Couple of months back, Deep Sound Entertainment presented Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Indian Tour alongside the duo Wolfpack for a three city tour to Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. We got an opportunity to interview Dimitri Vegas after his set in New Delhi, in which he tells us that he’s a big fan of India and especially of Indian food! He also takes us through his journey to become one of the biggest DJs in dance music today and how he worked for Tommorrowland as a technician in the early days. He also gives us a brief insight about his productions and runs us through his musical journey. Hit past the break to read up our entire exclusive interview with the man himself.
We are ‘The Bangin Beats’ and we’re here with the best of Belgium, Dimitri Vegas from the incredible duo of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike!
Q.) How are you Dimitri? How does it feel to be back in India?
Dimitri: Fine, Thank You. Feel’s great to be back. Still love the food!
Q.) We heard a bit of a rumour that it gave some of your crew the ‘Delhi Belly’?
Dimitri: No, that’s a misplaced rumour. We went for dinner and this guy from my crew had a big mouth so I dared him to eat one of those really spicy green peppers, probably one of those which even you guys don’t eat (laughs). It was one of the guys from Wolfpack and since there was a camera running he didn’t decline my dare. He ate it and started almost crying because it was really spicy and that messed up his stomach. You cannot really call it the ‘Delhi Belly’, I mean if anyone eats it they’ll get stomach problems.
Dimitri Vegas with the duo Wolfpack.
Q.) So what brings you back to India every time you come here?
Dimitri: Well actually it’s a really great crowd. I really love India and generally I have to say that the food for me and Mike is a very important factor. I mean the list of countries where we really like to go depends majorly on (A) Crowd and (B) Food. The worst thing a promoter could do is give us a bad dinner or something because that really puts us in a bad mood. The other way around of course, good dinner, a little bit of wine, nice food and thats the best. Always going to be a big fan of Indian food.
Q.) We really must ask you, what happened to your baby brother? We heard he broke his foot? Is he alright now?
Dimitri: Yeah, actually he’s in a lot of pain because he had an accident and hurt his foot. Technically he shouldn’t be flying but we had a gig the next day so he pretty much decided to fly. They had to put a plaster on it and because he flew, the injury got worse. Now he has to do all kinds of therapies & injections and it’s pretty bad because his ligaments are damaged. Basically its torn and they need to re-tear it so that it can grow properly and he really needs to rest now and get it done because in less than 4 weeks we’re going to be touring for 2 months non stop. All long flights and technically he’s not allowed to do long flights yet.
Dimitri Vegas with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in Mumbai.
Q.) We hope he recovers soon and starts performing. Please give him our wishes. Moving on, we’re very intrigued to know, were you DJ’s first or Producers? What drew you to dance music?
Dimtri: I was a DJ first, 100%. I’ve been DJing since I was 13 and I’m 30 now so more than half of my life easily. Mike was into Hip-Hop but he was also first a performer and then a producer. We both learnt producing along the way. I was already making mash-up’s in the very first versions of Acid. During the time of Napster I think, when music just started growing on the internet, because before that being honest if you wanted to be a producer back then it was crazy with the expensive equipment. I still remember when I was young I had the opportunity to work with a couple of producers in Belgium and it never really amounted into much but those guys had studios bigger than my hotel room and that’s what you need. I mean forget analog desks lets say Cubase was running on it’s 3rd version or whatever but you needed hardware synths nobody had ever heard of synths like Massive or Sylenth and the other stuff. You actually need those Korg NS 20’s and stuff. Now it’s a change of time where anybody can be a producer.
Q.) Do you reckon thats for the good, with the technology we have now for music production?
Dimitri: I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse. There’s no easy answer to that because I have to say I think we got lucky that we got our jumpstarts from the internet because at that point there weren’t that many producers coming up like it’s now. I mean there were a lot but not as many as now. Now it’s just ridiculous but then we still got the time to get to know other DJ’s on Facebook. I still remember, for example I was talking to Chris Lake or even John Dahlback when they were really big in the beginning and we were still making it. We could actually add them on Facebook and talk to them and they were really friendly and you can’t imagine now it’s crazy if I put my chat on it just explodes. I mean there are like 500 people who start talking. It’s a little strange you know but on the other hand, it gives the opportunity for a lot of kids right now in the very early stages to instead of playing video games be playing with FL studio. Thats how you get prodigies of 17-18 year old’s who know those programs inside out, probably even more than other producers who may be 40 years old. But then there also people who say “Oh! I want to be a DJ or be a Producer” and then they make a track and it doesn’t even sound good and then they start sending demo’s in. Like if I’ve to open my demo inbox it’s 98% shit and it’s demotivating also you know because at the end of the day when I know somebody’s making good music I take the time to listen to their demo’s but I don’t have the time to listen to a thousand demo’s a day.
Dimitri Vegas at Nocturnal Cell, Bangalore
Q.) So you reckon it would be safe to say that the MySpace era was much better than the sound cloud era of today in the sense of quality content?
Dimitri: At least it worked better for us. I don’t know, I think it’s the time. Yeah, it’s different. Ten years ago there were a lot of people who wanted to be DJ’s but if you look at it now, it’s exponentially more. I think the saying “Everybody wants to be a DJ” has existed ever since I was a kid. It’s not something that started two years ago. But now everybody and his mother wants to be a DJ and I think thats just crazy. (laughs)
Q.) Fair enough, so do you reckon DJ’s are rockstars of the present? Like about 10 years back everyone wanted to pick up a guitar?
