In what way do you identify yourself with Pure Trance?
Kristina: “Keeping it real. I’ve never been one to seek out & play the biggest, most obvious tunes. Rather, I’ve spent countless hours digging through music to find those lesser played gems and share them with my audience. PT resonates a lot with me because I feel it operates in a similar way, and represents quality over quantity.”

How would you define Pure Trance – and what does it mean to you as an artist?
Kristina: “For me, Pure Trance is melodic dance music without boundaries. Trance that doesn’t ascribe to trends. Pure Trance embraces the entire journey of a song, instead of watering it down for short attention spans, or those in search of ‘the drop’.”

At one point, Rich popped the question and asked you to create a mix for the album – what was the first thought going through your mind?
Kristina: “My first thought was “omg no way! is he serious rn?!” I immediately said yes, having no real clue what it would actually entail haha, but I just knew it was something I had to do. Say yes now, figure out the rest later. We had a long chat a few days after that, where he filled me in on the process and what he was looking for, and although I will admit I was a bit nervous, because I have so much respect for Rich and what he’s created with the PT brand, I was really excited to get started.”

Why do you think Rich picked you as the fellow-mixer for PT7?
Kristina: “Well Rich and I have a long history, going back some 15 years or so, and we’ve played a lot of great shows together over those years, so I think he knew my progressive side better than almost anyone, and felt it would be a good fit for the first disc. Especially through the Pure Trance shows we’ve done together, he’s heard my interpretation of “Pure Progressive Trance” many times and appreciated it enough to continuously invite me to play on PT shows, despite the fact I hadn’t ever actually released a record on PT. (This always blew my mind.) I’ve also supported records from all of his projects/labels over the years, from the early SS stuff on Hooj Choons and Lost Language, to his DeepBlue, Solaris, Molecule & Touchstone labels, and then from the very inception of Pure Trance. My support of his music has run quite deep so maybe that played into it as well. You’d have to ask him to be sure though, haha! This is just my best guess :)”

What turned out to be the biggest challenge in creating the mix?
Kristina: “The biggest challenge for me was trying to fit way more tunes in a 78 minute span than I typically would in a traditional DJ set. I’m somewhat of a purist when it comes to live DJ mixes. I like to let each track breathe and mix really long transitions, but with PT7 I decided I would have to put that style aside and edit tracks down and do shorter transitions so I could showcase more music. Once that decision was made, the next biggest challenge was making so many tracks flow naturally without the listener feeling rushed. I’m not a fan of “power mixing” so this was something I agonized over for weeks to try and get just right.”

Was it hard to make a track selection? Did anything not make the cut?
Kristina: “Extremely hard actually! At first it seemed difficult because I wasn’t sure I would get enough awesome submissions to fill the mix, but then the script got flipped on me, and instead it ended up that I got so many amazing submissions, I knew I wouldn’t be able to fit them all. That was a sad moment for me, knowing I would have to cut at least 10 tunes, all of which I absolutely loved. In the end, I settled on 20 tunes for the final mix and had to cut 12. Ouch! But it had to be done.

One in particular I had to cut at the last second was a beautiful progressive tune from Altek called ‘Confinement’. I love this track so much, but it was a nearly 10 minute track, and I tried and tried to edit it down to fit the mix, but just kept finding that I loved every part of the song so much, it felt wrong to butcher the gorgeous journey he had created, so I just didn’t.”

Did you create any tracks or remixes yourself, for PT7?
Kristina: “Sure did! I teamed up with longtime friend Roger Shah on a collab we wrote exclusively for PT7, “Ocean Flame”, the closing track on the mix. We already had plans to get in the studio together before I was asked to do the comp, and by the time we were actually in the same place & able to meet up for a session, I was in full swing with the compilation and decided it’d be fun to write something specifically for the mix. Really happy with how it turned out! Added bonus was when Rich asked to sign it to PT for a single release too!

 I also included 2 special mashups – one I did with Randy Boyer, ‘Danny Stubbs vs. Kindred Spirits – The View From Apollo D’ Antan (Kristina Sky & Randy Boyer’s Edwin van Cleef Resurrection Mix)’ and the other, ‘BT ft. JC Chasez vs. Attila Syah – Journey To Gravity (Kristina Sky’s Resurrection Mashup)’. These were both mashups I was initially just playing out live in my sets but then later decided to produce actual playable versions of. I’ve always been a big fan of Danny Stubbs’ work, with ‘The View From Apollo’ being one of my favorites, and BT was a huge inspiration and influence to me since early on in my career, with Force of Gravity being in my top 10 classics, so when I found out Brian (BT) had approved the mashup, I was over the moon. Definitely stoked that they’re finally seeing the light of day outside of my own live sets. To me, they encapsulate the very essence of progressive trance.”

You’ve seen the Pure Trance movement develop and grow. What do you think is the power behind it?
Kristina: “I believe the power of the Pure Trance movement is firmly rooted in its clear mission to deliver non-generic, layered and textured, intelligent progressive & trance, and of course in the dedicated fans who live and breathe it.

 

What do you hope listeners will experience once they’ve pressed play on your PT7 mix?
Kristina: “I hope listeners will be transported to a beautiful sunrise or sunset in their minds, and are taken on a true journey through all the colors & emotions progressive trance has to offer.”

Discover Kristina’s Mix as part of the Pure Trance Volume 7 album here.