Q1 How did you start out making music?
I was interested in music from an early age. I would listen to a radio show called the Soul Show, and to Ben Liebrand’s mix show, where he would remix different tracks, and one day I just decided that I wanted to give it a try. I started to buy records and put together mixes, making them the way I thought they should sound.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The starting point was to work with different artists that I liked. I was listening to a lot of indie-rock, electro, techno and house and drew inspiration from this.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I usually start things off by producing and coming up with the main idea of the song, building things as I go. If it’s a vocal track, than I add the vocals after I have built the basis of the song. When it came to working with the different artists on ‘Kaleidoscope’, it worked in a similar way. I would start things off, and then we would exchange it back and forth til it was finished. I like a song that has strong emotion to it. I also love a great arrangement; how a song builds, then crescendos is always important in my favorite tracks.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I was influenced by a broad range of music in my youth. Sven Väth has been a big influence for me throughout my career. U2 have been a big influence on my live shows. I have so many different inspirations, it’s hard to choose.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
As with all music just approach it with an open mind. I hope they like it.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
I always start every new project with the same mindset, to progress as an artist and take my sound in a new and interesting direction.

source: www.thecmuwebsite.com

Interview by Oli Wilson and words by Kirstie Andrews
Newsbeat reporters

DJ Tiesto says dodgy rumours surface every couple of years

DJ Tiesto says he’s seen a psychic who predicted that he’ll live until the age of 90.

The announcement comes a week after the DJ and producer was forced to deny reports that he’d died in a car crash, after false internet rumours.

He told Newsbeat: “Tiesto is alive and kicking!

“I actually went to a psychic and they said I’m going to be 90 years old, so I have a long time to live.”

Reports had circulated on sites including Twitter that he had died in an accident after losing control of his vehicle in California.
Twitter take-up

The DJ said the rumours had actually been quite positive though: “It made me realise a lot of people love me in the world.

“Everybody was shocked and sent messages like, ‘Oh, I hope it’s not true’ and ‘I hope you’re OK’, so it was actually a good thing.

“I got 10,000 more followers in one day on Twitter.”

He said there was absolutely no truth in any of the rumours, which surface every couple of years and revealed how the whole thing started: “It’s just a website where you can make your own fake articles.

“Someone thought it was funny to make a fake article about me. Then it blew up. I think people don’t really check the news sources and started to believe it.”

Tiesto – real name Tijs Michiel Verwest – has released four studio albums during his 15-year career, the last being 2009′s Kaleidoscope.

He currently has a Monday night slot at Ibiza club Privilege and is touring Europe.

His only UK gig this summer is at Victoria Park in London on 30 July.

source: news.bbcimg.co.uk

Indeed, add to the list, writing and performing music for the 2004 Olympics for an audience over 4 Billion. Remixing everyone from Britney Spears to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, selling out a 150 date world tour, collecting awards and nominations from the Grammy’s and MTV Music Awards, getting a wax statue at Madame Tussauds. To anyone else, any one of these milestones might sound staggering, but to the one-man electronic artist, producer and DJ phenomenon known as Tiësto, it’s just another regular day in the life.

You appear in Edinburgh, Scotland on the March 6 and your next stop is London on the 11th. Will you be spending any time seeing the sights?

I would like to. Not sure of my schedule yet. Sometimes it is difficult, but I always try to take time and enjoy the local culture.

British audiences have a reputation for being pretty wild, how do they compare with the crowds from Holland and elsewhere?

I would not say they are really extremely different, each country has its own unique qualities. I love performing in the UK. Everyone is always up for it and brings all their energy to the dance floor.

You’ve been making music for a while now, what are the best and worst gigs you’ve ever played?

The best gig I have ever played would be the Opening Ceremonies of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. That was an unforgettable experience. It would be difficult for me to pick a worst gig. I truly love producing and performing, and I’m happiest when I’m connecting with my fans.

Many would say that you’ve been the key to bringing trance into the mainstream and raising its profile across the world. Where do you take the music from here?

