Marco V gets ready to headline the HarderFaster arena @ SW4
Reported by HarderFaster
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Submitted 08-08-07 21:10
Marco V is a rare breed of artist indeed. Not only is he one of the most passionate DJs you’ll ever see behind the decks, but his production skills are unrivalled, with his remixing skills so sought after that he even went through a faze of refusing to remix classics. Fortunately for his many fans, he was enticed out of that one with the offer of the Josh Wink classic, ‘Higher State of Conciousness’, which is now set to become a summer anthem. Yet as the resounding success of his recent In Charge arena at Dance Valley shows, he still has the concerns of the clubber at heart. He’s back in the UK in a couple of weeks for two rare festival appearances: to headline our very own HarderFaster arena at SW4 on Saturday 25 August and SW4 Cardiff on the bank holiday Sunday. We managed to snatch a few moments of his time in the one place he couldn’t run and hide: stuck at Barcelona airport waiting for his connecting flight to Ibiza…
Hi Marco, how’s it going?
Well I just arrived in Barcelona.
What’s the weather been like?
Great! Yeah it’s warm!
You’ve been interviewed on HF a couple of times now, most recently in late 2006. What have been the highlights of 2007 for you so far?
I released my ‘Combi:Nations: III’ album, which was something special for me, my new mix compilation. The other thing I really enjoyed was doing my own tent at Dance Valley.
That must’ve been amazing?!
Yeah — it was my own tent, so I did all the line-ups, all the decorations, so it was really special for me. I really enjoyed that.
I heard this year’s Dance Valley was one of the best yet?
Yeah, it’s a great festival. It’s always nice to do that festival, but for me, it’s something that was really incredible.
What plans do you have for the second part of 2007?
I’m working on my new artist album, which will be have to be out fairly soon. So I’m working hard on that and just doing my regular gigs and festivals.
You’re going to be in the UK soon for SW4 festival.
Yeah! It will be soon and a very short festival, just a one-dayer. I’ve heard good things about SW4. It’s the fourth one yeah? The third or the fourth?
I have to check! I think the fourth? [*wonders where the hell time has gone*]
It’ll be my first time, so I’m really looking forward to it.
What, in your opinion, makes a good festival?
The crowd. It’s the number one thing, it makes the festival if the atmosphere is good — which is the most important thing.
There’s a lot of things: the line-ups, the soundsystem. It’s not always very good at festivals. In my opinion, it’s really important to have a really good soundsystem.
The weather also always has a big impact on a festival.
I just got back from GG, it was so muddy!
I heard terrible things about that! I’m glad I was playing in Holland instead of GG, at a very big festival in Holland. We had sunshine… so it was better!
Lucky you! For those who don’t know you, did you always dream of making music when you were growing up?
Yeah but it’s hard to say. Because as I always say, even though I enjoyed DJing in my bedroom, making music was not the case at that moment. It wasn’t like nowadays, where you just buy the computer, buy the programme, and you make music. Back then, you needed a real studio! But I was always busy with music one way or the other.
How did you first learn to mix? Were you self taught, or did somebody teach you?
You won’t believe it, but I’d only heard mixes on the radio. So I didn’t have a clue about how people beat-matched the records. I never knew, cos I was too young to go to a club to see. So I figured it out myself…
I realised, if you just turn the bass down out of the record you can then mix them over. Then later on I figured out, you have to beat match! That was a big experience!
So you used the crossfader a lot before then?
Yeah! So it was like, hmmm… oh my god! Even then I was still trying to turn down the bass, but it’s not the way to do it!
So you got into DJing first. Can you remember your first gig, when you had to go from the bedroom into playing for a lot of people?
Yeah — although it wasn’t for a lot of people, more like 20 people for a party in a little car garage, just for friends, that’s how it started. But then later on, I played at a local club house that everyone in my area went to, then it just went further and further and further. So my first gig — it wasn’t a big one, that’s for sure!
Well things have certainly changed since then. And these days you prefer to mix on DVDs, I hear?
