Past experience has taught us that when Sven Väth comes to Australia, sleep is not his top priority. The techno titan is upholding his role as the ringleader of The Likes Of You tent at the five festival stops, with some planned (and perhaps a couple of as-yet-unplanned?) parties on the side. We spoke to the veteran for a fly-by five minutes last night in the midst of his Asian tour to see if he’s raring to go.

“I’m really looking forward to it, especially hanging out with all the crazy artists for 10 days,” he says. “I had such a good experience last year. I especially can’t wait for the show with Richie [Hawtin] at The Metro. It’s not so often that Richie and I play together all night long. That should be a special one.”

Given his devotion to vinyl, inthemix wants to know if he’s been able to restock his record bag while on the road, or did he just have to choose carefully when leaving Germany? “I’m staying with my wife and child in Phuket, Thailand, actually,” he reveals. “I’m working and flying out from here all the time. I’m getting nice packages of new records sent here every 10 days. I’ve set up all my DJ equipment here, looking out over the sea and playing my vinyls.” It’s hard being Sven Väth…

As for the feel of his DJ sets this time, Väth says he was inspired by the ‘anything goes’ attitude over the 2010 Cocoon Ibiza season. “Everything was possible on the dancefloor last year at Cocoon – from trippy house to the Cécille sound of tech-house to techno and harder stuff.”