Fire It Up Meets Greg Downey
1. Greg, you’re about to appear at your first FIRE IT UP event... How you feeling about the gig?
I’m over the moon and really can’t wait. Fire It Up have a great reputation for rocking events and I’m delighted to be involved, it will also be my first appearance at Gatecrasher so with both teams involved it is sure to be a top night!
2. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?
I don’t have any tricks planned just yet but I have just started using Serato Scratch Live. It allows me to trigger off any track from my music collection at the touch of a button. Whenever I moved from vinyl to CD I found it very difficult to organise my music, my CDs would always end up in a right bloody mess! This way I have all my music organised exactly how I want it, I am still mixing through the CDJ's but the tracks are coming straight from my Laptop. I’m a very hands on DJ so his allows me to perform as per normal but with complete organisation of my music too, its great
3. What do you have coming up over the next couple of weeks?
Next week I am doing a new night called Digitized in Middlesbrough, its great to see fresh events popping up. Then ill be at Fire It Up vs. Crasher the following week, the week after I’m doing the re-launch of Serious at The Cross. In between this ill be keeping my head down in the studio working on some new material.
4. 2006 was a pretty big year for you, with the huge success of Vivid
Intent, how do you plan to make 2007 even bigger?
2006 was amazing; Vivid Intent has definitely played a strong part in that. For 2007 I have quite a few new tracks on the horizon and I recently did my first remix for Armin van Buuren's label Armada. I am also working on another driving trance track for the summer, its still early days with this but it is shaping up nicely! I just plan to keep working hard in the studio and doing my best at all my gigs and all being well everything will keep growing as it has been. There are some great gigs in the pipes too which I’m very much looking forward too.
5. If you were only allowed to play one song for a gig, what would it be and
why?
Good question! There are a few all time favourite tracks that I have but they are necessarily suited to a gig where you can only play one track! So the one id have to pick is Bedrock - Heaven Scent. Not only is it an all time classic but the pure emotion from this tune is unreal, totally epic. Its one of the few progressive trance tracks that is totally credible and underground, but has mass appeal as well, i love it. I’ve recently done my own version of this track for my DJ sets to bring it back up to date and the reactions have been great.
6. You frequently receive support from Eddie and the Fire it Up crew, how
does it feel to be involved with such a successful concept?
Its quality, Eddie is not only an amazing DJ but a top guy too along with everyone else in the Fire it Up team, I feel very privileged to be involved with such an exciting brand and long may the support continue!
7. Who were you inspirations when you were a bedroom DJ?
My main inspirations when I was a bedroom DJ were The Prodigy and Carl Cox. The Prodigy were the ones that got me into Serious dance music, I used to listen to more cheesy stuff when I was really young and then I heard No Good Start The Dance on Radio 1 and I was hooked!! From this I started buying Carl Cox mix tapes, he was playing hardcore back then, I was fascinated and from then on wanted my own decks and it progressed from there. From the minute I got into dance music properly I knew I wanted to be a DJ and nothing else, it’s a great feeling doing a job you love.
8. And finally, what can the crowd expect from you?
For my first two gigs at Fire It Up ill be playing an early set so I will be warming the crowd up nicely. Plenty of Tech House and progressive trance and of course some exclusive productions from myself thrown in there too. See you there
9. What have you got in the productions pipeline this year?
This year I have quite a few productions on their way. April will see the full release of my new Dark EP on Discover Dark featuring Jaws and The Instigator. These are two experimental tracks from me, Jaws is a techno themed tune and The Instigator is dark trance.
My first remix for Armada will be out in April too, the track is Paul Webster
- Corruption, reactions so far have been great so keep your ears peeled for that.
Me and Marc van Linden have a collaboration due to come out on Midway records in the next couple of months, its called "What The ---- Do You Mean?", its quite proggy with an electro feel to it. On The flip side to this will be my remix of Marc van Linden - False Sense.
I have recently finished a track called Grade A for Discover Dark, its banging tech trance and should be around in the summer. I’ve also done a cool trance remix for Discover, the track is Deems - Tears Of Hope and this is shaping up to be a big tune for the summer.
Finally I’m working hard on a new Greg Downey single for Discover; Vivid Intent was the track for last year so my time is being put into a follow up at the moment
Crasher meets Fire It Up! 
