Released late February, 'PAIN | PERSISTENCE | PRIDE' marks the bold debut of Interpslyce, a Queensland-based producer and DJ redefining the boundaries of electronic music.
By blending the raw energy of techno percussion, the deep, driving bass of psytrance, and the soaring melodies of trance, this album carves out a sound that is uniquely his own.Rejecting the industry's rigid genre constraints, Interpslyce believes true artistic freedom has been stifled by the pressure to prioritise technical prowess over musicality. The result? A scene oversaturated with forgettable, formulaic noise.
This album is a rebellion against that – hypnotic, minimal, and designed to ignite imagination. Each track is crafted to be memorable, evocative, and packed with the punch and drive needed for peak-time sets. It's a statement.
For those being introduced to you as an artist, can you share the creative journey of Interpslyce?
I have been producing electronic music since the age of 14. I also played trumpet and trombone. I studied sound production and electronic music production after school at SAE. I started DJing in my final year of high school.
I spent the next four years working as a DJ on weekends doing commercial club gigs across the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Toowoomba. Also during this time I hosted a trance radio show which was on BAM Radio and I featured local Brisbane trance DJs in the scene.
After saving up enough money, I did the working holiday visa thing in the UK for two years. I was fortunate enough to perform my tech-trance style at Ministry of Sound five times, and also performed for CTRL, Elevation Audio, Trance Sanctuary and GoodGrief events across the UK.
I spent a lot of time working on my productions, having had one-on-one sessions with James Dymond, Nick Galea and Jody 6. Truth be told, it was only in 2021 when I had finally worked out how to achieve somewhat well-balanced mix-downs; I was living back in Brisbane and it was becoming blatantly obvious that there were so many talented artists not getting their music signed.
I was performing more and more techno sets as trance music was fading in Brisbane and I had taken a real shine to the genre, not just with DJing but with productions too. So I decided to start the new alias Tony Quinn and launch Domino FX.
I still had big aspirations to produce and perform trance music, but part of me figured that pursuing different genres in the studio would help guide me with the type of trance I would one day produce.
The album title, anything deeper behind those three words?
It's no secret that I have been dealing with chronic maxillofacial pain for ten years now. If you witnessed the person I was as a child you would say I was definitely on the spectrum.
In Grade 5, I was attending an all-boys school and was constantly being bullied; it didn't help that my parents couldn't agree on whether I should stick up for myself or run away from confrontation. I started getting extremely overwhelming panic attacks. I don't know whether my parents were overwhelmed with what I was experiencing or if their relationship breakdown was also affecting my mental state at the time.
I was taken for cognitive testing, diagnosed with auditory processing disorder and advised to move schools; funnily enough I only found out about that diagnosis last year.
My half-siblings are 11 and 12 years older than me, so when they left home when I was roughly 12 it was a big shock to me. They both went travelling overseas and left behind many mix CDs and CD wallets.
I was already in love with sound, but having these memoirs of them in physical form that I could use as an escape from the very loud and bright world around me, was the perfect source of inspiration for my developing dreams of a life with music as my anchor.
I started experiencing changes in my visual processing and sudden onset migraines in 2015. On one hand I was thrilled that I could view the world around me sometimes in greater detail, and have more meaningful connections with people around me, although the headaches I was experiencing were getting worse and more frequent.
2015 was the year I moved back to Australia from the UK; I began my studies in computer science in 2016. I was incredibly resilient to be able to complete those studies even though I was experiencing these symptoms more and more.
All the while I was seeing various kinds of doctors and specialists to try and determine why this was happening. I started attending all my lectures online as being there in person would worsen the pain; this is when I started to notice that large groups of people and listening to conversation was becoming more and more difficult, and would result in pain.
I started working after university was finished in 2019 in a IT-type role. I loved the work but being in an office space where there were lots of people talking, bright lights and then meetings in small rooms was making the pain unbearable.
I remember after having to leave work early due to pain in September 2019, I went to my parents and told them, 'I can't handle this anymore, I need serious help'. I was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic and was there for seven weeks while they ran all kinds of scans and tests to see what was causing the pain.
I ended up with a ADHD diagnosis and was put onto Vyvanse. Taking this medication nearly eliminated the pain completely and I didn't have a headache for four months afterwards. Because I had been away from work for so long I was made to sign a change in my work contract, being shifted from full-time to casual because 'it was in my best interest'.
