Armand Van Helden: Pilot of the airwaves

It’s 8pm in New York City, mid-summer and the windows to Armand van Heldens’ loft are thrown wide open, catching the breeze. The sound of taxicabs honking in the streets below drifts in through the windows. I’m sitting in my bedroom, in Brisbane. It’s 9:55am and on the other end of my telephone line is Armand van Helden. He’s very tired, very well fed and very talkative…

“Today… I’m good, and in terms of this week, it’s been hectic as usual, but at least I got a lot of good ‘friend time’. You know, I’ve had a lot of good dinners with friends. I don’t generally get to do this because I’m busy. I’m not able to see them all the time, so last night, the night before, and the night before we had these great big dinner parties, you know”.

It’s impossible to speak with Armand van Helden and not congratulate him on such an amazing career, and for such remarkable consistency. One of the biggest names in House music history, one of the most respected Producers in the industry and one of the most highly ranked DJs on the planet – What does he have to say for himself?

“I don’t think it’s like that – it’s not all like that. I don’t think much for myself – only thing I can say is ‘I enjoy what I do’”

Early in his remixing career, Van Helden was pushing the Tribal sounds before it was ‘Tribal’. Tracks like the very positive and vibrant ‘Nrongo Ma Mrongo’ and his remixes of Deep Forests ‘Martas Song’ will attest to this. This period in his career showed a significant move in direction with regard to production skills. Tracks like Indonesia especially highlight a certain ‘Ethnic’ element and some of the production pseudonyms he used, Jungle Juice, Circle Children, Chupacabra also bear witness. Many people are familiar with the stories of Armand’s childhood experiences, growing up in a family which moved frequently (His father was Armed Forces and as such, they were required to move to different countries, Turkey, Holland, Italy and of course the U.S). The opportunities this presented a young boy, musically, are obvious in his great and accomplished body of work, spanning a decade in which he singularly not only defined a genre, but also brought his own name quite magnificently, into a spotlight so hungry for a new face. Armand was afforded experiences only a certain type of person can successfully draw from, especially in so far as musicality. I asked Armand, with much respect to his own cultural background – from the production level, was this a direction he wanted to pursue with great intent?

“I think it was just me being me, doing what I was feeling at that time. I think that I did those records ‘cos, you know, obviously house moved through… it’s a strange form of music, in that it mainly likes to layer itself on all the other forms of music so you could almost put anything over house. It’s not much different to hip-hop, same feel. You can easily put a rock record over a house beat and everyone’s happy. Back in the days, it was a newer, fresher sound to add an ethnic element to house. Before that, it was church, the whole gospel vocal element. I like that too, but I don’t have a 30 piece church group, what I did have was CDs of ethnic music, Indian music African music”.

“Technically, the only thing that’s changed in 5-6 years is less stuff, and I didn’t have anything in the first place. I use Pro-Tools basically, and I sequence in it. I don’t really need much of anything else. I’m just Pro-Tools and Plug-Ins and in terms of technology, laughs I have three FX units, I don’t even turn them on, I have some compressor I don’t even use. I’m very much… I guess there are two types of producers. I’m the one that doesn’t know anything about anything. I know what sounds good and I know what I gotta do to get things done. I’ve never worked with an engineer. I just get things done. I don’t wanna know what does what. With equipment, if it takes me too long to do something simple – I don’t wanna know about it. I can get what I need simply. I’m the type of Producer… people hate me because they wanna buy new gear all day long, sit there, screw around with it, twist it’s knobs, and they NEVER make a record. I’m like ‘Here it is. Done’. It really doesn’t take much thought processing”

“There is always an intent in music, especially when I definitely like to throw in subliminal messages, I always have it. Maybe because of my hip- hop roots I’m so used to having songs with lyrical content, so when you’re listening to an instrumental, how do you send a message. It’s got a good groove, but how do you get that vibe across in a nightclub?”

