RS: You are also an ambassador for Dance for Life. Tell us about that.
Paul van Dyk: Dance for Life is basically a big project, it’s a
campaign that is connected to the UNESCO and it creates awareness of
the problem that AIDS creates.
RS: Very cool. What's coming next?
Paul van Dyk: Well I'm working on basically writing music right now
for my next artist album, so that's what I'm doing.
RS: Is the travel inspiring you?
Paul van Dyk: It’s not, right now it’s more tiring than inspiring.
But, you know, the whole of next month my good friend Johnny, who I
wrote "Time of Our Lives" and "Home" with, we’re going to hang out the whole
month and just write music, so I'm pretty sure something’s going to
come up.
RS: What kind of sound do you hear for it?
Paul van Dyk: I don't really know yet. You know, usually it’s like
when I go to the studio I don't really sort of put that pressure on
me, I have a general musical idea in my head and I work on it until I
feel it’s coming across. And sometimes when I think ‘oh this is going
to be a lush, ambient piece,’ it turns out to be really banging
techno.
RS: Alright. For your live set, what exactly do you do when you
perform live? Like are you going to play CDs, are you going to have a
laptop going, what does your show consist of now?
Paul van Dyk: Well, I have two computer systems with me, one is
running a program called Abelton with a lot of audio material and the
other is running the performance program of Logic called Main Stage.
And I have software synthesizers installed and I have keyboards on
stage that I apply, I have a custom-made mixer, I have mini
controllers all over the place and I play all sorts of things.
RS: How different is your show from night to night?
Paul van Dyk: Well, when you get out there, if a certain arrangement
of something works very well in order to bring the idea and the track
across, it doesn’t really make any sense to completely change it. But
I have everything on my fingertips to change everything completely, if
I wanted to play For an Angel as a complete ambient track, I could in
a matter of seconds.
RS: Very cool. On this tour, even these cities you never have
been before, what city has most surprised you with their response?
Paul van Dyk: To be really honest, it's like it’s not so much like
just one city, it’s just like the general thing. I'm honest about it;
I was a little worried about playing on the Monday night in
Albuquerque or Tuesday in Oklahoma City because they don't have big
festivals and I doubt they have radio stations really pushing
electronic music. And still the shows were absolutely phenomenal,
like really, really cool and all I can say is this shows how
widely-established electronic music is and how many people love that
music. Because regardless where you live, if you're interested in it,
you hear it, you love it and you experience it, and this is what
happens. So this tour was good for something.
RS: It was definitely good here in Nashville because they played
your mix on 102.5 which is a very commercial radio station. What
about your sound do you think is going to bring across the commercial
crowd who are not used to the electronic sound?
Paul van Dyk: Well I hope they get some sort of idea of why there are
so many people globally attached to that music. Because this is what
it is; I just spoke to someone who’s really into bluegrass, you know,
grew up here, like really liked this music, and I explained to him
that basically what fascinates me about electronic music is the fact
that we have endless possibilities of expressing energy, emotions,
whatever. If you have your trumpet, if you have your bass, you know
you can do so many things within the electronic field with the
soundscape you have, you know, with the power you can bring across,
it’s endless and therefore really, really intense, and this is what I
enjoy.
RS: Speaking about intense, what music or artist right now is
really inspiring you that you're hearing out there?
Paul van Dyk: Well, I hear a lot of pop artists using sounds that you
would basically source within the electronic field. Which I don't
really have a problem with, it widens the ability of the usual pop
listener to listen to good music. To be honest, I’d rather have the
Pussy Cat Dolls singing on a straightforward techno beat and not some
weird r&b crap.
RS: Good answer. And what would you like to say to all your fans
out there?
Paul van Dyk: Thank you so much for everything.
Posted September 1, 2009
