On November 7th David Guetta claimed the top spot in the DJ Mag top 100, a special achievement for the French DJ/Producer, who turned 53 on the very same day. It marks his second win in 10 years and don’t forget, he also won the MTV EMA for best Electronic Dance act. He’s never left the top of the game. That’s why we were honored to be invited to attend an online press-conference together with our peers from different musical-blogs around the globe.
The online press conference took almost 2 hours and so many different topics were covered. So, we decided to dedicate a special piece of content to the most special topics and answers that the legend himself, David Guetta, gave.
How did the birth of Future Rave music come about?
When I started with this new style of music it felt like a very obvious choice for me to take my music into that direction. You’ve got to understand though, that it took one year to become a movement, which it is now. I thought it was gonna work right away, but it didn’t. I sent it to DJ’s and I expected them to respond like ‘Wow this is amazing!’, but they didn’t. I was wondering if I was the crazy one here, but it was a good reminder for me that things always take time.
”When I premiered Future Rave at AMF 2019 and I got off stage, Tiësto approached me and told me he was really impressed and my new sound was really fresh.”
I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and sometimes you’re just super inspired, but sometimes you’re not, that’s just the way it is.
What’s the big difference for you between being at the top of the DJ Mag Top 100 today and 10 years ago?
10 years ago I feel I made a big impact on the transition of our music, to a more mainstream, accessible sound. House music back then was a rather underground movement. I opened it up for a broader audience by doing collaborations with pop-stars/urban-stars, making the link between urban melodies and electronic sound. I was being criticized heavily for doing this. This year it was completely the opposite because I thought that EDM was way too standardized and not adventurous enough for me anymore.
EDM was way too standardized and not adventurous enough for me anymore.
It frustrated me as a DJ as I felt like the real interesting kind of music was hidden in the underground scene. When I’m playing at a festival though, it doesn’t work at all to play uncommon or unknown tracks. I took the essence of underground music and combined it with a rave-music flavor but also include some trancy elements, that’s what turned out to be Future Rave. When I started to work with Morten it really became a movement and I’m super happy to be recognized with first place in the DJ Mag Top 100 for it.
In your acceptance speech for the DJ Mag, you mentioned that the entertainment industry needs help, as it’s in a bad shape due to Covid-19. Why do you think that governments aren’t helping us out here?
It’s very surprising to me that they’re not providing assistance. When I started my career all these years ago it was already a big struggle to get the respect that we have these days as a DJ. Because when I started the main genres out there were hip-hop and rock and we were so much different. When companies like ‘Livenation’ came about and people realized how big this industry really is, I thought we finally had the respect we deserve. Unfortunately, the way that governments are not supporting the entertainment industry showed me that they’re still looking down on us, which feels really bad. What seems to be forgotten is that clubs and artists are also a cultural thing. You hear people saying they’re proud to be from the Netherlands etc. but you’d never have played in some full stadium or a big festival if you hadn’t started out in a club. So these clubs definitely should be getting support. I’m fortunate enough that I can survive this for one year, but the people working around me, the independent workers, such as security staff, tour managers, technical crew, promoters, club owners, they bring a lot of revenue in for a country and governments are now pretending like they don’t exist.
How do you envision 2021, do you imagine you’ll be able to play at a big festival stage again?
I’m trying to stay positive and I’m really happy about the vaccin news that came out that the Pflizer vaccin could be 90% effective. I did a new liveset for Tomorrowland with a green screen set-up (for their NYE show) and for that I had to do a quick test, which didn’t really feel pleasant, but you got the result within 5 minutes. That may be a solution as well, to test people before entering an event? Let’s see!
You’ve been playing a lot in Ibiza haven’t you over the years? What’s so great about this island and these clubs for you?
Ibiza definitely means a lot to me! Over the years I’ve gone from an occasional Ibiza gig to playing twice a week during the summer season there. It’s like a lab or a playground for me to test out new stuff before I give them a try at a big festival-stage. I feel it’s almost 2 different jobs if you’re playing in a club or at a big festival. When you’re playing for 100.000 people you’re an entertainer, you can’t scratch on the record, throw in an acapella go with the flow for a bit, because the crowd won’t understand what you’re doing. In Ibiza I’ve always been a real DJ and I enjoyed going out late at night, checking out other underground DJ’s and experiencing new sounds. The Ibiza crowd is very much open to not only hearing my hits, but also hearing new tracks in a different style. This is why Ibiza is super inspirational to me, eventhough most of my shows throughout the year are festivals or big concerts.
Which Future Rave track is coming out soon actually? As you played so many cool tracks including ID’s at your AMF 2020 set?
Next up is a release on Spinnin’ Records, it’s out now actually, once again together with my friend Morten! Listen to the track here:
I’ve been considering creating a ‘Future Rave’ music-label, but it’s obviously a big responsibility to do that. I did start a new movement and it would honestly only make me happy if this means that more artists will be inspired by these sounds. It definitely doesn’t all need to be released on my label too, that’s why I’m happy to release this latest track on Musical Freedom.
What’s something that other artists can learn from David Guetta in terms of surviving the tough DJ/Producer life, flying all around the globe, not seeing family a lot of times etc.?
That’s a very important point that you’re raising here. To answer that properly you’ve got to go to the very essence of this job. Did you become a DJ, because you can drink a lot and pop some pills every night or are you doing this for the love of the music? It’s very simple actually if you’re not being responsible and you’re partying all the time, there’s no way you’ll be hitting the studio with a huge hangover. Of course, I’ve done my fair share of partying, but I’ve learned to balance things over the course of my long career. For me it’s all about the music! It gets me so excited to create a new sound or a new track that I call my girlfriend when I’ve finished a studio session at 4 AM in Europe and she’s in de USA ”Baby, I just made my best track ever!”. I must say though, that when I listen to the track again in the morning I’m usually like ”Okay, this wasn’t that great actually” haha, but this excitement is what drives me to keep going. It had a huge impact on me actually when Avicii passed away and there a more of these sad examples out there. I instantly started touring less, but it has always been a topic for me, you can’t tell your friends or family that you’re feeling bad or tired, because you’re making so much money performing and they won’t understand. I did have, and still do actually, chats with Tiësto, Armin and Avicii about this topic. So since Avicii passed away I learned how to go on holiday with my family and not switch on Ableton, even though sometimes I had the desire, and I perform a lot less than I used to do, well right now there are no shows anyway.
To close this article, we’d like to show our appreciation to David Guetta, his team, and his press-agent The Media Nanny, for allowing us to be a part of the online press-conference. We will surely keep a close eye on David Guetta because we love that Future Rave sound!