Blog
- The DJ Mag Top 100: Vote For Me »
It's time for the 2010 DJMag Top 100 DJ's poll. Click on the banner above or visit www.top100djs.net and cast your vote. Your vote is highly appreciated!
- Imagine / Strangers Re-Issue »
- Release Records has, unfortunately, gone belly-up. They were the first label i got signed to and have contributed to the dance music scene with greats such as Starkid (R.I.P.), Noel Sanger, Madoka and many others. The kind folks over at Silk Digital have agreed to do a complete re-issue of both tracks along with some new remixes by Royal Sapien, 9b0, Aeron Aether and yours truly. Each will also feature artwork by Shawn Chin, who has kindly provided most of the cover art in the download section, as well as the bluecast logo. Watch out for both singles on Silk Digital later in May of this year.
- New Downloads Available »
There are 4 new tracks available as free downloads today:
- Stefan Anion & Stafire vs. Orbital - Infearior Chimes (Hybrid Remix)
- Stefan Anion - Forward Motion
- Nutrition - Skyline Dreamer (Stefan's New Mix of the Potter & Anion Scaling Mix)
- Stefan Anion & Nick Miranda - Mendoza's Groove (originally wrote this for an Avon Video)
Head on over to the downloads and grab yourselves a copy of each.
- Digital Killed the Social Star »
The other day while i was browsing through iTunes, getting completely immersed in the plethora of music and discovering new artists, something occurred to me: where is everybody? To clarify, i remembered that up until about 6 years ago my weekly ritual included a trip to my local record shop and making sure i budgeted enough for buying vinyl and still have money left for ramen noodles. Pretty much everything else, sans playing shows and making tunes, was secondary in a way. You see before the digital music revolution really took hold with all of the DJs here in Dallas, you could go to your local dance record shop and find 15 others like you wading through stacks of new releases before the owner could even put price stickers on them. For those of us that weren't lucky enough to receive promos in the mail, showing up early and knowing the owner, gave you a chance to buy the latest and greatest before anyone else. An ancillary benefit of going out to the store was also the fact that you got to socialize with other DJs and make connections, ergo get gigs in some cases or meet likeminded folks you may end up working on some music with to create something cool.Of course there was a downside to the whole experience: money. On average, a Single would set you back $10 and usually only had 2 really great tracks out of 3 or 4. In some cases you only got one great track out of a double pack that cost $20 or more. You then really had to think about whether or not to shell out all that money or have enough left for food and gas. Don't ask me how many times i've seen people show up at the record store with their piggy banks, jars of change or their parents, just so they can get some new records that week.
When i worked for a record store in 2004, this was pretty much a daily occurrence. Back then i stubbornly stayed away from iTunes and Beatport, but once i realized that $20 bought me nearly 15 great tunes compared to one or two, i was hooked. That year it seemed that digital really exploded onto the scene, a fact that became evident when the store i worked for closed later that year due to sharply declining sales.So am i complaining about digital music here? No, absolutely not. I just thought it was interesting that now i sit in front of my computer to shop for the latest music, rather than get in my car and drive out to a store. I guess the only thing i do miss a little is being able to hang out with some likeminded people and socializing. I wonder if someone will create a store where you can buy digital music the same way you do now, but have the added benefit of being there and enjoying some coffee and a chance to hang out with people and network? I would love to hear everybody's thoughts on this, so comment away.
- The New Site is here »
About once a year i take a good long look at my website and soon decide that i'm ready to overhaul it and give it a new design. I've been doing this for about 4 years now, each time experimenting with different, but similar layouts, design elements and various other bits. This time around i realized that my designs were never really very representative of the most important thing on here: Music. Having grungy textures and links to your favorite sites and merchandise is one thing, but i really wanted to represent music and how it influences me, not that i'm a website designer. So i started doing some research, looking at various different websites out there and was inspired by sites that used photography to communicate their message. Photography is a hobby of mine and i don't consider myself an expert at it.
But, experimentation is in my nature so i used that approach to start taking pictures of the various musical "elements", if you will, around me and in the studio. I spent about a week doing that and the result of that are the backgrounds and wallpapers found on this site. The design for the site pretty much came together on its own after that and the rest was just a matter of putting together all of the code and javascript.
On the technical side of things, the site now uses the Pods CMS plugin for the discography, events and bluecast. Previously i had to trick WordPress into doing it all via posts, but that ended in disaster with the discography and various other sections of the site going kaputt. Once i have the code more refined and cleaned up, i'll make the Pods import package available on the Pods website. I wanted to thank Scott Clark (aka SoftCharisma) for his help with this as well.
So what's new with the site? Things are a lot simpler to promote user friendliness, ergo why the homepage no longer has all of those banners and what not. There are now more freebies available, both music and wallpapers. I'll be adding to those as time passes. The discography now actually works and has been simplified and the Bluecast has its own section as well. Older episodes of both the Bluecast and Blue Industries, as well as any other guestmixes i've done are available on hybridized.org. I've also developed a mobile version of the site for iPhone / Android users since the site like this is not very mobile browser friendly. My goal for the next year is also to blog a little more and not just have it be useless blabber, but perhaps try to share with you some of my crazy exploits in the studio and post tips and tricks regarding music production and sound design. I'm always up for hearing feedback from anyone, so if you like, send me a message or leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the site or anything else you'd like to talk about. I am still working out some bugs on this site, so if you find anything, let me know.
- I’ve been added to Hybridized »
- Thanks to Andy, Vince and the rest of the crew at Hybridized.org, i've become one of the featured artists on their site. All Blue Industries shows will be hosted there after airing from now on and are available for download. I'll also be hosting all of my guest sets on the site. Thanks again guys and i'm very thankful to be chosen for this great roster of artists!
- StefanAnion.com v3 launched »
After several months of work, i've finally completed version 3 of my website. Well, it's not entirely completed yet (there's still a few things that'll need tweaks and enhancements), but there's a lot for you to explore:
- Bluecast
The Bluecast will be updated monthly and you can subscribe via iTunes or follow new episodes via the RSS link for this site. Thanks to Shawn Chin for the great logo design! - Freebies
As a thank you to many loyal fans and listeners, i'm offering up a selection of previously unreleased tracks as free downloads. Again, many thanks go to the very talented Shawn Chin for providing some kick-ass artwork. Go grab them here. - Music Previews
You can now preview releases in my discography via the flash player popup. - Merchandise
Thanks again to Royal Sapien for inspiration here. You can now get your very own StefanAnion T-Shirt, Hoodies and Sweaters. I'm working on more merchandise, like messenger bags so keep checking back. - Social Networks
You can now find me on a selection of social networks inlcuding the usual (MySpace, Facebook etc) and some new ones that are catered towards music lovers. I discovered these thanks to Royal Sapien. Check towards the right side or the bottom of the site to see all of the profiles.
Now back into the studio i go. Remixes coming up for Scarcity Records and Olaris, and of course i've been working on my first full length. Hope you enjoy the new site - leave me some feedback, would love to know suggestions. Cheers!
- Bluecast
- New DJ Sets available for download »
- I've posted 1 new and 2 older sets in the DJ Sets Section. Enjoy!
- Mad World Remixes – Vinyl Re-Release »
After receiving quite a few emails about where to find the original Mad World Vinyl, i've decided to release the single along with the new "Oscar The Supermouse Mix" as a limited run on 12" Vinyl. The tracks are, of course, still available as a free download here. The single is available worldwide at these fine record stores:
- Dancerecords.com
- Juno.co.uk
- DeeJay.de
- PureMusicLabelGroup.com (available soon)