06
?32
DIMITRI VEGAS
& LIKE MIKE
From: Belgium. Style: “Big room progressive electro.” Best
known for: “[Being] ambassadors of Tomorrowland.” Tune of
2013: “Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike ‘Mammoth’.” Breakthrough
DJ/producer of 2013: “Wolfpack.”
AFTER appearing in the Top 100 a number of times
(jumping from No.79 to No.38 last year), 2013 has
seen Belgium duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike go
intergalactic. If you need proof, as well as jumping to
No.6 in the poll this year they have just recently been
made residents at Las Vegas’ LIGHT.
“Vegas is insane, man!” they enthuse. “Everything
is just so over-the-top, really ostentatious and out
there, there’s no middle ground. The fans are real,
a lot of kids in the US will travel to Vegas because
they want to see their favourite acts, they come
speci?cally to be a part of the experience and to party
in one of the wildest places on Earth. We love it.”
The pair also love crafting huge anthems with ravey
horns, demonic kick-drums and serrated synth lines
such as ‘Turn It Up’, ‘Chattahoochee’ and ‘Ocarina’, all
of which have sat pretty atop various Beatport charts
this year. Although they recognise that their style
has gotten harder this year, Dimitri and Mike promise
that they have some more experimental surprises up
their sleeves for future releases.
“The biggest deal was probably getting four Beatport
No.1 tracks and three No.2 tracks in the space of
nine months. We’ve been working so hard on our
production for years now, we’ve really pushed the
limits when it comes to studio output and we’ve
collaborated with a lot of really talented artists, so it
044 djmag.com
all came good this year.”
Another thing the pair have done a lot of this year is
remixing, including touching up some classics which
they love to do, so they can “bring a fresh touch to a
legendary track and make it playable in our sets”. It
begs the question, would they like to become EDM’s
answer to a super producer like Timbaland?
“It might be cool to work with other artists, but we’d
never write, produce a track and then just give it to
someone else to pass off as their own. Maybe working
with an artist outside of EDM on an album, a vocalist,
singer, that could be interesting. You never know
what the future holds!”
An important part of this year and every year for
these Belgians is their home festival, Tomorrowland,
for which they are proud ambassadors, and even had
their own arena in 2013.
“Playing the Main Stage there, having our own tent,
producing the anthem and then doing the same for
TomorrowWorld in the US was just incredible. But
we’re managing to top this year off by doing a 20,000
people stadium event back in Belgium just before
NYE.”
That event is called Bringing Home The Madness and
reportedly sold out in under 24 hours. As well as that
to look forward to, there is much more music on the
way from this seemingly on-?re partnership. “We
have so many tracks ready that the next logical step
is going to be an album, we’ve been on and off with
the idea but we just have to do it at some point.”
KRISTAN J CARYL
Have DJs’ fees got out of hand? “It’s pretty much the same in any industry, to be honest — the more money that
is generated on all levels, the more fees o f everyone involved goes up and everyone takes a share.” Has dance
music become the new pop? “Just because it’s now more widely played on daytime radio, TV, used in adverts, the
audience has become exponentially larger and it gets played a lot more.” If you could be any animal what would
you be? “Would love to be a T-Rex — ain’t no messing around with a T-Rex!” Should DJs do ‘heart hands’? “We
don’t have any issues with that and think everyone should just do whatever they like or feel is ?tting for their act,
we’re really not fans of judging what someone else does.” Do DJs have a duty to speak out about drugs? “It’s a
very touchy subject — but it’s up to us to give a good example and we feel that drugs just aren’t needed to have
a great party!” What would be on your fantasy rider? “A top chef cooking us whatever we want, on the spot,
whenever we want!”