![]() “In reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth. “I remember we were working with Madonna over the phone to shorten and amend the remix for the music video when she said, ‘You guys must work in a really great studio to make this sound so good,'” Tony says. ” When the track was finished, the British pop star told Tony, “This is the best remix I have ever heard.” That same year, Above & Beyond remixed Madonna’s “ What It Feels Like For A Girl. Three guys that had their own thing that we went to school on.” Tony describes it as being “the toughness of Paul van Dyk, the melodic content of Ferry Corsten, and the production tricks of Matt Darey. The trio had found a formula that was as big and heartfelt as the festival stages they would soon find themselves playing. Still, as time went on, the popularity of Above & Beyond was becoming impossible to ignore. But Jono and Paavo were still playing under their hard trance moniker, Dirt Devils, while Tony continued with Warner. Soon, Tony’s A&R colleagues at Warner and Sony were pleading for Above & Beyond remixes for their artists. And it ended up getting to number one in the club chart.” Above & Beyond was born. “I had no idea how well the remix would go down. “At the time, I guess I thought it was just a one-off,” Tony says. And soon, Tony was recruiting them to help him produce a remix of “ Home ” by Chakra. With their success percolating, Tony’s brother Liam introduced him to Jono Grant, who, in turn, introduced him to Paavo. ” It quickly infiltrated clubs all throughout the greater London area, and was picked up by DJs such as Pete Tong, Paul Van Dyk, and Judge Jules. Using the last bit of their student loan, Paavo and Jono pressed 1000 copies of their first single, “ Volume 1. After making a few tracks together, they came up with the name Anjunabeats (originally their artist alias), a cheeky play on words that pays homage to Anjuna Beach in Goa, India - the spiritual birthplace of Goa Trance, and a hotspot for jetsetters and hippies alike in the early ’90s. At the time, McGuinness was working as a successful Marketing Director and A&R at Warner Music Group, while Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki were bonding over a similar love for electronic music at The University of Westminster. He then pauses, possibly contemplating his vast music career. “This was genuinely 20 years ago this month,” Tony says. The size and scale of those programs - Group Therapy reaches 30 million listeners a week - offers a window into just how big Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep, Above & Beyond’s labels, have grown since launching 20 and 15 years ago. It’s a voice that would be instantly familiar to anyone who’s tuned into Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy, the trio’s weekly radio show, which has been running since 2012, or Trance Around The World, which launched in 2004 and reached an impressive 450 episodes in its eight years span. I’m wondering how much of the story is real and how much of it has been altered by the retelling.” Tony McGuinness’s cheery voice is beaming at me from London via Skype. The story’s been told and retold so many times. ![]()
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