Paul van Dyk interview

Any number of prominent musicians have launched their own app for iPhone and iPod touch, but most of those apps are just promotional. Where did you get the idea to make an app that was an actual tool that people could use for something?

The thing is, I didn’t want to do just something that has some information and was just a random player with a few tracks that you could mix back and forth or something. I wanted to have something that was interesting to use more than once or twice. So we had the idea of combining the fun gadget stuff like the glow stick and the flashing logo and stuff with very useful stuff that DJ’s can use. As an example, the seismic reader is something all these DJs these days play with digital systems. So the vibration that our stuff gets is enormous with a big PA. So with the seismic reader you can actually adjust it to make sure you get no interference and can calibrate your computer systems. So there’s very useful stuff on a very professional level, as much as the stuff that is fun for anybody to use.

I know there are always software developers involved when you create and app, but what role were you able to play yourself as far as the development?

I’d throw a lot of ideas at them, things that I would like to have included. Also, questions like, is it possible to include stuff like that, is it possible to do things like that, and obviously the whole graphic design actually came from our end as well. And as you said, the programming was done by people who know their stuff.

For the benefit of those who know nothing about DJing, why would a DJ need to keep track of, for example, beats per minute?

This is how you mix the tracks together. The BPM counter allows you to sort your records in a certain manner so that you’re not having track that’s 140 beats per minute fast, which is never going to be able to be mixed with a track that’s just 100 beats per minute fast. So that shows you where you’re at, and you can be better prepared. Other things that I find very important as well is the different frequency levels and stuff, because that can be really dangerous if you play on a PA that has low-spec frequencies that really can crush your ears. And with the app, you can analyze it before and make sure that those frequencies are taken off.

Are you an iPhone user yourself?

I have an iPod touch, which I love, by the way. I have a really beautiful phone, so I just thought I’d keep my phone and have the iPod touch ready. To me it still feels better to have a phone and a games-slash-listening machine. I’m kind of worried that if one thing actually messes up, then I’m losing everything.

You’ve been on Twitter yourself for about four months. How are you enjoying the Twitter experience so far?

It’s a very instant sort of communication tool, which I think is really cool. People are always asking, “what are you doing right now, what are you up to?” And I think Twitter allows you to tell people a little. “I just had this really crazy week of being in the studio, I just finished that, finished this.” And I think this is something that creates an extra connection with my audience.

This question comes from one of our readers, Peter Cohen. Aside from Live and Logic, what other Mac software do you consider to be indispensable during a gig?

Obviously I’m a Logic user since ’96, so that’s my main program that I use when I produce my music, make my music. When I play live I actually use Mainstage, which is part of Logic, on one computer, and I use Ableton on another one, and they then are synced together.

Another question from a reader, this one from Kevin Mercuri. This one actually goes back into the past a bit. He’s curious about how the politics that surrounded you during your youth affected your music.

The thing is, I grew up in East Berlin, so it was a communistic dictatorship, didn’t have record stores the way we know them now, couldn’t read any magazines. So when I was listening to music, I was listening illegally to West Berlin radio stations. And when I liked something, then I had to wait for it to actually come on the radio again. So for me it was kind of a very pure connection with the music, because I never knew what the people I musically worshipped would look like, or what they had to say, because I was not allowed to learn English in school. So I didn’t know what they were singing about. And I kept that very sort of pure connection with music. I don’t really care about stardom or if somebody is famous. For me it is about what they do. And that has definitely to do with how I grew up.

Are the electronic music audiences substantially different in how they react at gigs in the U.S. vs in Europe?

First of all let me say yes, they are different. At the same time, I don’t even try to analyze that, because for me I have a pretty clear idea about the music I like to play, and everything else is down to the interaction of the crowds. If I try to analyze that beforehand, then I have a preconception about what might or might not happen, and then the interaction won’t be working as good as it should be.

It’s definitely different. Let me tell you, before I went on this tour, I was a little bit worried about some of the gigs. Like on Monday night in Albuquerque, didn’t seem to me as being the thing that’s probably going to be really successful. But I have to say I’m absolutely blown away by the response of that tour, in all of these places, from the big to the smaller places, it was always absolutely phenomenal. This shows you how truly global electronic music is. It doesn’t matter if you live in London or New York or whatever, even in the smaller places where there aren’t any big festivals, people know their music and people love their music. And for me this is one of the biggest statements of my own tours.

You’ve got a new “best of” album called Volume.

It’s a “best of” that features some of my best records of the last fifteen years, as well as some of the best remixes I’ve done. So aside from my own classics like For An Angel, Nothing But You, etc., you’ll find remixes I’ve done for Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, U2, Depeche Mode, New Order, right next to remixes of electronic classics like Binary Finary, as an example. It’s all mixed together, and it’s all digitally enhanced as they say, so everything sounds better. It’s definitely a project I’m proud of, because usually when I’m doing something I’m already somewhat in the next project. So while we were actually compiling Volume, I had to stop and I had to look back, and I then realized how much music I’ve actually done.

interview by Bill Palmer