Armin's Universal Trance Religion
Author: Mark Burton
Friday, December 17, 2004
There have been two particular highlights for Van Buuren. First was getting his Armada record label fully up and running. The list of artists signed is both impressive and diverse with a whole host of leading and up & coming artists extending across the spectrum from progressive with Markus Schultz, Ozgur Can, Harry Lemon, Perry O'Neill and the awesome tech-prog of DJ Remy to the trancier sounds of MIKE, Vadim Zhukov and Gavyn Mytchel. The second highlight involved the ambitious launching of the Armada night on the already busy Balearic Party Isle, Ibiza, reflecting the music policy of the label. "We tried to keep it very, very broad in Armada terms." explains Armin. "We took on board Marcus Schultz, who's from Miami, I don't know if you are familiar with his sound but he's sort of the inventor of melodic progressive which is...it's progressive music, almost like house music with vocals and a lot of melodies but still has the coolness of progressive music and, we got tech-house guys like DJ Remy, Harry Lemon and we also got the more trancey guys like myself and MIKE. I think the audience is definitely more demanding than a year ago, so that's what we want to give them. You come to Armada at Amnesia, we'll try to get you a low door price but a quality night with amazing DJs, and amazing decorations and everything. So it's tough but you need to think about it a lot in order to still make money and deliver good nights in these times."
As you'd expect there's been a whole load of interest in taking the Armada night on tours around the globe. "We are working closely with a lot of promoters around the world right now" admits Armin. "And some of these promoters have stated interest in the Armada night, but we're taking it further as well. We've started a new company called Armada Events which basically holds all these events. To name one example we just started our own night in Panama Club here in Amsterdam and we started a night without me which is with Markus Schultz. We called it Sane and its more of a house night, so we're not only doing trance events but we are also focusing on house now so I'm really proud to say that you know its not just trance or not just progressive. You know, don't be a prisoner of your own style and I think Armada brand is just overall brand for all the sounds that we do!" He's using his latest release Universal Religion 2004: Armada in Ibiza to help raise the profile of Armada globally. "The first step was releasing uh, was releasing my compilation, Armada in Ibiza. We recorded my set on August 30th this year uh at Amnesia with crowd noise...It's the first eighty minutes...it gives you a really good idea what the night was like and uh its very very I listen to the CD myself a lot because it really brings me back to Ibiza this summer which is great!"
He's also been busy in the studio working on the follow up to 76, his debut artist album which was released in 2003. "I just finished about 15 tracks for my new album. I've finished 3 potential new singles and some stuff I'm really proud of. But its tough you know combining a heavy DJ schedule with running a record label, throwing you own parties, doing a weekly radio show and producing the best dance album for 2004/2005! And you know, if you want to have a little bit of a social life on the side as well then sometimes it can be very stressful. But I think its not bad for an artist to disappear a little bit and then come back with a new album of 14 or 15 tracks brand new and surprise the crowd with say "Hey you know, I'm back!' so that Tags