This week I’m inviting you all to make a comment and in return I will let you pick a new release and write a few sentences about it to be featured on the site next week. Get your thinking caps on as to what has not been already placed on here in the past week, or a track you know is going to be released in the next 7 days.
So go simply make a comment at the bottom and then on the contact page send me your short review including the track details (Artist, Title, Mix and Label) and a link to the track or where it is going to be released

If you are still here and reading this, then well done on sticking with me! Do remember to leave a comment and then fire me a message through the contact page of what you would like featured remembering what I said to include at the start of the post

Stuart

If you see this post and you are releasing a trance track anytime soon that you would like me to consider putting in the list, please be sure to mail me on the contact page with release date details and which download site(s) it is being released on.
I also have an Email address that I will happily give to you personally for adding to your Email newsletter, or point to me where to sign up if I need to opt-in.

Photo credit: Ben Sutherland

Here I catch Emma with a 9 hour time difference between us. This means I’m having my morning coffee at 10am, whilst Emma is waiting to settle down for the evening no doubt with it being 7pm on a Monday. Assuming I’m in “London Town” (as that is where all Englishmen live right?) she asks how it is there? I live in Portsmouth I tell her, but as I’m visiting London next week I’ll update her.
We quickly discuss the A State of trance 400 show, both wishing we had been at any one of the 3 events held over the weekend and find we both like Gareth Emery. Musically that is, I couldn’t tell you if she has a crush on him! And no, I don’t before anyone starts…

When I ask her what she got up to on the weekend she replies with “Umm…I went down the coast and actually witnessed a pretty massive boat smash! Carnage! I think the captain may have been drunk… Driving this huge cruiser, he just smashed into the jetty and rear ended three fishing boats.
I didn’t head out to any clubs or anything though, just trying to be low key!!” She was even standing on the jetty when it happened! If that is having a low key weekend, I can only wonder what a weekend out partying is like with Emma Hewitt?!

So I’ll quit my, or our ramblings, and move onto what you really want to read about…

Thank you for our brief chat about what is happening in our worlds, I’m glad I worked out the time zone difference correctly to catch up with you and you made it off the jetty alive!

You have made such an impact on the scene with your collaborations, both with Chris Lake and Cosmic Gate, what do you think of all the buzz surrounding your tracks?

Well I am extremely lucky to have had the opportunity of working with such great producers/djs, it is exciting to hear the tracks are getting a bit of buzz around them!!

At what age did you start singing, and was it always a goal to turn professional and make it a career?

I pretty much always wanted to sing, it was really the only career option I was ever interested in!  (I was pretty bad at most other things too, so I guess that is a good thing! )

I started in bands at about the age of 16 and just kept writing and pursuing music from there.  I never had any formal training or anything, I just kind of picked it up along the way.

I’m seeing a reoccurring theme that female singers being picked up by trance producers have background experience in other music genres, such as rock. I know you yourself have your band Missing Hours. Did you ever think that you would hear your voice being heard anywhere other than on stage with a band behind you?

Yeah, it is kind of a strange experience to venture into different genres!  I had always hoped to sing on some trance tracks, as I really love the style of music.   I just seemed to be surrounded by rock musicians all the time, and no one that knew anything about the trance genre, so it seemed a foreign world to me!

I am finding myself more and more captivated by the world of trance music and less inspired by rock music at the moment.  There seem to be so many possibilities with trance, rock music can be quite limiting I suppose.

When you say limiting, do you mean that by the time and effort you have to put in with a band, or other factors?

Yeah, the recording process with a band is a lot more time consuming. Then you have to deal with record labels and marketing people all pushing and pulling you in different directions. It takes months and months for a rock album to filter out!!

I love the fact that with trance music it is more about creating music that you love and getting it out to the clubs for people to hear as quickly as possible!! There is potential for a much broader range of people to hear the music too!

Cosmic Gate are massive producers and achieved so much in the scene and even had commercial success with the likes of the classic ‘Firewire’. How did you end up creating a track with them that has took the trance scene by storm?

I was so lucky here! I am a big fan of Cosmic Gate! They are fantastic producers. They actually got in contact through MySpace and asked me to work on a track. I fell in love with the instrumental they sent through, just beautiful!  I wrote and recorded the vocals in a little studio over here and emailed it across to them.

They had the track mastered in a matter of days, and started playing it in their sets almost immediately…A wonderful experience working with such professional people. I hope to meet the guys in person someday!!

So going back to your previous answer, that is a great example as to the possibilities that you can achieve with trance music, or any electronic dance music for that matter. You have not even met Cosmic Gate, not travelled across the world, but still accomplished what many people dream of. Great stuff!

Exactly! It blows my mind that I can record vocals in my friend’s little studio by the ocean over here, and in a matter of weeks they are being played in clubs on the other side of the world!

