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<\/a><\/p>\nHer journey as a renowned DJ, record producer<\/a>, composer<\/a> and songwriter<\/a> has been longer than most. She is a founding member of Faithless, the electronic dance act that formed in 1995 and, which went onto to sell over 15\u00a0million records worldwide. Fast-forward to today and Sister Bliss\u2014 who was born Ayalah Bentovim\u2014is more relevant than ever, inspiring a new generation of musicians and producers. She recently teamed up with Mixmag to launch Fame Music\u2019s World Electronic Music Contest to provide an emerging artist with the opportunity to release their music on her own record label Junkdog Records. We recently spoke with Sister Bliss and reflected on her legendary trajectory, the success behind one of Faithless\u2019 biggest club anthems: ‘Insomnia’, and what, in her opinion, makes a really great dance track.<\/p>\n All right, let\u2019s go back to the beginning. To people who are unfamiliar, how do you explain Faithless’ importance to music history?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n I think that’s really for the music historians to decide. I hope that our ‘ importance’ as such, was from making music that crossed boundaries and also placed lyrics in the centre of a genre that wasn’t known for its lyrical content.<\/p>\n You were behind a lot of them whilst you were with Faithless. What, in your opinion, makes a really great dance track?<\/b><\/p>\n So many different elements \u2013 but I guess a good groove, and interesting sonic palette, a vocal that speaks to you, a mood and emotion to it, whatever that may be.\u00a0And an interesting structure- the sense of tension and release, was a key element of Faithless’ records.<\/p>\n Do you feel like being a musician today was any different from 20 years ago?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The growth of the internet makes a huge difference to being a musician especially from a marketing perspective \u2014 you can gain a following online and disseminate your music without the traditional structures of the music industry around you. But there is also a deluge of music out there so it\u2019s harder to get noticed and actually make a living from it. Apparently 250,000 tracks will be released this year alone by producer, DJ’s \u2014 and that’s not including artists in other genres at all. The accessible price of music, making equipment has meant a huge democratisation in being a musician, you can make music for the price of a laptop these days, or even an iPad.\u00a0Twenty five years ago, to get really great sound you generally had to pay for an expensive studio room \u2014 even in electronic music you could tell the difference between music made on a great mixing desk, or a lo- fi set up.\u00a0All the big electronic artists \u2014 from Prodigy to Chemical Brothers worked in ‘proper’ studios as their careers burgeoned, hence their sound was a cut above the average dance record.\u00a0Now it\u2019s harder to tell where recordings are produced.\u00a0In the same way that the invention of samplers fuelled dance music in the late ’80’s, and the fact that you could have great musical ideas without being a trained musician was a similar revolution.<\/p>\n Do you remember the first record you ever owned?<\/b><\/p>\n Think it was “Deutcher Girls” by Adam and the Ants.<\/p>\n “Insomnia”\u2014can we talk about that?<\/b><\/p>\n It was made as a track to compliment ‘Salva mea’ on our first album \u2018Reverence\u2019 as the B- side if you like, as the album needed a counterpoint for the second half.\u00a0It then went on to explode globally a year and half after its release, and opened the doors for us to tour the album as a live band, without any tour support. Most people wait a lifetime to have a hit as big as that was so we were very lucky indeed to capitalise on the love it received globally, and it helped to open people’s eyes to the breadth of\u00a0Faithless\u2019 music beyond the dance floor,\u00a0showcase the album\u00a0through the live shows and have a platform for all our subsequent album releases.<\/p>\n