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1-Mar-2006 :

After their first live act at Tattingers in March 2005, Joven Grech and Cyprian Cassar literally exploded into Malta’s Club scene putting their names along side Malta’s top artists, reaching a maximum limit of bookings to perform live in events around the island in just a few months. They have performed live for MTV, Rype and Real Muzik Events, Sunset Sundays, N’Heaven Solo events plus many others around the islands of Malta and Gozo...

How long have you known each other?

Joven: I think its about 2yrs now... we met in a small bar on a Sunday..

Tenishia win as Best Newcomers at the BMAs (Bay Music Awards) 2005

How would you describe the sound of 'progressive electronic dance' to the unininitated?

Joven: A refreshing emotional sound that makes u feel good at any time of
the day.

Cyprian: It is very deep, emotional and goes straight to the heart

Cyprian, if here and now somebody gave you the tangible possibility of pursuing a well-paid classical music career would you go for it?

Cyprian: NO!! now that I have discovered progressive electronic music I
won't let it go...

What were you both up to in 1997?

Joven: I was 15 that year and I had a good collection of music already, some of them on cassettes , and I bought my first cds... then in July I started my first radio show on a small radio station.. it was called 'Music Invasion' :D

Cyprian: I was 14, had 4 years experience in piano and another 2 years in guitar. I already had the urge to be a dj but thought that it was just a distant dream.

Cyprian and his baby!

Why Tenishia? Does it have a particular meaning?

Joven: Well at first it looked like we had a problem finding a good name for our projects, but then a girl from the net came out with the name 'Tenishia' which sounded really good for both of us... it means nothing, its just a catchy name...

Featured on MTV

You seem to have loads of wires to connect and buttons to press when performing? What equipment do you carry over to gigs?

Cyprian: HEY!!!! that's TOP SECRET.......

well you wont tell anyone will you?? :)

1. Laptop
2. Synth with midi connection
3. Guitar
4. Guitar fxs
5. Compressors
5. Reverb and delay
6. Microphone
7. Roland MC 505
8. 16 channel mixer
9. Headphones
10. ermmmm...... yes, and a LOT of wires :)

What would you both be doing today if Tenishia didn't work out?

Joven: Trying to make it work...

Cyprian: Trying to find a way to make it work!!!!!

Editor: Now that's what I call determination!

Where do you draw your inspiration from and who does most of the song writing?

Cyprian: My inspiration comes from any type of DEEP MUSIC, I mean the kind
of music that really makes you feel like you are on a different planet. I feel inspired when I go to watch a movie and listen to the film scores, have you ever noticed what difference a piece of music does to a scene? hit the right piano notes and thats it....the mood is completly changed. As for the song writing, it depends, one of us comes up with an idea and we both build on it. Then as the track progresses we both share our ideas and agree on the ones that are good enough to apply.

Joven: My family has a good music and media background, my uncle in particular, he is the singer from Winter Moods.. Ivan Grech, he used to live with us when he was young and he had a good library of music. He had caught me million times playing with his cassettes :D..heheh he did not like it. Also my parents are great followers of Pink Floyd, and I' ve been hearing 'The Dark side of the Moon' since I was very young. I still love Pink Floyd, their sounds are amazing. Then as I grew up my tastes for music grew a bit different but I still like the elements of Trance, which I believe comes from Pink Floyd...

Voodoovinyl at la grotta gozo

Do you enjoy interviews and photo shoots or would you rather just
perform?

Joven: Yes a lot!! I have to admit I like to get attention. Interviews and photo shoots show that the music career is going in the right direction, they are good form of promotion and very interesting to fans who always want to know more..

Cyprian: Well, I do enjoy it, but I would rather perform. As Joven said though, it shows that our music career is moving in the right direction

Cyprian: I think that it does attract a certain age group, older people tend to think that electronic music is just 'BUM BUM'

What does performing in an MTV event feel like? Do you get butterflies in your stomach?

Joven: My mate here, does not believe this, but I dont get butterflies when I am performing, I really feel confident at it, no matter how big the audience is. I only got a bit of butterflies when I am interviewed on tv , especially when i was interviewed on MTV before the event, but I'm getting use it it now.

Cyprian: I was watching Madonna interviewed on MTV and she declared that she still does have butterflies before she performs......I do have butterflies because when you do a live show you are at the mercy of your equipment, and believe me I know how crazy these gadgets get sometimes!!!

11. Ever got feedback from foreigners?

Joven: Yes we got feedback from foreigners before we got it from Malta, the first one was Matt Brown from Voodoovinyl Records who asked us to remix some tunes for his label which soon will be released as mp3 format, we also made a tune with the world famous Jan Johnston and Marcella Woods. J Joy has brought them to our studio and we created a tune with both of them. We remixed a Matt Darey tune called 'Eternity' and we're also in good contact with Solar Stone, Mike Push, Darren Tate and Emjay from Perfecto Recordings. Later on this year we're gonna start a tune with Kirsty Harwkshaw too, on a tune called 'The Outsiders'.. in fact we already got the vocals.. we just need some time to start it.

What are you up to professionally? Do you intend to make a living of this? Any contracts on the way?

Joven: Yes of course it is our aim and our dream!! We signed a couple of contracts with voodoovinyl and we're waiting for more... If it works like this, we will have more time for the studio, more time to make more tunes. Sometimes we have to see what tunes we should start next as we do not have enough time for all! In fact we cannot start working on our album because we have remixes and live shows going on and that means a lot of work.

Has anything really scary or undesirable ever happened while performing?

Joven: In the Mtv event, someone spilled his drink on my shirt just five minutes before we went on stage, and I was very angry but it dried out quickly because it was a hot day in summer.. :D lucky !!

Cyprian: YES!! my friend declares that a stain on his shirt was the most 'scary' thing that happened, he surely forgot the time when we where mounting our live set and we noticed that the singer could not sing at a particular area without feedback. We found another area where there was no feedback, the only BIG problem was that there were no monitors for her to sing to. The event was scheduled to start at 10......It was 8.30 and the singer cannot sing without monitors!! 6 telephone calls later we did manage to get the monitors at 9.40! A quick sound check is all we could do before people started coming in......

One Tenishia on the rocks pls!

And now for our popular cheeky question ;) Starting from mildest to the worst how would you rank the following problems

Joven: Mildest first would be as follows:

Cyprian: and for me as follows:

Thanks Joven & Cyprian! Good Luck
Interview for Manicmalta.com by Richard Borg on 1-Mar-2006

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