RS:: So, are you working on a new artist album right now?
Don Diablo: Yes, I am. I've been working at it for too long
actually. The problem is with the digital age you have to make sure
to release the album everywhere at the same time. I cannot just
release it over here and sign it to the rest of the world. Over here
in my own country I'm way ahead of the game so it means that the first
single that's got to be released worldwide, I already did that a while
back in my own country and I already did like four singles of my
forthcoming album, but I still have to drop them in America, England
and the UK. Holland was kind of like a breeding ground, so again with
all the critical people over here. When I see all those singles that
did the most damage over here - I've been laying them out for a year
and I've been tweaking them and getting remixes and that helps. So
I'm just going to wait until my first single drops in the UK, which
will be the last week of June (digital) and first week of July
(physical) which is perfect timing with the remix package that I have.
Mason, who is on my label, just had a top three hit in the UK with
"Exceeder" and he did a mix. Those mixes were done quite a while ago
but at the time the people weren't really ready for it and now
obviously the sound is really boiling around the world and it's in
demand,
RS:: I didn't realize Mason was one of your discoveries, how did
you find him?
Don Diablo: He was on my label, I brought out two of his records at
first- I found him a few years ago through friends. Amsterdam is a
small but it's hard for a new artist to break into the scene or to
release a new record. It's possible, but only if you make a record
that sounds like almost or exactly like a record that has just done
well. I wanted to give electronic artists a new platform and so I
started a label called Middle of the Road. We sold like a few hundred
copies of the first two releases and then the third release we hit the
jackpot. It also took a year because I released a record and some DJs
were playing it, so it was like a snowball at a certain point where we
got reactions from Fatboy Slim, Eric Prydz, and Milo. Then all these
movies on YouTube started popping up so we signed it to Germany and
then to the UK and then it became bigger than me actually.