Then COVID hit, was made redundant and had a hard time finding work. I had to let important things like my health insurance lapse due to not being able to afford it. When I began working again everyone was working from home so only working as a casual and from the comfort of my own home meant that I did not experience as debilitating symptoms for quite some time, although yes there were still many times where I had to finish work early or take days off due to pain.
It was only when the mandatory WFH COVID period had subsided that I really started to realise that this condition was starting to get extremely bad again. I did my best to work as hard as I could and push through the pain as best I could.
Work were becoming increasingly intolerable of my sensory needs and requests for time off or WFH. I realised that I would need to put my efforts into solving this maxillofacial pain and sensory issues ordeal in priority again and the discovered I would have to wait 12 months before being able to claim any surgeries or hospital stays because it was an existing condition.
By the time October 2023 came around I was at the end of my tether again. I only had a few more months to wait before I could access my private health but due to increased pressure to attend the office now in the city, and the pain levels now being a constant thing even when working from home I knew I couldn't hack it anymore. I knew that getting healthy needed to be my number one priority.
Fast forward to now, March 2025. I haven't worked since. I have had two unsuccessful quests for love. They promised love, acceptance and support, only for them to gaslight me and essentially waste my time.
Can I really blame them though, in the age we live, the 'Australian Dream' is a farfetched reality when caring for a disabled partner; forced to resign from the job I held for three years, undergone three botox treatments, nerve-block injections, Radio Frequency Neurotomies and now a surgical arthroscopy of my left TMJ. I still can't sit at my desk for more than two hours without experiencing excruciating pain.
The only thing that has kept me going through this horrible time has been making music and managing the record label when I am physically able to. My constantly changing visual and audio sensory issues make it very hard to plan anything and even leave the house.
I am praying that the surgery I had just last week will help and that there is going to be some kind of consistent quality of life and meaningful connections with people again. So yes you could say the above is the reason behind the album's title.
You've said this isn't just album, but a statement. Can you expand on that, explaining your outlook?
Yes, the album I feel is whole-heartedly a statement! Mainstream media not just in Australia, but worldwide are hell bent on 'efficiency' for lack of a better word. They want things shorter, louder, more sounds, more appeal, more sex. . . you get my drift. I'm sure I'm not saying anything which you haven't heard before.
Music before the mid-00s was so much less about 'efficiency' and captivating the listener with gimmicks and wow factors. It was about storytelling and providing a space for the listener to imagine their own depictions about the music.
I'm sorry, but when I noticed this commercialism trend was affecting the genre I love and the majority of trance tracks I have heard for the past ten years are as I said 'formulaic walls of noise'. A huge element of this too is that electronic music production is more and more about fitting into the major music outlets genre definitions than actually creating originality these days, which is the major reason why I had trouble getting this album signed.
Every label I have sent it to, doesn't agree with the genre-mashing so to speak and tells me I need to adjust certain tracks so they fit genre assignments in online stores. I couldn't give a rats if the percussion isn't soft enough for prog-psy.
So yeah I was thrilled when I thought to send it to Bear who runs ESF Records. I have known Bear for ages and while we haven't done a whole lot of connecting I knew he was to be respected for what he does for the local music scene. He was more than happy to release the album and no changes required, he appreciates my originality and is totally on board with my idea.
Tell us about the album's artwork... super-cool dystopian 'Westworld' meets 'The Wheel Of Time' vibes. Did you engage an artist or your own work? What was the creative brief and was that achieved?
The artwork: Thank you, so glad you like it, unfortunately this one is AI generated. The album name originally was going to be 'Grand Illusions, False Promises & Broken Dreams'. I asked the AI engine to churn out some different ideas using a surreal and moody atmosphere, and then it did this one.
I resonated with this design because the broken-glass effect reflected the visual issues I've had, also I hope it's ok for me to say but with technology and things around us right now, there is definitely a little bit of a sense of impending doom around us.
2024 is a year I want to put behind me in terms of the struggles I've had, but I am so happy that I got to create an album which I truly think reflects the kind of sound and musical ideals I want to promote going forward.
Is Interpslyce an artist who performs live; any shows upcoming to promote?
No upcoming sets just yet; I've got another five weeks or so before we know if surgery was a success. I definitely don't want to commit to anything before I know the prognosis.
