Aggressive Tech Trance from Rodman as The Chronic finally arrives on Gold Standard Recordings. Huge drums, hypnotising Tech Trance leads and that rumbling bass now synonymous with Rodman productions. This track is peak time energy.
So here is my track 'The Chronic' and believe me when I say there's quite a story behind it.
‘The Chronic’ is not a new track. Yes, at the time of writing this the track had only just been released on Gold Standard Recordings a few days earlier (August 2nd 2024). But both the origin and genesis of this track go way back to 2010 when I was 27, trying to build a name for myself as a DJ under a different alias - Kryztow De Fier (pronounced fire).
Through running my own club nights ‘Kubik’ in the mid noughties 2004-07 I had made various contacts including producers. One of those producers was a chap called John Saxon. At the time, unlike now, I had very little ability when it came to producing music of any kind, so I would engage the services of a 'ghost producer' to create tracks for me.
I met with John, who at the time was living in Manchester, UK, as was I, and we arranged to meet up a couple of times a week at his place and lay down some beats in his home studio.
We probably did three tracks together taking inspiration from other tracks I was enjoying at the time, but then the thunderbolt moment struck. I was enjoying a track called 'The Wolf' by Paul Webster at the time, so John had a listen and started creating what would eventually become 'The Chronic'. As you can hear the lead melody sound and pattern is similar to 'The Wolf' but we wanted it to have a more aggressive edge.
Believe me when I say that John was a very talented producer, he did all the technical production tricks like the sound design, the writing of instrumental melodies along with the mixing and mastering. I basically just sat there next to him, but I like to think I was instrumental in the development of the track's sound and arrangement. You could say that John was the technical genius combined with my creative input and direction.
I ended up sending the track to Judge Jules who played 'The Chronic' for four consecutive weeks on his BBC Radio 1 show. He also played it in Godskitchen which I'll never forgive myself for having missed, along with various other gigs during that time. He visited a club in Manchester to which I did attend, he played it and I got the opportunity to meet with him in the DJ box and chat a bit. He said how much he liked the track and that he thought with a name like Kryztow De Fier I was Polish - which of course I'm not. I'm British haha.
I did release the first version of 'The Chronic' on a label I was trying to run back then called Kubik Records along with another track I did with John called ‘Bounce’, again played by Judge Jules twice on BBC Radio 1.
Unfortunately, there is a bitter-sweet ending to this tale. After working with John on those tracks we went our separate ways, harmoniously of course. There were no bad feelings between the two of us. John wanted to focus on his own projects. But it came to my attention a couple of years later that John had taken his own life.
Fast forward to April 2020 and I'm teaching myself the techniques and intricacies of Trance music production. It would take a further four years of practice and persistence developing my skills to professionally remake ‘The Chronic’ adding my own touches here and there, whilst keeping the song true to how John had originally produced it.
This song is for John Saxon. Thank you, John.
I hope you guys like it.
Rodman
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