Untold Advise for Young Musicians at the Untold Festivals

When I went to the Untold Festival in Cluj, Romania, I had the unique chance to talk to some of the big artists which performed there. These included the likes of Armin van Buuren, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Lost Frequencies, Tinnie Tempah, Aron Chupa and Third Party. One of the questions I asked most of them was:

‘What advise do you give to young people who want to start a career in music production and DJing?’.

Here are the responses they gave me…

Armin van Buuren

Armin enjoys the interviews. He looked me in my eyes and said:

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.

Lost Frequencies

Felix De Laet,a great guy on his way to become a great DJ:

I think the key thing is not to imitate other people. When I made my track "Are you with me", I was thinking of other tracks but I tried to remake it so it doesn't sound like the original at all. I think that's really cool about music because you try to do something but suddenly it goes the other way. So you should try to find something that goes with your style, keep to it and try to make your own profile. Try to contact other YouTube channels or get re-posts on Sound Cloud and get your music in the mix tapes of other DJs and wait for labels to contact you rather than trying to contact them instead!

Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike

Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike paused few seconds before answering this question. Deep thinking? 🙂

Well you have to believe in yourself, work hard and not give up. There might be a moment when you feel like stopping and giving up but you have to keep going!

Third Party

Third Party, the rising stars from Size Records:

Don't expect it to come easy! I guess everybody sees these one in a million stories of a young guy getting picked up by these big producers. I think you have to be prepared to fail but hope for the best. Work hard, or get very lucky or be born in Holland! That helps.

Aron Chupa

Aron was short and to the point:

Hard work beats talent