We caught up with ‘world’s number 1 DJ’ ahead of his Armada set at Amnesia last night to find out what his favourite track is at the moment, who he thinks will be trance’s next hero, and what he’d most like to change about dance music if he could.
So how’s your weekly Armada night at Amnesia going this season?
Well as you can see, at the moment it’s really great.
To be honest we had quite a slow start.
It was a little bit quiet in June and early July but it got busier when we did the ‘A State of Trance’ special and now it’s doing really well.
What’s Amnesia like?
Well for me Amnesia is the best club for trance.
The cool thing about Amnesia is that it has two rooms and now that they’ve redone the Terrace it’s almost like there are two main rooms.
It’s an amazing club and it has an amazing sound and even if there’s only 1,500 people here it still looks busy.
It’s a great honour to play here.
Would you say Amnesia is your favourite club?
Yes. I voted Amnesia for best club four times in a row.
Normally I don’t like the DJ box that high up, but there’s something special about this club and anybody that comes here will tell you that it’s a special place.
What’s your favourite record at the moment?
DJ Shah’s ‘Back to You’ (Aly & Fila remix).
And do you have an all time favourite Ibiza track?
I would have to say the whole of Chicane’s ‘Behind the Sun’ album, with all the big hits like ‘Saltwater’ and ‘No Ordinary Morning’.
What do you think of the Natasha Bedingfield remix with Chicane?
It’s a bit unnecessary.
I’ve played it and I understand it.
It seems that at the moment there’s a bit of hype going on with re-using old classics.
They work with the crowd. I play a few of them but I try to stay away from them.
Who do you think will be the next big thing in trance?
There are loads of new names. Aly & Fila and Markus Schulz, for example.
I also think John O’Callaghan deserves more recognition.
Is there anyone else you’re really supporting who we might not have heard of yet?
Alex M.O.R.P.H, Nitros Oxide, Daniel Kandi, Robert Nixon and Paul Miller.
When you produced your latest album ‘Imagine’, did you feel any added pressure to follow on from your award-winning ‘Shivers’ album?
Good question. No. I did get a lot of pressure after ‘76’ because people said that it was a trance album that could never be bettered and blah blah blah, so I had a lot of pressure to put ‘Shivers’ out.
There was a big group of people that said they didn’t like ‘Shivers’ and ‘76’ is still my favourite album and there’s another group of people that came along and really liked ‘Shivers’.
It was at that moment that I realized that with everything you do as an artist, you will always disappoint people and gain new fans at the same time.
And to be honest, to a certain extent – and this sounds pretty rude – but I don’t care what people think about my records in a way.
I just want to make these songs that are inside me.
The tracks on ‘Imagine’ are genuinely songs that come from the heart but with every track that I’ve released, every album I’ve released, every compilation I’ve done, any radio show and every gig there’s always been people that didn’t like what I do.
It comes with the territory but it’s something that I still have hard times dealing with – any DJ will tell you the same story.
As an artist I think you have an obligation to always try and reinvent yourself.
I could have easily used the sounds of ‘Shivers’ and created the next ‘Shivers’ – which usually happens when you have a big hit.
I could just play ‘Shivers’ every night and the crowd would go crazy, but it’s not very interesting for the music now is it?
So as an artist you have your integrity, and of course I play music for the crowd as a DJ, but when I’m in the studio producing a track, I do it for me.
But of course, I hope everybody likes it!
As a DJ, sharing the music that you love with the crowd must be an incredible feeling…
Yeah it is. When the crowd goes crazy it’s the best feeling in the world.
And it’s the only feeling that you can’t get used to.
But it doesn’t always happen.
People might think ‘Oh that’s Armin van Buuren, he’s the number one DJ in the world’, so the crowd will go crazy every night but it’s not that simple.
There are still nights when it’s not going off, but you have to be professional, stay calm and look at the solutions.
How do you feel when you’re playing out and the crowd starts chanting your name?
It feels amazing. It’s all come so fast. It’s a great experience for me but still kind of unbelievable.
And finally, if you could change one thing about electronic music, what would it be?
Illegal downloads.
If you illegally download one of Madonna’s albums, she’ll still make money because she has so many fans, but because most dance producers don’t usually sell more than 500 or 1,000 downloads, if you illegally download a dance tune, they’ll make less money and might have to quit making music and get a regular job and then we’ll have less variety of new tunes.
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