I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

When Kimberlee asked me if I was interested in interviewing Darude, my 12-year-old self shit his pants. When I was a kid, Darude was a legend, and “Sandstorm” was arguably one of the biggest hits of the ’90s.  So when I got the chance to sit down with the trance music star, I was overwhelmed by all the knowledge he wanted to pass on to fans and potential fans. Chilling in the green room of the Courthouse, the iheartthemusic crew sat down and chatted with the super producer about his past glories and what he’s got in store for us, as his career shows no signs of stopping.

iheartthemusic: Darude! How are you?  What have you been up to these days?

Darude: I’ve been doing pretty well. I released an album in the US and Canada in December. I’ve been touring for the last couple of years, 40 to 60 gigs or so. Most of them in the US, some in Finland, Dubai, Poland, Germany and places like that.

iheartthemusic: The album was actually released in Europe in 2007, right?  Tell me about the album.

Darude: The album is called Label This! and that name has a half serious meaning. There are a lot of people who strictly categorize music, and while it’s good to know what you like and what you’d call it, sometimes it’s really frustrating when people put things into small boxes. So, in a way, I kind of challenged people to categorize my music, because when you listen to the album it goes from commercial-style vocals and house to progressive and uplifting trance.

iheartthemusic: Being an established artist, does that let you experiment a little more?

Darude: Maybe so, but I feel that I just wanted to do something different. I don’t think the album differs that much from the earlier ones, it just has more variety.  The best feedback that I’ve gotten from my fans is that they can listen to it shuffled with the old stuff, so it’s not too different but it’s still a developed sound.

iheartthemusic: Well, you want to make an album that people can listen to on more than one occasion, not just when you’re out partying.

Darude: Right, and one of the things I did with the album that was different was, since my album Rush, I started DJing professionally. Before that, I did live shows. This album is made of my own tracks but I blended them as if I was DJing and it’s put together style-wise a bit more commercial with slower material and uplifting trance. And, like you said, I would love to hear from people that they’re not only hearing the tracks at the club, but at the pre-party, or doing their make up and hair, or having their first drink at home, and that’s one of my goals – to have my stuff listenable elsewhere.

iheartthemusic: In 1999 you had the biggest hit on earth.  Ten years later, you’ve still kept the momentum going.  How hard was it to follow a track like “Sandstorm”?

Darude: Well, to be completely honest, I haven’t topped “Sandstorm”.  The thing is – and this might sound ridiculous or arrogant – the song was more than just a hit record.  It was kind of like a phenomenon, if I can say that myself.  But I didn’t make that phenomenon, I made the song and then it kind of took a life of its own and it ended up being played at football games and Olympic events and stuff like that.

iheartthemusic: But how does it feel to have such an anthemic record that still brings out that emotion from people, and is still being used in ads and at sporting events?

Darude: Well, if I were a religious man, I would say that I’m really blessed.  There was a time that I was pissed off that some people only knew that one track, but these days I just think of it as a great thing.  For instance, if someone comes to the Courthouse tonight to hear that one track and listen to my set, then they get an updated idea of what I do and what I play these days.  That’s the main thing.  It doesn’t really matter what tracks brings people in because then you get a chance to reconnect and show them other stuff as well.

iheartthemusic: Do you think that people still want you to play your older material more than your new stuff?

Darude: In my sets, I definitely play the old stuff.  There are a couple of staples like Sandstorm or Feel The Beat, along with other tracks that I have on the side in case someone mentions them or asks for them, and I don’t mind it.  At the same time, I do try to push the new stuff as well.

iheartthemusic: So what do you have planned after this album?

Darude: Well, I’m already planning new stuff, maybe not a full album, but I think I’m going to start making single tracks and trying them out in my sets and see if there’s a good reaction.  I think I’m going to keep on using a wider variety of sounds, but I don’t think I’ll steer away from trance, but maybe collaborate with more people and incorporating more organic sounds.  I want to try and keep my basic sound but I learned a lot with this album about collaborating and co-writing, and I think that’s key in my future.  I think one of the reasons would be to get a wider fan base and attract more people from different genres.

iheartthemusic: Who would you want to collaborate with?

Darude: This is easy because I always say Madonna, either collaboration or a remix of her track would be great.  But there are so many.  There are brilliant singers that are unknown.  It’s just the angle you look at it.  If you’re releasing a single with a singer, it might be good to have someone unknown, and it could be as cool or cooler to bring out somebody new.

iheartthemusic: What do you think of the state of electronic music these days?  It’s gone through a lot of changes in the past few years.

Darude: It has.  After 2001, there was this whole ‘trance is dead’ movement going on.  Well, fuck them- pardon my French- it didn’t die.  Trance, whatever you mean by it, has been in the clubs since the 90s.  The thing about music is that there are very few genres that just die – they evolve to something else.  What I really like about the last couple of years is that very many genres have started merging.  Very few DJs these days play only one kind of music.  If you listen to someone play for 2 hours, they go from breaks to house to trance, and I find that very refreshing because when trance was at its peak, commercially, I think it started to go underground because of the saturation.  You could go to a big club and listen to a DJ spin the same style from beginning to end at the same BPM.  Now you can find electro and trance with guitars, rock with synthesizers and all that mashing up of genres and it’s very refreshing.  One of the bigger things was that a few of years ago when electro started to break through commercially with Benny Benassi, Fedde Le Grand and names like that, we’ve won over some ground from RnB and hip-hop.  I have nothing against RnB and hip-hop, but dance music has been such a little thing against big major labels that have been pushing hip-hop and RnB so it’s pretty cool that has gotten a much higher profile.

iheartthemusic: Absolutely, I think dance music has made a lot of great advancements in the last handful of years.

Darude: I think a couple of key producers have incorporated electronic sounds into that genre.  A track like Usher’s ‘Yeah’ has almost like a trancey synth line.  Producers like the Neptunes and Timbaland bring a bit of a European sound and brings it closer to North American listeners and then it’s easier for fans of RnB to jump to house and stuff, and it works the other way around too.

iheartthemusic: What’s one song you really enjoy playing when you’re Djing?

Darude: Right now, it’s Gareth Emery’s track called ‘Exposure.’ It’s not a traditional song where it’s a consistent build up, but it has a beautiful melody and it goes right to the beat.  When you hear it for the first time, you think “this is an OK track,” but when you hear it in a club… [head exploding motion].  When I play it tonight, if you guys are still around, come up to the booth and check out my goose bumps.  It gets me every time.

iheartthemusic: I assume your career will go on for many more years.  At the end of all of this, what do you want Darude to stand for?

Darude: What I want to keep doing is releasing tracks, coming out and playing and seeing the people’s reactions.  I don’t think there’s much of a difference between me and a regular clubber, I just happen to make music.  I want to keep my career going so I can do that for the people – make music and perform, but at the same time, I get at least as much back from them as they get from me – probably way, way more.