Style: From house to techno – any good music.
Best known for: Getting people’s hands in the air!
Gig of 2009: The whole year has been magic.
Tune of 2009: David Guetta feat Kelly Rowland ‘When Love Takes Over’ (Virgin)
Breakthrough DJ/Producer of 2009: Afrojack
The track that changed your life: Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ – it was the first track that I beatmatched when I was a child.
What makes a good DJ great: A great crowd.
Most underrated DJ: James Zabiela – he’s big but he should be even bigger.
Biggest challenge this year: To make a bridge between electronic music from Europe and urban culture from America.
Top tech toy: UAD – I just bought it last week for my laptop.

In many ways this could be David Guetta’s Year Zero. That might sound ridiculous for a man who has seemingly drawn the best out of the pop and DJ world. But with his album, ‘ One Love’, featuring superstars of the American hip-hop and r&b scene, the optimistic Frenchman claims we may very well look back on 2009 and say that this was the dawn of a new era in dance music. US urban culture has always been – Puffy excepted – pretty disdainful of dance music, but over the last 12 months Guetta has been their go-to man.

Kelly Rowland discovered him when he was DJing and asked him to write a song. The same week that the Black Eyed Peas requested him for production duties on their song ‘I Gotta Feeling’. Always with an eye to opening dance music up beyond its comfortable ghetto, David struck a deal – he would be involved in their albums if they repaid the favour and sang on his.

‘One Love’ arrived in August featuring vocals from the former Destiny’s Child alongside the Peas and Akon. Apart from anything else, it gave Guetta three European No.1s and his biggest album to date.

“This album was trying to build a sound bridge between hip-hop and electro,” he explains from LA, before performing at the MTV Latin Awards. “I think it’s going to be huge for everyone in electronic music. Everybody in America wants that sound now and I’m sure that, not only for me but for the whole dance community, it’s going to be a new world. This is only the beginning.”

If Guetta is right, it could change the worldwide dance scene completely. For the first time American radio is playing tracks that have come – musically at least – from European club culture. Right now those tracks are Guetta’s but, ever the optimist, the man who lives to break down commercial walls is convinced that this is the start, that the hip-hop world is going to come knocking at our door.

“Now all the best artists want a part of it,” he promises. “So it’s going to be amazing for all the house music producers. I have the opportunity to work with all the artists that I’ve dreamt of working with all my life.”

But to think that David has just been about huge vocal productions and topping the charts would be to misunderstand the core of the man. While the album is sitting high in the charts, he’s slipped out an underground electro track on Mark Knight’s über-hip Toolroom. ‘Grrrr!’ is a tough instrumental monster, very much aimed at the people who love him as a DJ.

“As a DJ, I play underground clubs and I play other more glamorous parties,” he explains. “In Ibiza I play Pacha, but I also play Cocoon. I never wanted to choose really. It’s the same for me as a producer. I can produce big pop records but I can also produce more techy and underground tracks like ‘Grrrr!’ I do it in exactly in the same way – with my heart and my passion.”

Always causing confusion, he refuses to say that just because part of him is a pop star he’s only going to make big vocal hits.

“I refuse to stay in a box,” he says. “I have two crowds – I have some people who love me for my hits and I have some people who love me for my DJing. And they’re not necessarily the same people.”

But as important as the underground is for him, as much as he cherishes playing chunky electrotech and as enthusiastically as he grabs the chance to play long and deep, the things that have made Guetta’s year mark him out as a populist, a man who wants everyone to be as excited about the music he loves as he is himself.

That’s undoubtedly why he signed up to be ambassador of the new DJ Hero computer game, an offshoot of the massive Guitar Hero, that’s another possible avenue to bring new feet to the dancefloor. It’s also why he’s got an iPhone app waiting to go any minute and how he’s ended up with a million Facebook fans this year.

Whether or not David Guetta’s 2009 is going to change dance music forever, it’s clear why he’s calling it the biggest and best year of his life.

Source: DjMag

Style: A bit of everything
Best known for: Not sure, but I can tell you that I never drank 31 cans of Red Bull in 24 hours!
Gig of 2009: Victoria Park, London
Tune of 2009: Basement Jaxx ‘Raindrops (Robbie Rivera Remix)’ (XL)
Breakthrough DJ/Producer of 2009: Avicci
The track that changed your life: Cygnus X ‘The Orange Theme’ after I heard this track I wanted to play trance music.
What makes a good DJ great: A great DJ can adjust to the crowd, make them go crazy but still be able to do his own thing.
Most underrated DJ: Dada Life. They should be much bigger then they are at the moment.
Biggest challenge this year: Finishing the production on my album ?Kaleidoscope?. With all the artists? busy schedules, including mine, it was a challenge finalising all the songs.
Top tech toy: My new MacBook Pro 17

So, another massive year for Tiësto then. New album, new label, huge gigs, Ibiza residency and more high profile remixes than ever.

“It’s been a very good year!” says the man who could quite easily be bored by it all by now.

It’s all pivoted around his new album, ‘Kaleidoscope’, a massive step forward for Tiësto as a producer, bringing in indie, electro, pop, house, techno and much more into his big, euphoric sound for the most diverse longplayer we’ve had from the Dutchman yet.