I really enjoy that! I did that on tour for my last album, ‘Combi:Nations: II’. But there’s a lot of time and effort, and it’s too much hassle to do it everywhere I go. But it’s really nice to play with DVDs, because you have all the images to go with the music, and that gives a lot of atmosphere when you’re playing.
It’s a whole different though level, isn’t it?
Yeah, but the problem is that the clubs are not prepared for it yet, so you have to bring all your own video equipment, your screens, your special DVD players. After doing that for a tour, it was too much! So I had to get away from that and only do it, for that club with the special box… what’s it called, in Blackpool? My friends go there and I’ve played there… over there, there’s a big screen, it’s all ready for it! So coming into clubs like that, I’m always going to bring DVDs.
So at festivals it’s impossible, because you always need the equipment?
It is, it’s too hard, but it truly would be something in the future that would be more like a standard you know, like people coming with their own DVDs and playing their stuff. It’s not that much, but it’s just different from the standard there is now. Instead of the current standard where clubs put in CD players, they’d put in DVD players…
Are you sad about the demise of vinyl?
Yes and no! If I could I would play more vinyl. But now, especially now, all the music I get is on CD so we don’t really have vinyl any more, even for my own remixes and my own productions…
But I still like to play vinyl. For me, I feel more like a DJ when I play vinyl.
You’ve been producing for many years now. What would you say makes a great track?
Sometimes dance tracks can make people go nuts! But it can also be like, a nice vocal track can make the whole club go in a certain kind of atmosphere. Sometimes you need a track with a big breakdown that makes the club go well. So for me a good track needs to be… well it’s for everyone different, but I like a warm sound. I don’t like it too sharp, you know, it’s difficult to explain. I like a warm sound that’s for sure, bass lines and then I don’t care if it’s a vocal track or a techno track, so long as there’s a warm bass and a feeling. For me that’s a great track.
You’ve remixed Josh Wink’s ‘Higher State of Consciousness’ and that’s shaping up to be one of the tunes of summer. How did this remix come about? Was it something you wanted to do?
Well no, there comes a point where… well I did a lot of classics and I was being offered still more classics and I said, ‘I don’t want to do any classics any more’. But the opportunity came, and it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse, remixing one of the biggest! So they asked me and I did…
It was hard though, because there were no outtakes, no parts of the original one, so I had to re-programme a 303 like the original bass line. So I had to remake that track completely.
What sort of equipment do you like to use in the studio these days?
I make music on Logic but for the rest I have a lot of plug ins. We also use a lot of hardware as well. It’s difficult to say over the phone…
On HF we have a lot of bedroom producers and DJs who’re interested in this!
OK, for hardware I like to use the Axis Virus IIi, it’s a hardware synthesiser that’s integrated into the computer. So you have a hardware synth but also a software synth in the computer. It’s something that I use a lot. And then I have a moog synthesiser that I also use a lot. That’s also a hardware synth. Then there’s my soft sampler, which is an EX24. But it’s too much to tell you all the plug-ins that I’m using at the moment!
There must be an awful lot of them?!
Yeah! They all help. So if I’m behind my computer, I can just say: ‘This and this and this and this!’ But to explain… it’s too much!
Has your sound evolved and changed much over the years? ‘Combi:Nations: II’ was described as part of the ‘cross genre fusion’ trend and your new album seems to move in the same direction…
Yeah, it is. But that’s something that comes naturally, you know. I still like the tougher sounds, and I still play tough, especially for festivals or somewhere like that. But music influence changes over the years and I think that’s the same for everybody. You just have to think, a clubber probably won’t like the same music they did when they were, say, 25, and it’s the same for me. I get different inspirations now for making music. I don’t like the same old same old stuff for years and years. I always try to find something new, something different, to keep things interesting for myself as well.
What kind of stuff inspires you these days?
At the moment it’s very hard, because for me, the whole electro influence is a little too much at the moment. If you ask me, there’s a little bit too much of the same. It’s difficult to say, because maybe tomorrow I’ll hear something on the radio and it gives me inspiration to go and do something in the studio, and I don’t even know it’s coming from that rock track. I’m just sitting in the studio making music and I don’t think too much! It always comes in a natural way…
You’ve played at most of the world’s top clubs and festivals. Has there been any one gig that’s been your favourite?
