The Beat Goes On: For DJ Tiesto, the Rules of Getting the Party Started are Meant to be Broken

Posted By admin on okt 8, 2009 | 0 comments

New York, 08-10-2009,

IN THE LAND of the strobe-light dancers, Tijs Michiel Verwest is king.

The quiet-spoken maestro of the mixing board rules under one name — Tiesto — and stakes his claim as the world’s biggest DJ by selling out stadiums, spinning 12-hour sets and keeping 250,000 people gyrating (see Ipanema Beach, Brazil, in 2007). Huge screens and seizure-inducing lights accompany the kicking bass lines, but this Bono of dance music didn’t start in arenas.

“It’s not a serious job,” said Tiesto on DJing. “It’s not like I knew, ‘This is going to be my life.'”

Growing up in Holland, Tiesto began working school parties at 16 before becoming the first DJ to play a solo concert in a stadium. But the world of pulsating bass lines and all-night dance parties still seems a bit foreign to the American mind.

And Tiesto is fine with that.

“I feel people in the U.S. are more, like, open to everything,” he said. “They are not so much put-you-in-the-corner yet. In Europe, you’re placed within a style. … In the U.S., I can experiment more.”

On Tuesday, Tiesto unveiled “Kaleidoscope,” his changeup of the trance formula.

“I was feeling pretty tired, you know; I’ve made four albums that sounded the same progressively,” said Tiesto. “I wanted to work with people I admired … to make it for a feeling something different than all the other albums … and make it angelic, uplifting.”

“Kaleidoscope” reshapes the aesthetic of trance into the structure of more traditional house music, without completely remaking the familiar, as Tiesto uses distinct voices, namely Sigur Ros‘ Jonsi, Nelly Furtado and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke.

“His voice is very original and it comes from out of his toes,” said Tiesto of Okereke. “It’s a very emotional voice, with a lot of power; it’s almost crying, crying for help or something. … His voice is very desperate.”

And for a man who loves Iron Maiden, mixing genres came easily.

“People should be more open-minded,” said Tiesto. “Pop music does that with you, the feelings, you feel in all types of music … the melodies are different, a different form, but the basics are the same.”

Source: Express Night Out