365Mag Interview: Markus Schulz

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How did you come up with the theme for the "Do You Dream?" album?

Markus Schulz: I've actually been working on that album for 2 years and for me, I really approach albums totally different than a mix CD for example, for me an artist album, even though I'm a DJ, an artist album, I want to be a proper artist album where as a mix CD, is kind of like a snapshot of you know my deejay sets of the moment, so for the last two years I've really just kind of focused on putting out to the world what it is I want to be recognized as artistically and I've always been a little bit more on the deeper tip of trance not your uplifting super sought trance. I just want to take that sound artistically take it to another level, and so far the response has been absolutely amazing and I'm really really pleased with the way it turned out!

The "Do You Dream?" album features vocals from Jennifer Rene, Ana Criado, Justine Suissia, Susana Lise and many other catchy vocalists. What did you hope to accomplish with this?

Markus Schulz: I really wanted for it to be a proper artist album and not just like a mix CD.

The track "Perception" with Justine Suissa on the album is a remake of the original by Cass & Slide. What inspired you to make a remake of it?

Markus Schulz: "Perception" is one of those tracks that defined the Markus Schulz sound. I remember I moved to London, I was kind of a lost artist when I lived in Arizona and I moved to London to kind of find myself artistically and I would go out to the different club nights in London, hang out with other DJ's and just kind of like I said looking for myself as an artist and I remember being on the dance-floor and that track came on and it just changed my life I mean it was like one of those tracks that just kind of like spoke to me and said this is like the sound that you...THIS IS MY SOUND you know and then later on when I was working on this album actually the way this remake came about was I did a bootleg of the track using samples of the original and then the original has vocals by Naimee Coleman and I was not able to get a hold of the vocal and I asked Justine Suissa, I said Justine listen I'm doing this bootleg just for my deejay sets, would you sing on it for me? Because you would be the perfect person to sing this and she loved the idea, she booked studio time to do it and ironically the engineer who she worked with to record the vocals turned out to be Slide from Cass & Slide...and he came to Ministry of Sound next week when I was playing there and he told me listen Markus this sounds absolutely outrageous you have to release this so it was really one of those things where it started of as something that I just wanted to make for my deejay sets and it turned into what it is now which is the next single, and the one track on the album for which people are just going absolutely crazy for it.

When you have a track that you want to produce does the vocalist automatically ring the bell in your head that you want to use this particular vocalist or do you try out different vocalists until you meet the perfect match for the track?

Markus Schulz: It goes through stages, the first stage is the song writing stage, and I worked with many song writers who you know written many great songs but the vocalists isn't just right so we go out and try to find the right vocalist, of course that kind of stuff happens but to be honest with you the tracks that really come together are the ones that are effortless you don't have to search for the right vocalist, they just sometimes these tracks just piece together like a perfect puzzle like the whole thing with Justine Suissa you know, I'm a firm believer of what you put out there is what you get back and a lot of times when you just out there working on this album and you are really like focused in, things just seem to fall right into place and if you have to work really hard sometimes it just wasn't meant to be so if I'm working on a song with a vocalist and it just does not turn out right then sometimes you just kind of like okey! This is really pushing the rock uphill and its time to just kind of move on to another track. For this album I made about 30 tracks and we only released 16 of them.

In front of the vocalists that tried out for the track initially and did not make it for the final release, do you feel in anyway uncomfortable in front of all those artists who had a hope that they would release something with you?

Markus Schulz: Oh no, I totally communicate with the artist and at the same time when you are experimenting you have to have room to experiment because I don't want the pressure of having working with singers or other artists and having the pressure of having to release it and I'm very upfront with them right at the beginning, to me that's what makes this whole process of creating an album so much fun is the experimenting part and I think everybody going into the album projects all of the people I've collaborated with all understand that there are no promises its just lets go and create some music lets have fun and lets see where it takes us...

What is the significance of the title 65.4 Hz on the "Do You Dream?" album?

Markus Schulz: Its actually pretty simple. 65.4 Hz is the frequency of a C Minor key and the track when I first started working on it, I did not have a name for it I just called it C Minor because that's the key that the track was in, so I got stuck on the name C Minor and it was called C Minor for like over a year as I was working on it and then finally I was just like well ok so its going to be called something to with C Minor and the frequency of a C Minor is 65.4Hz its kind of a cool little thing geeky nerdy kind of thing

I have to say that I find your entire album of high quality but the track that has stood out the most for me is "Surreal" with Ana Criado...`

Markus Schulz: That's one of my favorite ones as well. I kind of went into that one wanting to...that you know is like to me a vintage progressive trance track...kind of what was going on in 2005 when James Holden was really huge with his tracks, that kind of takes me back to that era and its the one track that probably one of the most simplest tracks on the album but I worked for it for a really long time just to make sure it stayed simple and everything that's in there is kind of cut through. I'm really pleased with the way that turned out.

