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super interesting interview courtesy of El Conquistador
Here is the english version of my DJ Mag Latin America feature - printed edition. This interview goes into detail of my journey through the Dance scene and personal history.
INTERVIEW BY HERNAN PANDELO ----- I want to ask you about your beginnings… Born in Belgium, you moved to Florida at the age of 8, is that right? (Why did you move there? – How was your family? – do they have a musical background?) Which year it was?
We moved to Orlando, Florida when I was 8 because the brother of my mother was living there at the time. My father had a restaurant in the center of Gent, Belgium before we moved. He sold the restaurant and started a travel agency in Orlando to bring clients from Belgium, Holland and France. Before I started my career as a DJ I worked for father as a tour guide, taking clients from Orlando to St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Miami, Key West then Tampa and back to Orlando. My family does not have a musical background, my brother however is a big music lover with a very large collection of CDs. This is how I got exposed to a wide variety of music such as Depeche Mode, INXS, Pink Floyd, U2, Front 242, Tears for Fears, AC/DC, The Police, The Cure, Talking Heads, Prince, New Order, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Beethoven, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy, Stevie Wonder, Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Run DMC, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, Mozart, Bach, Brian Eno just to name a few. I remember being very young, we had speakers in the entertainment room that were in the shape of disco balls. I would play my parents vinyls of ABBA, Neil Diamond and various others. Maybe in my previous life I had some connection to music because it is definitely part of my soul now.
----- Why and where did you get introduced to electronic music?
When growing up in Orlando I would travel back home to Gent to visit my grandparents and also my sister who married in Belgium. There was something important happening on Sunday nights in a club called Boccaccio near Gent. At 14 years old this is where I had my first experience with new beat music. When getting to the club I remember cars from Holland, from Germany, France, UK, and even Italy. I remember walking and seeing the club packed of people raising arms like i have never seen before. People dressed to party with such different clothes dancing to hypnotic electronic music. It was a moment that would change my life forever. Fortunately I was living in Orlando at the time, musically there was a parallel universe happening to what was going in the U.K. The dance scene in Orlando had been evident, but in a different way - often morose and dark - either gothic, alternative or industrial like Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. There was little sign that something so vibrantly thrilling, joined together by collective elation, would suddenly emerge from the Beacham theatre also known as Aahz (the main club downtown). Out of something relatively typical came something extraordinary. I felt at the time, and sometimes still do, that it was going to change the world. In some ways it has. Of course, in retrospect, it is easier to see that the elements were there all along. The history can be traced and more easily understood now. But at the time it seemed to just magically emerge out of fog machines and speakers, out of the sweeping lights of the night. It seemed to simply happen, almost fully formed in a single place. That was my universe at the time and the rest as they would say, is history.
----- Tell me what happened in the US… How was the scene back then?
Over the years I have played many of the States, it was all about the music, no question. For artists it was the party and after party, doing silly things like getting paid in cash and leaving it in the bathroom during the night, this would never happen today. The crowds would come from far away and they were very tuned in, they had a love for the art. In Toronto we did a party called Land of Milk and Honey: 10,000 people going bonkers, losing themselves in a 12hr ride, feeling they were at the centre of out galaxy. Was surreal to have Wesley Snipes in the booth at that party taking photos with Sasha & John Digweed. Then there was Twilo, from ‘96 onwards this was probably the best club I have ever seen, it set the benchmark for quality DJs and unbelievable sound - Phazon. In 2001 Twilo was closed and we moved on to do the Delta Heavy Tour with Sasha & John Digweed. 45 days on the road with two tour buses and two huge trucks filled with production. That was the first time in the States anything on that scale has been done. This period marked a change in the scene, many DJs like Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto put a lot of time into touring which pushed a more commercial sound and that became a snowball that has not stopped to this day. There was a lot that happened in between too, like the opening of Soundfactory in San Francisco, Limelight and Soundfactory in New York, the Def Mix crew in New York and, let's not forget, the legendary Chicago house movement. But I think other people are more qualified to talk about that.
----- What was Twilo? (in which year?)
