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Armin Van Buuren Answers Many Questions About Tiesto, Trance, etc

I dont think people being positive and optimistic about things is weird, but considering the subject of EDM and knowing how far back this man goes, he seems to be hiding a little bit of his truest inner feelings. He seems a bit dodgy about more touchy subjects regarding EDM. but whatever. what do you guys think?

He uses that beatles reply a lot. I don't think people are referring to sounding the same but they are saying the feeling has gone and sounding more noisy and terrible.

What a load of crap, maybe deep techno stuff sounds more like trance but the shit he plays nope it doesn't anything like it.

What's up with that fake british accent?

I will not lie, after knowing that he likes the orb that much almost gives me hope for him doing something decent in the future lmao

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Originally posted by Kilixpree I will not lie, after knowing that he likes the orb that much almost gives me hope for him doing something decent in the future lmao

I wouldn't hold my breath.

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Originally posted by Kilixpree I will not lie, after knowing that he likes the orb that much almost gives me hope for him doing something decent in the future lmao

He's expressed his fondness for ambient during interviews way back in the past, even implicitly as a preference to trance. I think this interview was taken some time around 2006 or 2007:

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5. Your live sets and ASOT radio show has grown so diverse, all the genres of EDM can be found from minimal to house, why has this evolution occurred ? Armin van Buuren: I DJ for the crowd, not for myself, if it was for me the music would be real ambient, weird sounding. These track lists are for the crowd. I want to make sure the people are dancing and into the music, sometimes you have to play a track that's different...

Nearing the end of his career, and with the decline of trance, I get the feeling that it's more for the crowd now than it ever was before.

5. Your live sets and ASOT radio show has grown so diverse, all the genres of EDM can be found from minimal to house, why has this evolution occurred ?

ASOT really is the "go to"-place for finding new and innovative releases from the whole spectrum of electronic music. Where's that cringe smiley when it's needed?

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Originally posted by Kilixpree I will not lie, after knowing that he likes the orb that much almost gives me hope for him doing something decent in the future lmao

Many many years ago he already said what he most liked is ambient.
What he often says about old trance is being slow is such a bullshit as it's only half the story. Hard trance was huge in early 90's, but I think it just wasn't in his field of view at the time. Even Sven Vath played it in 1993:
Edit: an old video with Jam El Mar saying that bpm increased within 5 years from 114 to 140 and up in 1994: https://youtu.be/QfhVbHj4mPs?t=57



I never actually heard him talk about his early tracks which clearly are influenced from the Club music (which I also liked a lot, just not as much as trance).

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Originally posted by Kilixpree I will not lie, after knowing that he likes the orb that much almost gives me hope for him doing something decent in the future lmao

It's a smoke screen dude it just to shut people up. He is clearly doing it for the money now. The fact that he mentioned that music back then was better gives you an indication.

Come on guys, I don't know you;re taking any of this seriously.

For those of us that knew Armin's records back in the 90's (like Communication, Lost Soul Society etc) he used to make music that was half decent.

By the mid-late 00's he'd completely sold out, playing the same lowest-common-denominator "trance" (if you could still call it that) and what he's playing in past 2012 was juts absolute dross - there's no conceivable way that someone that claims to like the orb and ambient, and put out records like he did, would actually be passionate about the dreadful line array EDM sound he's been putting out.

It's about money. He's a lawyer by education (probably why some of his answers are evasive) and he made a conscious decision to play EDM and devolve ASOT to widen the cash flow. It's earned him millions. I get it though; there's plenty of guys who kept their integrity and had to go get a proper job or another source of income when the scene turned to crap.

When you look at making of video's of his shows you can see that's something he really loves to do (and is good at). Not only doing the shows but also everything to get there. Only with huge crowds he will be able to achieve that. Possibly or likely commercial crap music is a part of that.
I get the feeling the only way to make some money in Trance is to be in ASOT, so I'm not happy with that. It's not good for the scene, but now even JOOF and Airwave are in that direction so the feeling gets stronger although JOOF is convinced some things are going to change for the better (at least for progressive, which could be true). Negative thing is that Armin probably will get the credits.

I totally agree, there's always something in the back of my head telling that something is not right when listening to Armin. Why can he be so happy about something which obviously is far from Trance and the music he claims to love? And at the same time he remains holding on to that Trance tag. Money is the most obvious explanation.

