Paul Van Dyk - A Strong Tailwind in a Techno World
The Dwarf caught up with Paul van Dyk to discuss technology, collaboration, and the state of the world.
Uberpopular DJ Paul van Dyk has recently been in Australia doing a number of club dates in support of his first album in three years, In Between. He’s the father of trance, but this album is a little bit different, “it’s a manifestation… it’s not about trance or techno or progressive house or electro - its electronic music and combines all the elements that I like, this is why there’s quite a wide variety of sounds on there to discover”.
In Between is a highly collaborative album, for PvD collaboration simply “comes with the creative process, for example when I had White Lies finished I thought Jessica [Sutta of Pussycat Dolls fame] would probably be really good to bring the track across, so I just called her”. White Lies is the first single off In Between and could be seen as a crossover into mainstream dance because of the choice of vocalist, but it’s still authentic Paul van Dyk. The reason for this is when he’s not travelling he’s “constantly making music so [the album is] kind of a view on things experienced in the last 3 years of travelling, pretty much since the last album and of course having the chance to be working with some fantastic other musicians and they bought their influences as well”.
But he’s not just collaborating with pop starlets, In Between also includes the track Fall With Me which features David Byrne. “It was an absolutely fantastic thing, it was a fluke idea, okay let’s call and ask, and he actually said yes”, which is pretty much a reason to ask anyone you really want to work with you… the worst they can say is no.
Paul van Dyk has also worked with people that aren’t really known down here in Australia. Let Go is a collaboration with “Rea [Garvey of the German band Reamonn but most significantly featured on the European version of Nelly Furtado’s single All Good Things Come (to an end)] - one and a half years ago we said let’s do something together and it finally worked out”.
The track that surprised Paul van Dyk the most is 'New York City'. “I was actually collaborating on the track with Austin Leeds and Nick Terranova and to me they reflect the new US house sound you know this punchy banging drums and all that.” So with the backing track ready he thought “now we need a theme to it that kind of translates well with the aggressiveness of the music”. The natural choice was Ashley Tomberlin, who features quite heavily throughout In Between and has also collaborated with Tiesto and Armin van Buuren. Paul van Dyk gave Tomberlin lyrical inspiration by explaining “what New York means to me, what I feel when I’m in New York and she wrote the lyrics and when it came back I was completely wow she nailed it and the craziest thing is she has never even been in New York”. Tomberlin is a pretty talented lady “just by me being enthusiastic about it and telling her about it she came up with the right words and emotions”.
Paul van Dyk has “a very clear idea about the music I want to make and enjoy at the same time having those worlds colliding in the studio between the collaborators in a positive sense, of course, this is when something interesting comes along”. And that’s how fans will find In Between.
DJ tours are rather different from bands, there’s less equipment and more technology. At any given live show Paul van Dyk will have “two computer systems with me that link through interfaces, I have keyboards on stage, software synthesizers, midi controllers, a special custom made mixer and so I’m basically combining my abilities as a musician and being in the studio with what I know about DJ-ing”. What does this result in? The “ultimate thing, it’s pretty much like producing music in front of the audience”.
Paul van Dyk has been DJ-ing for a long time and he has seen dance develop “from a small subculture into the biggest youth culture in the world”. There’s been a number of developments on the technological front too, “you know I started with mixing two vinyls into each other then a little later using CD players and then for me obviously it was a big step forward when suddenly the first studio equipment elements turned up within the DJ gear because that finally gave me the opportunity to use some of the skills that I have in the studio, to use them on stage”. The evolution of DJ equipment is a fast paced as computer technology and iPods in fact; PvD “couldn’t even tell you what equipment I will use in six months”.
But good technology does not make a good DJ “it’s a balance of using your abilities… you abilities give you limitations, I wouldn’t be very good with a Formula One car, but I’m very good with mine”.
Paul van Dyk is a very politically motivated artist, “I grew up in East Germany so I definitely appreciate freedom of speech and democracy because I grew up in a system that was a dictatorship”. But he first actually got involved in things “when I visited India for the first time when I saw a kind of poverty that was ridiculous. While I was in India I was getting in contact with the German Consulate and they bought me in contact with a charity organisation called Akanksha [an organisation that is primarily focused with the education of underprivileged children www.akanksha.org], so ever since I’ve been very much involved in charity… I created a charity organisation here in Germany called Rueckenwind [created with the German Red Cross with a strong focus on youth education] and in order to actually change something for the kids we needed to start talking to politicians” and get them to change the laws.
The theme is clear, for Paul van Dyk the most important things for the world are “food and education”. PvD also believes that by address education there will be a decrease in terrorism “i people actually know the structure of the world, if people know the different elements of life there is no reason to kill each other or throw a bomb at someone and it’s all about education and food and options”.
So what can you do? “We have a responsibility for what’s going on in Africa or in South America, in all these places and that’s something we should finally take on and I’m obviously trying on the level that I can to actually do something”, it makes me want to try harder on my level too.
