Rated as the world's 'biggest' band right now

Even by their sky-high standards Above and Beyond are currently flying, well, above and beyond.

On Saturday 18 October 2014, the trio made history: Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki became the first British DJs to headline New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden. As usual with the band, the numbers spoke for themselves: All 13,000 tickets sold in a snap; tickets changing hands-on secondary markets for $700 a CD; within a week, half-a-million video views of a pair of delirious fans accorded the honour of pushing the button during “Blue Sky Action”.

On 19 January 2015, Grant, McGuinness and Siljamäki will release their new album called We Are All We Need.

Explaining the trio’s huge ‘popularity-meets-curious obscurity’, Grant says, “It’s a case of we’ve built it very, very slowly, and we haven’t had massive career spikes.”

The group has built up their fan following over a long period of time, rather than “going for a money shot and having the big-name vocalist.”

The band has followed round club gigs, arena shows, American dance festivals, European rock festivals, and parties from Bengaluru to Beirut, from Branson’s rocket (they soundtracked the launch of Virgin Galactic SpaceShip Two) to Brazil’s beaches (one million fans in Rio for New Year’s Eve ’07).

To their fans, Above And Beyond are just ‘The Biggest Band In The World’.

“The dance music scene has got much, much bigger and the sound that used to
be called underground is a lot closer to the mainstream. So we’ve naturally found
ourselves at a crossing point. But still I think, in this new album the primary focus is writing songs for our purpose.

We are, kind of a selfish band in that way,” adds Siljamäki.

They have released three studio albums, two remix albums and one side-project album. Their own labels, Anjuna beats and Anjuna deep, are among the most respected imprints in the global dance music scene and have released some 23 Above And Beyond albums and compilations in the last 12 years.

There have been dozens of singles and mix albums and offshoot projects, all snapped up by a devoted worldwide fanbase that has happily, passionately followed this London-based electronic trio since their formation in 2000.

“To me, it feels the world’s moved towards us,” concludes McGuinness, “not the other way round.

It’s great that there’s so much attention and innovation in electronic dance music. But doing the acoustic thing was great, in that it showed we exist in that scene, and we exist out of it. To be able to survive out of it so ably was a validation of what we’re really about: That Above And Beyond are a band.”

The fans, of course, already knew that. Their commitment and passion are proven, which is why the new album title is brilliantly apt on multiple levels. Above And Beyond are all they need.

On 29 December, 2014, Above and Beyond performed for their Indian audience in Candolim, Goa for the Vh1 Supersonic 2014.