Van the man

Maybe it’s more about who Paul Van Dyk is, not simply what. Well, he’s not even called Paul Van Dyk for a start; he was in fact born Matthias Paul in East Berlin into a state socialist system that deprived him of record shops and contemporary pop music. Instead of an adolescence in clubs, experimenting with soft drugs and nicking mix tapes from visiting DJs, he would spend hours in his room listening to stations from West Berlin and creating compilations from the best songs he heard on the radio and spreading them around his friends. He wasn’t into the music because it was cool, he was into the music because it was an escape – DJ-ing was essentially somewhere else.

There is still an element of that upbringing in his attitude today. Nothing is off-limits. Nothing should be barred or prohibited. Opinions, any opinion, should be heard. Any magazine journalist should be accommodated. And that’s why we were able to meet at relatively short notice before his performance in Dubai for an easy conversation about the changing nature of the clubbing scene and the evolution of what was called trance music. 

 

Paul Van Dyk: I don’t have a problem with the label “trance” at all, but the thing is I have a different philosophy about it. My music is danceable and when you hear me play, you’ll hear influences from pop to rock to house to proper techno – it’s a variety of sounds. I think limiting it to one genre is not correct, but I understand that sometimes people need those labels. I just think there are some preconceptions about different genres of music, and sometimes people will limit themselves because of what they think they’ll expect. I truly believe electronic music is the best music in the world and will continue to grow. You have to look at its history and how it developed from a small subculture to one of the biggest musical movements in the world. Rock music, for example, can only develop so far, but with electronic music, I have billions of sounds to change and play with.

 

PVD: I’m very excited to be playing in Dubai again, of course; I’ve always had a great time when I’ve come here. Since I first began playing Dubai in 2006, I make sure it is on the touring schedule at least once a year. Although the process of travelling can be exhausting, arriving at new places like this brings back great memories and really keeps me going. I think I am in an extremely lucky position to have a crowd in front of me that always has my back. 

 

PVD: I grew up in East Berlin, but my friends and I were still listening to West Berlin radio stations. But I could never buy a record from a music store, check out a music magazine or even go to a concert. It was purely experiencing music through the radio. Whatever I feel shows through my music because my upbringing had an impact on me. The most important thing I learned from my youth is not to take things for granted. We were a poor family, just my mother and myself, and we didn’t have much. I always remember those times.

PVD: People often say that in this genre of music, we are non-political. But I’m very involved in charity programmes and we try to support kids that come from unfortunate backgrounds, giving them options and opportunities in life. One thing I learned along the way is that for anything to change, I need to talk to the politicians themselves. I’m thinking as a political human being, and I’m not hiding from it because I believe in what I say. I’m not talking about it in order to raise my own ego, I’m talking about 

it because I’ve seen the other side of life.

 

PVD: Many things that you read about me aren’t true.  

 

For a full version of this article, see NOX40.