I played at Skol Beats in Brazil, that was really nice. And recently I played at St Petersburg in a big old castle. It was really great, I was surprised.
If you could throw a party anywhere, where would it be and who would you have on the line-up?
It would be somewhere tropical. I hate this European weather, you know, you never know when it’s going to rain! So we need to go somewhere where it’s 100% dry and warm, that’s for sure! On a beach… and I want to have Norman Cook, he’s someone that I really really like. And someone like Carl Cox. You know, that’s music that I really like, and while some people class me as more of a trancey kind of DJ and I also like to play trancey kind of sounds, if I was to go to a party, it would be more to listen to someone like him than a trance DJ. So I’d book them if money’s not an issue…
Sounds good to me, Norman Cook and Carl Cox in the sun somewhere! So I guess those guys are your favourite DJs. Who would be your favourite producers then?
My favourite producer?! That’s also a tricky one, cos that changes like every month! But someone that I really like at the moment for sure is Sébastien Léger.
He’s got some awesome stuff out at the moment hasn’t he?!
Yes, not everything he makes is suitable for my DJ sets, but he’s got a great sound. That’s something I like at the moment, but maybe in two, three months it’ll be someone else. It’s not like I’m loving the same producer for years, you know what I mean? It changes every time… but he’s the one at the moment for me.
You’ve been a prominent name in the DJmag Top 100 awards. What are your views on the awards? Have they helped your career?
In certain countries, for sure, yeah! Especially in Asian countries, where they really look up to the DJ lists. It always helps, that’s for sure!
Yes I think anything that promotes dance music and the dance scene has got to be good! As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s the launch of the 2007 Top 100 next week. Who do you feel deserves the top spot this year?
Norman Cook. He should be number 1. If you can put 250,000 people on a beach, then I think you’re a really great DJ. But you know, the regular people won’t vote for Norman Cook, because they don’t think about it. You can say someone’s a top DJ, but can they pull in those kind of numbers?
The club scene has changed considerably in the time you’ve been DJing. This summer there’s been a lot of interesting things happening, with the smoking ban in the UK having an impact on clubs and of course the club closures in Ibiza. Where do you think the future of clubbing is going at the moment?
Whew! I wish I knew! I could start a consulting agency… it’s a dark horse, I can’t say where it’s going.
Well if you personally could make any changes to the dance music scene, what would they be?
That’s also a tricky one!
Yeah I’m sorry, I like asking tricky questions…
I have to look for my flight to Ibiza. It’s boarding in 10 minutes…
I’d like it to go a little more underground. It’s getting too commercial, festivals and their line-ups. I’d like more underground music, not always the obvious stuff you get everywhere. In Holland, we have a lot of small parties starting again now, like when the whole dance scene started off. Small clubs with 200 people and small name DJs.
Yes that’s happening in the UK as well...
You get a great atmosphere. But I can’t go there, because they don’t book me! And because I have my own gigs I don’t have time to go there… but from other people I hear that there’s some great parties, small parties, and that’s what I’d like.
Well I’m boarding now…
Thank you so much, I really appreciate you giving up your time.
No problem!
Looking forward to seeing you at SW4!
Photos courtesy of Marco V and SW4. Not to be reproduced without permission.
SW4 - South West Four
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On:
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Saturday 25th August 2007
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At:
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Clapham Common [map]
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From:
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12pm to 9pm
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Cost:
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SOLD OUT
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Website:
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www.southwestfour.com/
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Ticket Info:
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CASH SALES £35 at:
LondonHelp4u - 72 Wells St - W1T 3QF - Oxford Circus Tube
For more info call Maria (Never Enough)
078 13684399/02076199997
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More:
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As one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, South West Four 2007 will blow away everything that it’s ever done before on Bank Holiday Saturday 25th August, as this year’s line-up is by far and wide the greatest collection of globe-trotting DJs we’ve every assembled. Snap up your tickets now, whilst stocks last!!
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Flyer:
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The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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