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Israeli Trance Addicts 1st Interview With: Menno De Jong
1. What is your opinion about the dj mag yearly chart? And were you surprised with your entry to the top 100 dj's there?
A lot of people take it too seriously. It’s a nice way to see how many people have supported a DJ with their vote, and thus how popular he or she is on the internet. I was very honored to be in there, mostly because it just shows a lot of people dedicated one of their votes for me. Seeing as a lot of people look at the list it’s rather good for your name as well, but on the other hand, I’m hoping people will use their ears to judge a DJ rather than their eyes.
2. Your label Intuition had marked itself on the last year as one of the most interesting labels in trance music. What can we expect from it for the near future?
A lot of things! Firstly, before the summer my first mixalbum will be released on the label, which is also the first CD release on Intuition: ‘Intuition Sessions Volume 1: South Africa’. It’s basically inspired by travelling through this country for a month last year. It features a lot of Intuition stuff as well as a few upfront tracks from other top labels.
Next to the actual CD, a few selected tracks will appear on a 3 part vinyl sampler, of which the first one will be a full color sleeve in the trend of the CD, which fits the second two samplers (these come in normal black sleeves).
The releases around the CD are mostly about exisiting Intuition artists, and some new ones we have discovered. We will be featuring releases from talent such as Cliff Coenraad, Kimito Lopez, DJ Shah & Cosmo, Orkidea & Marc Mitchell and many more!
3. Intuition have organized and is still organizing events in Holland every few months. The label has signed some talents in the last 2 years. When you look at all of this can you say it was your dream? What other dreams regarding to the music scene do you have?
It was certainly my dream. I experienced some of the nicest times of trance as a listener, and when that started going downhill I felt that it would be a dream come true if somehow I could create something that helped continue the line in which trance developed for a significant time. Thanks to the help of quite some people this actually worked out.
Some of the things we hope to do in the next few years:
- Establish the Intuition Summer and Winter Events as the biggest real trance festivals in the world (something like Trance Energy, but outdoor in the case of the Summer Event, preferrably on the beach)
- Build Intuition to be the most popular and more importantly: Most consistent trance label in the scene.
- Keep on discovering new talent.
4. As a producer who broke through the scene just a few years ago you probably noticed how hard is it to succeed in the trance scene not to mention actually earning enough money to live from it. Where do you stand these days? Are you 100% into music? What did you do that helped you with these problems?
Unfortunately that’s rather true, these days it’s hard to make good money with music. If I was doing what I do 6 or 7 years ago I would probably be driving a nice car and have a nice house or something, now I just take the train (which I don’t mind really, much better for the environment!) Actually that all doesn’t really matter to me: I’m happy because I’m doing what I love. The best thing is that since trance has gone ‘back underground’ the people I meet at trance events worldwide have the exact same passion for the music, and as you can imagine, that just makes the atmosphere amazing!
My heart is with music 100%, my mind is between two fires though: I’m still finishing university at the moment, but hope to be finished end of 2008, after which I will be able to focus fully on music.
5. What is your advice for new producers?
Be critical, work on a melody, beats, bassline or just an entire track in general untill it sounds perfect, and can compete with the best trance out there. It’s ok to spend a month on a track, by working hard and changing things a lot as you go along you can learn a lot.
Writing a good melody has always been my priority when producing. Why not spend a week trying to make a really cool melody rather than just jamming a few notes in a few minutes?
6. What get you inspired musically? Where do you find inspiration in life? Are there producers not from trance scene that brings you inspiration?
I find my inspiration from a lot of things. Listening to other music always makes me eager to go into the studio and make music too, whereas having seen a cool movie, or having had a great holiday can also make me crave for studio time! Inspiration in life? I just think about what a great coincidence it is that the world is the way it is, and we live the way we live, there must be a lot of luck involved in things becoming the way they are, and so I couldn’t do anything other than feel lucky, especially since I can follow my passion in music!
There are certainly non-trance producers that bring me inspiration, in fact, I’d say a majority of the musical inspiration I get comes from outside of trance:
- Air (especially their new album, Pocket Symphony)
- Imogen Heap
- Royksopp
- Sia
- Faithless
- Red Hot Chilli Peppers
- The Police
- Radiohead
- And a million single songs by other artists
7. What do you listen to when you're at home? What are you / were you listening except from trance music? What brought you to trance music in the first place? Who were your favourites on your first days in trance music?
I’d say about 50% trance, 30% other electronic music, and 20% ranging from pop to classic music. I can really appreciate good music in general. A good song is a good song, it doesn’t have to be trance for me to like it, although it is still by far my favorite style.
