To trance lovers all over the world, the UK based band"Above & Beyond"needs no introduction. The band, that has produced hit remixes for artists like Madonna ("What It Feels Like for a Girl"and"Nobody Knows Me"), Britney Spears ("Everytime"), and Dido ("Sand in My Shoes"), has been rated No. 6 by the DJ Magazine amongst the top 100 DJs, and has also been regarded to have released one of the most original trance albums by"The Sun"(a UK based tabloid). The band (Jonathan"Jono"Grant, Tony McGuiness and Paavo Siljam?¤ki) is right now in Goa, with fans waiting to get high on good music.

3 o'clock, on a sunny afternoon, Paavo aka POS aka Cybersonic returned from a relaxing stint to the poolside, for an exclusive chat with Radioandmusic.com's Anuraag Dhoundiyal

Excerpts:

How did Jono, Tony and you come together as a band to venture into Trance music?

Jono and I met each other in college at the University of Westminister, in London. We had good understanding of music, and had similar tastes, which made us think of it seriously, and ultimately set up the label Anjunabeats in summer 1999. Later, Tony helped us remix the Chakra's"Home", which was an instant hit, and resulted in the formation of Above & Beyond.

Are there any specific demarcations, as to who plays what role, when on the job?

There are no rigid roles assigned as such. When we're working on a composition, we have three different point-of-views, which makes it very interesting, and gives it a different flavour with a holistic finish to it. We always work as one single unit, and chip in with what each of us is best at. Like for example, Tony is generally the one who comes up with the lyrics for a new song. Loads of thought goes behind making a song, and we share the load equally.

What is it that differentiates you, as a band, and gives you an identity Above & Beyond the rest?

The most important point of difference in our specialisation is the genre of Trance Music. There are hardly any other major"Bands"in the genre. Being a band that plays Trance music gives us a unique identity automatically. Apart from this, trance is stereotypical limited to remixes. What we have done is, that we've broken this conventional pattern and are concentrating more on our own productions than remixes, incorporating vocals in our compositions. If you see, in the past three years, we've hardly made any remixes. We have worked on hardcore original compositions and albums. In fact, we're right now working on a new album called the Ocean Lab, and we intend to sick to originals for a bit now.

How does it feel to be in India? How does the attitude towards your performance differ?

Oh! India is a beautiful country, and Goa especially is an enchanting place! I love it here! The place, the people, the ambience… everything is so inviting, so warm, so perfect!
As far as our performance is considered, it does not differ drastically from place to place. Over time, we have created certain amount of loyalty amongst people. So when we go to perform anywhere, we're expected to play a certain kind of music, and certain specific tracks too. But yes… when we're performing in a place like India, we would play more of the happy or cheerful kind of tracks, rather than the dark ones that we would play in colder regions.

You have come a long way, starting with smaller projects, moving to huge hits as remixes, and now your own compositions as roaring hits. What would you label as"The Formula to being a Great Band"?

I consider it to be an honour to have had an opportunity to work with Madonna. Apart from that, yes we've remixed tracks for Britney Spears, Dido, Dilerium, etc. The only thing, I would say that should be kept in mind is that to be a great band you need to have great music. Music has to form the basis and the core of all that you are. If you do have the talent and the ability to make good music, then you're bound to make it big.

So, you'll be busy touring around the world for quite some time now, won't you?

Oh yes. Just next month we have a performance lined up in Rio de Janeiro, where we're expecting an audience of around a million people. After that, we'll be touring South America, then going off to Ibitza, where we'll also be concentrating on our upcoming album. Then around next year, we'll be touring Asia again.