Twilo was open from 1995 to 2001 in New York City The New York location at West 27th Street regularly attracted five to eight thousand people every Friday and Saturday night to its warehouse-like dance floor with the legendary Phazon Sound system. Twilo was important in popularizing dance music across the United States, especially the residency of Sasha, John Digweed and myself. It was a club before the cult of the DJ solidified and became "stand facing the dj, like at concert". People actually danced being there for not just a rush of music but for the rush of the crowd. I can't recall any fights breaking out, I can't recall anything but positive moments.
----- And what was the Delta Heavy Tour? (year?)
Official statement from Delta Heavy ¨ Delta Heavy was the groundbreaking electronic music tour featuring the extraordinary DJ talents of Sasha, John Digweed, and Jimmy Van M. Visiting all corners of the States in 2002, the tour - promoted by Clear Channel (now Live Nation) - was attended by more than 85,000 people in six weeks and was voted by the North American public as Best Event at DanceStar USA 2003. Along with touring acts The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and Underworld,Sasha & John Digweed are responsible for America’s mid-90’s dance music explosion. Despite releasing several popular mix CDs and playing to crowds in other cities, Sasha &John Digweed couldn’t possibly reach all their fans in a vast land like America. As a result, Sasha & John Digweed’s protégé Jimmy Van M onceived a massive first-of-its-kind touring electronic music event. The revolutionary event was called Delta Heavy. Kicking off spring 2002, Sasha & John Digweed’s Delta Heavy Tour was the most important DJ tour to ever hit America. Produced by Warped Tour creator, Kevin Lyman, the 31 live dates forever raised the bar for large-scale electronic music events. Technically produced like a rock concert, complete with touring sound, lighting, staging, laser and video production courtesy of award winning designers Imaginary Forces, Delta Heavycatapulted Sasha & John Digweed into arena headlining status. ¨
website: www.deltaheavy.com/
promo link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7GE0cMjb0
----- How did you get introduced into these movements? Who was working with you? Which was the aim? +
There were promoters called Unity which was Kimball Collins, Dave Cannalte and Stace Bass, they were the first to bring International artists to Orlando. I met Kimball because at that time I rented sound systems to clubs and they needed extra sound for a big new years eve party at Aahz. Then after we all got to know each other Dave Cannalte gave me some direction on how to dj, was funny at first because I didn't even know how to use the pitch control. After 6 months of learning how to dj a bit I was given the opportunity to warm up at a monday night party called Lift where Kimball was resident. Shortly after that was the second time Sasha was to play Orlando he arrived and all the hotels were booked out and he had no place to stay. This just goes to show how much at the beginning of the scene this was. Luckily I had a big two story house at the time with a trampoline in the living and I invited him to stay. This is how we all became friends, John, Sasha, Dave Seaman and many more would stay for a week sometimes. My house became somewhat of a destination when playing in Orlando. Needless to say we had so many great times with a lot of amazing memories. As far as their aim, well back then there was no aim. It was a title wave of this new sound and we just tried absorb this day by day - party by party. Back then there was no social media, or marketing or anything like that really. Very little to worry or think about except to enjoy the moment, the movement, live in the music as much as possible.
----- When did you moved to Argentina? Why? Are you still living here?
Since I started playing in Argentina in 98 there has always been the seduction of moving here, my experiences were always so positive, mind-blowing really. Upon arriving I also was fortunate to meet up with a very talented musician/producer Luxor T, we had a good vibe in the studio and since then have been making music together. One of our recent productions together with Affkt called ¨ Dreams ¨ was picked up by the label Bedrock made into the top 10 techno releases on Beatport. Quite proud of this since not only did I make the song with an argentine musician but luxor T also did the vocals. As much as I love being here there is also the reality that for my career that time needs to be spent in Europe in as well so I am going to live in Eastern Europe the end of March for the summer. I plan to be back here around the start of summer here at the end of 2014.
----- Would you compare your early days in the US of Reaching new places, playing in new cities compared to today? if so, which is the same and which is different? How’s the knowledge of the Argentinean crowd?
