Cloob.fm Profile

Name: Bryan Yeung
Alias: BYeung
Style: Trance, Progressive Trance, Progressive House

Musical Influences

I first got into electronic dance music my freshman year in college having been introduced to it by friends. I truthfully don’t remember exactly who introduced me to it, but I know a friend of mine, Nicholas Horvath had a lot to do with it. Learning how to DJ followed shortly after being mentored by Carl Morales and got started mixing hiphop, because that’s what the crowd wanted to hear at college parties. I still love old school hiphop but don’t listen to much of the top 40 flavor nowadays. Oh yes the musical beginnings, I started playing violin when I was three, and continued until I was 18. My last violin teacher, Lee Snyder was a heavy influence in the way I approached music. Tom Carney, now a professional violinist, a friend I played with in All-State orchestra was also an influence in applying passion towards music. Lesson learned, don’t let the music or notes themselves cloud your expression.

To the Nation’s Capital

Moving out of college and into the Washington DC area, I got pretty involved in my day job and the turntables just sat there. To stay connected with the music, Damian Kassack and I put together a few mixed CD’s. He’d pick the music and I’d mix it. I think this was a chance to get two heads together and come up with music that made sense, instead of one person just throwing together random tracks. Still one of my closest friends to this day, Damian still drives portions of the songs I play out, having very similar tastes in trance and house. Another close friend, Josh Merry, together with Damian, introduced me to Armin Van Buuren and Markus Schulz who are some of my top influences. I still listen to A State of Trance every week. Now that it’s a podcast too, it comes directly to my iTunes and iPhone, making it that much easier to keep to date with the latest productions.

Journey to the West

Heading out to the San Francisco area a few years after my DC stint, I got introduced to Chris Haseman and Adam Schwem. Adam, being a coworker and audio engineer, helped me appreciate the technical side of music and audio, also sending me towards Ableton Live, software that we can use to build mixes accurately. Chris, AKA DJ Dyslexic, got me a show with XTC Radio having been a guest on his show to kick things off. At this point, I was more motivated to continue spinning and keeping up to date with the latest tracks. Funny how sometimes “life” just gets in the way of things you actually enjoy. Having spun a few gigs together, Chris is always a regular guest DJ at Cloob events including our annual Cloob parties held at The Public in San Francisco. Ultimately it was my brother Ambert, aka DJ JAMbertO, who helped me stay focused into the music, running a year’s worth of live weekly radio shows together out of our studio in Palo Alto. He had been very successful playing for several years while a student at Stanford, and it was great to be able to piggyback off his success and get some airtime on his gigs, in order to get my technique back.

Taking Trance & Progressive to New Contexts

Lately, what I listen to is classical, progressive house, trance, and some rock and alternative. Obviously the 80’s too. If I had to describe the tracks I like to feature and play out, I’d easily say, melodic trance, some epic, some more subtle, with a touch of heavier beats and breakbeats. However I’d see the music I mix being listened to more in a bar or lounge. This is not to say I won’t spin sets to take over a dance floor but if I had to pick one, I love for people to listen to uplifting throughout the day, without needing to dance (dance if you want). Trance or Progressive, covers so much ground. If you like guitar solos, or solo vocals, you’ll find it in trance. If you need something with a strong beat, or something that you can fall asleep to, you’ll also find it in this genre. For me, playing trance is not about furthering stereotypes of what this music may have been, but rather, seeing where we can take it with both digital sounds and live performances. In an uplifting manner of course.

I never really understood the need to listen to depressing music, hence why trance appeals to me. At the same time I wouldn’t say I’m naïve enough to think that all things are pretty. I can let the news depress me. I need some balance though, through music that I choose to listen to. Volunteering as an EMT (Emergency Medical Tech) when I have time, allows me to stay connected with reality. Of course it also reminds one how short life can be. The tracks and mixes I feature on Cloob will hopefully bring some positive perspective to your headphones and music collections. Whenever I deal with something major, or just need some motivation, I pop in a trance mixed set, pour myself a drink, and quickly realize, that things just aren’t that bad.

Thanks for listening,
BYeung