When I was still really a kid I listened to acts such as 2 Unlimited, Dune, Robert Miles and that sort of stuff. As a teenager I really got specifically into trance and artists such as Push, Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, Rank 1 (and the million aliases they had), Oliver Lieb, Sasha and a looot of others were my favorites.
8. You've been working with leon bolier recently on an e.p . how was it working with him in the studio? How is it working with another producer on a tune?
It was a lot of fun, Leon is a great guy to hang out with, very relaxed, which is lovely if you’re in a studio together, chilling out, talking, making music, and having snacks or something. Working with other producers is nearly always great for learning stuff. Everyone has different tricks, sharing these is a superb idea!
9. Your radio show "Intuition" is already 2 years old. What happened to the old concept of only 4 residents that are taking care of the 2nd hour?
After spending very little time on my studies, which obviously didn’t do it a lot of good, I decided that I had to reorganize my life so that I could get my diploma and devote myself to trance fully. One of the things that made this possible was starting to work with an agency, David Lewis Productions, another thing was starting to work with Rob Keunen and Michel Kuklinski for the Intuition Events, lastly doing the radio show bi-weekly gave me some extra time, and put more focus on the other talent Intuition has to offer.
It also made it easier to keep a quality rather than quantity radio show, as there is only so much good music out there. I’d rather mix less shows and keep the quality up instead of mixing more and having to play stuff I don’t fully like.
More time for music means more time for the radio show though, so odds are in 2008 I will be doing weekly mixes again!
10. What do you use for producing? Software? Hardware? Describe us shortly your studio.
Here’s a list of what I use in the studio:
- PC with Core 2 Duo and 2 19” flatscreens
- Dynaudio Air 15 Monitor Speakers
- Universal Audio UAD Card
- Echo Layla 24 Soundcard
- Access Virus Ti
- Cubase SX with: Battery 3, Spectrasonics Atmosphere, Trilogy and Stylus, Albino 3, Arturia Minimoog
11. The last few years have been pretty tough for vinyl industry with the digital revolution and the bad aspects of it that include illegal file sharing which causes many labels financial problems.What is your opinion about the digital downloads services and the decrease in sales of vinyls from an A&R point of view and from a dj/producer point of view?
Although I love vinyl, it’s a very outdated medium for a very modern industry. CD’s and downloads developing is logical, I’ve personally (as a dj) embraced it as it opens up a lot of opportunities, no more long waits for release dates, no more high costs for vinyls and packaging/sending. I think a lot of labels have gone bankrupt because they tried to oppose the downloading situation for so long, mostly because of the fear that people will never pay for music downloads when they can be obtained for free illegally.
It’s inevitable, and people are finally catching on. Download legally is becoming easier, and more tracks are becoming available. In ten years people won’t know better!
12. What tunes make you 'Kippenvil' (that’s the only dutch word I know) when you listen to them?
One that always does the trick, especially on a loud system, is William Orbit – Barber’s Adagio For Strings (Ferry Corsten Mix). Pure trance sounds, perfect for kippevel!
13. Are there any producers these days producing something new which might evolve to a new direction in trance music that will take place in the next years?
Hard to say, I think people should just make what they like, and try to be different. Unfortunately when something like Electro comes along everyone tries to be different at the same time, which really just means you get one generic pile of bleep.
I’m hoping that once every style has been “discovered” people will just go back to making the style they love most, and try to be the best at it. You can always use influences, or try something no one else does, but in the end good music is good music, maybe it should be more about the quality instead of the originality.
In the end rock has been rock for god knows how long, yet people still listen to it because there are people trying to make the best of it, I hope trance will become strong like that too.
14. What was the weirdest / funniest reaction you got from a fan?
I was recently bombarded with one or two pieces of female underwear at a gig. Shocking, haha!
Other than the odd strange occurrence, I’m happy to say that most of the trance lovers I meet around the world are the greatest and most normal, down to earth kind people I’ve met in my life.
15. Which secrets can you reveal about your plans for the next years to come?
In 2008 I hope to start working on my first artist album, something that has been on my list for a long time. I hope to do some more interesting collaborations and cool remixes, play as many gigs as possible, and try to deliver the best music possible for people that like trance.
I’m not quite sure what more time will bring, but I definetely can’t wait to find out! I would really like to play in Israel sometime too, that’s for sure!
16. What do you think about the trance scene these days?
For me, it’s perfect right now. Trance has gone underground, where it belongs!
Thanks a lot for doing this interview menno in the name of all Israeli trance addicts!
You’re welcome! Thanks for the nice questions. See you soon hopefully!
Love,
M
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What makes a good tune is having a source of passion to its creation
Last edited by Glenn-Holmes on May-16-2007 at 22:36
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