I was lucky enough to be part of the dance scene in its early days. Going to a club night back then was something that can hardly be described, but rather only understood through direct experience. It was as if a massive magnet diverted the direction of our lives so that we were all suddenly traveling the same direction, affected deeply by unseen waves, as personal and powerful as gravity. For many of us, that course still holds. Friendships formed and developed there maintain that sense of mutual magic, even decades distant. There was the music, of course. Both the recognized and the obscure, always mixed together, perpetually reshaped and re-presented; the unexpected familiarity and the shocking, pleasant surprises; there were the soft explosions of musical ideas; the lights pirouetting against the fog, the people, apparitions dancing through space. The feeling that we were all together, each week, there to hear where it might unexpectedly go next, and to go with it. To participate in a global musical phenomenon in its early stages is among the luckiest things that can happen to a human being. There was the sensation that we had traveled together to many places, and that we would travel even further, enjoying the beautiful and the strange in unison as we went. It was recognized by many as the beginning of a vital phenomenon that transformed the artistic landscape for decades to come.
Today that same spirit can still be felt. There is, of course, always the group dynamic, which is very special, but it is also up to the individual. Each person has a very personal relationship to the music, and each person can be transported with it, and by it. Everywhere I go I see people discovering this music for the first time and it's beautiful to witness and take part in. I feel very lucky. I cherish my early experiences, of course, but I am also still able to cherish the early experiences of others. It's part of what makes this experience so enduring, and gives it that magic allure. Playing all over the country here in Argentina is on the best places in the world when I see the faces of the clubbers and feel this connection. Rather than the knowledge the crowd everyone seems to celebrate their friends and experiences to the fullest, that is what makes this crowd here so special.
----- I hear you like to support local artist from here in Argentina, am I correct?
The statesmen of Argentina are Guti (Desolate), Hernan Cattaneo (Sudbeat) whom need no introduction as they are international giants already. Then you have talent breaking through such as Adrian Hour (Toolroom / Suara) who recently finished a collaboration with Mark Knight, Ant Brooks and myself. BrianGros (Minus 12) was discovered by Richie Hawtin, Santiago Garcia (Baires Records,microCastle, Renaissance) who runs the Between US live steaming events, Martin Garcia ( Sudbeat ), Facundo Moor (Tronic), Deep Mariano (Get Slow), Jay West (OFF, Moodmusic, Dikso, Mother, Large), Festa Bros (Deported Music) showcasing their parties Together, David Calo (Renaissance),Sound Process ( Nervous (US), Guille Quero (Sound Avenue (BE), Romina Cohn along with others. Also the legends who have been around like DJ Paul, Spitfire, Bad Boy Orange , Zuker, Facu Cari, Big Fabi, and Carlos Alfonsin. One of the many great things about argentina is the local DJs who develop their skills here learn to understand what part of the night they are playing. What it means to have a great show from beginning to end, the build up, the peak and the euphoric final to a night. Many international DJs are always with great comments about the local acts when they play in Argentina. Saying how it is refreshing to play with professional and respectful local talent.
----- I’ve read that “you still believe in DJing”. What’s happening with the DJ Skills nowadays? How do you see the future of DJing?
The future of djing still should have the very basic ingredient of having your own style of mixing and developing a set. Djing has many more technical tools now to incorporate ¨live ¨ elements into a set plus the use of fx although the whole looping feature and excessive use of fx can be too much at times. Would be interesting to have some todays DJs do a show on turntables or CDJ cd players without the sync feature. The DJs to really admire didn’t get as good as they have overnight by stealing other people’s sets and copying them. It´s the hard work over the years years of being entirely immersed in craft of djing. It’s the years of not knowing, and then learning that matter, not the five minutes of false victory after a lazy set of Top 10 Beatport hits. It does a great disservice to the DJ and the craft if you boil what we do down to technology – or even just to mixing. To say a DJ is only as good as what occurs in the minutes he blends the tracks together is basically saying that it´s mechanical and not human. I have to say it was impressive hear Matthias Tanzmann recently, original music played in his own style. An good example of a quality dj.
----- Tell me, how would you describe this country? And how would you describe the partygoers from there?
