Brand new Enhanced Sessions album with the Danish trance maestro calling the shots
Welcome to DMCWORLD Magazine young man, where in the world are you right now?
“Hi guys! I’m in Sheffield. After having done a smashing set with Ferry Tayle at the HMV Institute in Birmingham! Clash Of The Gods!”
A brand new ‘Enhanced Sessions’ compilation mixed by yourself and Estiva swinging our way next week. Your CD is packed full of exclusive, unreleased tracks and remixes…what are the tracks that you are especially excited about including here…?
“A lot of them are from new talent on the “up”. “Spark7 – Insania” Is defo the tune on my disc, that has the most anticipation from the crowd, along with my new vocal single on there.”
You’ve had another spectacular year production wise and also DJing – good to finally break America right?
“Yeah lovin’ it! Been there a few times this year. San Fran @ Ruby Sky 3 times this year. LA twice, and NYC once, if I remember them all correctly. Nice crowds!”
What are your thoughts on the big dollar explosion of EDM in the States…Sander signing for Jay Z’s label Roc Nation, a certain US company offering Sensation $100 million for their brand – is this the correct structure to be building a long term music scene…just getting the cheque book out?
“Well who can argue with a 100 Mill? But I think the music should come first. It doesn’t at the moment sadly. Money talks. But I hope the best for Sander, as he’s always been a great DJ and the leading Dutch guy after Armin in my opinion.”
How would your cool trance superstar friends react if they knew you used to like Samantha Fox and that Dr Alban was one of the first records you bought?
“I don’t really care. If anyone judges me for what I did when I was 9-10 years old, they need a brain examination. I do what I please, and as a kid I had a stack of free CDs. Fox, Erasure, Depeche Mode etc. were among it. I listened to 80s pop and still do sometimes. SO WHAT??”
What is the top 10 you are spinning right now?
“I hate that question! I always go blank when I get asked that. But check out my latest Beatport chart, and of course the Enhanced Sessions CD is a great reflection of what’s hot for me right now – it’s packed full of exclusive stuff that I’ve been hammering in my sets!”
You have a big love of snooker, if you had a choice every hotel room you checked into would have a table in it! One thing we love about this fact is that if you Google ‘famous Danish snooker players’…yours is the only name that comes up! You must be proud huh?
“I am very proud of that. I haven’t done as well professionally as my worst rival Rune from my country, but I play more exciting stuff than he does, which is probably why it’s mentioned. I like to go for my shots, and have a great cuepower to make some nasty spin when needed.”
What is your highest break, have you cracked the magical 147 yet?
“147 in a practice-lineup only. But still happy about that! 141 and 138 are the highest so far.”
Shit you are good! Well your musical tastes took a turn for the better around the age of 10 when you first heard the sounds of melodic, uplifting trance with ATB leading the way. What was it about this sound you fell in love with?
“I was older than 10 to be honest Dan. I’m 28 now, so mathwise, must’ve been about 14 years old. But I listened to Euro trance/dance as well. Just the melodies and chord progressions got to me. It was such an amazing atmosphere!”
Emotion obviously plays a big part in writing melodies and lyrics for trance…what were the feelings swirling around your head when you wrote ‘Breathe’?
“Actually it’s hard to talk about, but an online friend whom I was about to meet, died at a very young age, and I went on a bender trying to forget about it. Came back, drunk out of my mind, made the first version that night. Woke up and hoped it was still good, and seemed to hit a note with it. I still hold this tune very dear to me for those reasons.”
What were those two weeks like waiting for a response from Anjunabeats?
“It was horror as I thought it was the end of the world. I’d never get anywhere. I thought labels answered daily almost, so I was misinformed and got very depressed by it. But then the reply came, and they played it out on TATW, as record of the week. I was at a rock concert with a mate, when my phone started going SMS crazy, people congratulating me for the play, I went home, and turned my PC on, and was shaking when I started the show on anjunabeats.com’s stream thingy. Jono mentioned the title and the name. At the time, it was one of the best nights of my life!”
A few years ago the trance scene in Denmark was non-existent with clubs like Club Gorgeous being only the avenue for a night out. What is the scene like there now?
“About as bad as it can get. So I don’t really care about it. Although Aligators Album release party, will be the first REAL trance night in a long long time in Copenhagen. Held at NASA on December 1st, if anyone wanna join!”
In 2007 when your DJ career was relatively new, you said that by 2012 you wanted to break into the DJMag100 and play at Gods and Gatecrasher. Well you were in the Top 100 for two years and have just slipped out but still bang on the money with your hopes…
“I might’ve gone down to #124, but I’m still above a fair amount of legends on the list, which makes me proud in a way. I’ve had a lot of great gigs this year, and even in 2011. So things are looking good, and the rank is not everything. It’s just a possible career booster. But very thankful for the support I still get!”
Tell us about your clubbers cellphone phobia you have whilst DJing… You have a lot of knowledge about my gigs it seems!
“Ha ha you know me too well! Well phobia is a strong word. But honestly, with 500 people in a crowd with a shitty booth and no privacy-distance, it makes it quite annoying when folks ask for too many tunes.”
Who are the new producers we should be looking out for in 2013?
“Max Braiman, jjoo, Willem De Roo, Alex Wright, Spark7 to name but a few!”
What is coming next from your Always Alive Recordings label?
“The above mentioned names plus plus a few others are on the way on my label. I rate their stuff VERY highly!”
Who are the artists you like listening to away from EDM to chill out…?
“At the moment I don’t listen to chillout, it’s only in phases. At the moment. I’m so busy with the music that I get very little time to listen to other stuff than demos and my own stuff!”
What is your plan for 2013?
“Just keep at it. Touring a lot, new music and get more to England for relaxation with the snooker!”
Enhanced Sessions Vol. 3 is out on November 26th
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