Backstage with Above & Beyond

A sea of people is jumping in unison. The energy from Jonathan “Jono” Grant and Paavo Siljamäki onstage has spilled over to the 3,000 plus club goers at Rain Nightclub. Above & Beyond’s set in Vegas on April 11 projects energy that transcends the space between the elevated DJ booth and the dance floor as aerialists from the Perfecto show perform overhead.

The third member of Above & Beyond, Tony McGuinness, remained in the UK this time to run their Trance Around the World radio show. The trio generally rotates while on tour, though all three occasionally perform at special events.

Backstage during their Las Vegas stop, Grant and Siljamäki chatted about what they’ve been up to since their Best Artist (Group) win at the International Dance Music Awards.

“We’ve been doing a lot of touring,” says Grant, “but what we have been working on recently in the studio is the next Above & Beyond album. That’s our primary studio focus. Prior to that, we’ve been putting together our Sirens of the Sea remix album.”

Gareth Emery, Lange and Michael Cassette, among others, are creating mixes for the Sirens remix double CD to be put out under their OceanLab moniker with vocalist Justine Suissa.

As far as working in the studio versus live DJ sets, it’s two different worlds for Above & Beyond. While tech-heavy during productions, on stage they go back to basics.

“Our kind of geeky technology focus is more in the studio,” explains Grant. Adds Siljamäki, “The few times we’ve had laptops on stage and we’ve been DJing, it does somehow sort of change the feel of the whole thing a little bit—it can be a little bit cold. It’s like you’re working and checking your email.”

Judging by their connection with the audience at Rain, however, being cold is not something they need to worry about.

“I don’t want this to come out wrong,” says Grant, “but a lot of this using laptops? It’s all a bit of a smoke screen trying to pretend you’re doing more than you’re actually doing a lot of the time.”

Grant admits he usually isn’t impressed when DJs arrive to a gig toting just a laptop. Above & Beyond even mentioned recently on TATW an instance in New Orleans where the DJ scheduled to go on after them couldn’t get his laptop to work and a rather tipsy DJ Breakfast offered to close the night instead (and amazingly did).

But Above & Beyond isn’t opposed to change and a transformation might be on the horizon. “What we’ve been especially doing now with [vocalist] Zoë Johnston is we’ve been actually preparing a live version of our tracks,” says Siljamäki. He says they often play tracks such as “Alone Tonight,” “Good For Me,” and “Can’t Sleep.” “We’ve always felt like maybe we can do these live,” he says and for Audiotistic in L.A. on May 9, Johnston will accompany Above & Beyond on stage.

Regardless of the methodology of live shows, watching Siljamäki and Grant on stage is like a shot of adrenaline to heart. Behind the decks, their excited expressions—particularly Siljamäki’s—is comparable to a child discovering a mountain of toys on Christmas morning. Each mix and every melody seems to delight them—and the audience—as if they’re experiencing music for the first time.

“DJing is about entertaining the crowd,” says Grant. With the party going until after 4 a.m., Above & Beyond can count the Vegas club goers as entertained.