The Sounds of Chris Reece

The Sounds of Chris Reece
March 5th, 2010

The mountains of Switzerland aren’t the only things peaking there. Touching the heights of the EDM scene, producer Christian Hirt, one half of the Chris Reece duo, has clocked up more than 70 weeks in the Swiss single chart, producing for others. Three years ago he felt it was time to change his course and head for success with a new project, Chris Reece. Together with vocalist Luciana Di Nardo, he created the prog-trancy ‘Still Breathin’, a warm and soothing vocal track out on the Pilot 6 imprint. Time for us to take a deep dive into the sounds of this Swiss producer, and see what he’s got set for his Chris Reece project in 2010…

Pay the rent
Chris:” At a certain moment, I figured that my school band mates were all heading in different directions with their lives. Ever since I was a child I knew that I wanted to pay my rent with music. This got me into toying around with old computers at the age of around 13. I was able to produce a song from its beginning to the finished production. It took quite a while to understand dance music and the way it’s supposed to be though. More and more I became a fan of this genre and so it was all set to start.” The early 90’s were his experimental years, where he came to find that dance music would play the leading part in his life. Though driven by an unaltered passion for music, it did take some time before Chris got into the whole production-process seriously. Chris:”Well, it all got serious when I started to draft singers for my records, and of course I needed to get serious when I started to produce TV-advertising jingles. Guess this was the point when it all got organized.”

A new direction
In 1997, Chris found a partner in crime. Together with Franky Fonell, he set up the Spiritgroove Studio and produced tracks for almost a decade. As a team, they created tracks for the likes of DJ Energy, Tatana and Basic Dawn. All stories of success, rocking the Alps with many high chart-positions. Chris:”It was like in a professional soccer team; where you need more than just one key-player to succeed. Franky and me could both learn from each other. He was already into music business, knew everyone and he knew how music needs to sound to get signed. I was the musician who was able to produce the songs. But the main thing was maybe, that we were both having the same target and sharing the same illusions. We’ve split 3 years ago because after 10 years we were both heading for a completely different direction in life, so we decided to part ways.”

After 10 years of partnership, the duo both focused on their own career. Time for Chris to start building his own name, and cut loose from the restrictions of producing for others. Chris:”It all started when I split with Franky. I wanted to create a new direction for my music. When I was doing productions for other artists, they all were telling me how it should sound at the end. I wanted to become more creative and try different sounds and loops. And so I developed a label called ‘Unreleased Digital’, it was giving my platform to put out whatever I felt to release. I didn’t think that this would ever succeed, but finally it did and people started to recognize my name. It took me 10 years to get international attention.”

A mixture
But here he is today – with everything he needs to make his own luck. After years of uplifting trance, he found a new way into music with a more underground, tribal and progressive house sound. Chris:”My today’s sound is a mixture of modern house music, mixed with my 80’s influences and I guess I can’t hide my trance roots.Besides his Chris Reece alias, Christian also works on a project called ‘Passenger 10’. “Chris Reece is the more commercial thing, working with a lot of vocals. On Passenger 10 I try to work out my clubbier roots and give my music a deeper feeling.“

Skills and passion aren’t the only ingredients to success though, determination is just as important. As are the right goals, and a little bit of dreaming. Chris:”I’m doing music fulltime. I have three labels to organize and the studio work, there’s no room for something else if you do it seriously. My goal for the future is probably that Madonna calls me to produce her new record, hahaha!”

Still Breathin’
For now, Chris has to build a name for his own. But that’s working out just fine. Especially now that his Pilot 6 release ‘Still Breathin’ is out there doing its job. Chris:”I’m still breathing, and I’m still living my life. The last Chris Reece single, ‘Suave’, was released in summer 2008. It took quite a while to come up with a follow-up, but I finally made it.” If Chris’ steamy hot beats doesn’t do it for you, the soothing vocals of Luciana will. Chris:”Luciana is a close friend of mine since years. I love her voice, we work regularly on some projects, so to work with Luciana is as if you’d work with someone from your family.”
The track is now available on all major downloadportals, and was released with a remix by Colombian producer Jessus. For more Armada releases of Chris Reece, all we have to do is wait. Chris:”The contract says so, and I hope so, of course! ;-)

source: Armadamusic