One thing Afrojack doesn’t have at this point in his sky-rocketing career is the luxury of time. The DJ averages eight gigs a week, mostly concentrated in Europe and North America, which means a lot of flying (on private jets, so it’s not exactly Easyjet purgatory). By necessity, his ‘studio’ has become his laptop. “When I have music in my head, I just want to get it into the computer as fast as possible,” he tells inthemix down the line from his agency’s offices. “I don’t have any free time, so I’ve only been producing on my laptop.”

That laptop will of course be travelling with the 24-year-old Dutchman to Australia for the Stereosonic tour in just six weeks. An interview with Spinner back in August suggested Afrojack might be deep in the process of making his debut album by then. However, as he tells inthemix, the album can’t be rushed.

“It’s underway, but it’s going to take about a year,” he sighs. “I’m working on it, but the thing is I don’t just want to fulfil my fans’ expectations, I want to exceed them. When I do it I want it to be really good, and I don’t think there’s a time limit on that.”

Despite not sounding all that excited about discussing an album that doesn’t really exist yet, we pressed him anyway on his vision for the long-player. “It’s going to feature vocalists but I’m also going to try to write a lot of lyrics myself because I have a certain vision of life and music, and that’s what I want to share,” he offers. “I don’t just want to make hit songs and put them on a disc. I want a story; an experience.”

Pulling together those “hit singles” (he’s got at least ten club tracks awaiting release) and slapping an album title on it would certainly be a doozy for the producer. After all, he’s already prolific. But an album should be unique, he says.

“My album as Afrojack is not just going to be dance. I think everyone loves a lot of genres – of course it’s going to be dance-oriented, because that’s my origin from deep down. That’s my biggest passion. But I also love to listen to and produce other music. There’s going to be a trip-hop track, drum & bass, maybe a dubstep track, I’m not sure. It has to be different.”

We also spoke about Afrojack’s burgeoning label Wall Recordings and the all-new set he’s planning for Stereosonic, so stay tuned for the full interview on inthemix soon.