CGNY: Let’s start with the good news! You’ve just been signed by a major booking agency Kinetic AM with serious A list talent on their roster.  What does that mean for your international career?

DE: I am really happy they took me on, the guys running the company have become good friends over the years as are a lot of the artists they represent. I hope it will give my international career a boost. Due to different circumstances, most important of which is my work as an electronic music promoter at Doornroosje, I never put emphasis on an international profile. I was pretty content with the basis I had in Holland + the occasional foreign show in fantastic clubs like Berghain, Rex, Fuse to name a few. Now it feels right to take things a step further.

CGNY: Tell us about your early influences? What got you started in the electronic music scene?

DE: The first major influence in electronic music was Jean Michel Jarre. My father had Equinox at home and it totally blew me away. I must have 7 or 8 years old at time. After that I was more into bands, rock, punk even death metal. It wasn’t until 1993 when I was exposed for the first time to techno and house through various illegal parties in Den Haag. The vibe was mind-blowing; I didn’t know what DJ’s did at the time. The whole night on the dance floor seemed like one long record you didn’t want to stop.

CGNY: You’ve got your own label Wolfskuil, and you’ve also had tracks signed by others including Perc Trax. What’s it like to run your own label? Why did you start that up? How do you find new artists?

DE: I started Wolfskuil together with my good friend Ger Laning in 2003. It was just something that we really wanted to do. At the time we really had to look for the artists, so we asked artists we felt a connection with, that played at the club (Doornroosje), if they wanted to send us music. That’s how Joris Voorn and Hakan Lidbo become the first Wolfskuil releases. After that we got more and more demo’s in, so we were able to choose. In 2008, after a 2 year break from the label, I continued solo. Ger moved to another city and was way too busy with his new job. It kinda followed the same process. It was and still is one of the most fun and rewarding activities I have.

CGNY: You’ve been playing all over Europe this summer including some of the best known clubs in the techno scene like Berghain and Panorama Bar. What’s been your favorite gig so far?

DE: That has to be the 5 hour warm-up at Berghain. I always experience an overwhelming sense of freedom when I play there. Anything goes and the crowd encourages you to experiment and go beyond what you would do anywhere else. I had the same vibe a couple weeks before at Trouw in Amsterdam, playing with Ben Klock. And the gigs during the summer festivals in my hometown were absolutely amazing, again it’s the musical freedom that made it very, very special. It has been a very good year actually, because now that I think of it I can name a whole bunch of more highlights hahah!

CGNY: You released your debut album “Balans” this year and it received HUGE support and lots of remixes. How long did it take you to put that album together?

DE: It was a very organic process. I made a whole bunch of tracks, which had nothing to do with dance floor music. I need to do that, to keep me from repeating myself to much or to get stuck in a format. For my creative process that’s very important. After a while there were so many of them and I didn’t know what do with them. They were just sitting there on my hard drive. My friends said that I had to put it out and that’s how the whole album idea started. Since I wanted to put it out on my own label (again the musical freedom, no concessions necessary), I had no deadlines or pressure. I always thought that when it was finished I would know it. All in all I think it took about 1.5 years to reach that point.

CGNY: What equipment do you use to DJ?

DE: As much as I love vinyl (still a huuuuuuuge collector and always will be), I stopped playing that 4 years ago due to many problems during gigs at clubs. After playing CDs for a while a switched to Traktor Scratch 2 years ago and I am totally loving it. I can use the best that technology has to offer (complete collection at your fingertips, looping, fx) with old fashioned beatmatching. With Traktor I never worry about things that can go wrong and I don’t have to waste the many, many hours on burning CDs. The only thing I still do is record the vinyl records that I buy, but listening while you record: that’s fun ;-)

CGNY: You’re also a promoter. How does that tie in to your DJ/producing career? Is there ever a conflict? How do you find time to juggle them all?!

DE: I try to separate both as much as I can, because I want to avoid any kind of conflict of interest. I am very principled about that. My promoter job comes first and cannot suffer because of my DJ or producer career. Same goes for the label. They all come second. I am very lucky that the job entails a lot of flexible hours and that I am able to work from home, just as I can do label stuff at the Doornroosje office. I am going to try to keep all these things up and running simultaneously as long as I can haha

CGNY: Any plans to tour to the US in the next year?

DE: We are currently setting up a small US tour for the second and third weekend of March 2011, hopefully I can make a stop in the Big Apple. It’s very high on my must visit list. Fingers crossed!

CGNY: Do you like dancing yourself?  

DE: Yes I enjoy that very much. I don’t get the chance to do it as much as I would like to, but I need to be on the dance floor every now and then. It’s very liberating and inspiring.

CGNY: What do you do in your spare time, if you have any?!

DE: Spare time, what’s that? LOL. I like watching a good movie, read the occasional book and hang out with my homies and talk about all things fun and important in life.

CGNY: Your 3 desert island disks – the top 3 songs you cannot live without?!!

DE: That’s a question I cannot possibly answer: I have waaaaay too many favorite songs. That’s torture! ;-)
But here’s 3 that have played a crucial role in my musical development:
-Philip Glass – Glassworks (Opening)
-The God Machine – Boy By The Roadside
-Jean Michel Jarre – Equinox

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