Space Junk aka Telly Maragopoulos is one fourth of the Mantra Collective crew, who have been responsible for building a cult house party series over the past year. Telly has not been short of busy having toured or supported the likes of Hot Since 82, Audiojack, Claptone, Hernan Cattaneo, Butch, Paul Kalkbrenner & Oliver Koletzki as well as co-host FBI’s Frequency with Mealo.

Since we have been working quite closely with our friends over at School of Audio Engineering (SAE) over the last few months, we wanted to gain an insight into their Electronic Music Production course and being a past graduate, Telly provided us a great understanding into the course and how it has helped place him where he is today!

Having completed SAE’s Electronic Music Production course, What were your expectations going into it?

Going into EMP, I was excited to hone my skills in production and start getting some releases.

What were the three main skills the EMP course taught you?

Music theory: To be honest, having not really done much music prior to this (courtesy of my failure to learn any instruments at school when I had the chance), I didn’t really understand scales or how chords should be constructed.

Mixing: Understanding the dynamics and spacing of all the different elements of your track is essential. I learnt how to EQ and pan my different elements so they weren’t competing with each other. I guess this constitutes the engineering side of things. You don’t want your track sounding muddy.

Ableton mastery: Spending 6 months playing with Ableton on a regular basis plus formal training on how to use really assists you to get a firm grasp of how to navigate what can be seen as a very daunting system.

What are your personal ambitions as a producer now that you have acquired those skills?

I’ve had a bit of a strange journey as a producer thus far. Straight out of EMP, I was very motivated and produced a number of remixes which were released (mostly electro as it was some time ago). I also dabbled in ghost writing which also got released. But I took a massive break from producing and focused on a special project alongside Aboutjack, Whitecat and Antoine Vice which is now a great club brand called Mantra Collective.

Once things get settled, I would like to start producing quality house music and get releases on some of my favourite labels like Gruuv, Viva Music and Aus Music (one can dream right?).

Have you found those skills have been useful in helping you building Mantra collective with the other 3?

Ummmm probably not yet. Perhaps if we have a record label down the track it would be handy to use what I learnt in EMP was to produce music and help market it to an audience. You do get an opportunity to learn about the record label business.

What would you say to anyone thinking about doing the course?

These kinds of courses are ALWAYS controversial on forums and things like that. People often say, go to youtube and learn… IT’S FREE. Don’t spend your money. But, I disagree completely. There was nothing better for me than to completely immerse myself in production for 6 months every single week.

Also, the help you get from your teachers and your peers in class is invaluable. At the end of the day, if you’re serious about producing, it’s a great start and you will really progress in leaps and bounds. Once you finish the course, you won’t know EVERYTHING but you will have a massive leap forward in knowledge and skills. The trick is to consolidate your knowledge and have the discipline to produce.

What’s coming up for Mantra Collective?

Mantra Collective is hosting a Berlin Dj and Producer called Santé at The Abercrombie on November 9th.

Mantra Collective Djs are also having quite a busy festive season supporting Danny Tenaglia, Bicep, Cyril Hahn and Will Saul on NYE at Ivy and Audiojack, Kyle Hall and Lovebirds on NYD at Spice Afloat.

You can read more on how you can get involved in the SAE EMP course here!