Zoran Dakovic of ‘Feeling MNML’ had a chance to catch up with Chris Lake over the weekend – the man behind Rising Music record label and numerous smash hits including his most famous one; ‘Changes‘ – and we used the opportunity to ask him a few questions:
FM: Greetings Chris! First off, let me congratulate you for being the very first interviewee for ‘Feeling MNML’ blog! Glad to have you!
CHRIS: Thank you very much for having me! …And for that matter, adding our Rising Music blog to your list – I’m glad you like our stuff.
FM: You’re welcome! 
Let’s start, shall we… At which point in your life did you realize that music is something you could be successful at, and make a career out of it?
CHRIS: Well, I guess that depends on how you look at it. I was DJing up in Scotland in my teens, and earning money then, but soon after that I buried my head in some serious production. When your early tracks and remixes are getting played by the likes of Sasha, Digweed and Sander Kleinberg, you know you’re doing something right. From then on that was it, music became my life and when “Changes” landed things really heated up. Here we are three years on, and things couldn’t be better.
FM: Who were your influences (international and local) growing up? Were you always into the dance/house music scene?
CHRIS: Hmm… For me, influences come from everything that is good and bad in day to day life…they are timeless – a bit deep, but that’s how I feel. In terms of my interest in electronic music – yes, that started from a very early age.
FM: Who are some of your current influences? Who does Chris Lake listen to in his mp3 player as he travels from gig to gig?
CHRIS: That’s a good one, the iPod. I’m a big fan of the ambient chilled out artists; Air would have to be at the top of that list, a perfect cure for late nights and hectic airports!
FM: Your first big-break came by (bootleg) remixing various artists (The Prodigy, Leftfield, Eurythmics). How would you say your sound progressed over the years to where it is today? How would you describe your current sound?
CHRIS: Anyone who knows me or my work will tell you that I haven’t, and never will conform to a sound. From deep rolling groves to some of the disgustingly noisy stuff I get up to with Deadmau5, and back again; prog, trance, straight up house, a touch of minimal – it’s all great. That’s one of the things I love about this industry, there’s so much variety to work with.
FM: What can we expect from you in future? Any big projects coming up you (and your label) would like to mentione?
CHRIS: Hell yeh! I’ve got a “Chris Lake Remixed” E.P coming out very soon with Rene Amesz & Adam Shaw mixes of ‘Deadline’, the track I featured on my Essential Mix last year, a Rudi Stalker version of ‘Release‘ and Mastiksoul’s reworking of ‘Only One’.
Shortly after that I’ll be releasing “If you knew” feat. Nastala, my follow up to “Changes“. I can’t tell you how excited that makes me… we finished filming the video in August – it’s all come together nicely, and that’s just 2008. Come WMC ‘09, I’ll be launching my first album… busy times are ahead my friend!
FM: …and one last thing, since it’s a “feeling mnml” after all. Are you into minimal and/or minimal techno scene? Any particular DJs from that genre you enjoy listening to?
CHRIS: Of course, it is a hard to scene to ignore at the moment. For me, Minimal when done right is one of the best genres out there. It’s a genre that forces you to focus on groove and strong sounds and if you are a producer, you can only ever have respect for people that get the formula right.
We would like to thank Chris Lake for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions, and wish him the best of luck on his upcoming gigs! Also big thank you to Seb Mysko who helped put this together! His blog can be found by clicking here. Don’t forget to check out Rising Music’s blog which is now a part of our Blogroll, there’s lots of good stuff to read and quite a few good points made regarding the current state of music industry.
Zoran D.