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Originally posted by Trance-M When you look at making of video's of his shows you can see that's something he really loves to do (and is good at). Not only doing the shows but also everything to get there. Only with huge crowds he will be able to achieve that. Possibly or likely commercial crap music is a part of that. I get the feeling the only way to make some money in Trance is to be in ASOT, so I'm not happy with that. It's not good for the scene, but now even JOOF and Airwave are in that direction so the feeling gets stronger although JOOF is convinced some things are going to change for the better (at least for progressive, which could be true). Negative thing is that Armin probably will get the credits. I totally agree, there's always something in the back of my head telling that something is not right when listening to Armin. Why can he be so happy about something which obviously is far from Trance and the music he claims to love? And at the same time he remains holding on to that Trance tag. Money is the most obvious explanation.

Speaking of JOOF It looks like he is trying to get a piece of the pie of the commercial crowd. The beating tactics did not work for him so he is now joining the guy who basically stopped supporting their music for a number of years. Armin stopped supporting tracks by Airwave for a number of years and now all of a sudden they ask Armin for a stage and he accepts.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN It's about money. He's a lawyer by education (probably why some of his answers are evasive) and he made a conscious decision to play EDM and devolve ASOT to widen the cash flow. It's earned him millions. I get it though; there's plenty of guys who kept their integrity and had to go get a proper job or another source of income when the scene turned to crap.

I think reducing it all to a matter of money is a bit too simplistic and even rather unfair. It looks more like him just coming to terms with his profession. He's a trance DJ, and he does what he explicitly said he does in the interview I posted earlier: he gives the fans what they want. And although the only definitively positive thing he said about trance in those clips is how it 'sounds' better, it's not like he doesn't believe in his own product. A clown at a children's birthday party isn't amused by his own antics, but it makes the kids happy, and for Armin that's enough.

BTW (embedding has been disabled for this clip for some reason), but I always come back for the occasional laugh on Armin's comments about DJ Sammy back in the mid 00's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjBZzN_Fzk

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Originally posted by Trance-M When you look at making of video's of his shows you can see that's something he really loves to do (and is good at). Not only doing the shows but also everything to get there. Only with huge crowds he will be able to achieve that. Possibly or likely commercial crap music is a part of that. I get the feeling the only way to make some money in Trance is to be in ASOT, so I'm not happy with that. It's not good for the scene, but now even JOOF and Airwave are in that direction so the feeling gets stronger although JOOF is convinced some things are going to change for the better (at least for progressive, which could be true). Negative thing is that Armin probably will get the credits. I totally agree, there's always something in the back of my head telling that something is not right when listening to Armin. Why can he be so happy about something which obviously is far from Trance and the music he claims to love? And at the same time he remains holding on to that Trance tag. Money is the most obvious explanation.

Joof acts like a superstar DJ himself.

He doesn't, but if we'd be violently forced to pick one who'd actually deserve to be the star of the show it'd probably have to be him for not just being a quality guy in his field of work but also being absolutely decent and sincere. Regardless of whether you like the records he plays, produces and releases on his label or not.

I'm not sure J00F is particularly "sincere". So much of what he says is exaggerated self-aggrandisement prefixed with proclamations that he's one of the most humble people in the industry. He's done very well for himself by marketing himself as the face of "deep" trance music, when in reality I've seen him at least ten times in a club and never heard him do anything but bang it out. It's only the naivety and musical ignorance of modern trance crowds that allows him to sell himself as "deep".

I was under the impression that mostly everyone here holds J00F in pretty high regard, and with some form of respect. What happened? I haven't heard too much of his stuff, but some of it is pretty good. Did he fall off or go overboard on something recently?

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Originally posted by Dj Pluviose he seems to be hiding a little bit of his truest inner feelings. He seems a bit dodgy about more touchy subjects regarding EDM. but whatever. what do you guys think?

I think he's been clenching his teeth for the past 15 years. As everyone else has said, he's lawyer-educated, smart, diplomatic and personable, and thus the basis of his appeal to a lot of people.

I think he enjoys what he does, but I don't believe he truly enjoys most of the stuff he plays. I guess he forced to play a lot of it by his management / labels etc. I cringe at most of his studio guests. You can almost hear him faking his enthusiasm for a lot of it.

I believe he has a lot talent, knows what's what in the music-tech field and wants to go in a new direction with it, but hasn't been able to pull it off quite as some of his peers have. A very confused / conflicted artist in my opinion.

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Originally posted by Dj Pluviose I was under the impression that mostly everyone here holds J00F in pretty high regard, and with some form of respect. What happened? I haven't heard too much of his stuff, but some of it is pretty good. Did he fall off or go overboard on something recently?

