Artist of the Week: Armin van Buuren

There are DJ’s and then there’s Armin van Buuren. In between, you’ll find a world of difference, stretching out over the more than 13 years of his impressive career. The influence he had on the trance scene’s development doesn’t let itself be condensed into one page. Let’s put all the well-known facts to rest and focus on the year 2009. The year in which Armin got married, became the number one DJ for the third year in a row, reached the 400th episode of his A State of Trance radioshow, faced crowds in numerous countries all across the globe and, last but not least, still loves his trance more than anything. Time for you readers to put on a nice episode of ASOT, kick back and read all about Armin’s year of 2009!

The Year 2009
The highlights just don’t seem to stop. If he’s not facing a 30.000 strong crowd on the other side of the world or finds himself at some Award show receiving another trophy for his work, he’s in the studio creating new tracks and remixes. Armin van Buuren lives, breathes and is music. And you can bet your life, it takes a strong person to do so. Though most of his busy life revolves around parties, it doesn’t always feel like a party to him. A constant jetlag, hours of waiting on airports, always on the go. A mental breakdown seems imminent, but not to this sensible Dutchman. Armin:”I am very lucky to have people around me that keep my feet on the ground. This year I did a little less gigs than last year, since I got married and spent more time in the Studio. Other than that I lost a lot of weight and worked out a lot this year, so I feel great.”

It sure shows. The blonde 32-year old, 33 on the 25th of December, looks better than ever. Could it be the glow of love that surrounds him? Chances are high, cause it’s only been a few weeks since Armin got married to his Erika. And no marriage is complete without a honeymoon. In September, Armin finally took some time off. Armin:”It was great to have some time off, but the first trip after the honeymoon was a big tour in the US and South America. So it was back to reality and the travel-mood. But it is what I love to do best, so I am happy to be on it again! When you see that crowd going nuts in front of you, you have to love it again!”
You better, cause no one likes a DJ that doesn’t enjoy his job. But with thousands of fans in front of you, full of expectations and party-spirit, it’s hard not to smile. Every gig is different, and feels like a highlight in some sort of way. But if there was one that stood out in 2009, which one would it be to Armin? Armin:”Of course my marriage, haha. But gig-wise I had an amazing summer, travelling to countries where I haven’t been before, like Portugal and even France. One of the most memorable gigs must have been the Kazantip Festival. I didn’t see that one coming! Check out the video of it, ‘Gaia – Tuvan’”

The Sound Of Trance
Armin may have had a few oldskool house releases in the early years of his career, but the past 10 years have been all about trance music. He’s seen the genre change, develop and grow up to the big kid of the dance scene it is today. Armin:”The biggest difference is of course the quality of the productions. If you hear trance tracks of 15 years ago, and compare them with tracks that have been produced now it is easy to tell which has been done now. This of course has to do with the digitalization of music production. To be able to create a good track, you don’t need a 100,000 euro studio anymore. A sequencer like Cubase, Reason or Live with quality samples, plug ins and good ideas can be enough to make a nice tune.”

With the trance sound of today being more diverse than ever before, there’s plenty of goodies to choose from. And even when the trance scene was going through a rough patch and people claimed it was dead, Armin managed to find the right tracks to play and keep the scene going. It’s that one little word, ‘trance’, and Armin’s love for it, that keeps him going. Armin:”I still enjoy trance as much now as I did 10 years ago. If I hear a big track I still want to share it with my audience, play it in my radioshow or just listen to it on my iPod. If I didn’t love trance anymore, I would never be able to do what I do now. The great thing is that there has been an evolution within trance. There are several divisions, from Progressive trance to harder or techy trance and everything in between. I am pretty sure the music will keep evolving every year, with new producers putting their own signature sounds all over the music scene.”

A New Chapter
In 2009, Armin gave the trance crowd a few memorable productions and remixes to dance to. Besides the return of his legendary Gaia moniker with ‘Tuvan’, Armin released ‘Never Say Never’, ‘Unforgivable’, ‘Fine Without You’ and the latest single ‘Broken Tonight’ with Dutch singer VanVelzen. But it weren’t only his originals that put them into a frenzy. Armin’s remixes for ‘BT feat. Jes – Every Other Way’ and ‘Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren – Beggin’ You’ worked just as well on the dancefloor. Armin:”It is always great to work on remixes, to make a certain track take the bend that you would like it to have to play it out in a club. For ‘Beggin You’ I wanted to make a special remix for the Universal Religion mix CD, but with the heavy touring I didn’t have time to make it in the studio. So I actually made that remix for the most part on my laptop, on the plane, in the hotel or sitting at the airport. Gotta love great software!”
And while his 2009 remixes and productions are still rocking the crowds, Armin’s already working on a new album. But considering it’s still in the early stages, Armin’s not able to give away too much yet. Armin:”I cannot tell too much yet, but I promise it will be a great album with some great collabs and some deeper instrumental stuff.”

