Roy Engel aka Painkiller, gives us an in-depth interview about his passions and goals.
Self-Portrait of Painkiller aka Roy Engel: Paint your soul!
What influenced you to get into your field?
I played drums and piano since I was young and kept the music as main thing in my life. And to be more specific about trance I guess it’s a combination of circumstances and people you meet along the way 🙂
As an artist, what role do you think you play in society?
I guess I’m one of those dreamers that think that the world can be like a huge dance floor with universal love. The place for everybody to let go and at same time to share their happiness. So it’s a positive role but not sure I’m always in society, but right next to it .
Creating on a regular basis can be a bloody tough job, so what motivates you to press yourself into the workstation every single day?
Its more than one thing that motivates you, but the main one is the passion for what I do.
Do you get nervous before a performance?
Yeah, more like exited than nervous.
What’s the story behind your artist name and project?
It’s a combination of two strong words that transmit positivity and or a solution for a problem.
What other genres of music do you listen to? Name your influences.
I like other genres of music such as Flamenco, Classical, Blues, Rock, Regga
And I like electronic music such as Chillout, Dub, Deep, Electro, Trance, Drum n Bass.
Has the process of making music transformed you? In what way?
Maybe in the past it was more significant, to stay home in front of the computer all day long and not having a real social life, but nowadays many people do the same whether they write music or not. It’s more of a technology factor, now you can stay home and be together with many people around the world.
What is your muse? What inspires you?
My muse is Love. My inspiration is changing along the years but normally comes from peaceful awareness, when you have little to worry about, when you have space to “inhale” fresh air that brings with it new ideas.
What’s your biggest temptation or vice, what can you not resist?
Hard question…
Face-off: Let’s get the grits on the table
What quality do you admire the most in others? What quality do you like about yourself the most?
I admire respectful and educated people that are aware about the fact that we have to share our space with others, and even in harder & poor places you can recognize this sensation. It’s not about being born in a rich family or earning a lot of money, it’s about how you grew up, and the important values you absorbed for life.
About myself, I like the ability to be open minded and believing in second chances 🙂
Which phase was the hardest/scariest in your life?
The phase between age of 18-21.
Any embarrassing/funny moments? Yes, you’d hate to disclose your secrets but we’d love to hear.
Hard to remember so many jaja.
When have you been most satisfied in your life? Care to share one of your happiest memories?
Well celebrating burning man festival 2000 in Nevada was very special for me!
I think when my first “dream” came true, and I had my own track recorded on a vinyl and released on Spiral Trax back in 2001, that was a big moment as well.
Meeting my beautiful girlfriend in Barcelona back at 2002 and still today 🙂
Performing around the world with my music – priceless!
Everyone starts somewhere, what was your first job before you got into music?
I was a young Farmer working in a farm, Cows, Bulls, fields… etc 🙂
Flash-forward in time. You are now really old. What would you tell your children/loved ones?
I will tell them to eat healthy food cause I believe its one of the most important
key’s for a good life .
Into the time machine again. What do you miss about being a kid?
I miss innocence
Excessive chopping dulls the axe. Time-outs are a must. What do you do when you take time off from creating? Got any hobbies? (Books? Movies? TV shows?)
Well, I have a record label to run, so no time really for hobbies, I try to read once in a while. I spare some time watching TV or a movie here and there, but most of the time when I’m not in the studio between the speakers, I’m dedicating to our label NUTEK Records.
Ideology of Painkiller: Beliefs that bake your brain
The genie comes out of the lamp and grants you one wish that will change the world. What would you wish for?
I think we have become too picky or too vicious to wish for just one thing…
But if I have to choose one wish that would have change the world, I would have cancel the monetizing system, no money needed anymore, people will then be able to succeed for who they really are and not according to how much they have or who supports them. And same time it will cancel slavery and weapons production hopefully.
How do you connect to the spiritual side of yourself?
I read once that sitting in the studio is a kind of Yoga and it connects me to my spiritual side quite often, every day we may say. Also during flights it’s when I have time to think…
Do you have any belief/beliefs that you cannot do without?
I used to say the cliché: “If you really want something you can make it happen”…
On the Scene:
Where do you think psytrance is headed? Future trends?
Psytrance on the underground scale is going no where, I used to like it but it gets harder for me to like. Before it was very spiritual and special, I’m sure few small tribes and families still keeps it this way, but difficulties like struggling, money, laws and diff drug scene had giving it the Dark light for a bit too long.
As for the main Psytrance scene and soon we can say commercial jaja, its great and its growing day by day, breaking boundaries, in fact I think it’s the biggest psytrance scene ever. Now days many other artists and djs from other electronic scene’s find their way to psytrance, mainly because of high quality of production and better sound 🙂
What do you think of the scene at the present moment? What would you like changed or what would like to see remain at status quo?
I simply see the Psy trance becoming an ordinary electronic music scene, that up till now was always categorized with drugs or with psychotic bad influences that professionals from other scene’s preferred not to be recognized with, and now look, the world is opening up, the world have no choice actually, cause people like Psytrance and it sounds the best! And then when acceptation is happening, we will become another one of… and it will be a fashion thing that comes and goes 🙂
Piracy, works out negatively for the artist, but it allows listeners’ to access music that would otherwise be hard to source. Art should be shared…in this light what are your thoughts on piracy vs. a price tag?
Very simple, I prefer that people will have my music cause if they will not have mine they will have some one else music J and yes, if you can have it for free cool, if you like it please support it so we can make more! As an artist, we do check some free or cracked plugins or software, but if its good we normally buy it, at list I can say about myself and my close group of artist friends that I know ! J
Pearls: Words of Wisdom for reader and fans
At the end of the ride, everyone’s looking for some form of success (tangible or not), what does success mean to you?
Success means to me that I can work with what I like and make a nice learning out of it, and can learn more and more about it, growing stronger succeeding in the same profession.
We are almost done. Give us a nutshell of the life philosophy/motto/mantra that you clutch close to your heart.
You Live – You Learn!
Learn to Love yourself ‘cause only then you can really love others.
One word to describe yourself, and one word to describe music.
My name means – my Shapered, and, Music is my Painkiller!
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