I love spending time at home in Gent, Belgium. This beautiful city over the past century has developed a strong artistic vibe and is now one of the best places in Europe for culture with museums and galleries. The architecture is stunning and imposing, particularly along the scenic old Graslei harbour, and grand medieval cathedrals. there are many fantastic bars,cafes along the banks of the canal and let´s not forget the wide variety of great Belgium beer. Musically Belgium has quality artists like Soulwax, 2ManyDJs, Marco, Bailey, Aeroplane, Ramon Tapia, Kolombo, Tom Hades, Yves Deruyter, Hermanez, and Goose to name a few. Not to mention the legendary festivals 10days Off, Tomorrowland, I Love Techno and music labels such as Music Man and R&S. As far as the partygoers I have asked a good friend and great producer Maxim Lany, we have just finished a collaboration track together. Maxim played on the Mainstage of Tomorrowland in 2013, also played at festivals in Belgium such as 10 Days Off and Laundry Day. They all take place in Belgium but yet have very different crowds. Tomorrowland really has the biggest mix of nationalities and a lot of people come over to experience the whole package (light show, decoration, all sorts of dj’s and even food). As for a festival like 10 Days Off the crowd is way more into a specific music genre and opens up when you play the really underground stuff. And Laundry Day is a festival where a lot of young local people come to and they are there to support there local heroes so there they go nuts as soon as you play them your own tracks. So all are different but all have their quality.
----- Describe your perfect night: How long would your set be? How many people would be watching you? Where would be this set being held? Which things cannot be missed in there?
That depends on the night and what style of set I would be playing. For example if I am doing the start of the night and setting up the vibe for the next dj then it would be important to build the tension. Give the crowd some energy then bring it back into a steady groove and keep developing the set back and forth like that. If the crowd responds well durning my set and then the place explodes when the next DJ goes on then to me that is a perfect night. If I am the headliner than I prefer to play longer sets of four hours or more. There are so many factors to have a perfect night, quality of the sound system, lights, the room, wood floor vs concrete floors, the list can be quite long. But sometimes you don´t get the perfect check list of the those things but the crowd are all unison, like a tribe. When you can have that kind of energy which often happens in Argentina, it really is the perfect night.
----- Which are your future plans? You’ve had a long and healthy career… Which things are left to achieve for Jimmy Van M? +
Thanks Hernan, I does feel good to keep doing what love. The future for me is to continue producing music and djing in the way that I feel passionate about. Keeping life simple, working hard and having fun!
Here is the english version of my DJ Mag Latin America feature - printed edition. This interview goes into detail of my journey through the Dance scene and personal history.
INTERVIEW BY HERNAN PANDELO ----- I want to ask you about your beginnings… Born in Belgium, you moved to Florida at the age of 8, is that right? (Why did you move there? – How was your family? – do they have a musical background?) Which year it was?
We moved to Orlando, Florida when I was 8 because the brother of my mother was living there at the time. My father had a restaurant in the center of Gent, Belgium before we moved. He sold the restaurant and started a travel agency in Orlando to bring clients from Belgium, Holland and France. Before I started my career as a DJ I worked for father as a tour guide, taking clients from Orlando to St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Miami, Key West then Tampa and back to Orlando. My family does not have a musical background, my brother however is a big music lover with a very large collection of CDs. This is how I got exposed to a wide variety of music such as Depeche Mode, INXS, Pink Floyd, U2, Front 242, Tears for Fears, AC/DC, The Police, The Cure, Talking Heads, Prince, New Order, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Beethoven, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy, Stevie Wonder, Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Run DMC, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, Mozart, Bach, Brian Eno just to name a few. I remember being very young, we had speakers in the entertainment room that were in the shape of disco balls. I would play my parents vinyls of ABBA, Neil Diamond and various others. Maybe in my previous life I had some connection to music because it is definitely part of my soul now.
----- Why and where did you get introduced to electronic music?
When growing up in Orlando I would travel back home to Gent to visit my grandparents and also my sister who married in Belgium. There was something important happening on Sunday nights in a club called Boccaccio near Gent. At 14 years old this is where I had my first experience with new beat music. When getting to the club I remember cars from Holland, from Germany, France, UK, and even Italy. I remember walking and seeing the club packed of people raising arms like i have never seen before. People dressed to party with such different clothes dancing to hypnotic electronic music. It was a moment that would change my life forever. Fortunately I was living in Orlando at the time, musically there was a parallel universe happening to what was going in the U.K. The dance scene in Orlando had been evident, but in a different way - often morose and dark - either gothic, alternative or industrial like Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. There was little sign that something so vibrantly thrilling, joined together by collective elation, would suddenly emerge from the Beacham theatre also known as Aahz (the main club downtown). Out of something relatively typical came something extraordinary. I felt at the time, and sometimes still do, that it was going to change the world. In some ways it has. Of course, in retrospect, it is easier to see that the elements were there all along. The history can be traced and more easily understood now. But at the time it seemed to just magically emerge out of fog machines and speakers, out of the sweeping lights of the night. It seemed to simply happen, almost fully formed in a single place. That was my universe at the time and the rest as they would say, is history.
