have been involved in both the rock and psytrance scenes — as a DJ, producer, drummer, lyricist and vocalist — and now as engineer. Was this always your plan? I always loved music and I guess life drew me from loving it to making it. I’m glad it turned out to be like this because the best thing someone can wish for himself is to love his work and to make a way of life out of it.
The drums are a great instrument to play — how come you chose to learn how to play those over more traditional ‘girly’ instruments? Oh, and your guitar as well! My attraction to drums started a long time ago because I used to listen to a lot of rock bands. This habit of mine made me start to learn playing the drums because I was looking for more tools to help me create the music that I love.
How old were you when you became involved in your band and what was it called? I was 22 years old when I became involved with the band which was called ‘Rock Reggae’ (in Hebrew this was more like ‘Rak Rega’ which means ‘just a minute’).
If your influences of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin are anything to go by it must have had a pretty heavy metal sound! Is that why you fell in love with dance music? Because it has a similar force of energy? Yes, I fell in love with it because of the groove and the traditional tribal vibes.
Tell us about your first introduction to dance music — always an unforgettable experience! Dance music has been with me for as long as I can remember. If we are speaking about trance music, my first introduction to it as a DJ was in the year 2002 at a nature party on a mountain in Jerusalem. One of the DJs was missing and they asked me if I had my music with me (I was a collector) and I ran to the car to get my case. Playing it was so good that I then decided I want to DJ more and more.
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What made you decide it was something you wanted to pursue as a career? It was more for the experience of it… it was such a rush! I didn’t know that I would make a career out of it because playing music back then was not a career, but more a way to express yourself and to belong to a bigger community. But as things evolved over the years, it just turned from an experience into a career... and I’m glad that it did, because I love my work.
How did you become involved with HOMmega Productions? The label and manager, Eyal Yankovich, have had a huge influence on your musical journey. A mutual friend introduced me to Eyal when I was 26 years old. I guess it was fate that brought us together because it started with a bang and so far it keeps rolling! Eyal has a great influence on my career and today he is the head leader of my journey to success.
I’m always intrigued about the dance scene in Israel — is it influenced by politics or perhaps seen as an escape from? Personally I’m not involved with politics and I don’t believe in politicians. The parties themselves might be considered as a way to escape from the stress of everyday life in Israel, but being a part of the scene is more about fun and freedom.
What are your goals musically? Do you have any ambitions to go ‘over ground’ and become a singer like your heroines, Sinead O’Conner and Madonna? My main goal is to make as many albums as I can. If I manage to do that, then I am sure that future projects will include a rock album and a freestyle songs album. But first of all, I want to make more music for the dancefloor, because that’s where I come from and where I feel good at.
Did your video for ‘Colors Band’ ever run on commercial television? Yes, it did, in Israel on the national music channel and in Mexico also.
You wrote the lyrics, sang and were the creative force behind your debut album, ‘Hectic’. Did you also engineer the tracks? That’s some achievement if you did! Except for the digital mastering done by Domestic, I did all the work on my album’s musical production: music, words, vocals and engineering. I also recorded another vocalist on this album and the guitar parts were done by a guitarist.
Do you play any instruments on the album? I play the keyboards and I have a guitarist for the guitar parts.
Bar the obvious difference of instrument versus computer, how different is it creating music in a band as opposed to your dance tracks? Do you feel you have more creative freedom being able to engineer a track by yourself? Producing dance music with a computer gives me more freedom to create because you have many options and it gives room for much more ideas then sitting in a room with four people on a song. Modern dance music is more tied up with the advance of audio technology, so it comes more naturally.
Have you ever considered making a rock record with psy trance influences, rather than the other way round?! No I haven’t thought about that yet (but I made a note just now!).
Who would you most like to collaborate on a track with? Infected Mushroom
I would love there to be a time when a discussion of your being a female artist doesn’t come into the equation, but in the mean time (!) how does it feel to be flying the flag so to speak? You’ve obviously never been one to conform to gender sterotypes! I don’t see myself as a woman or a man in the scene. I see myself as an equal artist making music and that’s it.
You’ve had sets across the globe from Japan to Brazil, Mexico and Russia to the UK. Do you find you are received differently depending on which country you are playing in? Different countries mean a different crowd and a different vibe, so sometimes different feelings are involved. But still, the reactions are always good and the vibe is always happy.
At Party Proactive we have no qualms in placing psy trance next to techno next to hard dance — it’s all about the energy, the quality of the music and the journey it takes you on. What are your thoughts on this and your upcoming set? I agree it’s all about the journey and the vibes no matter what music you are playing. This will be my first DJ set in London as so far I’ve only played live performances, so it is as exciting for me as it is for you.
My DJ set will reflect mostly my own tracks accompanied by some big bombs from the other HOMmega boys… it’s not to be missed!
Thanks Dali. Your set on the 24 March is waited upon with much anticipation — those basslines are going to sound incredible over the Turnmills sound system! Boooowai! Thank you very much.
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