Antix at The Studio

Antix are enjoying a higher profile back home.

Some go to Japan to climb Mt Fuji. Others go for the sake, sushi and karaoke. In 1996, Aucklander Barton Strom moved there to buy music equipment.

"They had a really big secondhand range [of gear]. You know, keyboards racked up like surfboards," he says. "It was an electronic music lover's dream really. At first I was making crude-type beats but I was just stoked to be making anything because I didn't really know what I was doing."

His brother Hayden, who was snowboarding in Colorado, heard about the music his brother was making and joined him in Tokyo.

"It was like a bug really, and we just found that we worked well together writing the tracks," says Hayden. They've been making music - a mix of house, trance and dub - as Antix ever since. Their second album, Twin Coast Discovery, is available now and they play tonight at the Studio on K Rd supported by fellow electronica duo, Pitch Black.

The brothers returned home from Japan - laden with music gear - in or around 1998. And for the record, the pair did climb Mt Fuji, not to the top, but they saw the sun come up from its famous slopes during an all-night dance party.

"Tsuyoshi Suzuki, one of the gurus over there, was playing this outdoor festival on Mt Fuji and we drove all the way from Tokyo, or maybe we were in Nagoya at the time, and it was killer, with thousands of Japanese people on top of this hill with the sun coming up. That's what this music is designed for."

Exactly what Antix sound is, is a hard one to answer. "We always have trouble with it," says Barton. He lists off terms like "housey", "progressive house", "techy house" and "slightly trancey", then concludes: "We don't really see ourselves in the trance genre. We see ourselves slightly in the trance [area] because we have the atmospheres that trance has, but then so does house ...

"It's dance music, that's what it is," he says.

"That pretty much sums it up really," agrees Hayden.

Antix is far from the manufactured barrage of synthetic beats usually associated with trance. Theirs is a more organic and natural sound with hints of the New Zealand dub influence, made famous by Pitch Black, and bands like Fat Freddy's Drop and Trinity Roots.

The brothers record a lot of natural sounds - including everything from putting a microphone in the fridge to nature recordings - and "chuck" those into their music.

"We try and keep away from the clean digital sound," says Barton. "We like our beats to be ... you know how the hip-hop guys cut up records and they've got that grainy feel, we like that same vibe. And like Hayden says, getting sounds that are outside the machines gives the music its flavour and its texture."

"There's also a lot of mood, even melancholy, in our tracks too," adds Hayden, "and it's also about a journey."

The duo's first break came in 2000 when they hooked up with DJ Philipp, from German label Plastik Park, who was touring New Zealand. That meeting lead to their first track, Rainstick, being released overseas and was also the start of a successful foray into the European market.

In 2001 they toured Europe for five months - they've been back every year since - and in 2003 they released their debut album Lull on Danish label Iboga Records.

Similar to drum'n'bass duo Concord Dawn, the brothers take turns to go on tour. In two weeks Hayden heads to Europe for a stint to promote Twin Coast Discovery which is in stores over there now. "It's a better way as well because when there's one person on the tour you make more money," says Barton.

They say for one hour playing live in Europe you can make NZ$3000 which, when you consider they do 20 or so gigs in a season, isn't bad money.

While one's on the road the other looks after their company, Slowburning Studios, which produces music for TV and films. "Those sort of jobs are trickling in and so if there's no one there to answer the phone we're going to miss that stuff and a bit of both actually provides a nice little nest egg, I guess," says Barton.

Until now the market for Antix music has been mainly overseas - especially in Denmark and Germany. But now they want to make an impact in New Zealand.

"We've always been just a little bit behind here - because we've been overseas, because that's where the market was - but suddenly over the last couple of years people are more into over here," says Hayden.

"People are a bit more open-minded about music now," continues Barton, "and back a few years people perhaps weren't ready for it. But now, more are turning on to the sound. It's either that or the combination of us becoming quite successful overseas as well, but whatever it is, it's nice to be a bit more recognised here."

Performance

* Who: Antix, Auckland electronic duo, Hayden and Barton Strom
*Where: The Studio, 340 K Rd, Auckland
*When: Saturday night, with Pitch Black, Rob Salmon, and Simon Flower
*New album: Twin Coast Discovery is available from www.iboga.dk and is in stores soon; Lull (2003) is also available