----- Tell me what happened in the US… How was the scene back then?
Over the years I have played many of the States, it was all about the music, no question. For artists it was the party and after party, doing silly things like getting paid in cash and leaving it in the bathroom during the night, this would never happen today. The crowds would come from far away and they were very tuned in, they had a love for the art. In Toronto we did a party called Land of Milk and Honey: 10,000 people going bonkers, losing themselves in a 12hr ride, feeling they were at the centre of out galaxy. Was surreal to have Wesley Snipes in the booth at that party taking photos with Sasha & John Digweed. Then there was Twilo, from ‘96 onwards this was probably the best club I have ever seen, it set the benchmark for quality DJs and unbelievable sound - Phazon. In 2001 Twilo was closed and we moved on to do the Delta Heavy Tour with Sasha & John Digweed. 45 days on the road with two tour buses and two huge trucks filled with production. That was the first time in the States anything on that scale has been done. This period marked a change in the scene, many DJs like Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto put a lot of time into touring which pushed a more commercial sound and that became a snowball that has not stopped to this day. There was a lot that happened in between too, like the opening of Soundfactory in San Francisco, Limelight and Soundfactory in New York, the Def Mix crew in New York and, let's not forget, the legendary Chicago house movement. But I think other people are more qualified to talk about that.
----- What was Twilo? (in which year?)
Twilo was open from 1995 to 2001 in New York City The New York location at West 27th Street regularly attracted five to eight thousand people every Friday and Saturday night to its warehouse-like dance floor with the legendary Phazon Sound system. Twilo was important in popularizing dance music across the United States, especially the residency of Sasha, John Digweed and myself. It was a club before the cult of the DJ solidified and became "stand facing the dj, like at concert". People actually danced being there for not just a rush of music but for the rush of the crowd. I can't recall any fights breaking out, I can't recall anything but positive moments.
----- And what was the Delta Heavy Tour? (year?)
Official statement from Delta Heavy ¨ Delta Heavy was the groundbreaking electronic music tour featuring the extraordinary DJ talents of Sasha, John Digweed, and Jimmy Van M. Visiting all corners of the States in 2002, the tour - promoted by Clear Channel (now Live Nation) - was attended by more than 85,000 people in six weeks and was voted by the North American public as Best Event at DanceStar USA 2003. Along with touring acts The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and Underworld,Sasha & John Digweed are responsible for America’s mid-90’s dance music explosion. Despite releasing several popular mix CDs and playing to crowds in other cities, Sasha &John Digweed couldn’t possibly reach all their fans in a vast land like America. As a result, Sasha & John Digweed’s protégé Jimmy Van M onceived a massive first-of-its-kind touring electronic music event. The revolutionary event was called Delta Heavy. Kicking off spring 2002, Sasha & John Digweed’s Delta Heavy Tour was the most important DJ tour to ever hit America. Produced by Warped Tour creator, Kevin Lyman, the 31 live dates forever raised the bar for large-scale electronic music events. Technically produced like a rock concert, complete with touring sound, lighting, staging, laser and video production courtesy of award winning designers Imaginary Forces, Delta Heavycatapulted Sasha & John Digweed into arena headlining status. ¨
website: www.deltaheavy.com/
promo link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7GE0cMjb0
----- How did you get introduced into these movements? Who was working with you? Which was the aim? +
There were promoters called Unity which was Kimball Collins, Dave Cannalte and Stace Bass, they were the first to bring International artists to Orlando. I met Kimball because at that time I rented sound systems to clubs and they needed extra sound for a big new years eve party at Aahz. Then after we all got to know each other Dave Cannalte gave me some direction on how to dj, was funny at first because I didn't even know how to use the pitch control. After 6 months of learning how to dj a bit I was given the opportunity to warm up at a monday night party called Lift where Kimball was resident. Shortly after that was the second time Sasha was to play Orlando he arrived and all the hotels were booked out and he had no place to stay. This just goes to show how much at the beginning of the scene this was. Luckily I had a big two story house at the time with a trampoline in the living and I invited him to stay. This is how we all became friends, John, Sasha, Dave Seaman and many more would stay for a week sometimes. My house became somewhat of a destination when playing in Orlando. Needless to say we had so many great times with a lot of amazing memories. As far as their aim, well back then there was no aim. It was a title wave of this new sound and we just tried absorb this day by day - party by party. Back then there was no social media, or marketing or anything like that really. Very little to worry or think about except to enjoy the moment, the movement, live in the music as much as possible.
