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Features
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| Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! | | DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! | | TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! | | A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! |
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Interview with Dutch trance DJ Ferry Corsten
Reported by josie
/
Submitted 24-09-04 15:58
DJ Ferry Corsten… ranked #7 in the world… on drugs, Paul Oakenfold, and ladies’ underwear.
You were nominated for Best International DJ at the Dancestar Awards. Were you surprised that Paul van Dyk won?
I expected it. The first thing I thought when I saw the nominees list was ‘its going to be Paul’, because he’s been working on the US market for so long. Especially this year and last year, he’s been really hammering that market, so I wasn’t surprised.
Do you like America?
It’s great. I love it there… I mean it has its little quirks.
Like not being allowed to drink until 21?
Yes, and all the ID stuff. It’s very weird. Even if you have a grey beard and you look older than 21, they still want to ID you sometimes. It’s very strange. Also the whole tipping bit I find very funny. In England, in some places service is not included. But in America they make a really big deal out of it and people are really over-friendly to you. Sometimes you’re just like ‘come on, bring me my food! I will pay you your service charge anyway, just don’t overdo it!’
Is clubbing there very different?
I love the scene in America very much now, because here I do feel people are a little bit spoiled. All the big DJs come from Europe and they can see them every summer or whatever. Somebody said to me in America ‘finally all these European DJs are coming over here, the DJs we have always read about in the magazines or on the internet. At last a lot of DJs have discovered the American scene which is very greedy and very needy for European stuff now.
They’re getting into the spirit of it now as well [plainclothes policemen arrested 125 people on drug offences at the Dancestar awards, and confiscated $25,000 worth of drugs]. Things are very different in the UK.
In the UK it’s tolerated in a way. In America they’re paranoid about so many things. Also, there’s the whole ‘Raver’s Act’. It’s a law that the government is trying to enforce now on promoters. Basically every promoter, as soon as one kid has been found in a club on drugs, the promoter is responsible for it, and has to pay a fine or the club is closed own. But it’s so unfair, because if the kid is popping a pill around the corner, fifteen minutes before he enters a club, there’s nothing the promoter can do about that.
How come all the big trance names apart from PVD are Dutch?
We’ve always been literally in between England and Germany, and I think we’ve always had kind of an aggressive dance scene over here. On the one hand we’ve been influenced by England, and on the other hand by Germany, so that rubbed off on us, I would say. Also we have a lot of radio shows here, like 24 hour radio shows, and it’s the way we kind of feel the sound over here. It has to do with the DJs who play it, all of them are really interactive with the crowd.
This is something I’ve heard a lot about you. A lot of people say that you love your fans, and you put on a great show behind the decks.
I feel personally there’s a couple of types of DJ, there’s one type who plays only hits and there’s one who plays only for himself, and only the music he likes. I think I’m somewhere in between, because I’m a producer and I play a lot of my own stuff. I’m very lucky that a lot of my stuff still enters the charts in the UK for example. So when I play my own tunes a lot of people know them, and they’re actually seeing the artist that made the track. I feel also with these people who come up to me and say ‘you did great’ it rubs off on me, it gives me positive energy. That’s what I mean with the types of DJ. As a DJ you and the crowd should become one at some point. That’s what it’s all about, it’s just about having fun. For the crowd it’s great to see that the DJ is really into what he is doing, and really into having a great time with the crowd instead of sitting there thinking about himself.
Which do you prefer, DJing or producing?
I just love everything, but in my blood and in my veins… I’m a producer.
I saw PVD play in London recently, he did a great set and yet he doesn’t use vinyl.
He has a laptop with a program on it called Final Scratch. Every track that you want to play is a hard disc recording as a Wave file and it’s linked to your turntables.
He’s so still behind the decks. He hardly moves.
Paul’s a very introvert guy when he’s behind the decks, but he’s extrovert when you talk to him. He wants to make jokes.
Are all DJs mates? Do you all know each other?
We all pretty much know each other. I used to hang out a lot with Tiësto before he really blew up.
And now he’s too important?
