A Sit Down With DJ Tenishia

One can confidently say that DJ duo Tenishia hold the record when it comes to the most gigs performed abroad by a local act. With over than 155,000 fans on their official Facebook page that adds an average of another 3,000 fans per week, Tenishia who will be celebrating their 10th year anniversary this year, have risen fast and steady from their studio in Marsascala to become a worldwide recognized DJ act.

 

 

“We hate pigeonholing trance music and just attach it to the old uplifting style which has long been over produced. Music has no boundaries and combining the right elements together might open new horizons for the genre.”

 

 

What does Tenishia mean?

It doesn’t have any meaning, it is just a catchy name that we chose for our project.

How long have you been working together?
About 8 or 9 years, from 2004 to the present. Yes, we work together long enough.

I know both of you are very open with your ideas, your music productions and your DJ sets. But what will you describe as the “Tenishia sound” or the “Tenishia experience” that fans can identify with?

Even though Tenishia was officially formed 8 years ago, our experience into music goes a much longer way then that. Both of us were working on different projects before Tenishia was created. We have built up ourselves in a very particular, small and difficult scene of Malta, which requires a lot of learning lessons. We not only have experience in DJing in clubs, but also in radios, following and playing in rock bands and other music experiments. Our main thing is Trance music of course, but we think we have a very particular way of blending other things into it, which are taking us a step forward. We can easily adapt to a very particular crowd and very open-minded to new things.

Of course you guys play all over the globe. What is so special about the Maltese crowd? Any differences with the other country’s?

Malta is like our headquarters, our fans there want to share us to the world because we’re one of the very few names from our tiny island to get international recognition. It is like the Maltese followers are part of this story as much as we are so they come to the events we play not only to have a good time but purposely to support us and be part of our story!

What is it like living the life of a World Top DJ? What is the truth behind it all?

Like every job, being a Top DJ comes with its ups and downs. Obviously no one wants to hear the negative stuff so one would just promote the positive as it will make you more sellable. But the truth behind the job goes beyond that. People will just see you on stage, having fun or at least pretending you’re having fun, depending where you’re performing, but behind those few hours there is a whole lot of things that stage people need to face.

How do you consider TEMPO concert being added to official Valletta’ 2018 opening celebration? What does it mean to you and could mean to trance?

As for trance, there is no need to say it was the most welcome section of the performance, all my fans were there waiting for it and it is surely not something you see every day that one would hear such music being played so loud in front of the president’s palace!

How do you find a solution between your musical differences? Often argue?
We do argue actually when we create music! Usually we will choose the best if there are differences and options. The argument is common, but we go through it to achieve the best final result .

How would you define the style of the music that you produce?

We definitely like to produce emotional music, with emotional melodies. We definitely prefer eyes closing rather than hands in the air. Obviously, trance is one of our favorite genres but it has changed so much now, and it has become so vast that it goes from one extreme to the other and we have to admit that we do not like some of it. Progressive was always our favorite though. Dark, emotional and aggressive would be our main ingredients.

Questions? Comments? We want to know:@djfollower