----- When did you moved to Argentina? Why? Are you still living here?
Since I started playing in Argentina in 98 there has always been the seduction of moving here, my experiences were always so positive, mind-blowing really. Upon arriving I also was fortunate to meet up with a very talented musician/producer Luxor T, we had a good vibe in the studio and since then have been making music together. One of our recent productions together with Affkt called ¨ Dreams ¨ was picked up by the label Bedrock made into the top 10 techno releases on Beatport. Quite proud of this since not only did I make the song with an argentine musician but luxor T also did the vocals. As much as I love being here there is also the reality that for my career that time needs to be spent in Europe in as well so I am going to live in Eastern Europe the end of March for the summer. I plan to be back here around the start of summer here at the end of 2014.
----- Would you compare your early days in the US of Reaching new places, playing in new cities compared to today? if so, which is the same and which is different? How’s the knowledge of the Argentinean crowd?
I was lucky enough to be part of the dance scene in its early days. Going to a club night back then was something that can hardly be described, but rather only understood through direct experience. It was as if a massive magnet diverted the direction of our lives so that we were all suddenly traveling the same direction, affected deeply by unseen waves, as personal and powerful as gravity. For many of us, that course still holds. Friendships formed and developed there maintain that sense of mutual magic, even decades distant. There was the music, of course. Both the recognized and the obscure, always mixed together, perpetually reshaped and re-presented; the unexpected familiarity and the shocking, pleasant surprises; there were the soft explosions of musical ideas; the lights pirouetting against the fog, the people, apparitions dancing through space. The feeling that we were all together, each week, there to hear where it might unexpectedly go next, and to go with it. To participate in a global musical phenomenon in its early stages is among the luckiest things that can happen to a human being. There was the sensation that we had traveled together to many places, and that we would travel even further, enjoying the beautiful and the strange in unison as we went. It was recognized by many as the beginning of a vital phenomenon that transformed the artistic landscape for decades to come.
Today that same spirit can still be felt. There is, of course, always the group dynamic, which is very special, but it is also up to the individual. Each person has a very personal relationship to the music, and each person can be transported with it, and by it. Everywhere I go I see people discovering this music for the first time and it's beautiful to witness and take part in. I feel very lucky. I cherish my early experiences, of course, but I am also still able to cherish the early experiences of others. It's part of what makes this experience so enduring, and gives it that magic allure. Playing all over the country here in Argentina is on the best places in the world when I see the faces of the clubbers and feel this connection. Rather than the knowledge the crowd everyone seems to celebrate their friends and experiences to the fullest, that is what makes this crowd here so special.
----- I hear you like to support local artist from here in Argentina, am I correct?
The statesmen of Argentina are Guti (Desolate), Hernan Cattaneo (Sudbeat) whom need no introduction as they are international giants already. Then you have talent breaking through such as Adrian Hour (Toolroom / Suara) who recently finished a collaboration with Mark Knight, Ant Brooks and myself. BrianGros (Minus 12) was discovered by Richie Hawtin, Santiago Garcia (Baires Records,microCastle, Renaissance) who runs the Between US live steaming events, Martin Garcia ( Sudbeat ), Facundo Moor (Tronic), Deep Mariano (Get Slow), Jay West (OFF, Moodmusic, Dikso, Mother, Large), Festa Bros (Deported Music) showcasing their parties Together, David Calo (Renaissance),Sound Process ( Nervous (US), Guille Quero (Sound Avenue (BE), Romina Cohn along with others. Also the legends who have been around like DJ Paul, Spitfire, Bad Boy Orange , Zuker, Facu Cari, Big Fabi, and Carlos Alfonsin. One of the many great things about argentina is the local DJs who develop their skills here learn to understand what part of the night they are playing. What it means to have a great show from beginning to end, the build up, the peak and the euphoric final to a night. Many international DJs are always with great comments about the local acts when they play in Argentina. Saying how it is refreshing to play with professional and respectful local talent.
