Rhythmism.comQ&A with Joris Voorn @ Electric Zoo 2010
by rhythmism
Wednesday, Aug 25th 2010, 06:57 PM
Joris Voorn's sound boasts a diversity and versatility that varies not only by genre, but by medium. His live performances have become internationally renowned for their abundant energy and intensity, his mixing skills admired for the subtly and intricacy of his layering. Joris works together not only tracks, but small loops and samples, to create a collage of techno and house - and all their varying sub-genres - that is sure to impress even the most seasoned electronic music connoisseur. His 2009 double mix CD Balance 014, and its 100 tracks of deep, thoughtful, cross-genre blends, is a healthy refresher for those interested.
Similarly, his productions float between tech-house, Detroit, acid, and more. Go back to "Luscious", released in 2003 and loved by the likes of Laurent Garnier and Carl Craig, and then 2004's "Incident", arguably the year's biggest techno track, played constantly by the likes of Carl Cox and many more mortal DJs the world over. Six years ago he was forging massive dance floor hits, and he has never stopped, all the way up to "The Secret", released earlier this year, and tearing about the clubs of Ibiza on the decks of Sven Vath, Loco Dice, and countless others around the world.
Joris Voorn is playing at New York City's Electric Zoo - Sunday School Grove on Saturday, September 4th. Click Here to attend his set!
Lets start with some background information: what music first inspired you when you were younger?
When I was a teenager I was more into indie music, kinda underground guitar music, then at some point I got more interested in listening to the radio, groups like Underworld, The Chemical Brothers and stuff. They were crossing over between electronic music and guitar music, and from there I moved into house and techno.
I read in another interview that you recently bought a bass guitar, have you been work guitars and live instruments in the studio recently?
Yea, I bought that two years ago, I wanted to bring some more organic elements like that into my music. When you are always working with computers and synthesizers, stuff like that, all digital, you start wanting to bring back that human element. I used to play guitar myself so I wanted to bring that back. I've used it on a few tracks so far and its going well.
Another background question: before you were able to sustain yourself through music, what jobs did you have? What was the worst one?
(Laughs) Actually, I had a nice job before I committed to music fulltime. I was an architect. I really enjoyed doing that, but just at some point the music was becoming too much. I was playing a lot on the weekends, and then I had to go back to work on Monday mornings at like 09:00, so that didn't really work. Before that, like way back in my teens, I remember working at a laundry shop. That was horrible, I really wouldn't recommend that to anyone.
Your mix Balance 014 has met widespread respect and acclaim, and people had lots of opinions about it. Especially the whole 100 track thing, some though it fun and innovative, some thought it excessive. What do you feel is the mix's place in the history of dance music compilations?
Its difficult to answer that myself, usually I just leave this up to critics and people on blogs. But, if you ask me, I think its definitely an interesting project. I never really made a big deal out of the number of tracks, that was just done by the record label, they thought it would be interesting to name the number of tracks in there. For me it was all about the music, and I just make these compilations the way I want to make them. So it ended up having that many tracks, I wasn't trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records or something. I think that both CDs are interesting from many points of views, both technically and as a listening experience.
Which artists do you consider to be ahead of the curve right now in dance music?
That is a very difficult question. I think that at the moment I am doing quite functional stuff, the music I am releasing, the remixes I am doing, its all really just quite functional. I'm this functional music at the moment because it simply makes people dance.
I think that there is not so much happening, on the musical side, in house and techno at the moment, so I find it very hard to name a few names that really stand out musically. I think there are a lot of good producers that are making a lot of good, functional music, tracks that I love playing myself while I am DJing. But there are not many people making tracks that are really melodically interesting and really moving on an emotional level as well.
But thats just a side note...
I've always been a big fan of Minilogue, that is also one of the artists that came into the Balance mix a lot, maybe on 6 tracks. Deetron is an artist that has been making really great music, for perhaps the past 15 years, and I was happy to release one of his EP's recently on my Green Label. He is definitely someone that makes these melodic, deep tracks. You know, there are so many people making music these days, making good tracks, but they're kind of one-off things all the time, there are not many people who are consistently making music that sounds new. Carlo Lio is one who is making really good, functional tracks, very groove driven, techno tracks, so he is definitely one of the good ones.
DJ-wise I would say Seth Troxler, he is definitely there as well.
Your coming to New York very soon for the Electric Zoo festival on Randall Island. Ive read that NYC is one of your favorite cities to stay in and that you would consider coming to live here. What is it that you like about the city so much?
What I like about the city is that its very inspirational. There many different neighborhoods, it feels like a very global city. There are so many cultures coming together there, there are little places for everybody which I find very inspiring, and it has a bit of a European touch to it, especially compared to the rest of the United States, although its not European at all, there are a lot of European influences that created this very colorful atmosphere. And I love the architecture, the way the city is built, Manhattan is very interesting, the grid its built on, even though there is a very functional grid there are still a lot of very friendly and warm spaces throughout.
What have you heard about the Electric Zoo festival?
Ive heard that its one of the nicest festivals in the states, lots of good music, and its in New York, so I'm expecting a lot.