For me, it’s all about pushing boundaries. On Kaleidoscope, I have brought together all the different musical influences which I am enjoying at the moment. With my production I’ve taken more of a structured song writing approach, as well as experimented with new sounds and textures. I’m going to keep producing music and let it evolve naturally.

You’ve collaborated with the likes of Nelly Furtado, Tegan and Sara and Kele from Bloc Party, how do you end up working with these guys? Do you approach them or is it the other way round?

I’ve been very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with all the amazing guests on Kaleidoscope. It all happened very organically. I first hung out with Nelly Furtado in Miami last year. We freestyled in the studio together and realized we had chemistry. I met Kele from Bloc Party when I was in London and it turned out he and the guys were big fans, which was such an honor. Tegan & Sara played with me live at Bonnaroo and I remixed one of their tracks. We took it from there.

Who would you most like to work with in the future?

My list of artists is always growing. I would love to do a song with Santigold or MGMT.

What do you think about Basshunter appearing in the British version of Celebrity Big Brother? Is there ever a chance you’d ever try something like this?

No, that’s not for me.

What’s better and why; the first few years you had as DJ or your career now?

My career now. I have been able to see the world and meet so many great people. It’s been a great experience.

Finally, what are your plans after the world tour? Can we expect a follow up to Kaleidoscope any time soon?

I am concentrating all my energy on the Kaleidoscope World Tour. I have also launched my brand new fan site called InTheBooth which I am very excited about. With my busy schedule, I am constantly moving around the world. The site allows me to interact with fans, share my music and stories from the road. I am really happy with how it has turned out so far.

The Edinburgh leg of the tour will not only boast an appearance by Tiësto, but also incorporate an outside dance marquee, outside & inside bars, Gio-Goi Music Bus, Funfair plus merchandise stalls. Running from 6pm to 4am, this will be Tiësto’s biggest show to date in Scotland as the event will take place in the huge Highland Hall at The Royal Highland Centre (same site and event layout as EH1 Music Festival, August 2009).

source: www.perthshireadvertiser.co.uk

In Ibiza with Tiësto 2009 – Special Gaffa.tv

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I think I can turn just about any song into a dance track,” the fleet-fingered DJ teases. “People are constantly approaching me to redo their favourite cuts. But, some are just impossible to improve upon. Queen, Elvis, Michael Jackson; I won’t touch them!”

Few DJs have the touch to fill nightclubs on the strength of their name alone. Tiësto can effortlessly sell out stadiums that hold 25,000 people, two nights in a row. Maybe more, if they’d let him. Over the span of his 20-plus-year career, thousands of dance-floor initiates have lost their inhibitions and moved their bodies to his futuristic vibes, each one purchasing their magic ticket to the show in the hopes of becoming part of that communal euphoria. It’s a hope that Tiësto attributes to the universal need to bust a move.

“I always try to keep things positive,” he says. “I don’t have much to worry about these days. Every performance is a party. That goes for my new album, too — even the melancholic tracks have something special and light about them that makes people want to dance.”

Even though he’s perpetually in a state of motion, Tiësto finds time to investigate new sources of musical inspiration and discover new artists during his brief periods of downtime. Much sought-after for his skills as a remixer and producer, Tiësto has used his Midas touch to embellish the works of musicians the world over. Constantly on the lookout for fresh new sounds, Tiësto was drawn to the cloned harmonies of Calgary’s darling siblings Tegan and Sara, inviting the pair to take part in the creation of his latest album, Kaleidoscope, a release packed with appearances by musicians including Sigur Ros’s Jonsi, Nelly Furtado, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Calvin Harris, Emily Haines of Metric and Sneaky Sound System.

“Tegan and Sara’s song [‘Feel It in My Bones’] is my favourite track on the whole album,” Tiësto says. “They have these powerful voices that, to me, just seem made for cool electronic music. I sent them an instrumental version of the song that I had worked out on the keyboard and they filled in the rest. They’re such talented hook writers. I did a remix of the song ‘Back in Your Head’ for them a while back and I really wanted to work with them again.”