----- I’ve read that “you still believe in DJing”. What’s happening with the DJ Skills nowadays? How do you see the future of DJing?
The future of djing still should have the very basic ingredient of having your own style of mixing and developing a set. Djing has many more technical tools now to incorporate ¨live ¨ elements into a set plus the use of fx although the whole looping feature and excessive use of fx can be too much at times. Would be interesting to have some todays DJs do a show on turntables or CDJ cd players without the sync feature. The DJs to really admire didn’t get as good as they have overnight by stealing other people’s sets and copying them. It´s the hard work over the years years of being entirely immersed in craft of djing. It’s the years of not knowing, and then learning that matter, not the five minutes of false victory after a lazy set of Top 10 Beatport hits. It does a great disservice to the DJ and the craft if you boil what we do down to technology – or even just to mixing. To say a DJ is only as good as what occurs in the minutes he blends the tracks together is basically saying that it´s mechanical and not human. I have to say it was impressive hear Matthias Tanzmann recently, original music played in his own style. An good example of a quality dj.
----- Tell me, how would you describe this country? And how would you describe the partygoers from there?
I love spending time at home in Gent, Belgium. This beautiful city over the past century has developed a strong artistic vibe and is now one of the best places in Europe for culture with museums and galleries. The architecture is stunning and imposing, particularly along the scenic old Graslei harbour, and grand medieval cathedrals. there are many fantastic bars,cafes along the banks of the canal and let´s not forget the wide variety of great Belgium beer. Musically Belgium has quality artists like Soulwax, 2ManyDJs, Marco, Bailey, Aeroplane, Ramon Tapia, Kolombo, Tom Hades, Yves Deruyter, Hermanez, and Goose to name a few. Not to mention the legendary festivals 10days Off, Tomorrowland, I Love Techno and music labels such as Music Man and R&S. As far as the partygoers I have asked a good friend and great producer Maxim Lany, we have just finished a collaboration track together. Maxim played on the Mainstage of Tomorrowland in 2013, also played at festivals in Belgium such as 10 Days Off and Laundry Day. They all take place in Belgium but yet have very different crowds. Tomorrowland really has the biggest mix of nationalities and a lot of people come over to experience the whole package (light show, decoration, all sorts of dj’s and even food). As for a festival like 10 Days Off the crowd is way more into a specific music genre and opens up when you play the really underground stuff. And Laundry Day is a festival where a lot of young local people come to and they are there to support there local heroes so there they go nuts as soon as you play them your own tracks. So all are different but all have their quality.
----- Describe your perfect night: How long would your set be? How many people would be watching you? Where would be this set being held? Which things cannot be missed in there?
That depends on the night and what style of set I would be playing. For example if I am doing the start of the night and setting up the vibe for the next dj then it would be important to build the tension. Give the crowd some energy then bring it back into a steady groove and keep developing the set back and forth like that. If the crowd responds well durning my set and then the place explodes when the next DJ goes on then to me that is a perfect night. If I am the headliner than I prefer to play longer sets of four hours or more. There are so many factors to have a perfect night, quality of the sound system, lights, the room, wood floor vs concrete floors, the list can be quite long. But sometimes you don´t get the perfect check list of the those things but the crowd are all unison, like a tribe. When you can have that kind of energy which often happens in Argentina, it really is the perfect night.
----- Which are your future plans? You’ve had a long and healthy career… Which things are left to achieve for Jimmy Van M? +
Thanks Hernan, I does feel good to keep doing what love. The future for me is to continue producing music and djing in the way that I feel passionate about. Keeping life simple, working hard and having fun!
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