You had the track "You Won't See Me Cry" years ago, who was the vocalist behind that track?

Markus Schulz: The vocalist of that was Deirdre Radford, she was in a band called Sipping Soma and she does not sing anymore unfortunately but she just had an amazing voice I loved all the stuff that I was able to work on with her back in the day. "You Won't See Me Cry" was one of those tracks that was a spur of the moment and it was a really great moment in time and like I said unfortunately she does not sing anymore.

You are scheduled to play at the Electric Zoo Festival in New York, obviously when you play at a festival its different compared to when you play at a club event, so how do you adjust for a large scale festival versus a night club event? What adjustments do you have to make as a deejay?

The one thing about a festival is you have to be prepared and you are not able to improvise quite as much as you can in a club because in a club you kind of feel out the crowd and if you read the crowd wrong you can adjust and kind of change the vibe in the room where as in a festival when you have a 90 minute set for example there is no time to read the crowd wrong if you read the crowd wrong it pretty much derrails your entire set so I think with the festival sets I'm a little bit more hyper focused on what I'm going to be playing. Also all the tracks, I have special festival edits where it gets to a point much quicker because unlike in a club where you can play a track and let it really develop nicely with subtle nuances, in a festival those kind of sounds don't cut through so you have to get right to the main hoop lines. I've been playing festivals for about 5 or 6 years and I think that was the biggest step for me in my deejay career was learning how to play festival sets because my whole life I was playing in clubs where you really just kind of like took people on a journey where you let sounds really develop and that was my whole music theory was nuances the subtle nuances but like I said in a festival you just can't do that. It was a big learning curve for me.

As a native of Miami and one of the few American trance/progressive DJ's what North American city do you feel you get your biggest reception in?

Markus Schulz: The big cities are the ones that really rocking for me. New York City of course, Chicago is massive, LA, San Francisco, these are cities where there are some amazing fans very passionate fans but you know its not just in the United States but also in Toronto and Montreal those cities are just amazing as well and I think the cool thing about the trance scene in the United States is that the trance fans travel, when I play in San Francisco for example people from Los Angeles come up, when I play in Las Vegas people from San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona, they all travel and likewise when I play in New York or Toronto or even Montreal people come from the whole region to hear me and I think that's whats so awesome and really unique about the trance scene not just in the United States but in North America the fact that they travel its almost like the old days when everyone follows you on tour

How would you say was instrumental your Global DJ Broadcast radio show to your success as a deejay?

Markus Schulz: Its very important for me because I don't have a residency, I don't play in one area or one region and its important for me to kind of get my sound out to the world and its amazing because with my radio show I am able to play a track and then travel to Australia or China or travel to Europe and the people are singing the words or they are requesting these tracks you know after I've just day viewed them just on the radio show and it just goes to show you the power of music and also the power of the Internet and the power of radio when you can play a track and then it travels all the way around the world that quickly.

Speaking of the Internet, and since you are the founder of an Armada sub-label Coldharbour Recordings, do you think CD releases will continue or music will eventually be totally in digital downloads only?

Markus Schulz: I'm a vinyl guy. I love vinyl. I miss vinyl. There is something magical about watching that record spin around and looking at the grooves and knowing when the breakdown is coming by looking and reading the grooves. I'm a purist. As far as the business side of it, CD's and downloads and things like that I'm just very fortunate that I have an amazing team at Armada that handles all of that and makes really good decisions and is also the leader in the world as far as dance music and on-line as well physical CD's.

The Coldharbour Selections that your label releases is filled with only 2 or 3 tracks, what is the logic behind the limited track selection on these releases?

Markus Schulz: What I do is I find 3 tracks from 3 up and coming producers that maybe don't have a fan base but these tracks are really great and deserve to be heard and a lot of times these tracks you don't want to spend the time in putting together remix packages so I package up three tracks like this and put them all out together so its kind of like power in putting three together than just holding off and spending month upon month creating remixes of these tracks when some of these tracks just deserve to be heard as is. I work with these artists to get these tracks where they are, the Coldharbour Selection parts are mostly from up and coming guys who need a platform to be heard.

How would you say your sound has evolved since you first started as a DJ and after achieving so much as an artist?

Markus Schulz: The biggest thing for me is when I started playing festival sets. My sound started changing. My sound started getting really more aggressive more big room sounds and that's really where I'm headed and as you could tell from the "Do You Dream?" album the big rooms are a specific sound that I really enjoy playing whether its a big room festival or a big room club.

How do you handle the travel of your vigorous booking schedule?

Markus Schulz: Its definitely a delicate balance. it is very very hard, people don't realize how brutal it is out on the road but I try and rest up as much as possible I try not to party too much and I try to stay physically active whether it be doing some Yoga or going to the gym, on my days off I love to play basketball and things like that and in January I usually try to take some time off.