Tell us a little about your set at Electric Zoo, what will you be using onstage?
What Im going to be using onstage is basically what I am using everywhere - my laptop with Traktor, so I can play 4 tracks at the same time, plus a mixer, along with another MIDI controller I am using (JazzMutant's Lemur). I'm always playing a lot of things at the same time; I'm always bringing along samples and loops from other tracks to do something extra, to create a little bit more than just playing track after track. I'm also always playing my own new unfinished remixes or tracks that I am working on, or just special elements in general.
Are there going to be any new productions of yours that we are going to hear (during your Electric Zoo set) and wonder what they are?
You might, I'm actually waiting on Green Velvet's vocals, he is working on some vocals for me, and I am hoping to get them in time to play them out at the Electric Zoo festival, but we will see what happens. And there are a few more projects I am working on you might here, but they aren't released yet.
Give us your top three festival survival tips...
(Laughs) You know the last time I went to a festival as a visitor was about 10 years ago, so I will have to dig deep on this one...
First, bring some ear plugs, I always play with ear plugs myself, so I am used to the sound level now. You get used to it. Yea, ear plugs are essential!
Second, get a good copy of the program, so you wont miss your favorite DJs. Bring a copy of the lineup and a marker so you can really keep track of who you want to see.
Third, enough drinking tickets, whether its water because your thirsty or beers just to get in the mood, enough drinking tickets is absolutely essential!
And one last question, following up a bit on your earlier mentions of new work your doing: what else do you have planned for the future? New mixes? Releases on your label?
Yea, sure. I just started to work more on my new album. It will be out in 2011, so its going to be a bit late. I have been working on it for the past one and a half years almost, creating lots of sketches, and it will take at least another year, but I am trying to make something different than what people are expecting. It will be inspired more by my Balance mix than my dance floor tracks, so that is definitely something that's going to be interesting.
There is also a track with Green Velvet that I am working on, a Dusty House EP, a very functional, but very housey, groove-oriented track. There are a few remixes, one for Marc Romboy and Stephan Bodzin that I'm just finishing, for Calypso. Also I am working on a remix for Point Blank, a Dutch artist, who is also called Secret Cinema, he made one classic track in 94 or 95 (Meng's Theme) and I'm remixing and re-releasing it. Then the rest of the year I am taking off, because I'm renovating my house and my studio, so during that time I wont be able to do much work.
Well, we are all looking forward to hearing these new projects. Thanks very much for your time Joris.
No problem.
Looking forward to seeing you in a couple weekends at Electric Zoo.
Yea, it will be nice, Ill see you in New York!
Saturday & Sunday, September 4-5, 2010
Made Event presents
ELECTRIC ZOO
New York Electronic Music Festival
Randall’s Island Park
Open Air Festival
11am-11pm Each Day, All Ages
Two Day Passes & Single Day Tickets Available
www.jorisvoorn.com
www.MadeEvent.com
www.ElectricZooFestival.com
Similarly, his productions float between tech-house, Detroit, acid, and more. Go back to "Luscious", released in 2003 and loved by the likes of Laurent Garnier and Carl Craig, and then 2004's "Incident", arguably the year's biggest techno track, played constantly by the likes of Carl Cox and many more mortal DJs the world over. Six years ago he was forging massive dance floor hits, and he has never stopped, all the way up to "The Secret", released earlier this year, and tearing about the clubs of Ibiza on the decks of Sven Vath, Loco Dice, and countless others around the world.
Joris Voorn is playing at New York City's Electric Zoo - Sunday School Grove on Saturday, September 4th. Click Here to attend his set!
Lets start with some background information: what music first inspired you when you were younger?
When I was a teenager I was more into indie music, kinda underground guitar music, then at some point I got more interested in listening to the radio, groups like Underworld, The Chemical Brothers and stuff. They were crossing over between electronic music and guitar music, and from there I moved into house and techno.
I read in another interview that you recently bought a bass guitar, have you been work guitars and live instruments in the studio recently?
Yea, I bought that two years ago, I wanted to bring some more organic elements like that into my music. When you are always working with computers and synthesizers, stuff like that, all digital, you start wanting to bring back that human element. I used to play guitar myself so I wanted to bring that back. I've used it on a few tracks so far and its going well.
Another background question: before you were able to sustain yourself through music, what jobs did you have? What was the worst one?
(Laughs) Actually, I had a nice job before I committed to music fulltime. I was an architect. I really enjoyed doing that, but just at some point the music was becoming too much. I was playing a lot on the weekends, and then I had to go back to work on Monday mornings at like 09:00, so that didn't really work. Before that, like way back in my teens, I remember working at a laundry shop. That was horrible, I really wouldn't recommend that to anyone.
Your mix Balance 014 has met widespread respect and acclaim, and people had lots of opinions about it. Especially the whole 100 track thing, some though it fun and innovative, some thought it excessive. What do you feel is the mix's place in the history of dance music compilations?
Its difficult to answer that myself, usually I just leave this up to critics and people on blogs. But, if you ask me, I think its definitely an interesting project. I never really made a big deal out of the number of tracks, that was just done by the record label, they thought it would be interesting to name the number of tracks in there. For me it was all about the music, and I just make these compilations the way I want to make them. So it ended up having that many tracks, I wasn't trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records or something. I think that both CDs are interesting from many points of views, both technically and as a listening experience.