“I’ve produced a lot of remixes since 2000, and I like to listen to all kinds of music,” he continues. “I’m always listening to bands like Sigur Ros when I’m on the plane, or whatever, and I wanted to bring some of those different flavours to my work. I don’t think I’ll ever be accepted by the indie rock crowd, but I do hope I’m opening doors by introducing my fans to some of these artists.”

Source: www.ffwdweekly.com

A|X:TV catches up with Tiesto for an impromtu interview backstage at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom on September 26, 2009 during his Kaleidoscope World Tour.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The world’s biggest DJ and critically-acclaimed producer, Tiësto, joins forces with Australian electro pop-stars Sneaky Sound System for the new single, ‘I Will Be Here’.

Tiesto + Sneaky at Victoria Park interview:

Click here to view the embedded video.

He was born Tijs Michiel Verwest in the Netherlands. And he has had many aliases over the years. But today, he is known the world over by the name Tiësto. The world’s top trance DJ, he became the first DJ to perform live onstage at an Olympic Games in 2004. He has also performed energetic sets that last up to twelve hours. And he had a residency at the largest club in the world for a couple of months in 2008, and again in 2009. Also in 2009, he released his fourth album, Kaleidoscope. In this video, WatchMojo.com chats with Tiësto about his collaborations, his record company and where he’s at in his career.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An ever growing element of the Tiësto brand is the “show”, the planning for which involves an unbelievable amount of detail and accuracy. But aside from the polarizing music of Tiësto, who makes the magic really happen? Who comes up with the ideas and calls the shots? Ultimately, who is running the show?

Meet Bart Roelen.

Tell us who you are and what you do for a living?
I am having my own production and tour management company called Unlimited Productions. We are responsible for all the Tiësto shows worldwide (production and tour management wise). Also we just started this year with Ferry Corsten and are producing his Twice in a Blue Moon World Tour.

What is your background in production and dance music?
I started when I was 16 at a sound & light company in The Netherlands with setting up and building dance festivals, fairs and television shows and taking it all down again when they’d finished. When I was 18, I started working in the office of this company and working out the shows with drawings, quotes and production sheets. So as a production Manager in the Netherlands I worked on many Television Shows, Dance Festivals and Concerts.

How did you become involved with Tiesto?
Tiësto was playing on some of those shows and that’s how we start talking with each other. My first show for him was the Dance Parade in Rotterdam where I produced his truck, later I did his In Search Of Sunrise 4 tour, Love Parade and some other events. All those shows were with the sound and light company where I worked at that time.

Then at a certain moment he called me and asked me if I could help him in Africa because he didn’t have the feeling that it was coming together there. So I flew in 4 days before the show and figured out that nothing was arranged. I started having meetings with all the suppliers, made a design, flew in 3 more colleagues and finally produced the whole show. We had 10.000 people and it was a great show.

Bart RoelenAfter this show Tiësto asked me if I could work for him as a Production Manager. Without any doubts I said…YES. So since 2006 until the beginning of this year I worked for his company. Since this year I started Unlimited Productions to be more flexible and to have more artists on board. But of course I am still working as a full time production & tour manager for Tiësto.

The production for the Tiesto shows in Ibiza is part of the whole hype of the party, what is the idea for the show?
We always want to be creative and innovative. So we want to put down a show and production that nobody has seen before. A show where music, lasers, lights, video and special FX are coming together to make it an experience as never seen before. We continue checking the latest technology to make sure we have something new. Also we are designing custom equipment and effects together with our suppliers.

So this year we have a lot of special and custom made stuff. We have custom made Co2 Blasters, custom made special FX, a custom made moving light rig, custom made water fall screen, custom made lasers on moving cyberhoist system etc.

