Prior to the release of the highly anticipated new album My Dearest, Volume 1, we caught up with the creator behind the World Of Caellus musical universe for a chat about the new project, creativity, and the future of trance.
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Do you remember the first time you heard a trance track? If so, who was it by, and what was it about the sound that drew your passion and got you hooked?
Of course I do! Not only because it’s a legendary song but because it is attached to great memories in my home country. I heard it the first time at a local nightclub in Pereira, Colombia. I was gonna meet a girl I was really into, when I came in they were playing music from the Mexican group “Maná” and then the DJ cut it and played Children by Robert Miles. I noticed her dancing from afar and how she graciously moved her waist to the rhythm. I was a hardcore House music fan so adopting Trance music was easy, but I think what got me into Trance was the fact that she loved dancing to it and I loved watching her dance to it, haha.
You put out new music as often as possible it seems, and yet with each new release the quality is consistently high – never rushed, never meaningless. Do you create new music as habit, then just pick and choose what to release, or do you always have a concept or intention in mind before you head into the studio?
Pre-Genesis, I did music randomly as “Der Mystik”, but after a three year break from music, I wanted to deliver a message about what was on my mind and my heart. So Genesis was based on a fictional mini story I wrote and My Dearest Vol 1 and Vol 2 are about people that I love very deeply.
My Dearest, Volume 1 is something of an audio masterpiece. What inspired the concept for you, and why at this particular time? What I mean is, your ideas often have an other-worldly backing story to them, whereas this sounds and feels like something very open and from the heart, if that makes sense.
My Dearest is a dedicatory album for people that are very important to me. I composed it and I will release it this year because you never know when is your last day, and I want to leave a message behind for each one of them. They don’t have lyrics but each track has its unique feel. I’m very vocal about expressing my feelings, so they know how I feel about them but I believe words carry a very light weight, I believe with a song will back my words up, hopefully.
Did you decide upon the title and topic of each track before you began, and how did you prepare – how did you get into the right sort of mindset for who each track would relate to?
Yes, I focused on how each person makes me feel and composed accordingly. Take for instance Alexander (my little brother), if you hear it you’d feel its darkness and its beauty. I made it that way because he and I have not always seen eye to eye, we’ve had our ups and downs as siblings and the song depicts those feelings. But I also made it that way because it is the kind of Trance mood he’d enjoy as well.
Susana is the same, it has various moods representing our relationship as friends and co-workers.
José de Jesús (my dad) has a melancholic melody, a reflection of my heart missing him because he leaves far away and he can not come to see me nor I can go to see him.
Luz Marina (mom) was different, I wanted the best composition for her, I had made two other tracks for her and I erased them because they were not good enough for her, so I reached out for help to my buddy Nathan Red, hired a session sax performer and together we made that beautiful progressive Trance track that depicts how much i love her.
The trance genre is one of the few to take the composing of a single track to the extended lengths of seven, eight and beyond minutes long. Fortunately the music has the gentle connecting fibres of synthesizers and the like to keep things flowing smoothly, and there’s no concern for repetition when you present pure atmosphere and emotion where other writers might employ lyricism.
How do you know when a track is finished though? Is the creative process therapeutic for you, do you create until you feel like you’re finished, with no initial concern for how it may be received? And how much of your time is spent editing or re-working a track?
This might sound cocky at first but I make music for me first, I make music that I will still love listening to 10 years from now. I have no concerns whatsoever of how they will be received by the public, I have no concerns if they will be played by DJs, nor if they will get licensed. My music is an expression of my soul and the world created in my mind. It’s always been that way and perhaps that is the reason I’m still relatively unknown, cause I don’t make music for the media to talk about or the DJs to play, I make music for myself and my fans, those who support my vision.
Where do riffs or melodies come into play for you – is this a starting point, or a process of trial and error after the initial sequence has been laid out?
A big source of inspiration for my music is my day job (yes, i have one), I’m very happy working there, I look forward to go there and do my best, but also because of my friends who work with me. All my melody ideas come from how people make me feel, and I’m very lucky that I’m very loved at work. They can’t live without me hahaha, if they read this they will say “Shut up Paulo”. So every melody is born with an interaction with people be it negative or positive. Once I have a melody everything else comes naturally, so yes, the melody is definitely the starting point for every sing.
Your music always has a complete and crisp polish to it – what’s your studio set up like, is everything done digitally, do you use any hardware, and do you have a favourite synth you often revert back to?
You are gonna trip about this one. I have no studio set up whatsoever as of now. I composed and produced both albums in my work’s computer lol. I use FL studio, the computer is very limited so I use only three VSTi plug ins (Sylenth1, Nexus and Kontakt 3, and a couple of waves plug ins for mastering. I do everything in my headphones (which i also use to provide customer service support) and once mastered I test them on various mediums or send it over to Nathan Red for criticism.
So if anyone tells you that you need to shell out thousands of dollars to make decent music, refer them to this article to prove them wrong.
Is the trance family, the community, still thriving, growing even, in your opinion, and in what ways have you noticed it change or evolve over the years? Do you find that your approach to creating has changed at all?
I believe Trance is an ever-changing genre of music but I also believe the scene gives credit to people who have never made a song in their lives, over people who makes great music. Trance as music is always beautiful, but as a scene, not so much. My approach at creating has changed slightly over the years but at the core, I’m still the same idealist musician and as an idealist I hate to see how true talent gets overshadowed by no talents.
Will you be taking your music to the stage over the coming months? Is live performance important to you?
Not at the moment.
Is there anything else you’d like to let us know about your music, the new album, or your plans for the future?
My Dearest Vol. 1, will be available for free as well on release date via The Artist Union, this will be the last album in which Trance is the dominant music genre for my songs. My Dearest Vol. 2 will feature slower music and it will serve as a transition from club music to background music. I hope you continue to support me in my quest, stay true to yourself, may the creator be your light in dark paths and until next time. 🙂
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Read our review of the album My Dearest, Volume 1. Find & follow Caellus on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
https://soundcloud.com/worldofcaellus/sets/caellus-my-dearest-vol-1-album
