Paul van Dyk - Truly Global

Once upon a time Paul van Dyk discovered the joy of playing records. Occasionally he would record his sets, but a DJ he did not want to be. One night at Berlin's 'Turbine,' a friend of Paul's slipped a tape into the club's ghetto blaster. People listened and were moved.

10 years on and little has changed. Except of course that now Paul van Dyk loves being a DJ and the number of people he has captivated has grown extensively.

A decade can be an arduous task in any profession, but for the DJ/Producer the endless travel and biological clock destroying hours are bound to take their toll. I quiz Paul about his passion levels for DJing and producing 10 years on, to which I receive a hearty laugh.

'Actually my passion for this is bigger than it's ever been. It does get really exhausting and sometimes I just wish I could have a week off, but for all of this to work you have to have the passion. People only see a very small amount of what we do. They see the excitement of everyone going crazy and jumping up and down, but that is only 5% of what's going on. Behind the scenes, it's a lot of very exhausting work, but I have the passion I need to put real energy into my music. If I was to treat this just as a job then I would probably have stopped about 8 years ago.'

Responsible for some of electronicas most memorable compositions, 'We are alive,' 'Another Way,' 'For an Angel'... PvD changed the face of dance music by creating a style and sound that affected and altered our emotions to no end.

As the critics and fans continue to deservedly praise Paul for his evolving efforts, I ask Paul how he himself feels he has evolved.

'I became better I hope. By better I mean in terms of studio production, learning a lot about how things work and what you like and dislike. I produce everything myself so there's a lot of learning, and when something new comes out I have to learn it all again. Also as you get older you get a clearer picture of what you actually want, what you want to bring across in your music and this is where I see I have definitely progressed.'

If you go to Paul's website you will find the 'Paul-locator' which will tell you where in the world he is playing to throngs of satisfied fans. Shortly Paul will be back in Australia as part of the 'Global' DVD tour.

'Global' is an exceptional overview of Paul's stunning career to date. Capturing the passion and pure enjoyment people get from dance music, 'Global' could be used to educate the anti-dance movement as to why we love it so.

Having recently got the rights back to his music, after a contractual lock in with MFS, the 'Global' project has been a hugely rewarding one for Paul.

'As a lot of my records had been unavailable to me, I actually wanted to release them again but I thought it would be really boring to simply compile them on a cd. I think what we have made is something more special. When I had this idea I didn't quite know what the end product would be, but it became everything I wanted and I'm really proud of that and very thankful to everyone who was involved in it.'

With a team of very talented people around him, Paul's biggest task was finding those who could see things, as he did through his own eyes.

'Finding a camera man who was able to see things as I saw them was very important, so I was having long talks with people telling them what I see. You know, it isn't just me standing in a club, seeing people jump up and down, it's about seeing faces and expressions, as well as capturing the atmosphere of the cities I visit.'

Quite shy and not a huge fan of being in front of the camera, Paul appears reluctant to call himself the star of 'Global.'

'I don't like the camera at all, I'm really rather shy. I arrange myself around that though, but I'm certainly not the type of person to be running around Miami beach telling all the cameras to look at me' a humble Paul laughs.

'Essentially this is not a DVD about me; this is a colle Tags