Which artists do you consider to be ahead of the curve right now in dance music?
That is a very difficult question. I think that at the moment I am doing quite functional stuff, the music I am releasing, the remixes I am doing, its all really just quite functional. I'm this functional music at the moment because it simply makes people dance.
I think that there is not so much happening, on the musical side, in house and techno at the moment, so I find it very hard to name a few names that really stand out musically. I think there are a lot of good producers that are making a lot of good, functional music, tracks that I love playing myself while I am DJing. But there are not many people making tracks that are really melodically interesting and really moving on an emotional level as well.
But thats just a side note...
I've always been a big fan of Minilogue, that is also one of the artists that came into the Balance mix a lot, maybe on 6 tracks. Deetron is an artist that has been making really great music, for perhaps the past 15 years, and I was happy to release one of his EP's recently on my Green Label. He is definitely someone that makes these melodic, deep tracks. You know, there are so many people making music these days, making good tracks, but they're kind of one-off things all the time, there are not many people who are consistently making music that sounds new. Carlo Lio is one who is making really good, functional tracks, very groove driven, techno tracks, so he is definitely one of the good ones.
DJ-wise I would say Seth Troxler, he is definitely there as well.
Your coming to New York very soon for the Electric Zoo festival on Randall Island. Ive read that NYC is one of your favorite cities to stay in and that you would consider coming to live here. What is it that you like about the city so much?
What I like about the city is that its very inspirational. There many different neighborhoods, it feels like a very global city. There are so many cultures coming together there, there are little places for everybody which I find very inspiring, and it has a bit of a European touch to it, especially compared to the rest of the United States, although its not European at all, there are a lot of European influences that created this very colorful atmosphere. And I love the architecture, the way the city is built, Manhattan is very interesting, the grid its built on, even though there is a very functional grid there are still a lot of very friendly and warm spaces throughout.
What have you heard about the Electric Zoo festival?
Ive heard that its one of the nicest festivals in the states, lots of good music, and its in New York, so I'm expecting a lot.
Tell us a little about your set at Electric Zoo, what will you be using onstage?
What Im going to be using onstage is basically what I am using everywhere - my laptop with Traktor, so I can play 4 tracks at the same time, plus a mixer, along with another MIDI controller I am using (JazzMutant's Lemur). I'm always playing a lot of things at the same time; I'm always bringing along samples and loops from other tracks to do something extra, to create a little bit more than just playing track after track. I'm also always playing my own new unfinished remixes or tracks that I am working on, or just special elements in general.
Are there going to be any new productions of yours that we are going to hear (during your Electric Zoo set) and wonder what they are?
You might, I'm actually waiting on Green Velvet's vocals, he is working on some vocals for me, and I am hoping to get them in time to play them out at the Electric Zoo festival, but we will see what happens. And there are a few more projects I am working on you might here, but they aren't released yet.
Give us your top three festival survival tips...
(Laughs) You know the last time I went to a festival as a visitor was about 10 years ago, so I will have to dig deep on this one...
First, bring some ear plugs, I always play with ear plugs myself, so I am used to the sound level now. You get used to it. Yea, ear plugs are essential!
Second, get a good copy of the program, so you wont miss your favorite DJs. Bring a copy of the lineup and a marker so you can really keep track of who you want to see.
Third, enough drinking tickets, whether its water because your thirsty or beers just to get in the mood, enough drinking tickets is absolutely essential!
And one last question, following up a bit on your earlier mentions of new work your doing: what else do you have planned for the future? New mixes? Releases on your label?
Yea, sure. I just started to work more on my new album. It will be out in 2011, so its going to be a bit late. I have been working on it for the past one and a half years almost, creating lots of sketches, and it will take at least another year, but I am trying to make something different than what people are expecting. It will be inspired more by my Balance mix than my dance floor tracks, so that is definitely something that's going to be interesting.
There is also a track with Green Velvet that I am working on, a Dusty House EP, a very functional, but very housey, groove-oriented track. There are a few remixes, one for Marc Romboy and Stephan Bodzin that I'm just finishing, for Calypso. Also I am working on a remix for Point Blank, a Dutch artist, who is also called Secret Cinema, he made one classic track in 94 or 95 (Meng's Theme) and I'm remixing and re-releasing it. Then the rest of the year I am taking off, because I'm renovating my house and my studio, so during that time I wont be able to do much work.
Well, we are all looking forward to hearing these new projects. Thanks very much for your time Joris.
No problem.
Looking forward to seeing you in a couple weekends at Electric Zoo.
Yea, it will be nice, Ill see you in New York!
Saturday & Sunday, September 4-5, 2010
Made Event presents
ELECTRIC ZOO
New York Electronic Music Festival
Randall’s Island Park
Open Air Festival
11am-11pm Each Day, All Ages
Two Day Passes & Single Day Tickets Available
www.jorisvoorn.com
www.MadeEvent.com
www.ElectricZooFestival.com
