02.09
Club District has an interview with Sander van Doorn (click above) and there were a couple of things that I personally took away from the interview that I wanted to share. This interview was short but touched on a few interesting aspects of becoming a DJ and what it takes to be successful.
Blending Genres
I sometimes question myself when my DJ sets transition from house to progressive to full blown trance. After all, many think that it’s best to stick with one genre and master it instead of trying to be a jack of all trades. However, I think Sander van Doorn is proof that it is indeed possible to do just that. Most of his sets (except the festival bangers where you go all out right away) start slow, play techno and electro house, then slowly build up to tech-trance and trance. And Sander does it in his own way, his own style, that is still unique.
In the interview Sander talks about the fact that he is happy when tracks like Riff are played by Digweed and other DJs in different genres. Indeed, the most successful tracks of each year are those that make it onto the playlist of house as well as trance DJs. Some I’m thinking of are Pjanoo, Chakalaka, Riff, Unprepared, etc. In fact, there seem to be two versions of success – one is making a track that really stands out in your genre and is well respected by your peers. In trance this happens almost every week where a track comes out and most of the trance DJs end up supporting it; the same goes for house and techno I’m sure. However the other version is where you make a global track which is not only supported by your peers but people you might not know, people on the internet, etc. That’s when you know you have really tapped what EDM has to offer and shared it with the rest of the world. And those are the DJs that get the most respect and the most popularity. They may be hated on by purists for “selling out” but I for one fail to see the harm in perhaps ditching some of the elements of your particular genre in order to give a track more world-wide appeal.
And there it comes down to the point of making music itself. The two types of success may very well correlate to the reason you produce music as a DJ. The first type of success, in my opinion, correlates with DJs who have fallen in love with a particular genre. Example: Armin van Buuren loves trance, pretty much only makes trance, and I doubt that’s ever going to stop. His albums are always vocal trance and are well supported by other DJs in the genre every time, however you won’t see David Guetta dropping AVB any time soon. The other type of success is more related to a person who loves music, and chooses EDM to express his talents and love. This could be a person who has been in a band before and enjoys listening to other types of music but prefers EDM the most. In my opinion, these DJs such as Prydz or SVD aim to not just make a “house” track to give out to other house DJs, but they aim to make music that expresses their style, whatever it may be. One day they may listen to Pink Floyd or Abba and decide to make a track influenced by those sounds; they worry less about genre and care more about the sound itself.
This is, of course, just my opinion. As you can see it’s very biased and favors the latter type of DJ much more than the former. I appreciate AVB or Steve Angello or whoever that make excellent tracks for their genre to enjoy, but I more respect DJs who branch out more and worry less about pigeon-holing their style to a particular shelf at the record store (or category on iTunes).
Being Unique
And that brings me to my second point, which is addressed by Sander when the interview asks him how a budding DJ can get to be Sander van Doorn. His answer:
I’d say to start with, don’t try and be another Sander van Doorn! You’ve got to have that natural progression, as you said, to get your music to a good place. There is definitely an element of luck involved in getting anywhere in the music industry but if you keep knocking on the right doors, eventually they have to open. I don’t think it’s always made out to be that obvious how hard people work to get where they are and stay where they are.
I think this is very interesting for two reasons. One is the fact that Sander confirms what I said before, which is that it’s important to be unique, and let it come naturally. It’s easy to listen to others and to some extent you can’t just come to a party and play 100% whatever you want. However you have to please the crowd in your own way and this shouldn’t lead to you completely sacrificing your style. The times I have played at UCLA the crowd is completely electro-house oriented. I love trance. The two don’t go together. At first I would completely sacrifice my desires and play house because I thought that’s what the crowd wanted, but it left me feeling completely empty. I felt like I didn’t play anything that I really wanted to play and instead was giving people what I thought they wanted. That’s no way to be a performer. As a starting DJ there is definitely an element of pleasing others to get them to respect what you play but that can only go so far. I think having your own natural progression is very important.
The second reason I found this of interest is because Sander does say that it takes a LOT of work to become a DJ. And that is true. In fact lately I am flabbergasted by just how hard the DJs work. Working in the service industry now, I am already realizing that as someone who entertains others, it’s hard to find time for yourself. If you want to be part of the nightlife or service fields of life, you have to sacrifice your own needs. What’s the best night for a bartender or DJ? Friday or Saturday night. Forget having that to yourself. Not only that but because DJs can’t just play at one club every weekend (people want variety), they end up traveling the world to play various clubs and festivals. No time to spend with family or kids – every weekend you’re off on a plane to a different country, trying to catch up on sleep, so you can spread your sound and share your music with people. Pile on top of that producing music, doing radio shows, interviews, twitter, facebook, etc. and all the things necessary to be a well-known artist and you’ve got your hands quite full. In fact, being a top DJ surely isn’t as glamorous as it may seem on the surface.
Sum Up
Kudos to the interview and to some interesting points about becoming a top 10 DJ brought up by Sander. Very interesting read. I myself do not aspire to be a top 10 DJ. I very much like not having to travel all the time and don’t think that would be healthy for me. But thanks to all the DJs that do, that find it inspirational to play to giant crowds in cities all over the world, that entertain us and bring websites like this one to life.
© 2010, M Silin. All rights reserved.