What involvement does Tijs have in the production?
We do more than 180 shows a year so that means you are almost every day together. We travel with 4 people in a private jet.
Rodger Blom – Sound Engineer
Koen de Puysseleir – Light and Video director
Bart Roelen – Tour and Production Manager
Tijs – Tiësto

Almost every day we are talking about shows, productions and concept. We are brain-storming together and that’s what you see back in the show. So Tijs is involved in almost everything.

So, what do you exactly do each Monday night?
Actually not that much because we did the building and assembly of the whole production in May and in October we break everything down. The production stays in the Privilege, we just bring everything with automatic motors in the roof after the show and that’s it.

On Monday, we arrive in Ibiza late in the afternoon because we play 6 to 7 shows a week.

We have 2 full-time technical guys on the Island who make the stage and set-up every week ready for the show because the stage is Friday in use for Supermartxe with another production. So my job on Monday is to take care of Tiësto after arrival, to plan dinner, to check the venue, see if everything is fine for the night, to coordinate interviews and finally to put Tiësto on the stage.

How do you run the show?
We run the show with a few different control boards.

Our light / Video director Koen is using a Chamsys Magic Q full option light desk to control the lights. For the video screen he is using Arkaos Media Servers together with a Chamsys Wing Lasers and pyro are both controlled from our Chamsys Light desk.

Our light / video director has a really good feeling with the music and is having almost all the breaks and specials in the music. A lot of people are asking us if we use timecode, but we still use a normal DJ set-up.

Tiësto still plays on 1 x Pioneer DJM 800 and 4 x CDJ 1000 MK3

We mainly control the sound in the club via 2 Dolby Lake (DLP4/12) processors connected via a secure WIFI access point. We can adjust the sound levels, equalizing and delay timings via Dolby software installed on our tablet PC’s. With the tablet pc we can walk around the club to make adjustments. That’s a lot easier than walking to the processors to make changes and head back to the dance floor again to check the changes.

What equipment do you use?
For the show on Ibiza we use a lot of equipment, we brought 4 fully loaded 100m3 mega space trucks with equipment:
This year we also supplied the full light rig in the club itself.

STAGE PRODUCTION:

For lights we use the next gear:
20 x Vari*Lite VL 2000
26 x Vari*Lite VL 500d
20 x Martin Atomic Strobe 3000 + Color
12 x Studio Due CS 4
36 x Active Sunstip

For Video we use the next gear:
96 m2 LED Wall
07 m2 LED DJ Booth

For Rigging we use:
300 mtr trussing
014 Motor Chain 1000 Kg
010 Cyberhoist Computer Controlled Motors
001 Chamsys Magic Q 100 Pro
002 Chamsys Playback wing
16 Powershot Confetti
04 Stadium Shot Confetti
14 Co2 Blaster
08 Clay Packy Color Commands
02 Clay Stage Zoom 1200

CLUB PRODUCTION:

20 x Martin MAC 700
20 x HE Studio Color 250
04 x HE Showgun 2.5
10 x Clay Packy Alpha Beam 300
10 x Martin Atomic Strobe 3000
24 x Philips Color LED Bar
150 mtr trussing
001 Circle truss 2 mtr
024 Motor Chain 1000 kg
001 Grand Ma Full Size
08 Mtr Water Fall / Screen

What problems do you have at a club the size of Privilege?

The size is not the problem because we do 50 of our own production shows a year with Tiësto where we supply own gear, transport and crew. Those shows are between the 5000 and 40000 each, so we are used to doing big stadiums.

Unlimited ProductionsThe problem in this club is the unloading of the trucks. Our trucks are so big that they can’t come close to or even to the back of the building. So we have to unload the 4 trucks on the big parking that is a few hundred metres away from the club. From the big truck we cross load everything in smaller trucks to get the equipment inside.

Also the entrance doors are too low for machinery. So we found a small forklift and cherry picker to drive inside. Without this machinery it will take you a few more days to do the load in and load out.

Electric power is also a problem. For our production we use more then what the Privilege is using for the whole club. So we are having 3 big generators running during the show to keep us running.

