It tends to be the same for interviews, too. In the seven-odd times I’ve talked to Armin van Buuren, he’s always presented a polished demeanour, thanking inthemix for our support and answering each question with ease. There are a couple of recurring themes in how he speaks to journalists: the phrase “don’t be a prisoner of your own style” invariably comes up and he’ll almost certainly use food as an analogy (twice, actually, in this interview).
Inquire in the right way, though, and he’ll divert from the well-scripted path. Recently, he’s started to speak his mind more freely on some of the topics that bother him. As you’ll read here, we discussed what he sees as narrow-mindedness from some fans and also a trend towards easy wins by “these new DJs” he now shares festival mainstages with.
So, Sydney and Melbourne are barracking pretty hard to host A State Of Trance 600 in 2013. Can you offer any hope on that front?
At the moment, nothing’s decided. But I’ll have to give you a bit less hope, actually. I am a firm believer in not over-exposing myself. I will do less A State Of Trance gigs next year. I’ll tell you why: I think it’s essential that I actually do what I talk about. I always say I want to promote new talent, and with ASOT I am doing that. It’s essential that I reach crowds all over the world and get them to join a global trance family. I want to try new territories every year.
With the campaigning that’s currently going on, it’s getting really ridiculous already and it’s not even a month in. I have to be really careful with this responsibility to not just promote Armin van Buuren or Armada artists, but see it as a chance to bring trance to new people. It’s not about cashing in on a quick ticket sale. I want to make a statement with that. So to answer your question, I want to go to countries where I know the clubber can get value for money. Given all these festivals around and the ridiculous amounts of money that the promoters ask, this is something I want to work.
The last time I interviewed you, we talked about juggling your touring life with fatherhood. It sounds like a hard balance.
It is a hard balance. I want to tour more compactly. I’ve been on the road now for three weeks, but before I left I went on a holiday with my family. So, I do try to balance my schedule. I don’t want to miss too much of my little one growing up, and also not over-expose myself.
I’ve never been more productive than I am now. I wish I could tell you about the new album, man. That would really silence all the controversy about We Are Here To Make Some Noise. The album’s not going to be 128-BPM and electro, fart-y sounds all the way through.
I find it sometimes hard to deal with the fact that you bring out three tracks – Suddenly Summer, J’ai Envie De Toi and Belter – all within one month, and people say, “Great, trance!” Then you release one funny electro record and the whole world falls on top of you, saying you’ve changed your sound. It’s so ridiculous. I’ve made my mark this year, proving trance is stronger than ever. Sometimes it’s hard to deal with that people expect just one thing.
You can understand Armin’s occasional gripes. The ‘narrow-minded fans’ observation followed the response to his football anthem We Are Here To Make Some Noise, which had some devotees declaring their hero was now a ‘trouse’ defector. Away from the insular world of keyboard warriors, though, he’s still one of the world’s most bankable, and loved, names in dance music. Not to mention the busiest. We had just eight minutes to talk this time, but it was an illuminating back-and-forth.
Did you expect a bit of backlash to We Are Here To Make Some Noise?
You know, it’s a gimmick track. It won’t fit on my new album. Let me tell you the story. I’ve been working on the new album, and I have 40 or 50 layouts for the tracks, and the first three singles are done. The album’s going to be more trance-y.
I had this track lying around and my publisher said, “Radio 538 wants you to do an anthem for the European Championship”, so I played him that gimmick track that I had, and he said, “This is exactly what they’re after.” I said people are never going to believe it’s me, but I like it. Overall, the reaction has been amazing; it’s number 32 on the charts in Holland, and in Russia and Poland it’s doing really well.
My motto has always been, “Don’t be a prisoner of your own style”. I love steak, but sometimes you want to have fish. I miss the days sometimes when Sasha and John Digweed used to drop everything from deep house to trance-y stuff, and everything was possible. I think sometimes people are too narrow-minded for their own good. I’m not becoming a prog-house DJ by the way, not at all!
I see this as a fun track that I would play. But I still believe in melodic, uplifting trance – if you listen to A State Of Trance, you’ll see I still support that and I’m not changing my sound. I’ve always made different-sounding tracks: Drowning, Feels So Good. And then I make tracks as Gaia, a track with Orjan Nilsen, or something like Suddenly Summer. I like to vary my palette, and I have no illusions that everyone will love everything I do. Staying stuck in one sound doesn’t inspire me – first and foremost, I have a responsibility to myself to have fun in the studio.
For better or worse, festivals have become such a force in dance music, and DJ sets seem to have adapted to that environment. Is there a risk of sets becoming all about those ‘high impact’ moments?
Yeah, I totally agree on that. You can clearly feel you have to pass the second break in a track. Playing a good, three-hour set is a journey and these festival kids expect a quick fix. Sometimes it’s nice to have a quickie. Sometimes you want to go to McDonalds and have a burger, and other times you want a Christmas dinner. The essence of DJing for me is a ‘1 plus 1 equals 3’ rule: by playing those two records at that time, in that order, you’re adding something extra. It’s all about timing.
I won’t mention any names, but I’ve been listening to a lot of mainstage sets from these new DJs and I found the first hour of their sets is unbelievable. They play two, three minutes of every track and it goes absolutely crazy. But after an hour, they’ve played all their hits and you see the crowd just going flat.
For me, if you carefully examine my sets like last weekend at Electric Daisy Carnival in New York, I try to lure the people into trance, the sound that I really believe in. It’s a new thing. I don’t want to say it’s a frustration, but I think the scene has moved away from DJs being DJs to being an ‘artist’ just playing their own tracks. I have to say, I play three or four of my own productions in my sets, but I think DJing is about so much more than playing your own hits.
I don’t know. It’s a big debate. I was brought up in the days of Sasha and Digweed, Carl Cox, Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold: these huge sets that build and build. I guess people don’t have the patience for that anymore. We live for the quick fix. Look at Twitter and Facebook: people are bored more easily than 10 years ago.
With Armin Only, A State Of Trance and even to a degree my festival sets, I try to lure people into something more beautiful than just that quick fix of all the big hits. I don’t want to be a jukebox at a festival.
Credit : In The Mix
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