I could tell something about my musical influences. My "listening history" is quite random one. Somewhere in the end of the millenium I started to listen more music than just some random radio listening. At first I was interested in Finnish rock. But is was mostly because my classmates listened to it too, and I was just going with the flow. And when they moved to heavy metal, I went along. But I have to admit that I still enjoy "opera heavy" what e.g. Nightwish released in the beginning of this millenium. And I think wide music knowledge is a strength, also in composing music. One can be inspired by such weird and surprising things.
However, the revolution of my music taste was to be unleashed in 2002. I heard a tune of Apollo FourForty's, "Stop The Rock". To my knowledge, it isn't completely electronic tune but it sounded so fresh and different from what I used to listen, I wanted to know more about this group. Then I borrowed their album "Electro Glide In Blue" from the local library and immediately fell in love with tracks like "Krupa" and the title song. And little by little I became aware of another British act, Chicane. I downloaded a Formula One video (I'm still a fan of the sport) which contained "Saltwater" by Chicane as background music. And what a lovely tune it is! I still haven't bored with it, although I have listened to it for six years.
My knowledge of electronic music grew slowly but steadily. I had already discovered Faithless, whose musical work I appreciate very much, before Chicane and then I was introduced by coincidence with BT. Since my friends didn't listen to electronic music, my living environment didn't offer these "hot artist tips" for free. Getting familiar with BT's musical works was a real pleasure, and I think he definitely is one of the most talented composers ever. While still wondering BT's magnificient skills, I, once again, was coincidentally brought to a legend of electronic music, Kraftwerk. These silent men from Düsseldorf fascinated me with their minimalist sound. I even went to see them live in Tallinn in May 2004!
For two years I listened almost only these four acts, Kraftwerk, Chicane, BT and Faithless. I still had no clue where to find quality electronic music (watching MTV didn't really help my task). But this was notorious time to study some old progressive rock bands, e.g. Pink Floyd. In spring 2007 I finally came across with Paul van Dyk's "The Politics Of Dancing 2". It was like a religious experience, I immediately became interested in trance. And from there the snowball really began to roll.
And by now I feel I have somewhat good knowledge of trance acts (far from perfect, I admit). Since I have a constant passion to learn something new, I have slowly started to explore techno and house (whose widespreadness amazes me). But with these two genres I'm a complete novice. Who knows, maybe I'll move to drum 'n' bass when I feel I know house and techno well enough! In my opinion, a versatile knowledge of music is essential if one wants to be a successful composer/DJ. To know is always a benefit, not a loss.
