Few names in the dance music industry are as universally recognised or respected as that of Dutch superstar DJ Armin Van Buuren. In an industry where stars are made and broken in the span of a few weeks, and where the name on the tips of everyone’s tongue one minute is forgotten the next, very few individuals stick around long enough to make any sort of lasting impression the way Armin has. ITM caught up with him on the eve of his Australian visit.
“I can’t wait to get down there again!” the charismatic Dutchman enthused on being asked about his thoughts on his upcoming Australian tour. “I’m always excited about heading back to Australia, and I when I found out I was coming back to play again, I was very happy.” To hear Armin tell it, Australia is consistently one of his favourite destinations. Within moments, he is rattling off cities around Australia, telling stories of previous tours and particularly of the “Armin Only” tour in 2004 that saw him playing six hours or more in each city that he visited along the way. He mentions with a degree of excitement that, unlike his last tour in early 2005, he’s expecting to play a number of 3+ hour sets this time around. “I’ve always enjoyed longer sets, to be honest. Trance DJs have a stigma attached to them, I think, in that the perception is that they’re only good for 90 minutes at a time at festivals and that’s it. With a 90 minute set, you know, every DJ wants to make a really good and lasting impression. So, they want to drop the major tracks that they feel are significant and memorable, but in so doing they don’t really have the space to construct a proper set the way they can when they have a number of hours to work with, and a lot of the really great music that’s out there gets missed.”
Having recently received a copy of his latest DVD, entitled “Armin Only: The Next Level”, which was filmed during a marathon 9½ hour set, I ask Armin about how he keeps dance floor interest across the longer sets associated with the “Armin Only” concept. “The event that’s recorded on my DVD, that sort of set really is the next level for me, I think, in expanding how I play to incorporate other acts in a way where the music doesn’t ever have to stop, and the energy of a DJ set is never lost”, he explains. On the DVD, Armin DJs alongside a number of other artists (including live guitar played by his brother, accomplished guitar player Eller Van Buuren) with each transition between DJing and live instrumental or vocal performance mixed live by Armin just as seamlessly as one would expect him to mix two records or CDs together. “We rehearsed the show for a year, believe it or not. We were aiming for a specific sort of continuity, where the music never stopped. The idea was that we’d have these different artists come and go with the music going the entire time just as if it were all a big DJ set.”
So what sort of music does a DJ considered by most to be a Trance DJ play for a nine hour set? “To me, trance has always been a much broader term than just the cheesy formulaic music that many consider to be typical of the genre, you know, the same sounds, the same breakdowns, the same buildups.” I ask about his decision to release Breathe by Mode Hookers (aka Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso, the Swedish duo known for their grinding electro-house anthems) and where he sees such tracks in relation to the sort of trance tracks that he is more traditionally associated with. “Mode Hookers for me is just as much trance as a big epic breakdown record is. Music is always evolving, always changing, and when you play an eight or a nine hour set you need to remember that no one wants to hear eight hours of the same patterns, the same formulae.”
The topic turns to his choice of musical partners, and in particular his choice of collaborators both for his DVD and for his recently released artist album, Shivers. Pointing out that the list of artists with whom he has worked reads like a who’s who of the dance music industry, Armin is quick to point that, despite his diverse musical taste and his never-ending desire to try new things, he is very selective when choosing which artists he’ll work with. “I work with professionals”, he explains matter-of-factly. “All of the artists with whom I have chosen to work, they are all professionals who take what they do very seriously. These aren’t people with a day job making some money on the side, you know, just dabbling in music. That’s the first thing.” So what’s the second? “Well, I need to click with them on a personal level, to consider them a friend and a creative partner. And also, when playing live with me, they need to understand the importance of being a performer, and have a great performance ability. Watch Ray Wilson on my DVD, for example. Ray is a good friend and a great musician, but importantly he is also an amazing performer. I think the audience appreciates this, and I think it makes a real difference in terms of their overall enjoyment of the show.”
Armin himself is no stranger to performance and spectacle. In a world where international DJs are moving away from the traditional art of playing vinyl records towards CDs and laptops running software programs such as Ableton Live, Final Scratch or Serato Scratch, the Dutch trance star still sees the value in getting hands-on with two turntables in front of a crowd. “I think DJs who play only CDs are lazy, to be honest. I strongly disagree with the idea that vinyl is dead. What’s the point in that? Because CDs are easier to play? That’s the whole idea! With vinyl there is so much more skill involved. It’s much more difficult to mix records because its not tight, you have feedback, needles can get dirty, there’s dust to worry about, and you need to know your records as you can’t loop vinyl the way you can CDs. I think these are things that a crowd can appreciate.” Armin also acknowledges that he has something of a vested interest in seeing traditional DJing skills and media stay alive. “I also run a label, and I sell records, so for me it’s important that I lead by example. I’ll still be playing vinyl as long as there are people interested in buying it.”
