| Interview with Menno de Jong ( 17.05.2007 - 19:30 GMT UTC )
1. 1. Can you name some artists that inspired you during your earlier stages of production or DJing ?
Menno de Jong: For sure! Producers such as Oliver Lieb, MIKE / Push, Ferry Corsten and Rank 1 really influenced me. I listened to a lot of DJ sets by Tiesto, Sven Vath, Sander Kleinenberg, Sasha and a million others back in the days aswell.
2. At what age did you first begin to DJ ?
Menno de Jong: When I was about 12 I was already Djing at school parties and birthday parties. I got a little more serious when I was 15, I bought a second hand DJ setup and started collecting vinyls. When I was 17 I got my first residency at a local nightclub, exciting stuff!
3. What do you think is essential for a DJ, or a producer today, in order to make it out there in the scene ?
Menno de Jong: You really need to love what you do, and be willing to dedicate every bit of time and energy you have to it. There’s just not a lot of money to be made in dance music these days unless you really make it to the top, so if you don’t truly love it, you won’t even make it far at all. If you enjoy it on the other hand, and have musical talent, you can get there! Releasing tracks is a good way to become popular, but if you are a wizzard with the decks like James Zabiela or something, well, you can make it too!
4. How do you feel regarding the evolution of the trance scene ?
Menno de Jong: I like where it’s been heading. Trance music has gone back underground where it belongs. The parties are becoming more intimate, and the people there are there for the music. That just makes for an incredible atmosphere in general!
5. Looking towards the future where can we expect to see more involvement from you ?
Menno de Jong: I will be releasing my first mix cd in June, and hope to be doing a lot more of those, and hopefully an artist album in the future! Once I finish university I’d also like to tour internationally more, I haven’t been to North & South America nearly as much as I would like lately! Hopefully that will change.
6. Do you have any artists on your label that have upcoming releases that you would like to discuss ?
Menno de Jong: There’s a lot of cool new stuff coming up on Intuition, but two guys that you will definetely hear a lot from in the future are Cliff Coenraad and Kimito Lopez. Cliff has a lovely techno edge to his productions, it’s banging, but has a greate atmosphere at the same time. He will be releasing an EP with ‘Manjula’ and ‘The Hazzolator’ on there on Intuition Recordings in July, keep an eye out for it! Kimito on the other hand is an old school trance melody master. His new tune ‘Sub Runner’ has been in a couple of my sets as ID – ID and I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it! The melody is just beautiful!
7. Are you able to mention the names or labels of any upcoming artists that have requested to create remixes of your latest tracks ?
Menno de Jong: There’s not many remixes coming up, but some artists that have done remixes for me in the past are Markus Schulz, Mark Otten, Octagen (Re:Locate), Inner & Outer, Arizona (Thomas Bronzwaer) and Galen Behr.
8. Tell us something about your latest release - Sjamaan. What did you want to do differently this time ?
Menno de Jong: Sjamaan started out as a techno track. I was trying to make some ‘different than usual’ beats and all of a sudden I had something I was happy with. Since I’m a real trance head I figured: Wouldn’t this be nice with a hypnotic repetitive melody on there? And so it happened. The funny thing about Sjamaan is that it’s one of the first tracks I’ve created mostly on the road, on my laptop!
9. If you had the chance to perform at a club of any sort in the near future which club would it be and why ?
Menno de Jong: Well, one of the clubs I really wanted to play at one day is The Guvernment in Toronto. Last week I heard that’s going to happen on the 14th of July, so I’m more excited than ever! Other clubs I would love to play are Glow in Washington DC, Amnesia Ibiza (happening on the 31st of July, woohoo!) and Crobar.
10. On the Intuition Recordings official website it says that, rumors are hereby confirmed that you will be releasing your first mix CD before the summer, please tell us more about it.
Menno de Jong: The CD is called “Intuition Sessions Volume 1 – South Africa” and will be coming out in June. It was inspired by a month long trip I made in South Africa, and contains a lot of exclusive Intuition tunes, as well as some nice tracks from other top labels. There will be a release party on the 16th of June in The Netherlands, as well as a tour to follow it up. I’ll be playing an 8 hour set that night, so should be great fun!
11. In regards to the Intuition Recordings label, are there any upcoming artist's that you are going to sign in 2007 ?
Menno de Jong: We’ve currently signed a few new ones. A project by Shah and Cosmo from Germany will be getting an Intuition release in September. Next to that we’ve signed some exclusive material to the mix CD from artists such as Orkidea & Marc Mitchell, Yarune, Whirloop and Maor Levi.