I don't think that changed for most here.
At Luminosity he, and to some degree also Airwave, played a lot of Spy.
That Airwave often plays a lot of Bonzai classics isn't a surprise, but the Spy at least did surprise me a bit. And then JOOF's set had even more. Let's see what they both play a ASOT, although it's a dedicated Progressive stage.

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Originally posted by Dj Pluviose I was under the impression that mostly everyone here holds J00F in pretty high regard, and with some form of respect. What happened? I haven't heard too much of his stuff, but some of it is pretty good. Did he fall off or go overboard on something recently?

I think his schtick just got old, J00F has been preaching the "deep trance revolution" for like what, 10 years now? At some point you just stop believing it. I think J is right when he says that J00F's success is down to the rest of the trance scene being fucking awful. Most of his more recent sets I've heard online were just a mix of bog standard whitenoise bigroom techno (that would honestly get him laughed out of any serious techno club) and what sounds like decent psy/prog-psy to me (not super into that stuff, so can't really judge the quality). Fair play to those that like that combination but it's certainly not going to revive trance. Especially when there's so many techno/house/jungle/ambient etc. producers right now making great trance-influenced music that actually stands on it's own without having to be compared to ASOT garbage.

I cant say I ever was arsed about J00f really I cant think of many tunes i've ever liked where it turned out when searching for them he track listed.


* sidenote *
I swear though he was on some BBC Two tv show in the UK about dating or finding it hard to date with busy working life. If i dreamt that one up then it felt very real and is quite weird.

That's pretty much it. The recent resurgence of trancey techno and progressive house has left him looking pretty lightweight. Even in the early 2000s when he was doing the Progressive Euphoria and White Label Euphoria CDs, he was always �progressive for trance fans�. He could never resist throwing in some silly glowstick stuff near the end. He�s still the best trance DJ around, alongside Airwave, and is very good at smashing a club to pieces with pounding music. But it gets remarkably tiresome reading his social media essays that are extensive exercises in self-congratulation.

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Originally posted by the-sixth * sidenote * I swear though he was on some BBC Two tv show in the UK about dating or finding it hard to date with busy working life. If i dreamt that one up then it felt very real and is quite weird.

He was on Place In The Sun twice. Might be what you're thinking of. He's married, so I doubt he'd be on TV complaining about dating.

When I read his FB message of today, I think, yes, that's how it used to be and that's how I liked it. I'm not even a big fan of his music, but I totally feel what he's saying.

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The world of the DJ is a very different place to when I started out all those years ago. The celebrity superstar DJ culture didn’t exist back then, in the underground specialist world it was often very difficult to figure out where the DJ both actually was, in many cases hidden in the corner of the room or in clubs like the legendary Turnmills within a closed room with tiny window looking out. From my personal experience and seeing others around me, that’s the reason it attracted music geeks like me whom were able to share their love and passion for music without the intimidation of being thrown in the limelight, we could put our heads down, rummage through our vinyl collection and get on with the job of playing the music. As we well know that culture has changed today, the DJ is now on a huge stage, big lights and the star of the show. Being honest, if that was the case all those years ago when I started, I wouldn’t be a DJ today. I’m a super shy guy, extremely uncomfortable with being on the stage, but over the years been forced to adapt because I love playing so much. As many promoters and lighting teams will know, the first thing I ask for is for them to turn off any spotlights that are shining on me/the stage, make it as dark as possible. I don’t want to be the star of the show, I want to be in the musical experience with everyone else and be part of the party, and not be the celebrity that everyone stares at as I don’t do the cliche antics. I want to feel as if I’m on the dance floor with you, so that I can connect both musically and spiritually, this way I know and feel where to take the journey I’m about to unfold. When I feel the music and the emotional moments, I want to be with you as I close my eyes, shed some tears and beam with euphoria and being hidden in darkness allows me to do this. This also may explain my often quick departure from venues after playing, I still can’t comprehend that John the quiet music guy from a small seaside town in the UK is getting all this attention and become an international DJ. But It’s very much important for me to thank you all, and doing this in person is very special to me, but then the shyness kicks in and it feels surreal, even all these years later.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I'm not sure J00F is particularly "sincere". So much of what he says is exaggerated self-aggrandisement prefixed with proclamations that he's one of the most humble people in the industry.

Couldn't agree more - it's pretty much the norm for him to spend the first 5 minutes of every one of his radio shows rambling on about the above. That, and his tired lines about 'real trance making a comeback' have actually put me off him as a personality in the scene now, even though I do still find the stuff he plays to be decent.

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