I press Armin a bit more on the concept of laptops in DJ sets, and it becomes clear that I’ve struck a nerve. “I don’t know what your laptop says on it”, he says, “but on mine, if you flip it over, very clearly it says ‘for home or office use only’. I take that to mean that it’s not really intended for use in a club environment. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ableton and use it for my radio shows, my mix CDs, and so on, but think of all of the effort that goes into having a night out. You shower, you get dressed, you meet your friends, you queue up outside, sometimes in freezing cold or for hours, and then you finally get in, you check your coat, you get a drink, you head to the dance floor, and then what? You stand around waiting while the DJ reboots his laptop because it’s just crashed again? I’ve seen this, and to me this is not what clubbing is about. For me, I will only use equipment and technology that has proven to be reliable in a club environment. The Technics 1200 turntable and the Pioneer CDJ1000MKII are the only two pieces of equipment that have really proven themselves to me in this way.”
From the tone of the conversation, it becomes rather obvious that Armin has some pretty strong beliefs about the direction the music industry is moving in as a result of technology. Recalling that he and I share a common area of academic expertise – intellectual property law – I ask him how he sees technology impacting on the music industry in general and dance music in particular as it relates to piracy and MP3 downloading. “That’s a very good question”, he says, and I can hear the sound of a can of worms being opened over the phone line. “I would like to urge the international community… I’d like to put an alarm bell on, really, across the governments of the world regarding this issue. It comes down to two basic questions that I’d pose to the average consumer. One, do you want to spend twenty-five Euros or twenty-five dollars every time you want a new album? No, of course not. Two, do you think its unfair the degree to which artists are unpaid for their work as a result of digital downloads? Yes, most would say they do. This is the problem. There is this big gap between what the audience wants to pay and what the artist needs to get paid. We all know the artists need their money, especially in the dance music industry, artists need money so they can explore their creative freedom. When we look back to the 1980s, with the peak of commercial music, we can see where putting more money into this industry can really make a difference. In terms of illegal activity, downloading is everywhere. I mean, not even traffic laws are broken with as much regularity as intellectual property laws are.”
So what becomes the best way forward, I ask, curious to hear the views of someone who is both an artist and the owner of Armada, a major dance music record label. “We need a new Berne Convention, to start, and that would need to be the product of a thorough and informed discussion about what can we pay, what are we willing to pay, how are we willing to pay, and so on. I recently read a very interesting proposal from England that proposed a sort of digital watermark for all digital audio files that would contain flags detailing the permissions associated with that work by the owner of that work – its ok to copy, its ok to play live, to sample, and so on.” So do Armin’s views as an artist conflict at all with his views as a label boss? “On one hand, I still play vinyl, and I don’t download songs illegally, because I own a record label. On the other, as an artist I have to appreciate that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for digital downloads. So it’s important, I think that we all come together and develop a workable plan that sees artists paid a fair rate, where listeners can legitimately support those artists for a reasonable fee.”
As we wrap up the interview and I thank one of the world’s most capable and respected DJ for his time and insight, I am struck by a number of aspects of his personality that, despite the international telephone connection, have come across the line as clear as day. The first and most overwhelming is the degree of passion Armin has for music and the creative process. The second is his capacity to articulate this passion and the beliefs which power it, and the third is his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for the music and artists with which he works. As our telephone conversation ends and I look over the notes I’ve taken during our conversation, I find myself amazed and impressed at the warmth and sincerity projected from the other side of the globe by the charismatic Dutchman with the contagious laugh and quick wit. With just a short time before his arrival on Australian shores, it’s easy to see why this affable Dutch DJ has made such a lasting impression on the dance music community – and why there is such palpable anticipation in the Australian air on the eve of his arrival.
Armin Van Buuren makes his long awaited return to Australia this month to headline Two Tribes and the Future Music Festival, playing 3 hour sets at all events. Don’t miss out!
Fri Feb 24 – Two Tribes, Brisbane (BUY TICKETS)
Sat Feb 25 – Two Tribes, Melbourne (BUY TICKETS)
Sat Mar 4 – Future Music Festival, Sydney (BUY TICKETS)
Sun Mar 5 – Two Tribes, Perth (BUY TICKETS)