“I wanted to make an album that brought together all the different musical influences which I am enjoying at the moment,” he explains from across the US. “It still has the essence of what makes up the Tiësto signature sound, but it takes it in a whole new direction. I’ve taken more of a structured song-writing approach this time, as well as experimented with new sounds and textures. It’s important for me to continue to break new ground musically.”

As impressive as the music on ‘Kaleidoscope’ is, almost as surprising is the artists that he’s tempted to sing for him. As well as Calvin Harris, the album features indie kids like Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and pure pop stars like Nelly Furtado.

“When I started spending time with a lot of these musicians, most of them didn’t necessarily think of my music as ‘trance’ as much as it was electronic dance music,” Tiësto says of his dalliance with the hipsters. “Pretty much all of them had been to my shows or other dance artists in the past, had a great time and sincerely enjoy many kinds of dance music.”

One of the biggest changes this year has seen Tiësto move from Black Hole to his own Musical Freedom.

“I think that Black Hole has done a great job for me in the past, but I have grown as an artist and needed to make a change,” he explains. “Musical Freedom is my label. It’s an outlet for my evolving sound but also to release and support new music and artists that are important to me.”

But it hasn’t just been a year locked in the studio, the album led to a Kaleidoscope world tour, which kicked off with not one, not two but three nights in New York. While none of the artists were able to go on tour with him, Tiësto got some of them, like Tegan and Sara and CC Sheffield, involved with video performances that are worked into the sets. In fact, video has been a huge part of seeing Tiësto play this year.

“I worked with an incredibly talented company from Montreal called Moment Factory to bring everything to life,” he says. “It’s based much more on the video content for this tour and we have been working around the visual concepts of ‘Kaleidoscope.’”

Before the tour, Tiësto called in on his British fans at Victoria Park – 20,000 of them in fact.

“Victoria Park was one of the biggest and best shows for me this year,” Tiësto reckons. “I love London. Dance music is a major part of the culture in the UK and it shows. Everyone that came out had an amazing energy and vibe.”

Another key show has been his fundraising event at Privilege, in Ibiza, for Dance4Life, along with Robbie Rivera and Richard Grey, slotting into his summer residency. It’s a charity that is very important for Tiësto, combining serious information about HIV and AIDS with dance music and entertainment, which Tiësto says “really motivates young people to get involved”.

Elsewhere, Tiësto, who has a track on DJ Hero, has been at the remix grindstone in a fairly major way. Having just finished a remix for Editors’ ‘Papillion’ that he’s particularly proud of, he’s taken in The Killers, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Calvin Harris along the way. He also produced a track for Memphis rap duo Three 6 Mafia.

“It’s great to see the US urban artists embrace dance music,” he says. “The track I did with Three Six Mafia was a lot of fun to do, but I’m not sure it’s part of any movement that way.”

So, Tiësto’s most diverse year yet then, and, like he says, a very good one.

Style: Trance/Progressive
Best known for: A State of Trance
Gig of 2009: Armin Only: ‘Imagine’, Los Angeles Sports Arena
Tune of 2009: Neptune Project ‘Aztec’ (FSOE)
Breakthrough DJ/Producer of 2009: Jerome Isma-Ae (DJ); Cosmic Gate (Producer)
The track that changed your life: 3 Phase ‘Der Klang Der Family’ on Tresor in 1992. How the hell did they make those sounds?!
What makes a good DJ great: Timing and character.
Most underrated DJ: Ben Liebrand. He’s been Holland best kept secret since the ’80s and plays technically advanced sets with four DVJs.
Biggest challenge this year: Doing a non-stop 72-hour live marathon radio show, in April, with video stream from three different countries, with three massive parties and loads of guest DJs to celebrate the 400th episode of A State of Trance.
Top tech toy: Pioneer CDJ-2000. It can do a lot that a laptop can but it’s actually built for clubs.

Life doesn’t get any better than this. Armin Van Buuren was on his honeymoon when he got the call to say that you lot voted him the No.1 DJ in the World – for the third consecutive year.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he says with a huge smile. “I still can’t believe it. I expected David Guetta to win so I was totally blown away. This was the least expected one. I can understand that people might think that if you win it for the third time it’s not that special anymore. But, for me, it’s the most special.”

It makes sense that this year should mean so much. Armin’s rise has been unstoppable, from his first appearance in the Top 5 in 2002 to that first inevitable win. Last year was probably the biggest year of his career, with the Armin Only: Imagine concerts and his Buma Cultuur Pop Award. But 2009 has been another a solid year for the world’s favourite DJ – winning this year is the purest example that real clubbers around the world hold him in the highest regard.

No artist album, just a handful of underground singles and business-as-usual gigs sees the amiable Dutchman clear up again. But business-as-usual for Armin is like a dream come true for the rest of us – he’s hardly spent the year getting stoned on the sofa (in fact, he gave up booze to keep on top of things).

