Deciding on an album title can sometimes be the hardest part of the record cycle. Luckily for Above & Beyond, the name of its latest album, Bigger Than All Of Us, came about by a “happy accident,” according to Jono Grant, after the title track grew on the longtime European electronic trio.
“The song is about how every individual has an impact in the world and their actions are part of the bigger fabric,” he explains. “And it tied neatly into how Above & Beyond and Anjunaworld is much bigger than the three of us individuals, so it felt like a fitting title and a nice follow-up to [2018 LP] Common Ground.”
It’s funny how that happens, Paavo Siljamäki adds, especially since it’s not necessarily the first time Above & Beyond created something so deep and meaningful by happenstance.
“Quite often we find ourselves in this situation. When we really start thinking about a certain thing, we’re like, ‘This really, really works,’” he says. “Bigger Than All Of Us, the more we thought about it, it is actually very much like a good indication on how we’re all feeling about everything.
“Making an album is not easy for any band ever, so it was a real mission for us to actually finish it,” Siljamäki continues. “But because this is bigger than all of us, it’s good to understand, even though it’s hard, it’s worth it.”
Bigger Than All Of Us, dropped in July, is also the group’s first proper release in seven years, so Grant, Siljamäki and co-creator Tony McGuinness felt the time had come to offer up some fresh music to the dedicated Anjunafamily. “Letting Go,” featuring Malou, and “Start A Fire” with Richard Bedford have already become hits with millions of streams already. Though most of the songs that ended up on the album were mined from newer demos, Grant admits it was inspired by Above & Beyond’s 2006 genre-expanding debut, Tri-State.
“Tony and I sat down and listened to it. We haven’t listened to it for years properly. We were just listening to what made it tick and what we loved about it when we were making it and in hindsight as well,” he shares.
“It also felt that there was a place for Above & Beyond with not the same music but similar DNA in terms of sentiment of how we made it and the energy behind it,” Grant continues. “It felt to me that there was a space for that in the Above & Beyond world to make that and it felt like the right time for some reason.”
And while Above & Beyond wasn’t necessarily pushing out long-plays since Common Ground, all three were still active as solo artists, which Siljamäki believes helped them while crafting Bigger Than All Of Us.
“We refound our own voices and identities doing this two-album gap,” he says. “It’s so easy to lose your identity within a group and that can lead to some problems. For me, I really needed the time to refind myself and how I can best contribute to the greater, bigger picture.”
Now, Above & Beyond is to treat the Anjunafamily to a bigger set, too. The group is playing Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on Saturday, September 27. Sultan + Shepard and HANA are also on the bill.
The band’s three labels — Anjunabeats, Anjunadeep and Anjunachill — are another example of a happy accident working out in a way no one could have imagined. Initially, starting Anjunabeats back in 2000, when the band first formed, was a DIY way to get Above & Beyond’s music out there faster, especially when bigger labels didn’t pick up everything the three-piece did. But it continued to morph and grow into becoming a self-sustaining business and culture, thanks to how loyally the fans embraced it.
“It is bigger than the artist Above & Beyond itself, which is a lovely thing,” Grant says. “That gives me hope that that kind of legacy lives on in a sense that there’s new artists that will take up the mantle and keep the Anjunafamily moving forward.”
“That is a wonderful thing for us to be a part of,” he concludes. “We’re somehow at the center of this thing yet not because the whole thing is greater.”