“My home these days is New York, and it has been for a long time, but you know, New York is a… is a home for a person like me, like a gypsy. It’s home because it always gives you endless, I’d say unlimited options in terms of anything. In terms of entertainment, in terms of music, in terms of culture would be the best thing to say. I have yet to find that or experience that at this level anywhere else in the world”

“Only thing that puts it wall together for me, the stimulating factor is that I built bridges. I put things together that were wrong – so I’m saying, not just songs but people. I like to do that, it gets me off. That’s what this city offers, New York offers. We’re all from different places, different backgrounds and we manage to get along, so that reflects out in my music. So you know, you have ‘this’ style of music, ‘that’ style of music and you combine them. I kinda like to do that – it is intentional”

How does one man do it? How does one single man achieve so much? Taking a look at Armand van Helden’s discography is like looking at a veritable ‘Who’s Who?’ of House Music. Sanchez, Sneak, Daft Punk, Pooley, Todd Terry collaborations. Remixes for Faithless, KRS-One, New Order, Basement Jaxx. Perennial people’s favourite @ the Miami Winter Music Conference. I wondered, and asked Armand if this is where he saw himself at this age, when he was but a boy…

“Well you know, my first DJ gig was when I was 13, it was for my school so I guess I did have an inclination of something. I think early on, I was seduced somewhat by the power of music in terms of how it can, I guess, how you can as a DJ, well… the power that they have, to make the selection – not so much the mixing or the scratching. I was into hip-hop but, um, I mean, that was the thing. I think when I was younger, I always wanted to be a radio DJ – ‘And the next song is…’ that kind of thing. In those days, DJs on the radios couldn’t play what they wanted to play and they weren’t paid so much as they are now to play records for the Record Companies”.

“I wanted to play what I wanted to play, not be dictated by the labels on what to play. I lost my fascination when I learned that no radio DJs knew anything about what they were playing. I did have my own radio show. When I was 16 I had one. I lived in Italy at the time; it was for the American base. It was my own 2-hour show; it was like a real thing. I had that and then after that I didn’t do radio. I did do a mix show on KTU, it was like a two hour mix show every Saturday night, but there was no talking. I couldn’t talk about the music and I didn’t have time for it, my heart fell out of it. I couldn’t talk or tell people stuff”

In an industry possessed by appearances, Armand van Helden is definitely one of the most recognisable figures in the industry. Is the package (i.e. the tunes, the cars, the girls and the clothes) what matters most? In other words, is it REALLY all about the Benjamins?

“I guess, naw… I’m not Hollywood – not even close. I’m a New Yorker, and there are New Yorkers here who think they are in Hollywood, but when you’re in this lifestyle, in this city you’re living in reality. I don’t drive, I don’t have a car. It’s stupid! Why would I have a car? Everything’s walking distance. I’m gonna have a car so I can say ‘Hey! Look at my car – It’s awesome, right?!’ I’m not gonna drive it anywhere, trucks are gonna back into it… laughs Look, I have a nice loft – it’s good, all around. I think the word I’m looking for is ‘functionality’. I got into quite a lot of money in my early career, I come from nothing, I had good management, I had good things in place. I’m not glam. I don’t go all out and over the top, that’s just not me. I’m in a club, I’m playing, I’m not cruising – I don’t. I just get a beer and I stroll. I am one humble mean rather than a Hollywood mean. You get that?”

Put that man on the New York City Governors payroll. With such pride in his home town, the town which has given him so much, Armand has released his first commercial mix set (CD) titled ‘New York: A Mix Odyssey’ . The interview continues to conduct itself – As I nudge Armand about this release…

“Basically the songs that made it onto the CD, I’m a collector, so I have a lot of different stuff. I started with a lot of songs and then they got wound down to less. It was difficult to pick, so many great songs. It was cool, the YES song on the list, a lot of people remember that song. It’s not a straight dance floor friendly song, but people remember the video and the song. It’s a well built record with those early sampler, drum, break, stab things. Way ahead of itself in the first place. The songs on the mix are all important to me. I could do a thousand mix CDs with this type of music. I had to live on my living room floor with my headphones on for three months going through all my records”

“I had to do that when we started. I mean, my main thing was kinda like thinking how I was going to put these things together when their BPMs are really fast and some are really slow. Back in the day in New York… DJs here, they don’t mix, they drop, but they know how to drop correctly, so that’s how they get away with it but on the CD, I had to do it differently. So when you’re doing one minute drops… They can play one track then they drop in fucking Guns’n’Roses and it’s a WHOLE other thing, but on my mix CD the songs have to play out for clearance reasons so…”

You can catch Armand Van Helden touring Australia at the following venues in July:

‘New York: A Mix Odyssey’ is out now through Southern Fried/Sony.