No! We’re still very good friends, but now I’m on one side of the world, he’s on the other side very often, so we don’t really have a lot of time together.
Do you go to clubs to hear people DJ?
I hardly go to clubs. When I have a free night, I rent a movie, or go to the movies, or maybe just go to a little club where they play house or funky music, very different from what I normally hear.
Are there any people who are coming up now that you think are going to be really big?
There’s a Dutch DJ that I think is going to be in the next ‘shipment’. His name is Ronald van Gelderen, he’s Dutch. Yes… another one! He’s also producing a lot, and he’s doing really well at this point, he’s playing a couple of big gigs here. His productions are quite strong. Another guy that I think will be one of the next big boys is Adam Sheridan, he’s British. His tunes are doing really well, they’re being played a lot by Jules on the radio.
The big tracks that you’ve done, the one’s that you’re really known for, which are you most proud of?
I was most proud of the remix that I did for William Orbit [Adagio for Strings]. That piece of music itself is really beautiful. I’m very proud of ‘Punk’ as well, because I made that track in five hours, and then to have such impact with it.
It’s got quite a dark sound. Everything I’ve heard that you’ve been involved in has got that kind of ‘oh no it’s all gone wrong’ sound, that drama in it.
I’ve been making trance music the way everyone knows trance for eight years, and I’m ready to experiment with different sounds. I’m a big fan of the electro stuff and I’m trying to blend that in with trance. So, for example, the ‘Somebody’ remix is trance, but it has that dirt to it.
It’s a good thing. Last year, trance music went through such a downturn and it was so boring, and ‘progressive’. Nothing exciting happened, whereas this year, everything’s turned around.
The progressive sound really killed dance music. There was still good progressive stuff – Sasha played it. I really loved that, it was really up, but some of the progressive at that point was just too anal. It was a nine minute track with just a kick drum and a bass and you were waiting for eight and a half minutes just to get a bit of drive. None of the DJs were smiling, not even looking at the crowd.
This is something that I know people are going to be interested in, and you like talking to your fans. I’ve had a look on a Ferry Corsten forum and you have some quite strange fans. Here’s one e-mail. It says ‘I am the boy’, and then the word ‘splinter’ 128 times.
(long pause) That was on my website?
That’s on a Ferry Corsten forum.
Ok. I don’t know what splinter has to do with it!
And here’s another one. ‘Hi Ferry, you remember me from Helsinki December 2002? We talked there and I gave you a promo, I was hoping you could send me some feedback from the tracks…’
Yeah sure, 2002, I still remember! I get that, ‘I see that you’re coming back to Toronto again, and I saw you there when you played there for the first time in 2002, I was the guy in the orange t-shirt, we talked all night!’
Is it true that Paul Oakenfold paid $750 for a whitelabel of ‘Out of The Blue’?
Well not to me unfortunately. But I heard that story, and it went from $500 to $600 and $750 now. The story is apparently we sent ‘Out of The Blue’, the first whitelabels, ten of them, to all the big DJs including Paul Oakenfold. But apparently he received so many records at that time, that he never had the chance to listen to it. And then after a few weeks the hype was really buzzing.
Do male big name DJs have groupies?
Oh absolutely.
Have you ever had underwear thrown at you when you’re behind the decks?
Just once. This girl was really smiling at me, then next thing something landed next to the record that was spinning. First of all I thought it was one of those things that girls put in their hair – a scrunchie, then I realised it was her pants!
You’re married though, right?
Yes. Usually she comes with me and sits somewhere out of the way… but where she can see what’s going on!
Ferry Corsten wrote the phenomenal single 'It's Time', released this summer, and mixed the latest in the Euphoria series - Infinite Euphoria. His next single will be released either in December or January. He plays Escape in Swansea on 24th September, and the Dance Academy in Plymouth 0n 25th September.
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Other Features By josie:
It's the Generation game featuring Agnelli & Nelson, The Thrillseekers and Lange
Peach at Heaven: Reviewed
The Gallery at Turnmills: Reviewed
The International Indoor Festival at SeOne: reviewed
The double ender: interview with trance legends Darren Tate and Mike Koglin
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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