John 00 Fleming on his new album 'Alter Ego'

Hi John, thanks for talking to us today. So set the interview scene for us! Where do we find you?
I'm currently on tour in India.

It's album release day for you as well. How does that feel in general?
I feel very nervous. I think that's a normal reaction from an artist. I'm a perfectionist and its hard to let go of each track and keep questioning myself is it finished and have to fight the urge to keep doing final tweaks. You then ask yourself, will people like it? I'm super happy upon first day of release it headed straight to number 1 in Beatport's psy trance chart and number 2 in Beatport's main general chart!

Given your long, distinguished, 20-year-spanning career in electronic music, it's a feeling you haven't actually experienced all that often, as this is only your third artist album. Why is that and does that in itself feel unusual to you!?
Being honest, it takes me ages to make a track. The main reason I fight for studio time due to constant worldwide touring, and when I eventually make it into the studio I like to explore experimenting with new sounds. It could take me a day to create a pad, or a bass line. To me that's part of the creative process rather than grabbing pre-sets or sounds you've used before.

Now 'Alter Ego' is both its title and something of a clue as to what's happening on the album, isn't it?
It's to show the psy side of me, something that I've never fully shown before in the studio. With previous releases I've had an EP with a psy track and a trance track to compliment it.



We always welcome some psy, but from your point of view why a psy album at this particular point in time?
For some reason there was always a division between the psy trance world and the regular trance world, strange considering they share the same name! Most recently a bridge has been built between the two worlds and psy trance now being understood and embraced in the trance world, so now seemed the perfect timing to do this.

We're sure you're a fan of all it stands for, but what element, first and foremost, about the genre do you most admire?
It's music made squarely for the dance floor. You have no choice but to dance your ass off to it. It's psychedelic, it's made to twist your mind, put you in a hypnotic moment and for you to lose you mind too. It's not generic. It's none commercial. It's a rebellion against what the masses are doing.
'Alter Ego' is also unusual in as much as all its music was very much under wraps until very close to release date. Why was that? Did it have anything to with it being a diversion from your usual sound?

While others use albums and releases as marketing tools and squeeze as much as they can from it for as long as they can, I'm simply expressing myself musically with my album. All I want to do is express my art via music. It's a simple as that. No razzmatazz, fireworks nor noise, just set the release date and jobs done.

One of your first ever studio productions ('We Have No Reference Of Time') was a psy track. What are your memories of making that record?
This was one of my first steps into the psy world due to Russell. I met Russell when he approached me to do a mix compilation for him for his label group. One of the labels he owned as Transient records the home to goa legends Astral Projection. That's what introduced me to the wonderful world of goa and psy trance and was hooked ever since.

What kind of debt do you feel the world's psy trance scene owes him?
A lot. Russell was one of the first pioneers that got behind the whole birth of the genre. He was highly respected not only as an artist but running one of the biggest goa labels Transient records, though today many people wouldn't have hear of either.

Finally, you've got your annual JOOF Editions showcase coming up fast at the end of the month. Tell us about that and what in store for the 2016 edition?
Last year's show was absolutely amazing, one of the highlights of the year. This year we've thrown everything at it having the king of psy trance Astrix, Coming soon! Myself, Steve Arnold and Dance love hub in the second room. Also lets not forget along with a DJ set, I'll also be performing my album live.

Thanks John, and all the best with the album!