12. We are well aware of the type of music you spin and produce but is there any other music that you switch over to occasionally for a change of pace ?
Menno de Jong: I really like progressive and techno a lot too, as well as a bit of psy-trance, so occasionally I can jump out in all directions!
13. Do you have a warm up routine before performing a live set? (For example stretching your fingers or hands) ?
Menno de Jong: I flip through my CD folder like crazy, thinking about what tunes I’d like to play and what might be suitable for the night. Other than that I have a drink, have a dance, and try to get into the atmosphere of the party.
14. What country do you feel that you have gotten the best crowd reaction from ?
Menno de Jong: Definetely in Poland, my first gig there was in front of 8000 people, and they went nuts, a debut I will never forget!
15. Are you able to remember the first album or single you ever bought ? What album or track was it ?
Menno de Jong: The first CD album I ever bought was 2 Unlimited – Get Ready, this was when I was 7 or 8 years old. The first vinyl I ever bought is kind of hard to remember, things got a bit out of hand with buying records once I finally started, I was doing a paper round and working in a supermarket to finance my newfound addiction!
16. What's your top 5 tracks at the moment ?
Menno de Jong: Here are some of my top5 tracks at the moment:
1. Kimito Lopez – Sub Runner [Intuition Rec.]
2. Albert Vorne – Formantera What (Gareth Emery Remix) [Club Elite]
3. First State – Evergreen [ITWT]
4. Jonas Steur ft. Jennifer Rene – Fall To Pieces [Black Hole]
5. Rex Mundi – Perspective [Global Underground]
17. Do you have any information that you would like to share regarding upcoming tours or albums ?
Menno de Jong: Here are some of my upcoming gigs:
(05.26.07) Amsterdam Dance Mission 9 Year Anniversary Party - Ekwador (Manieczki, Poland)
(05.27.07) Gatecrasher Summer Sound System - Lotherton Hall (Leeds, UK) www.gatecrasher.co.uk/summer
(06.01.07) Monday Bar Black & White Cruise (Stockholm, Sweden) www.mondaybar.com
(06.02.07) Off The Rails – VOID (Sheffield, UK) www.offtherails-online.co.uk
(06.09.07) Alcatrazz – Huys ter Horst (Horst, NL) www.alcatrazz.nl
(06.16.07) Menno de Jong pr. Intuition Sessions CD Release Party - Studio80 (Amsterdam, NL) www.intuitionrecordings.com
(06.23.07) Trance Element – Pachanga / Tunnel Club (Linz, Austria)
(06.30.07) Flying Dutchman – Opium Beach Club (Kiev, Ukraine)
(07.07.07) Intuition Summer Event - Bloomingdale (Bloemendaal aan Zee, NL) www.intuitionrecordings.com
(07.07.07) Creamfields (Wroclaw, Poland)
(07.14.07) Guvernment (Toronto, Canada) www.theguvernment.com
(07.21.07) House Parade 2007 – Trance Vibrations (Timisoara, Romania) www.houseparade.eu
(07.27.07) Viva Beach Party (Gdynia, Poland) www.vivaclub.pl
(07.29.07) ID-T Tomorrowland - De Schorre (Boom, Belgium) www.id-t.be
(07.31.07) Amnesia (Ibiza, Spain) www.amnesia.es
(08.03.07) The Gallery - Turnmills (London, UK) www.turnmills.co.uk
(08.04.07) Nature One – Gatecrasher Floor (Kastellaun/Hunsruck, Germany) www.natureone.de
(08.11.07) Intuition @ FFWD Heineken Dance Parade (Rotterdam, NL)
18. Is there any advice that you can share for aspiring DJ's in regards proper beat matching, EQ, and volume control.
Menno de Jong: Mixing a good trance set is all about choosing the right tracks. Trance productions are usually very ‘busy’ and full of melodies and sounds that can get in eachothers way. Try to pick tracks that fit on eachother. The only way to find out if they do is mixing at home a lot. Keymixing is also reasonably popular amongst DJs, I personally preferr building a set by how tracks flow together and form a story rather than whether keys fit together.
19. Would you like to share any other comments for TranceSound.net as well as your fans ?
Menno de Jong: Thank you so much for supporting me. Whatever you do, just follow your musical Intuition, and hopefully we’ll meet at a party one day!
Interview made by Zaneta Soroko aka Euphoria (TranceSound.net forum moderator)
Links:
Menno de Jong official website
Menno de Jong @ MySpace
|
|
|
| |