Dimitri: If you think like that I don’t want to say that DJ’s are rockstars because I think its not exactly the same comparison. But yeah the way you put it they might have been wanting to be a drummer or whatever and now everyone wants a pair of decks.
Q.) Venturing into your studio, What’s your setup today like in terms of Analog vs Digital? How much of your synths or compressors is analog or digital?
Dimitri: We like to combine the two. Mike’s got the huge ‘Moog Voyager’ in his studio which basically at this point, even though we have made only a couple of sounds with it and use it a little bit but technically you can say it’s one of the worlds most expensive MIDI controllers as of now. It looks nice and has loads of knobs but the problem with it is that its a hardware thing which has no recall. The worst part is that its been so long that I spent time in my studio, we’ve been working on the road so often, it’s crazy!
Dimitri Vegas at Kitty Su, Delhi
Q.) So its safe to say that digital gear like all your VST’s are as good? Do you require anything more than a bunch of VST’s to make a professionally sounding record? Also, do you reckon analog gear is as important as it was back in the day?
Dimitri: Analog gear has its own charm. If I could choose and would have this magical luggage with me from which I could pull out and have all the synths & the hardware setup would be there. Then I would say yes I’d go for hardware because 99.9% of all the other producers use software and if you want your sound to sound a little different then just tweaking those knobs and buying the synth which isn’t in everybody’s pocket also makes it a bit more defined. Thats also what was more defining in the 90’s as well, it was like “Oh he’s got that hot synth that nobody else got” and now it’s different. I mean everyone’s got a ‘Sylenth’ and everybody’s got a ‘Massive’, you and at the end of the day I know that it’s all about programming sounds but still analog synths just sound a bit better. But on the other hand nobody really needs it because you have to work with all that expensive equipment, you’re going to use that really great compressor, you’re going to put in all that effort and money and then it’ll get compressed into an iTunes mp3. I know a lot of guys who work entirely in FL Studio or Ableton and it sounds great. So yeah, its not the tools you use, its how you use them. That’s the moral of the story.
Q.) In India you brothers are synonymous with Tomorrowland to a certain extent. Do you reckon is it beneficial or is it a bit of an identity crisis?
Dimitri: Well, it can have its pro’s and it can have its con’s but until now it’s just had pro’s and I hope it’s going to continue having it’s pro’s (laughs). We aren’t complaining definitely. So yeah, we have a really nice marriage with Tomorrowland.
Q.) How did you get on board with them? We believe you did the theme song for the last 2 years as well?
Dimitri: I began to get in touch with them about 4 years ago and they were looking for guys to work with them and kind of be the face or the residents of Tomorrowland and it just worked out really great. The festival really exploded.
Q.) So they came to you when Tomorrowland was in its infancy? Were you there from the start?
Dimitri: I think the very first time we played there it was on the smaller stage. It was a little hut with 2 CD players. Actually the year before that I was working at Tomorrowland as a technician because on the weekends I was DJing and I had to of course make my money. After so many years of living in Ibiza we came back to Belgium to really work in the studios so we had to find money somewhere. While I was a technician at the festival, I actually connected David Guetta’s equipment, Martin Solveigs equipment and the rest on the stages with the dream that, “Wow I wish one day, I’m going to be here”. I didn’t know the guys from Tomorrowland because it was an outside company that hired me. So, at that point I was just a young DJ with a dream.
Q.) Boy did that come true! You made the anthem for the last 2 years would it be safe to say that you’ll be making the anthem for this year as well?
Dimitri: I cannot comment on that yet, I’m sorry (laughs). It’s not a certainty but you know its Tomorrowland, its always special and this year the anthem is going to be something really special.
Q.) Among your productions, “Wakanda” and “Mammoth” are the most hyped ones. Have to ask you, what was the inspiration behind ‘Wakanda’ with its African chants?
Dimitri: 90’s Jump Music. Thats the time I started DJing in hardcore.
Q.) We were about to ask you, you’re productions have had different styles like even Hardstyle incorporated, How do you work out a track?
Dimitri: First general rule is, a track needs to work on the dance floor. Each of us have our own idea for it but basically we really love to bring the harder sound back because thats where my roots are. I mean I started with 180 BPM Hardstyle Vinyls and along the 90’s it kind of moved to a style which was actually only popular in Belgium & Holland. Its called ‘Jump’ and it was like 140-145 BPM and a lot of really old school samples with hardcore influences and thats actually at the point of which the music I really loved. Then I moved to Ibiza and my state of mind completely changed. Also that kind of music style just got over commercial and in Belgium now it would be associated as wrong music you know what I mean, like really weird commercial kind of music. But I still think a lot of those tracks, if you pitch them down they would work today and thats kind of what we’re doing even now. The sample of our track ‘Wakanda’ is from one of those tracks, the vocal. I mean I still have a thousand vinyl’s with a lot of great ideas on them. So, the story’s not over yet. And I’m just connecting back to my roots as a lot of people are trying to find a way to distance themselves from the regulars and find something new you know.
Q.) For someone who’s not familiar with your music, what would you describe it as?
Dimitri: Tomorrowland music. (laughs) Like festival music.
Thank you so much for taking time out to speak with us and we hope you keep coming back again & again to India and keep entertaining us!
Dimitri: Thanks for having me guys!
We would like to extend a very special thank you to the team at Deep Sound Entertainment!
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Interviewed by : Kanov Bagai
Written & Edited by: Aditya Seth & Sarthak Singhal
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