Bengaluru seems to have an enchanting and enticing flavour that international artistes seem to want to get a taste of. German DJ/producer Paul Van Dyk is coming to town this weekend for the Sunburn Festival to give his fans an experience that they have all been waiting for. He chats with us all the way from Berlin before his much anticipated gig.
“I have been to India before but this is my first time in Bengaluru. I love the Indian culture and the people,” says the man who literally redefined electronic music.
Though his present album Evolution just hit the shelves, he has already finished work on another album, Politics of Dance #3, which will be out soon. “Unlike the previous albums of the same series, where I remixed music by other artistes, in this one I have worked with musicians in the studio. It’s like a collaboration,” he smiles. His song set for the festival will be a mélange of old and new. “A lot of fans have written on social networking asking for classics like Home, Crush and I Don't Deserve You,” he informs. Incidentally, Paul was quite scared the first time he was DJing. He recalls, “At home, I would mix music at lower volumes. But in a club, it was the volume that scared the daylights out of me.”
The music producer who is an avid reader and loves fast stories of Sebastian Fritz, grew up in East Germany. “During childhood, it was the communist and dictator rule. Listening to music was against the law, so?I would hide and listen to the best Berlin radio station,” he confesses. The moment the war was over he began hopping from one club to another. Paul says in all these years, the one person he is extremely grateful to is his mother. “My mom is a single parent who always believed in me. She never doubted my capabilities,” he says.
Paul draws inspiration from his surroundings. “The sunlight outside my window and the breeze that is rustling up the leaves has a beautiful fragrance. For all you know, this might be the inspiration for my next piece,” he states. After Sunburn, he is heading to Europe for a few gigs followed by performances in the States. He is also launching a new app, Mixhibit, which combines music and pictures together. “I am going to use images of India through this app for my upcoming shows,” says the man who is known to make really good soup. “If not a musician, I would have have been a restaurateur. I enjoy cooking,” he quips.
