international news _ 23rd May, 2006
Trance Stars Made Nothing From Massive Hit
Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
Stuart Matheson from 90s trance stars Binary Finary chatted to Skrufff this week about the release of the group's first ever album The Lost Tracks and revealed that the band earned virtually no money at all from their worldwide club smash 1998.
The crossover epic trance anthem was released several times by EMI's commercial club label Positiva becoming one of the biggest club records of the 90s, though Staurt said the whole experience was so bad, that he quit the music business altogether.
"A couple of bad decisions were made starting with the original contract we signed, which wasn't the best one, to be honest," he admitted, "The contract was signed before the track went big but we realised really quickly that our hands were already tied in many respects. And Binary Finary was originally made up of four members and there were some internal struggles going on within the group which forced me to leave- I'd had enough. It was a strain to leave because I did feel I was missing out on opportunities but I had to for my own sanity."
Taking a day job as a webmaster he even ended up starring on reality TV show Faking It, trying to pass himself off as a surfer ('I was websurfer who became a, very poor, body surfer', he laughed) before putting the band back together will fellow Binary producer Stuart Matheson. The duo, meanwhile, continued making tracks together throughout the eight year period and have recently returned to the music business full time to release 'The Lost Tracks'. The album comprises 16 tracks including their own Binary Finality remix of 1998.
"We're now as back in the music business as fully as we can be but we're taking a relaxed attitude, we're not going to flog ourselves. We're not desperate for it but we still feel there's a lot of dammed good music in us both and we want to release it, " Stuart continued.
"We had more problems with a few labels recently and the reason this album is happening is an off shoot of those issues, we got messed around by a few labels who signed tracks then basically changed their minds after three or four months, so we're releasing this album ourselves.
And that's how we plan to continue. We might not get the same exposure but at least we're in control. And we can release whatever we want," he added.
The Lost Tracks is out now (as a digital download release only).
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