Above & Beyond, the British trance DJ trio, is broadcasting their 400th episode of Trance Around the World in Beirut. Sure to be all the rave among trance lovers worldwide, the concert featured other top notch DJs. Time Out sat down with Jono Grant from Above & Beyond before their November 26th eight-hour trance marathon, for a real talk on Beirut, electronic dance and what makes their music tick.

Beirut was the scene of your live band show in 2009 as well as other concerts, and now you're back again to celebrate your 400th episode. Why Beirut?
The thing about Beirut is that the audience is really enthusiastic about what we do, which is great for us. It’s a wonderful place to visit: you have great food here, a great vibe. We like coming here first and foremost, but I think that it's also an opportunity to do something in the heart of the Middle East, which is quite exciting for us, and to broadcast it to all the countries around here to try to bring people together. In 2008 we did a show here and I think that was a defining moment for us because we realized oh my, this is a fantastic scene… actually I think it's more exciting than the scene going on in the UK.

It seems since you guys have collaborated together, Above & Beyond is considered to be a cut above the music in this genre. What sets you apart as a group and what drives your music?
It’s a different dynamic when you have three people involved. We are all quite picky about the kind of music we like and the kind of music we like to have on the show, and to produce and release as well. So we kind of have high quality standards within the group, and then it's down to the audience to decide whether that’s working or not.

What’s next for Above & Beyond?
It really feels like we don’t know where we will be in six months. I don’t know what kind of music we will be playing, which is kind of exciting. It's actually really good that it's gone back that way because I think there was a period in dance music where it was sort of segregated into different genres: there were the house people, trance people, hard house people, techno people or whatever – they were all in different groups. Now it's more just electronic dance music. Do you like this artist or not? Do you like this record or not? Which I think is really healthy for the scene.