A State of Trance with Armin Van Buuren

LessThan3: There’s quite a lot of buzz around your new track Kate. Is it about a special girl in your life?
Artem: It's the name of my girlfriend, actually; the track is dedicated to her. I didn’t have a plan to sign it to Anjunabeats or any other label. I just made the track because I really love her and she’s a very important person in my life.

LessThan3: Is she also Russian?
Artem: Yeah; she lives near my home town of Engels. We get to see each other almost every day—when I’m not on tour, that is.

LessThan3: The Russian scene is doing very well right now. What other producers do you know personally?
Artem: My best friend I would have to say is Alexander Popov. He’s a trance DJ. D-Mad is my friend as well. I have to say, however, that my circle of friends is rather small, so I don’t know too many other producers personally.

LessThan3: You really changed up your style for your summer hit Around the World. Will you tell us the story behind this one?

Artem: This was a rather experimental track for me, and it wasn’t until the last moment that I decided to sign it to Anjunabeats. When I sent it to their management, they were very excited about it, and they pushed it as hard as they could. I have to say, I really didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did--getting so much support from both the house scene and the trance scene, from Axwell to Armin van Buuren—from the Swedish House Mafia to Above & Beyond. I’m hearing it dropped all the time by DJs at festivals. I finished it just before I played at ASOT 500 in Holland, where it was really great to see a positive reaction from the trance crowd. The music industry has really changed so much in terms of mixing styles. Today, house and trance music are so molded into each other that you can’t really separate them anymore. A lot of people who enjoyed trance in the early 2000s complain “trance is dead.” I disagree; it just changed into something new.

LessThan3: Do you think that’s becoming a trend with DJs to no longer spin only one style?
Artem: I really don’t want to limit myself because I love so many genres of EDM—even dubstep and drum'n'bass.

LessThan3: Really? What kind of dubstep do you like?
Artem: I love the more melodic dubstep like the new Nero album; I find it just amazing. It’s in my iPod and when I fly I listen to it because it’s really cool music that has really inspired me. I also enjoy some rock bands like Coldplay and Muse. It really doesn’t matter what genre a track is—it just matters that you love it.

LessThan3: What else are you doing right now?
Artem: I recently finished graduating from university and now I’m planning ahead for my DJ career. Further in the future I want to achieve more global success. A lot of DJs shoot to be the very best, and I say why not? I want to be #1 too! I’m going to keep focusing on making music and DJing for the next few years. That’s my plan.

LessThan3: What inspired your breaks remix of Hate Is the Killer by Moonbeam?
Artem: This was made during the experimental period of my career. This spring I remixed Daddyrock by Sander van Doorn in addition to producing Around The World. For my remix of Moonbeam-- well, I really love atmospheric breaks and I really wanted to bring that sound to this remix. It felt good giving this feeling to the vocals and melody.

LessThan3: With trance and other forms of EDM not getting very big in the United States until about few years ago, how have the reactions been touring across the country?
Artem: The US market is so big for trance and electronic dance music in general right now. I always know that if I go to American clubs or festivals the crowd reactions will always be amazing and I will be very happy to play for them. I was very excited during my Electric Zoo set in New York City; I really fell in love with the crowd!

LessThan3: Speaking of Electric Zoo, Above & Beyond dropped a new track by you and Mat Zo during their set. What do you two have in the works?
Artem: Yeah, I heard about that. Truth is we still haven’t finished it, but they must have played one of the versions. Because of my American tour this month, I can’t return to the studio to finish it. Mat Zo has finished most of his part; I have some work to do on my part.

LessThan3: How is working with Mat Zo? Your tune Rebound is absolutely massive!
Artem: I really love working with this Mat because we are very similar in our taste in music, and we think similarly as well. He had a melody idea that became Rebound. He dropped the track over to me and I really liked it. He said he wanted us to do collaboration, and I said “why not?” He gave me his project file and I finished the tune.

LessThan3: Is it true both of you started learning music at a very young age?
Artem: Yes; however, Mat had started producing music at a professional level much earlier than I—when he was 15 or 16 years old. I’m 21 now and my first release was when I was 18 years old.

LessThan3: If the world were ending in LessThan3 minutes, and you had an iPod with every song ever made on it, what would you listen to?
Artem: An old 1992 trance tune called Halcyon & On & On by Orbital.

LessThan3: Describe your sound in LessThan3 words.
Artem: Between genres.