Sander van Doorn interview

(HC) You’re now what we call a Superstar DJ, how do you feel about having this status title?

(SVD) Wow sounds great! I’ve never actually realised or looked at myself as being a superstar DJ. I’ve now been DJ-ing for the last 7 years. And I’m just really pleased about how fast things went and I’m just really happy.

Do people compare you often to Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten or Tiesto and do you think its right to compare you to these artists?

To be honest I really respect those guys and it’s an honour to be compared to them.  They have their own sound and I have my own too which is a combination across different genres, so my sound can be different but I think being mentioned in the same category is a big honour.

You were voted number 10 in the Top DJ 100 awards last year which are coming up soon again this year. A lot of DJs will say that this vote isn’t important; that it doesn’t represent the reality, what’s your honest opinion?

Well I hope it’s an honest voting campaign, it’s the one time a year were the fans get to vote for their favourite DJs. There’s always this hallway gossip about it not being honest or it’s not an important list, but you know, it’s still a really important list, but it shouldn’t determine your career

Have you got an idea of your placement for this year?

I haven’t got a clue to be honest! It’s been a very busy summer season and I’ve been focusing on Ibiza nights, and festivals and obviously it’s always a little bit in my mind, but I usually just let the people decide and see what a happens.

Has it been a good summer for you then?

Oh absolutely amazing! This year I did a lot of new countries, Egypt, Tunisia, Denmark and other new territories which was really enjoyable, and besides that the festivals were amazing. This year I played for the first time at the Sziget festival in Budapest which was brilliant. Global gathering UK was phenomenal too and the back to back set in Poland with Marco V was something different, so all in all a really enjoyable summer.

Have you enjoyed the festivals in Holland as well?

I haven’t played that much in Holland this summer as I’ve started working with a UK booking agent. I did do Trance Energy in March though and a few other Dutch Festivals before the summer.

Is that because you’re becoming more of an international superstar DJ?

Well the world is actually quite a big place, so sometimes I can only play once a year in some territories, like for example Poland where I’ve only done one show this year. You try to fill the diary with a lot of new countries and the existing ones and sometimes you play a little bit more in one country one year than the next.

Your home town is Eindhoven, are there any places there you’d recommend to go out?

Well there’s more of a bar culture there than a night club culture in Eindhoven. There’s this one main street where you’ve got one bar after the other. There are a few venues, the very famous Dance Saloon that’s being refurbished right now, and besides that we have a cultural centre called the Effenar which throws big dance parties. There’s is also Aquabest which is just outside of Eindhoven, which is a location on a lake, and there’s this festival called Extrema which is one of the best yearly festivals you can do in Holland.

Now I read that it was a friend of yours who advised you to change your name from Ketelaars (surname) to van Doorn, and you were to buy him a beer for this advice, so did he finally get his beer?

(Laughs) I’ve actually bought him many beers since! Well the story is that I was the one who actually decided to go for a different name other than Ketelaars, which is pretty much impossible to pronounce in English or German, so I asked a few colleagues of mine if they knew of a Dutch name that would be easy to pronounce in English, and that sounds better than Ketelaars, and he was the one who came up with “van Doorn”, “van” actually means “from” so there’s a lot of Dutch names that use ”van” such as “van Buuren”, which actually means from the place called Buuren or Doorn so it’s a typical Dutch last name. It’s often misspelt as well because the r and n sometimes look like an m so it’s sometimes Sander van Doom or Sander van door....(laughs) I’ve got a lot of different names due to that!

I actually asked a colleague of mine, what does van Doorn mean and she said from the thorn so I thought, why would he be called “from the thorn”? But I that’s obviously not what you meant!

Well it is true that Doorn means thorn, but Doorn is also a place in Holland, so I actually meant from the place called Doorn in Holland!

And is it true that you’ve collaborated with Robbie Williams?

Yes I a did collaboration with him last year, which originated from a track from his Rudebox album. I’m obviously a big fan of Robbie for his entertainment skills, and I love his music. But the connection was pretty short. I did a remix for Sia 2 years earlier which was actually the same management as Robbie Williams so I chanced it, and decided to do a remix of one of the Rudebox tracks called we’re the pet shop boys, so I did the remix and sent it to his management and they absolutely loved it! They said we’re going to get you the original vocals. It was a big highlight in my career.

Did you get invited to his wedding?

(Laughs!) No unfortunately not! (Laughs) I was busy anyway.

Do you mean you would have turned the invitation down?!

Laughs...no no!

A bit more back to the serious stuff, I’d like to ask you about your Dusk till Doorn nights (event) and the compilation so tell us more about these two projects?