You speak of your love of trance music. What are your top 3 tracks old and new that you enjoy?

The Tiesto mix of ‘Silence’ is my all time favorite still! I love Armin’s ‘Sound of Goodbye’ and funnily enough, Cosmic Gate’s classic ‘Firewire’ just takes me back to some good old memories!! haha.

Oooh, I forgot to mention Nadia Ali though… I really love her vocals and am really enjoying ‘Love Story’.

So now that you have a main player under your belt, is your inbox and phone buzzing with producers wanting you to work with them? If so, can you let the cat out of the bag about any projects?

Haha, well a lot more doors have been opening lately, which is fantastic! I have a track in the pipeline with Gareth Emery which I am really excited about!! I love his production, so I can’t wait to hear where he takes this one! I am about to start a track with Sied van Riel, who I am also a big fan of! I am currently writing vocals for Andy Duguid and Marcus Shossow as well.

I am really excited to be working on some ideas for Tiesto’s side project “Allure”  too.  So there is lots to keep me busy this year!!

I really like the Sied van Riel mix of ‘Not Enough Time’, so I expect he will do great things with you, likewise for all of them though. You really do have a list of top names there, well done! I’ll look forward to hearing your voice hitting the dance floor for a long time yet it seems.

With work lined up with some of the biggest trance producers in the world, is there anyone else that you would wish to work with?

I would love to work with Ferry Corsten, we have had a few email chats about working on something for his next album, so hopefully that works out. And Armin Van Buuren, of course, would be great!

Ah yes Ferry Corsten, iLove Trance music readers should stay tuned for something Ferry related real soon!

Are you planning on travelling to the northern hemisphere any time soon, with say doing a live set with Cosmic Gate as an example?

I would love to!!  I am definitely planning a trip out to Europe during the summer to do some shows, it would be wonderful to do a live set with Cosmic Gate…I will have to have a chat to them and see if we can organize something!

Aiming high I see!

Haha, well I guess, might as well aim somewhere!!

Recently you had Trance Energy tour around Australia, what is the trance scene like in Australia?

The trance scene in Australia is a little underground, it is nowhere near as appreciated as it is in Europe. People seem to be more into electro and house out here, but I think trance is slowly starting to emerge a bit more. The people that do follow trance here are definitely die hard fans of the music!

As one last question before I let you enjoy the rest of the evening in Australia…
What does trance music mean to you?

Trance music to me is music that feels as though it can almost raise your vibrational energetic levels and intensify feelings, like it could take you to a different place of being at times ….music that transcends…

A real spiritual answer there. Well it has been fantastic chatting to you Emma!

You too Stuart!!! Lovely talking to you! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat

Thank you ever so much for your time and answers. I wish you all the best for the future and I’m looking forward to hearing more from you!

If you would love to keep up to date with the lovely Emma Hewitt then check out the following links:

MySpace Page

Facebook page

If you liked this interview please subscribe to the site at the top of the page and be sure to stay tuned for further interviews and interesting posts!

Thank you for reading!

Stuart

If you did not catch the Top 25 Trance DJs post I made please click here before delving into the second half which includes those from 26-50.

Here I have now compiled the list further to complete the Top 50 Trance DJs as voted by DJmag.com readers!

…26. DJ Feel
27. Yahel
28. DJ Shah
29. John O’Callaghan
30. Blank & Jones
31. Cosmic Gate
32. Simon Patterson
33. Gabriel & Dresden
34. Richard Durand
35. Matt Hardwick
36. Signum
37. Tiddey
38. Greg Downey
39. Marcel Woods
40. Solar System
41. Skazi
42. Mike Koglin
43. Solarstone
44. Astral Projection
45. Leon Bolier
46. Ronski Speed
47. Alex M.O.R.P.H. & Woody van Eyden
48. John ’00′ Fleming
49. Christopher Lawrence
50. Bt

The last three were just outside the official Top 100 list.

DJs in the list I was glad to see…

Artists I was particularly glad to see in this list were Simon Patterson, Richard Durand, Leon Boiler, Marcel Woods, Solarstone and John ’00′ Fleming. Also worth noting the continuation of psy-trance being featured as it continues its popularity across the globe.

As mentioned in the comments for the Top 25 Trance DJs list, there are again a high number of DJs in the list who are well known for their productions, and more so for their productions than their ability as a DJ in many people’s opinion.
My thoughts are that in any part of the music industry you have to be accomplished as an artist releasing music (if your actually writing it is another matter) to be taken seriously and climb the stardom ladder. Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Kings of Leon, Metallica, Madonna, Lilly Allen, none of them would of got anywhere if they had stayed in a pub/club singing covers. For that reason I think it is wise to assume the same goes within the electronic music industry and the top lists reinforce that idea.

My advice if you want to make the Top 100 DJ list is; start learning to produce music with the intention to release some tracks and worry about your DJ skills being polished and refined later

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