Markus Schulz, één van de meest populaire DJ’s op dit moment, brengt deze week zijn nieuwe album “Do You Dream” uit. MusicInControl mocht hem een aantal vragen stellen:

First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview for our website www.musicincontrol.nl!

1. The new album “Do You Dream” will be released in June, tell us in 1 sentence why we should buy this album!

Markus: One sentence?! Impossible! ; -)

2. There are a lot of good tracks on this album. Which track is very special to you, or a personal favorite?

Markus: No personal favourites, it’s Markus’ Law! In terms of a very special one though, I guess there is probably a fair amount of expectation around what Justine and I have done with ‘Perception’. I’ve long loved Justine’s voice and became more and more convinced over the last couple of years, that when it came time to do my version of Cass & Slide’s track, that she should be the the one to sing it. After she said yes to doing it a quite funny/ironic coincidence happened. She booked a studio in London to record it and when she turned up, completely by chance, the engineer recording the session happened to be Sasha Collinsson. He was the man who originally wrote and produced the lyrics for Naimee Coleman’s original ‘Perception’ vocals – talk about a coincidence! Since she told me that I’ve come to look at that track happening as destiny.

Ultimately though I just hope that people are looking forward to hearing the whole album!

3. Was Justine Suissa your first choice for doing the vocals on this track? Because you are also working with other excellent vocalists like Susana en Jennifer Rene on the new album.

Markus: For Perception, absolutely. But in terms of working with vocalists as a whole on the album, I had a list – a mental one at any rate. It’s been 3 years since my last album ‘Progression’ and that is plenty long enough to hear many other vocalists singing on other tracks. You either think to yourself ‘I like that voice but I’m not sure its right for what I want to do’ or ‘heh, that sounds great! I think I’d like to work with that person’. That was very much the case for people like Susana, Jennifer Rene and Ana Criado too.

4. When making a vocal track, in which order does this go? First music, than vocals and at the end you need somebody to sing the vocals?

Markus: There is some variance there… You do get ones where it’s vocal/lyrics first, music after or you’re in a session in with a vocalist where both elements are feeding off each other. More often than not though it is music first… You also get those happy accidents too. After all the hours of studio time listening through newer debutante vocalists show-reels I actually came across a girl called Angelique Bergere virtually on my doorstep here in Miami. She ended up singing on two of the album’s track and providing some new background vocals for ‘Do You Dream’. She’s got an incredibly adaptable range to her voice – if you compared ‘Lifted’ and ‘Lightwave’ (her two tracks) and told people it was the same vocalist I think they’d be really surprised. She could be something of a star in the making!

5. Speaking of vocalists, what is up with all the vocal tracks on the album. Nowadays a lot of new releases have vocals (from almost every producer), where did the good old Trance sound go? (tracks like The New World)

Markus: You’re correct in as much as there are more vocals on Do You Dream than on Perception. That was though a conscious decision. It may go without saying that it takes a lot more work to get a vocal onto a track, than simply delivering an instrumental trancer. I do see though that the tracks of mine that engage floors quickest are the ones with vocals. They have the greatly added benefit of ‘the vocal hook’ – an added element for people’s minds to gravitate to. When it comes time to releasing a track as a single (as will happen with many tracks from DYD) it is much easier to remove a vocal and rearrange/edit a track as an dub or instrumental to give it adaptability for other DJs to play than it is to go and get a vocal put on. I’m always that little bit more satisfied with music I produce when it has a vocal, as I know that I’ve had to work that much harder to bring all the elements together. Although someone else is coming up with the lyrics and vocals, there is still a lot of pressure and work on the producer’s side to make it all click, and when that click happens I take a lot of satisfaction from it!

6. Last question about the new album, how did you come up with the track name 65.4hz?

Markus: I made the main thrust of that track on my laptop over the course of a day in my hotel room. 65.4hz is the actual frequency of a C-note and the track is made in C Minor. I didn’t think ‘C-note’ was that good a title, but wanted to make some reference to it, hence… 65.4hz.

7. You also release tracks under the alias Dakota, please explain to us what the difference is between a Markus Schulz track and a Dakota track.

Markus: Dakota is a cooler, more underground sound that I started producing years ago. I really wanted to throw myself right back into that way of thinking for a while so I decided to start the project up again. If terms of the difference, well if you stood any track on the Dakota album ‘Thoughts Become Things’ next to a track on ‘Do You Dream?’, I don’t think you would have an even 1% chance of mistaking which came from which album! They really are leagues apart in terms of tone.

8. How do you think your chances are for entering the top 5 @ DjMag top 100 for this year, after being num. 8 in the last 2 years? And are competitions like this even important to you?

Markus: When you start out you don’t really think too much about polls, charts, etc – they just happen. As they come around now though I do think it’s nice that what I do throughout each working year is reflected in someway. But let me put it this way: in terms of importance what I get up thinking about every morning isn’t the Top 100. It’s about where I am in the world, which country, city and club I’m rocking next and what I’m going to be rocking it with! Top 5, it’d be nice – but so would many other things in life!

9. Don’t you think it’s about time for a Markus Only, or Markus Schulz in Concert party with 25 thousand people at a major venue?

Markus: I do think about that – yes. However there is always a building process towards that. I think that this summer, with the solo set shows I’m going to be doing at places like The Ministry this coming Friday and Armada @ Amnesia in August, where I’m carrying the whole night on my back, will be a major building block towards that.

10. This year you will be playing at Dance Valley on the State of Trance Stage. This will be massive, together with Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin, Menno de Jong and Gareth Emery. What do you expect from this gig?

Markus: Dance Valley is just fantastic to play, and the line up for this year is just excellent. The guys have outdone themselves I think. In terms of what to expect, well a huge natural valley amphitheatre, immense soundsystem, glorious sunshine and a killer outdoor event! Well that’s what I’m hoping for at least.

11. This year you released the 5th part of the City Album compilation series: Las Vegas ’10. Already any ideas for next year?

Markus: Always ideas, yes! There was never any doubt in my mind from a year back that it would be Las Vegas in 2010. It’s slightly more open this time though. I have played some extraordinarily hard-rocking places in just the first six months of this year in places that (it is very apparent to me at least) really deserve to be highlighted.

12. Do you personally feel that Las Vegas ’10 really gives a good view to what the Sound of Las Vegas is about? Same goes for the other parts as well. Because I think it is difficult to put a stamp upon that says: Amsterdam sound, or Miami sound…

Markus: I definitely think that it gives a good view of what I do on a regular basis in the clubs there. The albums are aimed to reflect what I’m doing there. I think that people who see me play there will make the connection between their experience and the album itself. It’s certainly highly subjective though… If a Las Vegas album was compiled by Wayne Newton or Celine Dion, I very much doubt that they’d be packing it out with tracks by up-and-coming Russian EDM producers! It would be much more likely to be ‘Danke Schoen’ and ‘My Heart Will Go On’! I would also say though that there is an element of the album that’s about putting the city itself in the spotlight. If I feel that something special is burning away somewhere, that maybe isn’t getting the full attention it deserves, then there’s that much more of an added incentive to make it a city album.

13. Any new Markus Schulz Coldharbour remixes coming up?

Markus: Pretty quiet on that front at the moment, however with all the new material that is coming up from the album, I dare say I’ll be doing some Markus Schulz remixes on those soon!

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview and congratulations on a job well done with the new album! Further I would like to thank you for all the great tunes and mixes you have given to the Trance Community over the last years, keep up the good work!

Markus: A real pleasure and thanks to Music In Control for taking the time too! See you out there soon somewhere!