Clubbing Magazine

Armin Van Buuren: “Don’t be a prisoner of your own style”

From the town of Leiden in Holland comes the 25-year-old Law student, DJ and producer Armin Van Buuren. He has over the years produced some of the best tracks and remixes on the trance scene. You might know him under the names of Armin, Rising Star, Alibi, Major League and Perpetuous Dreamer. At the age of 20 he had his first hit “Blue Fear” - "Well back then I hadn’t so much equipment - I got an Akai sampler and a small keyboard. I did everything with the sampler – I made the track “X mark the Spot” using the internal memory of the Akai sampler, with just 2 MB RAM. I used the memory very creatively - I used it as sort of a synthesizer. This was going to the A side of my first release on Cyber Records, and I went back to the studio to make “Blue Fear”, based on the same sound patterns as “X mark the Spot”. At that time we didn’t think much about “Blue Fear”, because it was going to be the b-side, but in the last moment we changed it so “Blue Fear” was the A-side. At first nothing happened with the release, but suddenly it was picked up by Sasha + Digweed and Alex Gold from Xtravaganza, who signed the track to Xtravaganza Records. So that’s why I am sitting here – because of a small record being a big success. With the money I earned I got new equipment and I am still evolving." In 1999 he started his own label Armind with United Recordings. On this he released, Gig – “One”. “Touch Me” under the Rising Star name was signed to Ministry Of Sound and Gimmick – “Free” was signed to R&S Records. After that he released Gaia – “4 Elements” and he joined DJ Tiësto to do two productions; Major League – “Wonder Where You Are?” was released on Blackhole and Alibi – “Eternity” was released on Armind and was licensed to Paul van Dyk's label Vandit Records and was re-released over the summer 2001 including a Thrillseekers remix. On Cyber Records he also released “Communication” that was a big hit in 1999 and 2000. Perpetuous Dreamer – “The Sound Of Goodbye” was signed to Cream and was a big hit over the summer 2001. For the new System F album he collaborated with Ferry Corsten on the great riff-track “Exhale”. - "Tiësto and Ferry Corsten are good friends of mine, Armin explains, we hang around and we ended up in the studio doing a track, nothing more nothing less, nothing really planed. Ferry Corsten wanted to do a track for his album, so I went over to his house, but the first time we worked on the track it didn’t work out. The second time it was a much more relaxed atmosphere and we came out with “Exchale”". As a remixer Armin is a well know name, he has done over 50 house and trance remixes such as ATFC – “Bad Habits”, Wamdue Project – “King Of My Castle”, Madison Avenue – “Don't Call Me Baby”, Gouryella – “Walhalla” and the new remix of Iio – “Rapture”. This has brought him in high demand and he is today in a position where he can choose what he wants to do. - "Yea – I haven’t done so many remixes lately– because I wanted to slow down on that – quality is more important than quantity. I earned a lot of money on that, so I don’t need it – so I can just focus on what is important for me. When music will be my work I will quit, it still has to be a hobby. I always say, “Don’t be a prisoner of your own style” – I think when you are focusing on one style you will be dead at the end of the year. I don’t want to focus on one style, and I think experience with a lot of different styles and sounds gets you the opportunity to evolve and to try something new". Armin van Buuren has released 3 compilations in his AVB series where he manages to find the perfect balance between progressive, trance and the big riff-tracks he loves. His new solo album and number 4 in the AVB series should see the release in 2002. - "I don’t want to kill the market with my compilation CDs. The only demand I have when I am putting a compilation album together is that I don’t want to be put in obligations on putting certain tracks on there. It was very hard for the record company, because it was the first time that they worked this way. If you do a compilation in a good way you can communicate with the public as well, if you put 20 hits and your name on it, it is not good". As a DJ Armin has establish himself as one of the top trance DJ’s in the world, and he can be experienced regularly in the UK at Passion, Godskitchen, Gatecrasher, Slinky, Peach, and other great venues around the world. Armin: " I have two loves, – music and electronics – I like computers and synthesizer – so it is a natural combination that makes me who I am". This feature/interview was published in Clubbing Magazine # 3 Feb-Mar 2002
Audio part You can listen to an extra interview with Armin Van Buuren here, It was done on the 18th of december 2002 in Copenhagen. Length: 18,38 min, mono 32kbps Size: 4370Kb Format: MP3
Interview by: Christian Almind