Mark Norman: Trance ways

Mark Norman are the award winning Dutch production duo, Mark de Jong and Norman Lenden. While Norman is deejaying solo, they are responsible for a series of high profile original productions and remixes. Dubbed by Tiesto as his hot prediction for the future, dance floor anthems such as Touchdown, Phantom Manor, Overkill, RUSH, and Mark Norman pres. Since joining BPM Dance in the year 2000 Mark Norman has become a big figure in the realm of trance music, they are DJs that can take a breath away as well a outstanding producers always trying something innovative, bringing new elements into the music that make it so remarkable.

With Mark Norman’s upcoming performance at Pharmacy, ITM’s The Host gets some insight into the artists’ likes and dislikes.

What is your favourite DJing atmosphere: club/arena/outdoor festival?

It depends ‘cause when I play in a small club the atmosphere can be really intimate. Especially when I have a 3 or 4 hour gig I take the people on a journey. When I play a big festival it’s more banging cause the atmosphere ask for it. So it’s difficult to say what I like more. I think I like it both

What was your largest audience to date?

That was Trance Energy 2006. I played a back to bakc set with Cor Fijenman for more than 20, 000 people. It was unbelievable to play for such a crowd.

What is your take on special effects when you perform, do you prefer insane smoke/laser/fire shows or are you conservative about these?

It is important that there is a good lightshow cause the show is not all about the music. With lights you can create a certain atmosphere which contributes at the imagination of the partypeople. A lot of people think its all about the music but in my opinion that’s not true.

Can you recall your biggest blooper while performing?

In the beginning of our DJ career I was really nervous. I had a gig in Germany and that was one of the first gigs and I paused the wrong CD player so there was a total silence in the packed club. U can imagine how I felt at that moment…..haha

When performing, do you strictly prefer pure trance or do you tend to throw in a few alternative genres in the mix?

I like it that the styles are becoming closer ‘cause you can experiment with different tunes. It also depends where I am playing and how long I play. But I always play a lot of my own tunes and we remixed our tunes in diverse styles.

What is your ideal set duration?

3 to 4 hours!

7. Describe the best and worst hospitality that you ever received from event organisers (hotel, transportation, stuff ups etc)

I played once in South Africa and there I stayed in Sun City. Its one of the most beautiful hotels in the world so that was quite experience and not to forget last years NYE. I played at Nikki beach in Saint Barthsl together with Enrique Inglesias. I stayed in a house on the beach which was wonderful. The worst experience was in the Czech Republic a few years ago. The hotel I was supposed to stay in was really dirty and smelling, really unbelievable so I said to the promoter find me another hotel cause I don’t stay here. I don’t usually ask for much but you can imagine when you travel a lot the hotel room become a sort of second home and therefore it’s important that the hotels must give you the feeling that you are home.

What are your thoughts on hard trance?

Well I don’t play hard trance so it’s difficult to say.

What software do you prefer when producing?

In the studio we work with Cubase SX 4 with a lot of software plugins. But we still use hardware like the novation, roland mc505, Avalon compressor etc. Also we still have an anologue Mackie mixer which gives the tracks a certain warmth

Would you prefer Cds or Vinyl for DJing?

I play only with CDs nowadays cause it’s more easy to travel with and I always make my own edits of tracks.

Dates:
Apr 5 2007 @ The Palace (Pharmacy), Melbourne
Apr 8 2007 @ Capitol, Perth