Greek/Belgian brothers Dimitri and Michael Thivaios—better known as DJ duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike—are kind of a global big deal, but they’re only starting to hit their stride here in Las Vegas. They ranked No. 2 in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs poll last year, ahead of fellow Hakkasan Group artists Armin van Buuren, Martin Garrix, Tiësto, Steve Aoki and Calvin Harris. Monster tracks like “Tremor” and “Body Talk (Mammoth)” help the duo power through some of the world’s biggest mega-fests, and wild antics help them stand out as party kings. (Their latest video, for The Wolf of Wall Street-sampling “The Hum,” features cameos by both Charlie Sheen and Jean-Claude Van Damme.)
Having just played Hakkasan on June 17, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike are back at EDC for the second time. We caught up with Dimitri to find out how the brothers keep getting better and going bigger.
What if I had a theory that your entire career was just a secret plan so you could eventually arm-wrestle Jean-Claude Van Damme? (Laughs) To be honest, I never expected to arm-wrestle him. He was our childhood hero, one of our idols. To have him and Charlie Sheen, too, both in the video was surreal. But when we told them about what our process was [for the video], that we just wanted it to be the craziest party, they loved it. They just said f*ck it, we’ll come by.
Your sets are known for energy and interaction. How did you develop your performance style? It’s always been there; we’ve always been as interactive as we can be. The crazy thing is sometimes the crowd’s energy surprises us.
How much customization is involved when you’re catering your set for different festivals? It’s a challenge to reinvent everything for each show, but we enjoy it a lot. Probably 60 or 70 percent of all the music is different or remixed or edited in a different way, and that’s the fun part. We’ve been working on an album and have a lot of new music, so EDC will be the perfect place to do it. People should expect it.
Is there one new track you’re most excited about? We have a new single with Ne-Yo coming out in July that we’ll use at EDC. I think it’s going to catch people off-guard. It’s far from what you’d expect to hear from us, but it’s a teaser of what the album is about—diversity, something totally different.
You have more gigs lined up at Hakkasan. Are you going to be in Vegas more? Yeah, I think we have our manager’s bachelor party weekend coming up in Vegas.
That sounds like trouble. Exactly. The Hangover, part four. It’s gonna be epic. It’s a great city, and we always have crazy, fun-filled shows, but most of the time we’re in a rush. This time we have four days, so we’re planning to be proper tourists.
