The Paul Van Dyk Interview, July 19, 2006 - nightlife, bars http://www.clubplanet.com/news/archive/the_paul_van_dyk_interview.asp NEW YORK New York E-mail to a Friend Bookmark This Page The Launchpad You're reading the daily newswire from Clubplanet.com, the world's leading nightlife resurce. Send stories, tips and comments to [email protected] Syndicate this site (XML) July 19, 2006 Archives July 2006 June 2006 -Emily Tan May 2006 Paul Van Dyk has always had a special relationship with New April 2006 York. For Paul, playing to New York crowds has never been “just March 2006 another gig.” This being the fourth consecutive year that PVD has February 2006 January 2006 played Central Park SummerStage (a Made Event) the bar has December 2005 been set higher than ever before in terms of production. Van Dyk November 2005 himself has a few surprises in store, and the anticipation is October 2005 palpable as the August 18th and 19th dates draw near. (The September 2005 second SummerStage date was added to accommodate August 2005 overwhelming demand.) Both New York dates will be sold out. July 2005 Click here for tickets. June 2005 An uncompromising electronic music DJ/producer of international May 2005 fame, Paul Van Dyk has had a love affair with New Yorkers since April 2005 his earliest days playing Disco 2000 at Limelight, but it was more archives Search during his now-legendary residency at Manhattan club, Twilo, that this love affair blossomed into a legitimate bond. His affinity with New York’s savviest dance music lovers continued to grow in the Search ensuing years as the quality of his shows matured in sophistication. [Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for an exclusive Clubplanet behind-the-scenes “production diary” with Mike Bindra of Made Event in the coming weeks.] Soon, Van Dyk will unveil his first-ever weekly radio show in the U.S. on Sirius Radio. The significance of his show is bolstered by satellite radio’s increasing popularity over terrestrial radio. Paul is also thrilled with the launch of his “new baby,” the Internet radio station-slash-download site, Vonyc. With all of the projects on his plate and the constant touring (a full schedule of his fall tour, including a romp through Texas and California in September, appears at the bottom of this interview)– it’s halfway through the year and Van Dyk has already circled the globe – it’s a wonder that he finds time to create new music at all. He is, in fact, working furiously on his new artist album (his last album was Reflections, and his latest compilation is Politics of Dancing 2) which is due for release in the spring of 2007. And he'll also be touring In this candid interview exclusively for Clubplanet with DJ Times writer Emily Tan, Paul Van Dyk discusses what’s on his mind and 1 of 8 7/20/2006 12:17 PM The Paul Van Dyk Interview, July 19, 2006 - nightlife, bars http://www.clubplanet.com/news/archive/the_paul_van_dyk_interview.asp Ads by Goooooogle gives readers a glimpse of where he’s going next. Insider's Nightlife Emily Tan: Congratulations on adding the second Central Guide Park SummerStage date! What can fans expect this year Hot Bars Hip that’s different from the last three years? Restaurants Cool Clubs Search the Paul Van Dyk: Well, the past three years have been always BlackBook List for different from each other because of the production and such. We Free! had a little surprise performance of “The Other Side” last year www.blackbookmag.com/ with Wayne Jackson, for example. Since it’s a surprise, I’m not gonna reveal what’s so special for this year. [laughs] My perspective is always the musical one, so if I talk about surprises, it’s always about the musical aspect. NY Event & Party Planning Some big news that’s breaking here first is that you just NYC Nightlife & signed a deal with Sirius for your own weekly show, the Special Events first-time you’ve ever had a radio show – including on First class events terrestrial radio – in the U.S.! at the top clubs www.FifthAveGroup.com PVD: Absolutely, I’m really happy about that. The show’s going to be called “Vonyc Sessions,” and it’ll be once-a-week with a re-broadcast later in the week. This is something I’m really excited about. That’s one of the initial thoughts why we even thought about doing something like this: I know a lot of people bar 13 are listening through the Internet to my German show, so it Serving nightlife in makes a lot of sense. If there’s a huge number of people listening NYC since 1996 in the U.S., why not do a show for people in English, directly for Open 7 Nights. them? www.bar13.com When will you launch your new Sirius show? PVD: I wanna make the Sirius show as good as it goes, because New York it includes professional jingles, trailers and such. Once the whole Nightlife machine is in gear, and it takes time to get everything sorted with Guides to my schedule…I have to have a proper structure of when I do the Undiscovered NYC show, when it’s being transferred to Sirius, and that all has to be 100% in-place before we go ahead with a launch party. It’d be Dining. & Bars. Get absolutely a mess if I would launch it on a particular day and if I Them Free at couldn’t deliver in the next two weeks. But it’ll launch very soon. DailyCandy www.DailyCandy.com Vonyc.com is your baby. What’s so special about it? PVD: Vonyc.com is our download site; it’s an online radio where you can listen to the latest electronic songs. The best in electronic, as we call it. The “Vonyc Sessions” is a weekly outtake of the best of electronic music. Does the Vonyc.com website carry music that people would expect to hear in a Paul Van Dyk DJ set, such as tracks signed exclusively to you label, Vandit? PVD: Not necessarily. The Vonyc side is open to all sorts of electronic music; it just has to have a high quality level. All the Vandit things are on there, but we also have deep, electro stuff, like from Armada and AnjunaBeats. The whole reason we started the Vonyc site was because there were always complaints from the music industry about illegal file-sharing, but I always said you cannot blame people for it. I said that 99% of electronic music only comes-out on vinyl, so you have to wait until someone rips it and uploads it to the Internet. Labels’ only option is to release it legally. 2 of 8 7/20/2006 12:17 PM The Paul Van Dyk Interview, July 19, 2006 - nightlife, bars http://www.clubplanet.com/news/archive/the_paul_van_dyk_interview.asp I thought, “What would I like to have?” I‘d like to be able to listen to music, so you can sample every single track when you go into the search function on Vonyc. It’s also about the radio function: It’s a 24/7 radio that always plays the latest electronic music, and whatever you like, you can click on a button and you can download it. We’re targeting the music that’s really demanded, the big things that are being played in the clubs, but we also have the very small, underground house labels. We saw early-on that most likely if you download it, you’ll probably have it before the DJs have it. We get pretty much double the amount of music now; we get two CDs of everything. One for me, one for the site. Judge Jules has his own music store, where he makes available for download most of the custom-edited tracks he plays out. Is Vonyc characterized by having the “Paul Van Dyk sound”? PVD: Actually, I’m not even deciding what’s played. I have a very good team sitting there that’s basically very good at analyzing huge potential, like, “Here, this is a great track!” We get so many demos from young talent that don’t even have a label, so these artists get very early exposure right away. I’m not really artistically that much controlling it, at all. These are tracks that are very interesting, be it something bleepy or very happy or very heavy, all sorts of stuff. They do a really good job at compiling a great variety of sounds. It’s already a few of the tracks that started to become big in the clubs, and we had them first. I played them in my sets. When iiO’s “Rapture” first got into your hands four or five years ago, you played that song in every set for several weeks, maybe a few months. A global DJ of your stature can surely make-or-break a new track or a new artist. Is that something you’re trying to do with Vonyc, help break new artists? PVD: Well…there’s a track by Emjay called “Real High” that I play in my sets. It’s not even out yet, but I’ve seen people holding-up signs at shows asking me to play it. [laughs] Holding-up signs? People bring signs to a club? PVD: [laughs] Yeah, well…they cannot request something, so sometimes they hold signs up. How is your Vonyc.com site different or better than other sites like iTunes, Beatport, Rhapsody, or JudgeMusic.net? PVD: It’s difficult to say one’s better.