Above & Beyond Founder Jono Grant Discusses the Grand Scale of ‘Acoustic II’ and the Inspiration for the Massive Undertaking

Matt Matasci

Founded by Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki in 2000, Above & Beyond soon gained another member in Tony McGuinness along with a level of respect not usually reserved for electronic dance DJs. While the group built a massive fan base with their trance-style albums, these musicians have also found acclaim by reinterpreting their music into full-length acoustic records. The original LP, “Acoustic,” was released in ‘14 while its successor “Acoustic II” is slated for a June 3, 2016, release date. Both albums are legitimately unique additions to the group’s discography showcasing an instrumentally-rich sound and deft musicianship. Once again, the three members are hitting the road for a run of stage appearances across the globe before kicking off the festival circuit this summer. Entertainment Voice had the opportunity to speak with Above & Beyond founder Jono Grant about the breadth of their backing band, the inspiration behind undertaking the “Acoustic” and “Acoustic II” projects and their upcoming festival plans.

Lots of groups release acoustic albums and go on acoustic tours, but Above & Beyond is one of the few electronic dance groups I’ve ever heard of doing so. How did the idea to transform your music into an acoustic setting come about?

It was Tony’s idea. He wanted to do a kind of “MTV Unplugged” thing but that doesn’t exist anymore. I think they might be bringing it back but that’s a whole other story. But the idea when we started doing this three years ago was to recreate “MTV Unplugged.”

When people think “acoustic,” the assumption is often that the music is stripped down or simplified; terms I would not use to describe the acoustic versions of your songs. What kind of process do you three take to come up with to create the songs’ rich instrumental arrangements?

Well, the first thing we did was engage Bob Bradley who took care of the musical arrangements and was kind of the musical director for the tour. So we got him involved just because he has good taste in music and also we didn’t want to do it on our own. We could have produced acoustic versions on our own but having the kind of time to do it to the level that Bob’s done it while we are continuing to tour as DJs and produce our electronic albums just wouldn’t have been a good idea. So that was the first thing we did.

We worked on those arrangements with Bob in varying degrees. Sometimes he came up with a great version of one of the songs in an acoustic form; other times we had an influence on how we wanted the harmony to be and the chords – the arrangement really. It just depended on the track. So we came up with some demos. Bob came up with the first round of demos and we went back on those and came into the studio and started playing around with parts for the songs and we would then go on to play live.

So that was a bit of how it started, kind of jumping around, working alone and bringing it all together.

What sorts of backing musicians do you use on this tour?

We have a string section. We have two drummers, which is kind of nice. The bass player plays upright bass. [We have] three guitarists at some points; one of the guys plays glockenspiel, guitar and trumpet – though he can play anything, he can play drums as well. He’s amazing and jumping and changing [instruments] a lot even within songs sometimes. And then we have Justine, Zoë, Cobi and Natalie all singing; Paavo on piano and sometimes Rhodes; me on generally Rhodes and sometimes piano; Tony on guitar. And we have a harpist as well, so I think that’s everybody! It’s a big band.

How did you select the musicians?

Well, it’s a combination of lots of things really. Some of the musicians our tour manager knew because he’s been in the industry for years. Some of them, Bob the musical director, knew. One of the drummers who plays in the band called The Feeling – who had a lot of hits in the UK – and I went to university nearly 18 years ago, God! (laughs) So we met I think it was ‘98. There’s a mix of different sources for the musicians; different relationships we have with them that brought them to the gig. The secret of the gig really is to surround ourselves with musicians [who] are way better than us! (laughs)

This is your second go-round with an acoustic album and tour. Do you plan to keep up these sorts of albums and tours in the future?

I don’t know really. I think we’ll probably do it again in the future. It’s such a big undertaking to do this. It’s hard to understand how many people are [with us] on the road. By the time you add guitar techs and trucks carrying gear around the United States, it’s just unbelievable. Because it’s such a big thing to do, I don’t know how often we can actually do it . . . it costs us a fortune to do it! (laughs) But it’s a lot of fun to do it. It is worth doing it for a greater reason than for a financial reason. So yeah, I think we will probably end up doing it again.

Did reinterpreting your music into acoustic arrangements give you any new insight into your songwriting techniques?

I think the biggest thing it gives me is a break from doing the same thing. I mean, we’re always trying to change what we’re doing with electronic music anyway. It’s boring to be making the same kind of music we were making 15 years ago when we started. It would be personally boring for me. The challenge with fans sometimes – not all of them – is that sometimes they want you to make the same thing you made before. There’s that sort of feeling sometimes. As an artist, in order to stay engaged and interested in your own art you need to innovate or change. It’s not a case of reinventing the wheel; it’s just doing something you didn’t do yesterday.

I think for me, the acoustic thing kind of gives me a break from doing electronic music. And when you come back to it, yeah, you do get inspired partially because you’ve been doing something else. It’s like anything – if you go on holidays and you come back into the studio, you’re full of ideas. So I think it does . . . it can influence songwriting, sure, because it makes you think.

When you’re writing a song, the meat of the idea might come from a similar place but when you come to arrange it, you might look back to what you did acoustically and may be trying to see how the song might work in the future as well as in an acoustic format. Does it stand up as a song in its own right as well as [it stands up as] a dance track? Because dance songs work best when they’re simple, whereas when you want to play a song in a rock band or . . . some kind of a big band you need a bit more. And you need maybe an extra verse here or there. You can flesh out an arrangement that isn’t so much about a groove and sometimes you need more ideas than that.  

You are playing several festivals this summer. Will those appearances be with the acoustic set or your traditional arrangements?

It’s quite funny actually because time-wise, we’re about halfway through the tour but in terms of [the] number of gigs we’re actually getting close to the end of the tour. We finish up in Sydney and then I’m flying back to the U.S., putting different hats on and becoming a DJ again playing Spring Awakening in Chicago. Once we do festivals, it is back to the regular programming material. So that’s going to be weird after being a band for a month now. I’m actually really looking forward to it. As much as I enjoy doing the acoustics, it helps me understand why I want to do electronic music. But doing a live show is a magical thing in a different way because you are actually creating a sound. So they’re completely different pleasures and merits.

Between running your own label, a radio show and releasing music as Above & Beyond, you three always have something going on. Do you have any big plans in the works after the current tour?

The main thing we’re working on next is an electronic album. And that’s really in a kind of skeletal phase at the moment. We’re not yet necessarily finished writing all the songs or found a direction for the album; we tend to kind of make it up as we go along with albums. Rather than [saying] ‘We’re going to do an album that’s all about this’ – which would be an interesting thing for us to try doing once actually – generally we kind of pick out a body of songs and head to the studio and then take a look at it and take stock and see what we’ve got and see what we can make of it. I think we’re still at the stage where we’re writing songs and experimenting with sounds.  

Above & Beyond releases “Acoustic II“ on Apple Music on June 3 and are taking their deeply-stocked instrumental backing band to the Hollywood Bowl on May 28. Find tickets here.