Which countries know DJ Tiësto
Of course The Netherlands, but on a second place England. Tiësto plays monthly in 'The Gatecrasher' a very popular club in Sheffield. Scandinavia also knows Tiësto because it was the first area that Tiësto conquered. But on today the whole world knows Tiësto.

An interview with DJ Tiësto backstage @ Homelands, 26-05-01

Virtual-Festivals.com - How did your gig go tonight?
DJ Tiësto - Great. I started at 8.30 on the radio 1 stage, till 9.30. The crowd were great.

VF - It's a good stage, outdoors. Have you played here before?
DJ Tiësto - No. This is my first time.

VF - So what's your impression of Homelands so far?
DJ Tiësto - I'm really impressed...

VF - What are your plans for the rest of the summer?
DJ Tiësto - I'm going to Ibiza. I'm playing Tuesday nights with God's Kitchen. I am also doing Gatecrasher Summer Festival and I'm doing Creamfields as well. At the moment my plans are to finish my album. It's my first artist album, as opposed to a a mix compilation. That's going to be released in September.

VF - What sort of music can we expect to hear on that?
DJ Tiësto - A lot of things that I've already played but also some Balearic stuff. Real VIP lounge music, it's good. I just finished a new track with Kirsty Hawkshaw. That's going to be a new single in July sometime. My last single was included lots of styles, if you like trance music, techno music, clip music, everyone can play it.

VF - Where do you see yourself going in the future in terms of musical direction?
DJ Tiësto - I think long term. I want to create a band. A live DJ band. I want to go, like Faithless, my style.

VF - so what are you up to for the rest of the evening?
DJ Tiësto - I'm hanging around. I only want to do one gig a night so I can really prepare for it. Take the journey, see other DJ's. I am really looking forward to seeing Orbital tonight. I think that they are really amazing.

I wanna thank www.virtual-festivals.com for getting this interview so give them a visit.

An earlier interview with Tiësto
Tijs Verwest more known as Dj Tiësto played live here in sweden last sunday (30-09-00). And The day after he were interviewed by the trance.nu crew.

Question: Whats your full name?

Tijs Verwest

Question: What do you think of the about audioformat MP3?

I really like it, because specially in The States and also here in Sweden it's been good for my name because my CDs are hard to get here.

Question: What do you think when people download your songs illegaly. Is it bad because you loose royaltymoney.

Well, I'm not in there for the money. I'm really glad, actually honored, that people download my music. That's a compliment I think.

>> ... at the moment there's many artists taking advantage of the music and try to make alot of money on it...<<

Question: What's your best gig ever since you started ? ?

There's a lot of those but I think the first Innercity gig means most to me, because it was the party that made me very famous in Holland. I had my break-thru there.

Question: What's your worse gig ever ?

I was booked once for club in Holland and the guy didnt know what I was playing, he just heard my name. And people there didnt know me either and they asked if I could play r'n'b music. The place was very crowded and I stared to DJ and after halv an hour it was empty.

Question: What's your advice to people that want to start produce trance or DJ, where should they start ?

If you look at me it was a long wait to get there. So start with playing music, start at the beginning (laugh). I started like 15 years ago.

Question: How where you discovered?

It took quite long time because I sent out like 100 tapes to all kinds of labels but nothing worked. But then I played at a club for 200 people in south and a friend from my hometown was there. He worked for Basic Beat and he heard me play. He liked it and asked if I wanted to mix the Forbidden Paradise serie so I started on CD3 and it became very big in Norway. So I had my first big break-thru in Norway and people in Holland though "why is he big in Norway and not in Holland" and then they discovered me.

Question: Do people recognize you on the streets ?
In Holland they do, also in Israel. In England they do sometimes when Im infront of a club.

Question: Does it bother you when people come up to you and want to talk about music ?

No no, music is my life so I love it.

Question: The best trancetune ever released, what is that ?

It's hard to say, there's so many. But with vocals I think BT's Mercury and Solace is the best one I ever heard, really a trancetune. A few old ones I like is Age of love, Jam & Spoon and Jens with Loops and things those are some classics, really good tunes.

Question: Whats your favorite tune right now ?

Hard question, let me think...

Question: Exactly what means trance to you? There's so many opinions what trance is.

For me trance is when you hear music and you forget everything around you. You forget where you are and what you're doing, you just hear the tunes.

Question: Will Gouryella release a full-length album ?

We're thinking about it because it's become so big. But I'm also working on my own album at the moment, it's going to be released next year in february or march i think. I think the name's going to be Tiesto - Solo but I'm not sure.

Question: How is it going with the Tiesto Solo Tour ?

It's amazing. On Friday nights Holland is dead, most of the clubs are closed and hardly someone goes out. So I took a very big risk to do it on Friday Nights. But almost every gig is sold out allready.

Question: How many project do you have besides Tiesto ?

Allure, Kamaya Painters and together with Armin van Buuren I have Alibi and Major Leauge. I have Vimana together with Ferry Corsten and in Kamaya Painters it's me and Benno de Goeij. And Benno de Goeij is also the guy who made Rank 1 (together with Piet Bervoets).

