Farius Talks Debut Album, Enhanced Progressive, and LGBTQ+ Representation

Farius reflects on inspirations behind From The Start, signing with Enhanced Progressive, and the LGBTQ+ roots of the scene.

After years of dazzling productions on record labels like Z3, Ride Recordings, and A State of Trance, progressive trance big-timer Farius has found a new home at Enhanced Progressive. To commemorate the new signing, he’s released his debut album, From The Start, that’s chock-full of sensational hits such as “Miami Love“, “Forever”, and “Steadfast.” And he double-downed with fantastic tunes this summer with an incredible mix to celebrate Enhanced Progressive’s 400th release.

Along with his album and mix on Enhanced, Farius also released a terrific mix on Apple Music to commemorate the late Harvey Milk. For those who don’t know Harvey Milk was an influential LGBTQ activist, politician, and the first openly gay elected official in California. His activism inspired many and he became a pivotal figure in gaining rights for the LGBTQ community across the country.

Now, Farius has lent us some time in his schedule to answer burning questions we had about From The Start, his growth with Enhanced Progressive, diversifying trance spaces, and the representation of the LGBTQ+ community within the scene today. So listen to Enhanced Progressive 400 on Spotify below and read on for the full chat!

Stream Enhanced Progressive 400, mixed by Farius on Spotify:

Hi Farius, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today! Let’s start off with your recently released mix to celebrate 400 releases on Enhanced Progressive, how did it feel to be chosen for this milestone?

I was a fan of Enhanced Progressive even before I became a producer, let alone signed to the label as an artist. So to be asked to put together a compilation of remixed classics on the label was a huge honour. It’s incredible to think that the label has been consistently putting out releases for 12 years now, no mean feat at all for any independent label in the digital age.

The mix itself is filled with highly curated remixes from artists like Sodality, Dezza, and Adrian Alexander along with your own takes as well. Can you walk us through what the curation process is like for this?

Will Holland, label director, and I started talking about this compilation back in March/April this year. The first step was to try and shortlist the tracks we were looking to have remixed from the back catalogue. As you can imagine there were quite a few to choose from!

Right at the start of lockdown, I did a livestream of Enhanced Progressive classics which really got the ball rolling on which tracks might work well remixed for 2020. Once we narrowed down the shortlist, it was a huge effort from myself and our release co-ordinator at the label to try and get hold of stems from the original producers – some of the tracks were produced over a decade ago, so tracking down stems wasn’t always easy!

From there, Will and I started thinking about which remixers we wanted to bring in for the compilation and made contact with them. I then went about getting all the stems out to the producers after they selected the tracks they wanted to do respectively, and then sat back eagerly awaiting to hear various takes on the classics (as well as starting my own one!). Once all the remixes were signed off I began mixing the compilation myself, which actually came together pretty quickly. Overall it was a hugely exciting project to be a part of.

Your debut album From The Start also landed on Enhanced Progressive earlier this summer and is absolutely incredible. Was there a specific production flow you had for this album? Were the tracks made with the album in mind or separate projects?

To be honest, the process was a total mixture of ideas – there certainly wasn’t a set path. Some majority of the tracks were tracks I was in the process of writing when Enhanced and I decided to do an album, like “Home Again,” “Cloud 9,” “Miami Love,” and a fair few were projects from a year or two back like “Forever,” “Free Now,” and “Weak Heart” which needed working on and finishing off. That was arguably the most satisfying part of the process, returning to old tracks and applying new production knowledge that I’d learned along the way was really fun. Tracks like “Always Returning To Him,” “Inito,” and “Steadfast” were written right at the end of the album when I knew what was missing and which musical holes needed filling to make the album flow.

“Forever” is one of my favorites on the album. Could you tell us more about the production of this tune and how it came about?

Thanks! This was a track I wrote a while back. I was working on it with another label but for one reason or another it just never quite came together for them – a mixture of the label changing their sound a bit and perhaps the track not quite firing all cylinders in the studio too. This track is a classic example of when it’s best to just leave a track alone for a while instead of labouring over it agonisingly for months and months. I think there must be 10+ versions on my hard drive of “Forever” – but the final version came together as we were finalizing the tracks for the album, with some great A&R work from the label.

