Don't be surprised if you see legendary DJ and electronic music pioneer Paul van Dyk milling about the Empire Polo Club in Indio before he starts his set at the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival -- it's part of his preparation.
"I know exactly what I have with me. I know exactly what I can do, and I also know exactly what I would like to do. Everything else is absolutely down to the interaction with my audience," van Dyk said in a recent telephone interview.
Van Dyk's performance on Saturday is set to be the first full-scale debut of his new tour to support upcoming album "Evolution."
The German producer and DJ himself has evolved, first breaking out in the early Berlin techno and house electronic music scenes and then on to trance music, becoming a world-recognized name in electronic music.
That theme of evolution permeates van Dyk's new music.
For his live set-up, he doesn't have CD players or turntables. He has two computers and a host of keyboards where he creates music on the stage.
"Out of that playing live, a lot of ideas materialize in a way. Some of the major songs and key structures really developed while playing live," he said.
Van Dyk said that as he has matured as a person, his music has followed suit, growing up and becoming more intense. The evolution goes beyond just him, he said.
"It's my personal evolution, in a way ... if you look at where electronic music started 20 years ago, when it was a small subculture before and obviously became the biggest youth culture in the world, as it is now -- it's all an evolution process in a way," he said.
"I'm just glad that basically I was there and I was watching and ... giving my input into electronic music over the last 20 years," van Dyk said.
He didn't want to reveal many details of his full-scale live production, but he did say he worked with the production team that brought Muse's last arena tour to life. Muse headlined Coachella in 2010 and brought pyrotechnics, well-crafted video images and a laser light show that would make any Pink Floyd planetarium experience green with envy.
"This is something that has been really important to me in terms of production. Obviously there are quite a few of my colleagues touring around with productions, with impressive LED screens, stuff like that. And basically what do you see? It's like two or three hours of different kind of bubbles," van Dyk said. "This is not where I came from with my ideas."
His production will include 29 different videos about evolution, from the big bang theory to architecture, if everything goes according to plan.
"All of these elements are visualized. If you take a set of 190 minutes down into 29 very different stage feels, then you know how often this actually changes and evolves with the music," he said.
"Over the last years, Coachella developed to always have a lineup that features substantial artists from all sorts of different genres, and the people who actually come out to Coachella are always rather open-minded," van Dyk said. "I remember the last time I was there, I was watching Placebo, the Placebo guys were watching me. There was an all-over interest in music, and I think this is what makes Coachella one of the best festivals."
Went to Coachella and was going to see him....BUT I got caught up in Empire of the Sun's set. There were so insane I couldn't tear myself away to go to the Sarah Tent. I figured I can always see Van Dyk.
Originally posted by Paul Anthony
was hoping for 35 but 45 will do lol
Are you able to select the option to have your tickets shipped? Cuz when I placed the order the option was there so I picked it, but now the screen says Will call only now. Hopefully they dont screw me up by charging me for shipping and then have to be placed on will call.
**edit** nevermind, they just sent me an email that they're moving my tickets to Will Call and refunding the $1.50 LOL
DjWoody
Got my tickets. Will Call Only FTL!!!
:whip: :whip: :whip:
DizkokidD
alright OC peoples... are we caravaning or carpooling??
