Ørjan Nilsen, born the 14th of June 1982 in a place called Kirkenes in Norway, started his interest in music at a VERY early age. He started banging on drum sets at the age of 1 and was thoroughly instructed by his father and brother for the first 9 years of his life.
At the age of 7, Ørjan got his first keyboard, and started to practice on it every single day for the next couple of years, but started to think this little keyboard lacked what he was looking for… And then it began…
In 2006 he released his first E.P. "Forest", and since then, there was only one way for Orjan, up!
Sameer and Jacquelina caught up with him to ask him few questions.
Mr. Nilsen, much thanks to you for time. How have you been doing since the last time we spoke?
Been upgrading my studio quite alot lately, mostly because my hard drive crashed with all my tracks on it... big set back for my album, but now I'm up and running again. Other than that, enjoying the summer with my daughter and travelling a lot!
Orjan Nilsen
Considering the brilliance of La Guitarra (which I had to bring up at some point Tongue out), we have had the Marcus Schossow and Omnia remixes amongst others. Aside from your original, what would your personal favourite remix be?
My personal favorite nowadays is the intro version I made especially for ASOT 350, but on a more general basis, the original, that was more or less a given, wasn't it?
Not to take anything away from your other massive works, Vivida as you mentioned drove crowds mental, but now, as a clubber, not a DJ, what tracks have drove you to insanity whilst you were on the dance floor?
So many that it's almost impossible for me to name a few... but off the top of my head: Marco V - Simulated, Cape Town - Proglifter, Mario Piu - Mathmos (People should definitely check that out, old as hell) and two tracks that mean alot to me, Jurgen Vries - The Theme and Andain - Beautiful Things.
Club Protector in Poland being one of you favourite venues, is there any location you are particularly looking forward to play to, that you haven't graced with your spinning yet?
Ah yes, my Australian tour coming up in September, really looking forward to that one, the deal is almost sorted now so can't wait to get to the land down under and not to mention my Creamfields gig in Ukraine which is coming up in August.
Favourite Cartoon Character?
Haha, favorite cartoon character? Have three: Goofy, Donald Duck and the Duffman (from Simpsons).
Well, the Duffman and Homer are side by side
Orjan NilsenWe know that you have a little dream of working with Seal or Sting :P, are there any tunes of theirs you would consider lending the Nilsen touch and doing a remix?
Definitely "Sting - Englishman In New York", but to be honest a new production would have been the best, because I wouldn't feel comfortable remixing that sort of excellence to begin with.
Sports, do you follow any?
Aye I follow alot, but only football as a passion, then especially my beloved Liverpool F.C. been a member of The Kop since I was 6 years old. Hehehe, that's right, I never walk alone.
In your opinion as a producer, which other producers do you see blowing the charts with massive hits this year?
Always tough to tell really... I'm always checking out new talent but recently it has been a bit of a down periode, in my opinion that is... Sindre Eide though, doing good stuff at the moment, I'm kinda hoping he drifts a liiittle away from the huge uplifting sound though. But if you mean producers in general, and not just new talent, I would say Sander van Doorn, Rank 1, Ashley Wallbridge etc.
Through all your sets and experiences through the years, do you perhaps have an interesting or humourous story for us?
Hehe, well, had a small incident in Moscow in May. Played La Guitarra as the final track of the set and I got a bit carried away... the booth was very high so they had built a small platform to get me higher. unfortunately, it was a bit narrow so when I was jumping around, I plundged off so you could only see the top of my head. did that a couple of times in fact, but right then everyone was looking up at the booth, and it was crowded...
For the trancepodium.com readers this time, what could the fans look forward to from Mr. Nilsen this year?
Well, working extremely hard on my album at the moment, a revival of some old monikers aswell as many gigs, so some of the fans might be able to catch me live this year.
When will we see the Orjan Nilsen Album in stores?
Well, good question. for the instrumental tracks they should be done quite shortly, but I'm still on the lookout for two more singers for my album, and unfortunately, vocal work takes some time. I hope sometime this fall, but since I was delayed due to technical difficulties, it might take a bit longer.
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