After a triumphant 2009 punctuated by a couple of Australian visits for Sensation NYE and Trance Energy, Dutch tech-trancer Marco V is due back here in May for our inaugural Creamfields. With fans champing at the bit for the his sets in the Cream arena, the man is just as enthused.

“Creamfields is going to be mammoth,” he tells inthemix in a rare moment of downtime. “I have a great history with the festival and to be involved in bringing it to Australia for the first time is a 2010 highlight. It’s been 12 months since I was there last for Trance Energy and I had a blast. I’ve been doing a whole lot of smaller club gigs, so it’ll be nice to cut loose again with a big room ambience.”

The contrast of playing festivals versus the more intimate club gigs is a balancing act on most DJ’s turntables, and I questioned Marco on their differing dynamics. “When I play on the big stage I like to quickly pump it up with the big sounds, while in the clubs I trend towards a darker edge,” he explains. “The big room energy gives me a magical peak, but equally the smaller club is a nice change, as it allows me more creativity. Together, the combination works well as it emulates my manner in many ways. I naturally like to travel these two roads in my production style.”

It is this well-documented production style that has the likes of Above & Beyond and Armin van Buuren regularly dropping Marco’s tracks, with stompers like When The Night Falls enjoying pride of place in many esteemed DJ wallets. The man’s own skills in the booth culminated in him winning the prestigious ‘Best Tech House DJ’ at the DJ Awards in Ibiza last year. “That was a total surprise,” he admits. “I have always tried to play as many styles as possible in my sets and radio show and I guess the tech must’ve been loudest.”

Marco’s tech-house side looms large in his latest release, Propaganda V2 an album of collaborations. Predator and Scenario are two standouts, and Marco describing the peculiar way in how he teamed up with English vocalist Khashassi. “It’s a very funny story,” he recalls. “Ben, my studio mate, met her playing World of Warcraft online. They got chatting, she ended up sending us some demos which we really liked, so we invited her over and these tracks are the result.”

Predator is a killer inclusion on the album, with Khashassi’s voice reminisent of Nadia Ali (think Rapture by iiO ). It’s also devoid of the usual trance vocal cheesiness common to the genre. Asked about how it’s connecting with big rooms, Marco is clearly contented. “Everyone loves her voice and a lot of people are asking me, ‘Who is that girl?’ I’ve also just done a new remix which is more in tune with the dancefloor than the album version and the results have been great. I’m really looking forward to dropping it in Australia. Right now I’m currently redoing Scenario for re-release, as its first go didn’t do for me what I really wanted. This time my aim is to give it a more edgy flow, in a more similar theme to Predator.”

Is that level of perfectionism a common approach for Marco? “This is actually the first time I’ve ever done it this way,” he continues. “Normally I do a track, release it, and tweak it here and there like I did with Predator. But with Scenario I was unsatisfied. I love the vocal, so what I’m doing now is taking the voice and putting it into something totally different, to see how it works. Musically there are always so many variables, and when you really believe in a song you’ve got to go back and hit it from another angle.”

The producer is not one to shy away from outside opinion, either. “I’m always reading feedback on my website and analysing what people send me. I never dismiss it. I’d been getting many remixes of this particular track and it made me take notice, so instead of letting the track go and focussing on something else, I delved back into it.”

And ‘back into it’ he is. With a helter-skelter schedule of studio and gigs, Marco is always on the go. “I’m really busy, but I’m really disciplined with it. You’ve got to be. I’ve just had a studio built in my house so this keeps me from sleeping the day away. But I’m doing something I really love, so I don’t really work a day in my life.”

Marco V headlines the Cream arena at Creamfields in May. For full arena line-ups and anything else you need to know, check out ITM’s festival page.