RS: Thinking of Armin Van Buuren, Johan Gielen, Pronti Kalmani - Why do you think the Dutch dance scene has fostered such international attention lately?
Pieter Van Adrichem: Well, don't forget Tiesto, Junkie XL, Legowelt, Sander Kleinenberg, Alden Tyrell etc etc
Why? I guess that Amsterdam was one of the first cities to embrace acid house makes a difference. There's always been a lot of influx in Amsterdam of people from abroad and house music broke through to a mainstream audience relatively early - say around 1991, so we just have a long history of dance music in the country. Also: Dutch music publishers have always been very active and the local governments have mostly been supportive to accommodating dance events, instead of repressive.
RS: How will the conference be addressing the digital arena – such as downloading and the internet?
Pieter Van Adrichem: There's a panel hosted by German music industry magazine Musikwoche on
mp3 promotion. Also, we'll be addressing downloading and new platforms
at one of our talk shows.
RS: What exactly is a Talk Show - is this a different way of conducting a panel discussion?
Pieter Van Adrichem: We introduced this last year: a talk show is a much faster, much more
interactive setup as compared to a panel. We try to treat multiple
topics in a number of 'rounds' during two hours, where panellists are
changed. We also have DJ's and other acts, presentations etc during the
talk show. Also: the bar stays open...
RS: Looking at the topics - I see there are specific events about doing business in Italy and Poland. Why are these two countries being
spotlighted this year?
Pieter Van Adrichem: We always spotlight a couple of countries. Italy is also a country with
a long history of electronic music and a big audience for the music. The panel means to handle pitfalls and typical things about the country to our audience. For Poland: it's a new member of the ADE. We think it's only a matter of time until eastern Europe will open up for dance music
RS: Too Many VJs - what will be discussed here?
Pieter Van Adrichem: Music - vision - inspiration - technique. All for club VJ's: the Netherlands have a strong VJ tradition. In fact, all the visuals in the 'Around The World In 80 Days' Hollywood production was done by Dutchman Micha Klein, who still is one of the VJ icons here.
RS: How important are videos for dance songs in Europe?
Pieter Van Adrichem: Since dance music is virtually pop music in Europe: pretty important. Of course, underground tracks usually don't have a video
RS: I noticed there will be a film program. What influence do you think movies have on dance culture?
Pieter Van Adrichem: Well, not as big as dance culture has influenced movies I think. We have two dance culture movies at the ADE this year
RS: Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos is one of the keynote speaker. What wisdom do you think this musical legend will share with the attendees?
Pieter Van Adrichem: Kraftwerk is of course one of the originators, and not even on music alone - he will speak about the relation between language, image and music.
RS: What was the biggest highlight of ADE 2003 for you?
Pieter Van Adrichem: There were too many: T.Raumschmiere, Sascha Funke, Vive la Fete, Steve Rachmad, Matthew Dekay, Quintessence from Finland, Darren Emmerson, Moonbootica...
RS: What are you most looking forward to this year?
Pieter Van Adrichem: A lot of the smaller shows featuring acts from Piemonte in Italy, Berlin, Belgium and Denmark are bound to present something unexpected. I'm definitely going to check Ricardo Villalobos and Funk D'Void.