Question: Why do you use all these names, is it because they all have different styles ?

Yes, and I made so many tracks and if i released them all under Tiësto people would think that it's too much. And it's also it's because I work with other artists, if I do a track with Armin I can't call it Tiësto because it's Tiesto and Armin.

Question: We got alot of questions about if you will play in USA in the future ?

Hehe, It's because the MP3 is there. That's great I'm setting up a tour for next year in march, I'm gonna tour with BT (Brian Transeau).

Question: Any tour in Sweden or the nordic countries ?

I would love to come back here, because yesterday I really had a good time (Docklands, Stockholm, Sweden 30th of September 2000).

Question: One more question from the visitors of trance.nu, will you release all you magikal remakes on one album ?

Im not sure because its all diffrent companies and it's really hard to get the rights from a major company, they never give you the right to use the track.

Question: Magikal remakes, is there some special way of remixing them because they're very unlike the original mixes ?

I call it magikal remakes because the word remix is so used and I didn't want to use it and magikal because they call me the magic man (laugh), the magician from holland.

Question: Here's one question from one of Swedens most famous radio-DJs. He's wondering which one of the following DJs you would like mostly to co-operate with; Paul Oakenfold, Mauro Picotto or Judge Jules ?

Paul Oakenfold. He's got a lot of experience and feeling so he knows how to read the crowd.

Question: So you actually read the crowd and play by heart or do you have a playlist ?

No, I just start off with some songs and try to feel the energy in the crowd and then I test some things. If I go too hard I try to soften it down and if it's to soft I try to get it harder.

Question: Did you start out as a DJ or musicproducer ?

I started out as a DJ.

Question: Which song that you have made is best by your own opinion ?

It's still has to be made I think. It can allways be better but I really liked the first track from Gouryella, it's really special.

Question: Which one of your remixes of other artists tracks are you most sattisfied with ?

I can clearly say that it's Delerium - Silence, I really like it.

Question: What's the name of your first release ever ?

I think it's Allure with When She Left but Im not sure because it can also be Carlos - Silmarilla that I made together with Piet Bervoets, and he's also in Rank1 together with Benno de Goeij. With the name Tiësto it was Theme from Norefjell.

Question: What equipment did you use when you started making you music?

I had a sampler, a Roland DJ-70 and experimented with sampling during my set. It was nice to start with. And later on I started to build a studio.

Question: How do you do you compilation CDs? Do you do them live on turntables or do you make them on a computer?

I do them live, all of my mixes are mixed in one take because I think that's the way to really put the feeling into it. Because if you hear like the Global Underground CDs it sounds so technical and you miss the feeling I think.

Question: Did you use a playlist for Magik 6 - Live in Amsterdam ?

Yeah, I used a playlist because when you sell the CD you have to have promission to record the tracks before you use them so when I recorded it I knew which track that was going to be next. I'm very happy with the result because I took a really big risk recording it live in Amsterdam.

Question: When was Black Hole Recordings founded ?
It was in November 1997 I think. I tried to start my own label at Basic Beat Recordings but they didn't want me to start my own label so decided to start on my own. So Black Hole recordings is my own company together with Arny Bink

Question: Do you meet up with Armin, Corsten and others or do you just meet them in buisness ?

At he moment we are so busy but maybe when we are retired. *laugh*.

Question: Will you play in Sweden soon again ?

I don't have a booking but I'm really up for it because I really like it. Arrange me a good party and I'll come.

Question: How are the plans for the future ?

Next year I want to conquer England, that's my big target. It's going pretty well there and I got a lot of bookings so I'll work hard there and then I'm going to to the tour in The States. Finish my album, keep fresh and try to do new things to keep the trancescene going because at the moment there's many artists taking advantage of the music and try to make alot of money on it.

Question: What do you think of Darude - sandstorm, do you like it or not ?

Well actually I do like the song but I don't see it as a trancesong. It's just a commercial, it's nice to hear when you're in a pub drinking beer.

Question: Do you work as a DJ on fulltime or do you have something at the side ?

I've got alot of things. I'm DJ:ing ofcourse, I produce records, I have my recordcompany which I work for and I have the store so that's pretty much.

Question: What do you think about the future of trance, how do you think it will develope and spread all over the world ?

The trance is already big all over the world, right here in sweden the scene is fresh and still growing which is something to be proud over because in some countries trance is dead. Nothing new is happening. I think the future trance will develope and become a little deeper and get back to the beginning.

Question: What do you think about the extended use of drugs in the tranceculture, or that the trancemusic is related with drugs.

It's not really true, I mean you see drugs everywhere. If you go to a popconcert or so, it's on all scenes but you see it more on people on the trancescene. I think the trancemusic is the only music you can listen to without taking drugs. You can really feel the emotions in it. You can get on another level without the drugs. If you listen to techno, it so monotone so then you really would need drugs to enjoy it.



Written by:
Tommie, Jezper And Macman

I wanna thank www.trance.nu for getting this interview so give them a visit.

Official DJ Tiësto Web Site:
www.dj-tiesto.com