Paul Van Dyk is the total package. Not only is he one of the world's most talented, respected, and wildly popular DJs, he is also one of the leading producers of electronic music. He has done re-mixes for New Order and even produced a Top 10 single with "Tell Me Why." On top of that, the German artist has recorded and produced four albums of original compositions. He even appeared in a marketing campaign for Motorola. Van Dyk's latest original album, Reflections, was released this month from Mute and his much-anticipated Las Vegas gig is on tap for November 5 at the Luxor's Ra club.
Would you say your new CD differs from your previous work?
The whole approach is different. More self-confident maybe.
I got a real sense, especially lyrically, that you're shouting: "This is who I am! This is what I believe!"
This is what I mean by more self-confident. I'm always very honest with my music. I always put 100 percent in my music. But there are a few things that I've experienced in the past couple of years. Well, I may be maturing. You know, when you're more mature, you're more self-confident. This is reflecting on me as an artist as well.
You have a number of live musicians and vocalists on the album. But the lyrics are all yours, right?
The thing is, I never really liked the fact that if there's a cool instrumental track, you have people putting some kind of vocal track on there to make it commercially more relevant. My approach to music is when I have actually vocals on a song, I have written the song with a clear view of what the lyrics will do and what they should say. So therefore, when I have vocals in a song, it's from a more typical song writing process.
I caught your Motorola spot on MTV a few weeks back. What can you tell about it? What's it like being a corporate pitchman?
Basically they contacted us. Pretty much, Motorola has a futuristic image. Electronic music has a futuristic image. It was just matching. Once I was approached, I got different treatments and made sure everything was to be done in high-quality, artistic levels. And I have to say; I've been successful with it. It's much more like a 45-second music video than a TV ad.
Funny that you call it a music video, because it seems that commercials are often the only way a lot of new electronica gets exposure here in the States. Why would you say that is?
I think that's pretty easy. Basically, electronic music still isn't really played on American radio stations. And, generally, people think that electronic music is just this weird noise. They don't really know much about electronic music. They think you just step behind a computer and something comes out of it. They don't get that a computer is nothing more than a modern form of an eight-track machine, that whatever you put in is what is going to be coming out. But you have to be creative in order to actually make music. I think that, at some point, people might actually understand that, and the music would get played on the radio more.
What's your recently released DVD, Global, all about?
It's a summary of pretty much the last 10 years of my life. The important things of my career, like For An Angel and songs that have been important to myself. The initial idea was to take music I'd done that wasn't available anymore and make it available again, which I thought was boring. So I went back to the studio and re-recorded everything in 5.1 sound. Then I traveled around with a camera crew for like seven or eight months. And the end result is pretty amazing because it's kind of like a documentation of how global electronic music became. You see people going crazy in Tokyo. You see people going crazy in Bangkok, in New York, San Francisco, L.A.—all over. It's special.
What about creating music for movies? Guys like Paul Oakenfold and Brian "BT" Transeau have started playing in that field. Does that hold any interest for you?
Well, generally I'd have to say making music for films isn't really interesting, because there's a director telling you what to do with music. I think the case with my colleagues is the money or because they think it's really cool to do so. Actually my approach is a little different. The first thing I've done was a Mexican movie (Zurdo), so it's not the money which is driving me here; it's more the artistic thing. The director came to me at a very early stage of his movie and explained to me what it was all about. So from very early on I was involved. I became more like the musical director. And the other thing I've done is not a complete score, but the title song for a movie called One Perfect Day.
Is there any chance we might see you do some live stuff on stage?
There is something, especially with the Time of Our Life with the indie-rock band Vega-4. There are two forms of live set-up. One is what I would call the electronic kit. I would have half of my studio on stage. I would play all the synthesizers while Johnny McCaid would be the vocalist. It's pretty banging. The other thing is more like the album version, like a whole band. We play together like a five-member band. It sounds really cool, as well. We just did it on Top of the Pops in Germany. We're thinking of some select dates for the electronic kit performance.
In the world, there are two types of people: Beatles people and Elvis people. Which are you? Remember this answer defines you as a person.
Oh, I'm a Beatles man, for sure.