The trance legend brings us the next installment of the MOS Trance Nation series
Interview : Dan Prince
Mr Langelaan, a pleasure to speak to you young man and congratulations on the artist behind behind the latest Ministry Of Sound Trance Nation series. You are following in some mighty footsteps, how important is this series to the trance world?
“I’m honoured to have been invited to mix Trance Nation, it’s become a pretty legendary compilation, establishing itself as ‘the’ Trance mix comp way back in the late 90’s boom. I think the albums act as a great snapshot of the scene showing it’s evolution through the years.”
What is the current top 10 you are spinning?
01 Lange ft Stine Grove – Crossroads (Estiva Remix) [Lange Recordings]
02 Stuart McLellan – Downtime (Original Mix) [Lange Recordings]
03 Lange – A Different Shade Of Crazy (Original Mix) [Lange Recordings]
04 ilan Bluestone & Jerome Isma-Ae – Under My Skin (Original Mix) [Anjunabeats]
05 Lange ft The Morrighan – Follow Me (2013 Rework) [Positiva]
06 Planet Perfecto Knights Vs Craig Connelly – Absolute Resurection (Lange Mashup) [Perfecto/Garuda]
07 Andy Moor – I Be (Club Mix) [Ava Recordings]
08 Rikkaz – With The Flow (Original Mix) [Lange Recordings]
09 Alexx Rave – Man Who’ll Save The Earth (Original Mix) [Nanobeats]
10 Lele Troniq feat. Simona Barbieri – Sirio (Original Mix) [Lange Recordings]
How long did the album take to compile and how big was the initial list if possible tracks?
“It’s been compiled over a couple of months and my initial short list was nearly 100 tracks as I wanted to give myself maximum flexibility and plenty of upfront exclusives.”
Who are you especially pleased to have included on the album?
“There are some superb artists on there from the well established names such as Ferry Corsten, Andy Moor and Cosmic Gate,, to some lesser known, but destined for great things, artists such as Tomas Heredia, Stephen Kirkwood, and Alex Larichev.”
What has been the proudest moment of your career to date?
“It’s difficult to say really, there’s the obvious career highlights such as my artist albums, chart hits, Top of the Pops and playing to some huge crowds, but I think ultimately my proudest moments are when I meet people and see how passionate they are about some of the music I’ve made over the years. I’ve seen clubbers with tattoos of my tracks, know some have got married to my music and know some plan to say goodbye with it. It goes beyond being a career and becomes very personal.”
As the EDM explosion dominates front pages all over the world, how do you think it has affected your beloved trance music recently. Do you think some producers are maybe getting a little lazy out there…?
“I see positives and negatives with the USA EDM explosion. Overall it can only be beneficial for everyone in Dance music, putting the scene at the forefront to the masses, as long as there’s room for all the genres to survive. Much of the commercial stuff is all sounding horrifically similar though and whether it’s laziness or just plain ‘hit chasing’, it’ll likely end in a mass exodus of bored clubbers. Part of the problem is the way music is ingested so fast these days. Gone are the days of a 6 month teasing promotion and tracks that stay in the boxes of Djs for months and months. It’s all gone ‘fast food’, with tracks being devoured in a matter of weeks and the pressure is then on to the artists to keep churning them out. Add the fact the technology has made it much easier to produce something that ‘sounds right’ (but isn’t necessarily very interesting or original). Throw in the recent explosion of ‘Construction Kits’ and our promo inboxes have never been more cluttered with mind-numbing ‘levels’ copies. Although I’m pretty open-minded and do play a lot of varied stuff, I’m pretty rooted in the Trance genre and the scene’s followers are particularly passionate about the music so they tend to stick it out through the genre fads.”
Who are some of the producers you are giving high fives to right now?
“Heatbeat, Super8 & Tab, Alex Larichev, Beat Service, Orjan Nilsen.”
Now be honest here. What was the whole performing on Top of the Pops experience like – and who else have you appeared alongside on the show?
“It was good fun, although I was very nervous! Although I’d had a lot of commercial success by that stage I was pretty much a behind the scenes producer and wasn’t Djing. So to jump on TV was quite a big step. Definitely a cool thing to have done as it was an iconic show when I was growing up. Britney Spears and Pink were there, also I recall So Solid Crew and the Vengaboys. Much to my surprise, when I watched the show on TV 2 days later I discovered Britney introduced my performance at the end of a short interview segment.”
What is coming next for you studio wise?
“I’m currently focussing on my 3rd artist album ‘We Are Lucky People’, which will be out later this year. The album is still very much in the making as I decided to do things back to front this time, releasing singles and building the album as I go along, so the album will be a culmination of effectively a years work and singles. But to make things that more special, as i near album completion time I will be taking all the singles I’ve released and giving them a twist for the album. I’m aiming for a more ‘home-listening’ version for the final album, something that continually flows from start to finish. Quite often I restrict myself musically in order to fit the ‘club format’, so in a way this gives me more flexibility to take those tracks and develop them further. Hopefully the concept will work out!”
Where are some of the big festivals we can catch you at this year?
“Tomorrowland, SW4, Global Gathering!”
Funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a festival?
“I’m playing Global Gathering next week….I recall an incident that happened the first time I played there…. There were a number of people standing at the back of the booth through my set including my agent at the time. At one point, I spotted them all dart off in the corner of my eye. Only at the end of my set was I told the reason they pegged it was because they’d been told ‘Get down, that guy’s got a gun’. Of course it was a hoax, but no one warned me! Nice.”
Your best ever DJ set?
“There are too many fun times to select from but I guess if I narrow it down to this year I’d pick playing in Kiev, Ukraine as the crowds there are totally crazy. For epicness, I’d pick playing for POPNYE at the Oracle Stadium in Oakland, USA to 15,000. It was literally a wall of clubbers everywhere you looked and the atmosphere was intense. Amazing night to start the new year!”
Who is the person from history you would most like to have a pint with?
“Kenny Everett.”
What a splendid answer! Will we see you in Ibiza this summer?
“Yeah I’m out there doing a boat party with Driftwood to celebrate my 15 years in the industry! Really looking forward to that.”
And finally Mr jetsetter, what would your idea of a perfect Sunday be?
“With all the travelling and constant stuff to do, my perfect Sunday would be chilling out in the Sun with my wife, preferably somewhere with no mobile reception!”
Trance Nation: Lange
Forthcoming through Ministry of Sound, July 29th 2013
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