A State of Trance
April 2009 brought Armin a busy but memorable event. Or actually, a three day event. The 400th episode of his radioshow A State of Trance was celebrated with events in Germany, the UK and Holland. A 72-hour live broadcast, straight from the party locations and featuring guest mixes by numerous big names and talents of the trance scene, was part of the deal and involved quite an ingenious bit of technique. Armin:”ASOT400 was absolutely fantastic. Though we discovered that the Internet wasn’t ready for it yet, haha. There were some difficulties in some countries with the whole internet because of the data streams. But we aim to get ASOT450 even bigger and better than ASOT400. The listeners of A State of Trance are still able to leave their vote on their favorite artist on www.arminvanbuuren.net, and we will base the line-up on the amount of votes casts on there!”

The A State of Trance 400 celebration wasn’t the only thing happening to the show though. In September, while Armin was enjoying his honeymoon, John O’Callaghan and Andy Moor both did a ‘Take Over Show’, playing their own selection of tunes. Is that a sign of a change? Armin:”I strongly believe in ‘changes are good’, so it’s possible that small changes will happen. The take-over was actually quite scary for me, since I have never given someone else the full control over my radio show. I am glad it went ok, and that the listeners actually enjoyed it!”

ASOT Yearmix & Top 20
On the 24th of December, the A State of Trance radioshow will broadcast its annual Top 20. The week after, it’s the A State of Trance Yearmix that will cover a big part of the trancy highlights of this past year. Two big projects, for which Armin lets the listeners of the show speak their mind. Armin:”It’s a big project, and it actually takes me weeks to make this. It takes a lot of time, because I want to have as many great tunes as possible in the mix. The year mix is based on the votes of the listeners of the show. They (still) have the possibility to leave their votes on www.arminvanbuuren.net to get their favorite track, played on A State of Trance this year. So if you haven’t cast your vote yet, go there and make yourself heard!”
And speaking of favourites, what’s Armin’s top 5 for this year? Armin:”That’s really hard, since there have been a great range of tunes this year, but I would pick these because they were big in my sets and because I’ve got really good memories about them:

01. Neptune Project – Aztec
02. Gaia – Tuvan
03. RAM – Ramsterdam (Jorn van Deynhoven Remix)
04. DJ Eco – Lost Angeles (Breakfast remix)
05. John O’Callaghan – Find Yourself (Cosmic Gate Remix)

The Music Videos,
Luckily, there’s also a release that didn’t involve that much work. However, shooting or creating a few new music videos can be very time-consuming. For the release of the DVD/CD Box ‘Armin van Buuren – The Music Videos (1997-2009)’ new videos were made for ‘Blue Fear’ and ‘Communication’. The DVD contains all music videos of Armin tracks from the past 12 years. Armin:”I think it turned out great. It truly is amazing to see all the video’s made so far. There are even some special new video’s on it of older tracks of mine that have never been translated into a video. Ben Liebrand for an example made a brilliant new video of Communication, which has an amazing story line. I finally saw in screen what I had in my head when I created the tune! I think a good video is really important. It gives something extra to a release. And nowadays with YouTube playing such a big role in promotion and music in general it is great to have a good video.”

The New Year
With the DVD/CD Box out in stores and his ‘Broken Tonight’ entering the Dutch charts, Armin’s December is shaping up nicely. Looking back to such a successful and exciting year is worth a good New Years Eve toast, right? Armin:”December is looking very nice. I am actually touring the middle east around NYE, with Dubai on the 31st and Egypt for the first time in a long while after that.”
And when it comes to 2010, there’s plenty of more good stuff ahead. Armin:”First of all the new album of course, a new ASOT compilation and ASOT450 will be the highlights. In 2010 my Wii Game will get released as well, so great stuff lined up!”
Armin fans can eat their heart out in 2010.

For more info, check www.arminvanbuuren.com or www.astateoftrance.com

For special Armin releases, check www.itunes.com/armadamusic.