Two years after his debut artist album ‘Pictures’ captured the hearts and minds of trance and electronic dance lovers (and scored one direct dancefloor hit after another), Leon Bolier is ready to return with its sequel. Over 2 discs, 24 across-the-realm tracks and 150 synth-packed minutes, ‘Phantasma’ delivers a stunning auditory proposition… A filler-free, close to compilation-like listening experience; a potential ‘Pictures-killer’ and one that effortlessly jumps the ‘difficult second album’ hurdle. ‘Phantasma’ will again emphasize Bolier’s reputation as the go-to man for trance… with a twist.
USTM: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with USTM. On August 31st your “spellbinding new artist album – Phantasma” will be released. Can you tell us some of the stories behind the singles that were released such as your amazing track 2099!?
LEON: The singles that have been released so far are: Shimamoto, 2099, Dark Star, That Morning and By Your Side.
Shimamoto was inspired by one of the main characters in Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun. That’s why I decided to use those ethnic Japanese sounds in the track. 2099 was produced last year, when I played a gig in Slovakia and visited Marcus Schössow for a couple of days afterwards. He will be visiting my place next month to work on a follow up! Dark Star has been produced together with my partner in crime Sied van Riel – we produced it in his studio and it always is big fun to hang out. That Morning features, as you might know, this big piano piece with a classical feel to it. It’s inspired by a book as well, to be more precise: the first few pages of Niccolo Ammanati’s I’m Not Afraid.
USTM: What made you decide to release a two disc artist album as opposed to a standard single disc album?
LEON: I want to offer the listener that actually buys the music some value for money – apart from that it’s big fun for me to produce music anyway!
USTM: What are your top 5 favorite tracks at the moment ?
LEON: Mike Foyle – Silver Lake (DNS Project Remix)
Daniel Kandi – Symphonica
Leon Bolier ft. Fisher – By your Side
Oryon – Gotham
Eddie Sender – Baltimore
There’s some ‘older’ tracks in there but I have been hammering those tunes in all my gigs this summer!
USTM: United States Trance Movement is based out of New York, when was the last time you visited, how did you like it, and when can we expect you back?
LEON: Well, at the moment I’m working on finally getting my working permit for the USA – it should be there in October, so I can finally start touring the USA!
USTM: We understand you fractured your leg in Ibiza and everyone at USTM hopes you get better soon. What have you been doing to pass the time since you have not been able to tour?
LEON: Haha, I have been able to tour anyway! I don’t know if the doctors agreed on that but that’s what I did – no cancelled gigs there. Apart from that I went to the office to work on promotion for the album, record videos etcetera, so I didn’t waste too much time on the broken leg, it was a bit inconvenient nonetheless, travelling with crutches and such but well, shit happens!
USTM: When you’re leg is healed, where do you plan on kicking off your album tour and what other cities do you have in mind to visit?
LEON: I kicked it off last Saturday, here in Holland at Bloemendaal beach, at Sunset Edition, where my album was on sale for the first time. Great vibe there! In the coming months I will be visiting (amongst others) Czech Republic, Ireland, India, Switzerland, Indonesia, South Africa, the Netherlands of course and more. I hope to be doing my first USA gigs towards the end of the year too.
USTM: Who would you like to work with in the near feature?
LEON: As long as it’s fun to work with someone and he or she has good ideas I’m up for pretty much everything, tho I really admire what (for instance) Sasha and Trentemöller do.
USTM: What advice do you for the rising DJ’s and producers here in the United States?
LEON: Don’t copy others, try to develop your own unique sound and style.
USTM: What do you like to do when you’re not on the road or DJing? What do you to relax?
LEON: When Im not on the road I’m either producing music or doing promotional work and answering emails, however, in my free time I like to go out with friends, watch great movies and enjoy hanging out with my family.
USTM: Reading your Bio, it says you started producing at the age of 14! How did you get started at such a young age?
LEON: Ever since I heard the first eurodance stuff that got big in Holland around 1992 or so, I wanted to be able to make that kind of music – when I found a freeware software program a couple of years later that actually gave me the opportunity to fool around with this a bit I couldn’t stop making ‘music’ from then on.
USTM: Is there anything else you would like to share with your fans, and United States Trance Movement?
LEON: Well, I know a lot of USA fans have been waiting for me to start performing in the USA, and I’m so glad it finally is going to happen. So see you really soon!
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Interview done by Doug and Paulette
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Album Promo Teaser from the upcoming Leon Bolier album ‘Phantasma’. Album to be released on August 31st on Streamlined Recordings / Spinnin’ Records. Footage included from Leon playing at Luminosity Beach Festival (Zandvoort, the Netherlands), ID&T Tomorrowland (Boom, Belgium) and Digital Society (Leeds, UK).
Track playing: Leon Bolier ft. Fisher – By Your Side (I Will Be There)
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