Sied van Riel: “Trance will continue to grow as always”

Sied van Riel just released his latest compilation “Rielism 3” and we had the chance to interview Sied and talk about his career, the compilation, Trance and more.

1- Where did you learn your skills from? Self-taught or education route?
It’s all self-taught. Never had anyone explaining me how to spin vinyls or how to produce a track. I used to spend hours just standing in front of the DJ booth at a local club looking at the resident DJs play. So I could like, see what they did and when.
Then went back home and imitate it to understand what was going on. And with hours I mean every single week. Then when I started to get the hang of it i’d ask them if I could play a few tracks. Obviously that didn’t happen hahaha. Although one of those resident DJs became one of my best friends later on in life. Now he joins me at events. What goes around comes around hahaha. Just kidding!
When it comes to producing, I did had help setting up my first studio, but when it comes to the technical side of things and producing actual music, I just locked myself up in my studio and started playing around with things. Youtube has also been one of my closest friends till this day. There are so many videos on there from which you can learn things OR get inspired by to try out new techniques and stuff. It’s always cool to see how others do it. I watch a lot of videos done by mastering engineers cause I want to learn more about that part of the process. I really would like to be able to master my own tracks as well. Mastering is something else, but I’m getting there!

2- What can the listeners expect from your Rielism 3 mix-compilation?
2 mixes filled with Trance. I can honestly say that I’ve played every single track from Rielism 3 out live. It is 100% Riel trance.
It took me a while to get Volume 3 out there, but I am where I belong now!

3- Which is your favorite tune from this Compilation?
I never single out 1 favorite cause I think when you do a compilation with a lot of tracks all of them are good. So in my opinion all tracks are among my current favorites otherwise I wouldn’t have picked them for the compilation really =)

4- What part of the production process do you find the most challenging?
Arranging is a long process over here. This because I think about what’s possible and then in my head. Everything is possible and could potentially work. Then I try out a lot of different variations and see which one works best of me.
It’s like doing math and taking it to extremes! I can make 14 good melodies, harmonies and matching bass lines a day, but then arranging everything… that takes me a while. And whilst I’m arranging, I start the actual mix down as well. Bouncing audio, nit pick on noise levels. I automate all volume levels, so if something/an audio part isn’t playing at a particular point in the arrangement, the volume has to be on. I could use gates for that, but somehow I only use those on drums and bass lines then after.. I will still automate the volume hahah. Also because I use emulations of vintage EQ and compressors which bring noise along with them. Too much building up of that is never good.

5- What projects are you currently working on and what can we expect from you in the coming years?
We’ve just started Rielism Records. The first release on that was my collaboration with Giuseppe Ottaviani “GoRiel”. The second release was my own new single “The Dark Matters”. After that I’ve got 2 really good releases signed from talents. So besides producing a lot new own singles I’m also trying to give upcoming talent a platform to grow on. Which is Rielism.
Also “Warpdrive” with Radion6 was released on Armind and did extremely good!! Future Favorite, trending track on ASOT like JOC’s Deconstruction of GoRiel.
We’re finishing the follow up for Warpdrive. I think it’s even bigger sounding, but it’s dark and very very bass orientated, but obviously it will have that signature melody in it as well.

6- Where do you see Trance in the next few years? And what is your last message to your fans?
I hope to see Trance all over the world like now hahah or isn’t that what you meant?
I’m kidding. Trance will continue to grow as always. I recently heard that OLD rumor again that “Trance is dead”. I’ve been hearing that since 2000. We are still one of the largest genres in the world. Look at brands like FSOE, Subculture, Pure Trance growing like crazy!! That’s not for nothing!

Finally, thank you all for your continuous support and I really hope to be back in Lebanon soon for a great party! I’ve always had a good time there and I looooove the food =)

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