A State of Trance 500 Tour

We interview Armin Van Buuren

He’s won the DJmag Top 100 poll an unprecedented three times, making him our most

popular DJ ever, and earlier this month topped that up with awards for Best European DJ,

Best Global DJ, Best Label, Best Trance Track, Best Radio Mix Show DJ, Best Full

Length DJ Mix and Best Podcast at the 26th Annual International Dance Music Awards.

He’s Armin Van Buuren and he must have a very long mantelpiece.

Currently celebrating ten years and 500 episodes of his award winning A State of Trance radio

show, Armin today sets off on a five date, five countries, tour this Saturday 19th of March in

Johannesburg accompanied by his closest friends. If you can’t make the tour, all dates will be

broadcast live while fans can also personally keep in contact with him via social network Flowd.

We caught up with Armin to find out how he deals with the pressure of all these accolades, what

he’ll be doing after this milestone, and why he’s just about to embark on the greatest journey of

his life… Full tour dates and interview after the video.

Your number one position in the DJmag Top 100 has just been reinforced by winning

Best DJ in the World at the International Dance Music Awards in Miami, amongst a

number of awards. How do you cope with the pressure of keeping in the top spot? And

as the public favourite, who would you choose as your own favourite number one DJ?

“After being voted number one in DJ Magazine in 2007 I really started feeling the pressure.

Even though I was extremely glad with this big honour, I did feel the crowd expected something

more to happen when I got on stage. After winning it again in 2008 I thought I would never win

it again so the fear of losing started to fade slowly and I realized I should just focus on making

the music I wanted to make and have fun. I thought, if I got this far by just being myself,

maybe I should just be myself even more and just do what I like? I can never get any higher, so

let's just have fun! So the less I was focused on ‘staying on top’ the easier it became. I just did

what I did and thought, ‘even if I lose, I can always say I had the best time in the world!’

“My all-time favourite DJ is Ben Liebrand from the Netherlands. It sounds completely weird now

but he was one of the first DJs to ever mix two records together. Back in 1974 they used to talk

in between records! I was really into what he was doing and creating new records out of two

existing. I got really interested in technology because of him. He's still a big inspiration to date.”

Armada also won award for Best Label. Obviously the summer is the time for a big

anthems - what do you have lined up?

“We've just released the Dabruck & Klein album and soon we'll release the new John

O’Callaghan album. I've just released ‘Drowning’ as my new single and we've just shot the video
for my single with Nadia Ali called ‘Feels So Good’. I will promote my new compilation CD ‘A

State of Trance 2011’ heavily and I've got two new projects coming, one called ‘Gaia - Status

Excessu D’ and one called ‘Triple A’ with Ana Criado and Alex M.O.R.P.H. Also, I've just released

the Blu-Ray of my new concert ‘Mirage’. Besides that I hope to get my best production this

summer - my wife Erika and I are expecting a little one!”

After ten years and 500 episodes of State of Trance you’re off on a five continent, five

country, tour. How would you describe the state of trance today compared to when

you started?

“The way we produce and play ‘trance’ nowadays is completely different. Back in the day we all

worked with big midi setups and sequencers. Now usually everything is done internally in one

computer. Back then we played vinyl, nowadays you hear more DJs playing with laptops and

USB keys. But the funny thing is, even though BPMs have gone down and the basslines have

changed, the melodies and euphoric feelings are still there! Even house producers use trance

melodies now! It's been spectacular to see the whole genre evolve and it's still here, stronger

than ever!”

What are you most looking forward to on the tour?

“Every gig will be special, and I can't wait to present the radio show and talk with the

community out there! The Den Bosch one will be particularly crazy with 20,000 tickets sold out

and five rooms with all trance! I can't wait to hear some of the DJs myself. You can follow us on

Twitter: #ASOT500”

Each event is going to be broadcast live while fans can keep in touch with you on

Flowd. With so many other things to think about other than DJing and producing, is it

possible to be a top flight DJ these days without a massive management team behind

you?

”Not really, you really do need a team around you and I'm proud to say I'm working with some

fantastic people. Plus, it's much more fun to share the success with others than just on your

own. In Holland we have a saying: ‘you first have how to learn to divide before you can learn

how to multiply.’ And I want to stress, even though there are many people working at ALDA,

Armada, DLP, Dancefoundation and Cloud 9 music now, they don't all work just for me. There

are many artists who benefit from this team, like Markus Schulz, Dash Berlin, Gareth Emery,

John O’Callaghan and so on. And we all travel the world together, sharing the fun!”

After such a massive milestone, what is your next goal?

“A State of Trance 1000? Ha ha, I don't know. First I'm going to finish the Armin Only Mirage

tour. We still have shows planned in Moscow, Bratislava and more countries. Then I think a new

album and big tour? Or maybe I just want to focus and learn how to be a dad first.”

A State Of Trance 500 dates

19th of March — South Africa, Johannesburg

27th of March — United States, Miami

2nd of April — Argentina, Buenos Aires

9th of April — Netherlands, Den Bosch

16th of April — Australia, Sydney