Well I started doing Dusk till Doorn nights about a year ago. It’s kind of my own DJ concept where there’s actually two sort of nights, one of which is where I play 3 sets in one night in collaboration with artists from Doorn records and the other one is the one is where I will play a 5 hour or six hour set which is a night that revolves around my sound, and there’s a lot of added production. The idea is to have a broad spectrum of different kind of styles of music and really build a night with that. So it starts a little bit more housy and then moves from progressive to a little bit more trance energetic music. From Dusk till doorn as it says, so a really great concept!  We’ve done about 6 shows so far and we’ve just released a Dusk till Doorn album, which actually captures a Dusk till Doorn night from two cities. It’s a compilation which starts slowly and builds during the mixes and the response has been great so far.

Have you got any collaborations with any Fidget house DJs like Afrojack on this compilation?

Well I haven’t done any collaborations myself with him yet but there is an Afrojack track collaboration on the album actually. I would do a collaboration with artists like him though, because I’ve always tried not to stereo type myself as being a particular kind of DJ, positioned into one specific genre. With the super naturalistic album I did  2 years ago, I experimented for example with  a little bit more progressive techy stuff, but collaborations like that would be a big challenge as well.

Is there anyone you’d particularly like to collaborate with?

Well I actually just collaborated with Sidney Samson where groovy house meets my world, so we did a project together working towards my new artist album for next year. I’m really busy with that project and this collaboration worked out really well.

You say you don’t have any time for hobbies; do you have time for a girlfriend?

I do have a girlfriend and we’ve been together for about 8 years now so she was there from the very start, and I think that’s a really good basis because she grew with me in this whole music journey, and within the industry, so she really got used to me being on the road.

How do these girlfriends cope with their boyfriend DJs who are always travelling around the world?

Sometimes it can be pretty hard for her, especially around the summer season because I’m always away, but we try to solve that problem by taking her with me on certain tours, where she gets a little holiday break too so that’s the best way to do it.

How does she feel about these girls who love DJs, the “groupies”? Is she alright with that?

Yeah she’s pretty cool with it all, she’s not that jealous and understands it’s about the music and about being an artist on stage, and to be fair when I go out here in Eindhoven no one recognises me, so she’s pretty cool!

You seem pretty proud to be Dutch, so where were you for the world cup final?

I was in Canada playing in Calgary so I had to watch the final in my hotel room; I was quite enthusiastic and proud of what the team achieved.

And how do you feel about them being labelled the dirty Dutch team?

Well when you watch the game and it’s your team playing you don’t notice things, until I opened the Canadian news paper the next day and saw this photo of Nigel de Jong giving this karate kick to another player, and I thought, yeah that’s a bit too much! It was a really dirty match I must admit, but I would say until the semi finals they did a great job.

And have you ever read anything surprising about yourself?

Not really, in general the media is quite honest.

And you talk about a family business that you could have been into if you hadn’t gone into music, what is this family business?

Well my brother set up with my dad an aluminium company. I worked with them for a bit, but then I decided music was more my cup of tea, so I decided to leave the company and do my own thing, but they’re really excited to see me play, and think it’s great that I decided to do my own thing.

And now that you’ve achieved this goal that you had to become a DJ what is your current objective?

Well my goal has always been to develop myself as an artist. I think the future looks very bright if you look at producers like David Guetta getting global support, and also getting a lot of airplay over in America. So I think the market will grow rapidly over the next coming years, and I would love to be part of that, and just become the biggest artist I can possibly be, and develop myself as the best producer I can be. So that’s pretty much my goal.

Would you say you want to be the number one DJ, the next Armin van Buuren?

Well I don’t like to look at numbers, saying to myself I want to become the number one DJ in the world. I just want to be at the top of my game, and I still feel like I’ve only just begun. I’ve just been doing this for 7 years so far and might be good to do it for another 15 years!

And what are your future plans?

Well we definitely want to expand the Dusk till Doorn nights adding more production to it, and I really try to build the night more and more and change the venue to make it Dusk till Doorn venue. It’s really quite related to the Dusk till Dawn movie form Tarantino, I’ve always loved that movie and I would have really loved to have put those elements into my set as well, with different kinds of music. A lot of exciting projects ahead!

Good luck!

Thanks!

(Interview EB/Holland Clubbing)

For more info on Sander van Doorn

www.facebook.com/sandervandoorn
http://twitter.com/sandervandoorn
www.myspace.com/sandervandoorn
www.youtube.com/sandervandoorntv
www.sandervandoorn.com

Sander van Doorn on iTunes

Sander van Doorn on Beatport.com