There are also a number of collaborations with artists like London Thor and Rolo Green on From The Start. Do you approach these differently than solo tracks? And if there’s an artist you’d like to work with in the future, who would it be?

They were definitely all very different approaches. With Rolo, he sent over a bunch of half-finished ideas in a folder and asked if I’d like to work on any of them. “Neon Landing” was the stand out one from the pack – I snapped it up straight away, asked for the stems, and got working on it straight away.

With the vocal collaborations with London Thor, Clara Sofie, and Kyle Reynolds, I had all these tracks as instrumentals first. I sent them to Enhanced and asked if we should think about vocals on them. The A&R department reached out to a whole host of artists and from there, these tracks were born. There are stacks of artists that I’d love to work with in the future – at the moment I’m really enjoying working with some upcoming artists – there’s so much undiscovered talent out there waiting to burst through. I’m also looking outside Progressive & Trance into other dance genres to see if there’s any potential with other artists where our sounds might come together well.

Back in June, you also spun a tribute mix to Harvey Milk for Pride Month on Apple Music that was packed full fantastic tunes as well. As an artist that’s a part of the LGBTQ+ community, what are your opinions on the gentrification that’s led to the state of today’s dance music scene from its original roots?

I think it’s really important to remember our dance music roots. EDM, by which I mean America’s decade-old embracement of the term, takes a huge amount of influence from the house music that was born in the gay clubs in Chicago. EDM is house music but it’s one removed from the more traditional sounding house music that you might associate with the early days of Frankie Knuckles and co.

A few years ago Defected, one of the longest-running house music labels in the UK, launched a disco focussed sub-label, Glitterbox, and reconnected with the LGBT+ community almost overnight after its main label became a hotbed for EDM-tired clubbers looking for something a bit cooler. Head to a Glitterbox event and you’ll find drag queens, androgynous party goers, an open-minded crowd and musically, four to the floor disco strings, housey synth stabs, chunky off-beat hi-hats, and soaring diva-female vocals.

In our world of EDM, it’s not as easy to reconnect with the community that created the foundations of our sound – launching a sub-label as an offshoot of a successful EDM or trance label to reach LGBT+ partiers just wouldn’t happen. But labels like Enhanced and Anjunabeats are making waves with their open support for LGBT+ artists, and hopefully, other labels in our world will follow suit.

Many artists have experienced swings of creativity during the ongoing pandemic while they’ve been stuck at home without shows, what has your experience been like during this time?

In many (selfish) ways it was a blessing right at the start as in those first few weeks it gave me a chance to finish up the album in its final stages. Subsequently, I really enjoyed putting my creative feet up for a bit and letting the album do its thing, but more recently I’ve been back in my studio and starting to write and collaborate with other artists. The one thing that I know is that I’m desperate to play all the music I’ve written this year out live!

Shows in the UK were set to return on August 1 but that date was pushed back further due to safety concerns. What thoughts go through your mind when you think about potentially taking on a show booking with the pandemic still happening?

It’s a tricky one – I get that many artists are desperate for shows to re-commence as soon as possible because many have severely struggled financially without any shows – but I think the most important thing is to wait until we’re in a place where shows can resume without the possibility of us going back to where we were in March/April this year. Personally I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking part in something that could potentially undo the progress we’ve made since lockdown was partially lifted. The culture of nightclubs, gigs, shows and festivals are literally the opposite to social distancing – and depressing as it is, I just can’t see how we are going to get going again until we can be 100% safe.

Finally, since we’re over the halfway mark of the year, what goals do you have the remainder of 2020 and what do you hope to achieve in the new decade?

For this year, I’m just hopeful we’ll get back on our feet globally soon and get the world of live music going again when we can. As mentioned, I’ve started writing new bits here and there in the studio so expect some more new original music in the next few months. In terms of the decade I really hope to be back travelling and touring as I was for the latter part of the last decade, playing new shows, territories and venues and connecting with new people whilst experiencing new things in life. The thought of how old I will be when we move into the next decade is a bit scary, so let’s focus on now for the time being!

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