What do you away from Monday nights at Privilege?
We play 6 to 7 shows a week, so sometimes we are free on Tuesday but sometimes we have another show in a different country like all the other days in the week.

Finally, how do you assess the growth of visuals in clubs, including projects like Luciano’s Aether Live and what do you think is the next big technological advancement that will affect clubbing or dance music?
DJ’s nowadays are more like rock stars. The have there own shows, their own hits, their own fans etc etc. People are watching the DJ’s the whole night that’s why it’s important to have nice and interesting visuals.

The Luciano’s Aether Live is something brand new and never really done before. I guess a lot of people will like it because it’s a fresh concept… I am missing a bit the interaction with the crowd on this show to be honest.

The next big thing is of course the LED Technology. It’s going crazy at the moment and it will be getting more crazy in the next years. At the moment you have a LED screen which you can curve in any direction you want.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: www.ibiza-voice.com

DJ Tiësto is coming to Naples.

If the full import of this information is lost on you, don’t fret. Naples deserves high praise as a world-class cultural destination, but has some catching up to do in the world-class trance-dance department. It will get a crash course at 10 p.m. on Monday, when the hugely popular Tiësto performs at Sway Lounge.

The event is part of club’s third anniversary celebration, and is one of 175 stops on Tiësto’s world tour promoting the Oct. 6 release of “Kaleidoscope,” his fourth studio album.

Tiësto’s tour may sound exhausting, but it has become a kind of professional signature. The Dutch DJ and producer has an almost preternatural ability to keep going, making his shows more spectacular, his sets longer, his music more interesting. He works with the biggest names, plays the biggest venues and earns industry acclaim, such as in 2008, when he took the award for Best Global DJ and Best Electronic Dance Album at the International Dance Music Awards.

Then there are his fans: Tiësto knows how to entertain them, and in great numbers. In 2004, he was tapped to open the Summer Olympics, performing for an estimated 80,000-person audience in Athens — and millions more around the world. In 2007, he played to a reported 250,000 people on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

We caught up with him prior to his visit for an e-mail Q&A.

Daily News: “Kaleidoscope” was released on Oct. 6. What about this album pleases you most, as an artist?

Tiësto: I wanted to bring together all the different influences I have from dance music to indie rock with my own sound. “Kaleidoscope” is my most ambitious album to date and I think it will have a positive effect on my fans when they listen to the album and especially when they see the live show.

DN: The “Kaleidoscope” tour is said to have an incredible stage show. So, what can attendees of your Naples show expect?

Tiësto: Along with the music, I have created some of the most amazing production to date, so it’s going to be something special. It’s based much more on the video content for this tour and we have been playing around with the visual concepts of the “Kaleidoscope” theme, which is great for inspiration. I have always had amazing shows in Florida. The scene here is thriving and the fans always bring an amazing energy and vibe to all the shows.

DN: You’re also known to perform to huge crowds, often numbering in the tens of thousands. Which do you prefer: The energy of an enormous audience or the intimacy of a small club?

Tiësto: Playing at the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. To be a part of an event of that size and importance is very special to me and is something I will never forget.

DN: What are some of your current musical influences?

Tiësto: One person I have always had the utmost respect for is (influential German DJ) Sven Vath. He has contributed so much to electronic music and where we are today. I have been able to work with so many amazing artists on “Kaleidoscope” it would be really hard for me to single one out.

DN: These days, you’re collaborating with everyone from Academy Award-winning rap group Three Six Mafia and South Florida rappers FloRida and Sean Kingston to British alternative rockers Muse. Does any of this indicate a new direction in your music?

Tiësto: As an artist, I am constantly evolving and I always want to push the limits in the studio and when I play out live. Musically, I have so many different inspirations lately. I have been listening to a lot of indie rock, electro, techno and house and have drawn from these influences over the years.

DN: Are there any artists you hope to collaborate with in the near future?

Tiësto: Artists like Sigur Ros, Bloc Party, MGMT, Santigold and Crookers have been making some amazing music recently.

Source: www.naplesnews.com