One of his greatest achievements has been his A State Of Trance radio show reaching its 400th episode and the celebration was every bit as elaborate as you might imagine. Setting up an internet radio station, he grabbed a handful of DJs and travelled to three countries broadcasting the whole 72-hour party. Online radio being a statistician’s dream, Armin was able to measure the success of this pioneering venture absolutely and over the three days 250,000 people tuned in.

Impressive stuff, but when most online radio keeps listeners for about eight minutes and Radio 1 manages 45 minutes, Armin captured his listeners’ ears for three and a half hours.

“It was remarkable,” Armin says proudly. “I asked the listeners who they wanted to see. They chose Gareth Emery, Arnej, Roger Shah, Signum and W&W. The funny thing is that on MSN I’ve been speaking to a lot of the DJs that played over the 72 hours and they’re now in the DJmag Top 100 DJs. They thank me for that, but I tell them they should thank themselves for their great productions and the fact that people voted for them. It felt really great, you could talk to me about it for hours.”

After so many shows Armin says that he still enjoys recording A State Of Trance every bit as much as he ever has, although frequently doing the show while on the road is a challenge. Many labels give him exclusives now the show is so established and many of the genre’s important albums are previewed.

“It keeps me on the forefront of things,” he says, “and it’s really exciting to hear all these new tunes. I get a lot of new ideas and a lot of new music. I still feel trance is evolving, especially the lower BPM stuff. There’s a lot influence from house and minimal at the moment, which is fantastic. Really exciting times.”

With about 250 tracks coming his way every day – “Fortunately I have someone in the office, Ruben, who helps me download of lot of the tracks,” Armin says – there’s still enough enthusiasm that the world’s No.1 hits the online record shops frequently

“I still buy a lot of tracks,” he says. “There are quite a few labels that don’t send out promos.”

Every year A State Of Trance sums up its year with a mix CD but this year it was joined by a snapshot of Armin’s Armada extravaganza, ‘Universal Religion’. A live mix from his Amnesia night in Ibiza, it showcases more of a Balearic sound. It’s still trance but it’s more vocal, more melodic, the average BPM is slower, something the big room master has clearly been enjoying this year. But with a strong Euro keeping many Brits and Americans away from the White Island this year, how was his season there really?

“I know it’s standard to say fantastic,” he smiles, “but it really was fantastic.”

With Roger Sanchez taking to the terrace while Armin controlled the main room, the pair were able to entice over 3000 people through the doors every single week. At the party’s height, in August, there were 5000 people on the dancefloors.

“The first year we did the night we didn’t make any money because it’s so hard to set up your own night in Ibiza,” he admits. “There’s so much competition. It’s remarkable that we were able to grow this year.”

But, despite the success, the Ibizan gigs were some of his more intimate affairs this year. In addition to many, many festivals from the Ukraine to New York and from Burning Man to Global Gathering, many of the Dutchman’s gigs formed part of the Armin Only tour.

“They’re massive gigs now,” he says, “a minimum of 8000 people dancing to just me for nine hours. It’s grown to another level – there’s a massive fireworks show, a big stage, lasers and all sorts. It’s very expensive to put on.”

Although Armin didn’t have an artist album this year he still made a dent in the charts with the remix version of last year’s massive ‘Imagine’. Sounding like a rather relaxed project, Armin contacted some of the remixers that he likes himself and asked them which tracks they’d like the remix.

“Nearly everyone chose a different one,” he says. “A lot did it on spec, they didn’t want any money for it, and we ended up with some tracks having two or three great remixes so we decided to make it a double album.”

The Killers and BT aside, Armin hasn’t done much in the way of remixing himself this year, preferring to work on his own productions, even if there hasn’t been much in the way of new Armin Van Buuren tracks. Breaking his own rule of only using his own name, he’s slipped out some more underground, instrumental tunes, most notably Gaia’s ‘Tulvan’.

“I know if I’d released it as Armin Van Buuren it would have sold better but I wanted to show that trance mattered and that I’m very much about instrumental electronic music,” he says.

Despite these scene credentials, Armin found himself an A-list media star this year when he decided to make a Mrs Van Buuren of his girlfriend of ten years. His new wife doesn’t like the attention from the newspapers and celeb magazines and Armin grudgingly says that he’s “really not fond” of it either.

“I’d rather people appreciated me for my music and radio shows and my gigs than my personal life,” he says without irritation. “I understand I’m now a public figure so I have to show some of it to the people, but the reasons why I decided to marry were completely personal and I don’t particularly want to share it with other people.”

Those interested in seeing both sides of being a superstar DJ will be pleased to know that a book revealing his experiences during his first year as the No.1 DJ in the World has just been translated into English. But there is another way to get behind the strobelights. Fans will get to play their idol in a forthcoming game for the Nintendo Wii, Armin Van Buuren In The Mix. A career game, you work through the actual clubs Armin played in himself as his career progressed.

“You don’t only have to learn how to beatmatch but you also have to interact with the crowd and give a whole performance,” he says eagerly.

But as keyed up as he is about the game, there’s nothing as exciting as being No.1 for another year.

“I’m thrilled and deeply honoured,” he says honestly and from the heart. “It feels like winning a gold medal at the Olympics.”

Source: DjMag