My Interview with Armin van Buuren at Untold, The DJ that conducted an orchestra

It doesn't matter if your a DJ or if you work in a school, it's always important to keep learning

Andy van Pop: What do you expect from tonight at Untold Festival?

Show time! I am back in Romania, first time in Cluj, but I know that it will be a show to remember. I really can’t believe that there were so many people in the crowd the first two days (65.000 people each day). It’s crazy! I’m just really thankful to be here again.

Andy van Pop: What are the main challenges about being a DJ? 

The main challenges as a DJ are of course the traveling, the jet legs. Being away from my family sucks because I have two young children; my daughter just turned 4 and my son just turned 2. I also do less gigs then I used to: I used to do 150 per year, now I only do 100 and I want to slow down a little bit more so I can also be more in the studio, make more music. However I still want to be with my fans. Romania has always been a really good country for me since there is a lot of live for the trance here in Transylvania and the Romanian crowd is very important so I try to balance carefully , it’s a military operation with my schedule. It’s all great tho, I work with a really great team of people around me. I mean I’m the only guy sitting here but this whole table would be full with all the people that work with me and for me, you know so many people are involved in my day to day business and so this helps a lot.

Andy van Pop: What about your new album, are you going to play anything from it?

Always. I’m always testing new tracks and I never play the same set twice because I don’t want to play any pre programmed sets. I’m a little bit of an old school DJ, I like to look at the crowd and then decide what to play. That means I play a little bit more uplifting sometimes or I play a bit more progressive, depends on the crowd. I think I’m 97% done with my album and I hope to release that in the fall, so I’m super exited.

Andy van Pop: What advise do you give to young people who want to start a career in DJing and music like you?

There are two pieces of advise that I always give to young and up in come producers:

First of all, the quickest way to the top is to make music. Sounds strange if you want to play music you have to make music, but this is the truth. Your quickest way to the top is if other DJs start playing your music.

Secondly, I think it’s really important that you do it with your heart. The crowd is not stupid. They can see if something is real and if you do it with passion and with fun. If you try to copy an other DJ or you are just in the DJ scene to be in private jets, then you won’t make it very far. I always try to explain to young artistes that it is really important to be a unique character and to try your own sounds and to keep learning new things. You’ll be surprised after 20 years of record production how much stuff I’m still learning to do.

For example, when I was working with Mr. Probz on my single “Another you”, I was recording real strings in Wisseloord studios (note: very famous studio in The Netherlands). I’d never been there before. It’s the most expensive studio in The Netherlands. So, I told Mr. Probz that if we want to do this single I want the strings, which were originally played on the piano, to be live (to reccord real strings). So here we were in the studio, facing a string orchestra. They were playing and I went up to them and I said: ‘tum tum’ (Armin gestured something with his hand), and soon I found myself conducting an orchestra. This is what I like about my job, I’m not a conductor for an orchestra or anything like that, but I learn everyday and this is very important for everything in life.

It doesn’t matter if your a DJ or if you work in a school, it’s always important to keep learning: you have to stay hungry for information, you have to stay hungry for development, to discover yourself and to discover new things.

Andy van Pop: In 2013, before starting your set at Tomorrowland, you announced the birth of your son. We are at “Untold”, what about you tell us an untold story, maybe the name of your latest album?

My manager is standing over there and he will shoot me if I tell you. What is untold? The problem is with the new album, there is still a lot of legal negotiations with artists, so if I announce any collaborations or titles, than I could ruin it. It’s pretty boring but we have to go through the legalities of this.
I do have something! The Ushuaia CD will be released in 3 weeks time.

Andy van Pop: Thank you Armin and good luck tonight!

Armin van Buuren at Untold Festival