Dubai’s relatively new Eden Beach Club is officially gearing up for its biggest weekend yet: the British dance duo Groove Armada on Friday, March 27, and the Dutch trance master Ferry Corsten Thursday, March 26.
We spoke to GA when they played at rival alfresco nightspot Zero Gravity on New Year’s Eve not three months ago, so this time we caught up with Corsten.
The 41-year-old decksmith has been blazing stages for close to two decades and is releasing an ambitious three-part EP series titled Hello World throughout this year.
Oh, and he clearly can’t get enough of Dubai – he was last spotted at People by Crystal in April last year and at Cavalli Club in October.
You started off as a strictly trance guy. It seems everyone is playing all styles nowadays …
Music is … watering down is the wrong word, but it’s spilling over, maybe. Genres are borrowing things from each other – trance is not just trance anymore. I love to be able to play different styles in one set – it makes things interesting and you can really take people from left to right. If you listen to one style only, it bores the heck out of me.
A lot of this cross-pollination has come after the Electronic Dance Music invasion. Has EDM been good for trance?
It’s not been particularly good for trance music. I don’t think the pure trance lovers like the aggression in the music – they’d rather have the sweet stuff. For me it’s been good, but looking at that style in particular ... I am so done with the whole “put your hands up” kind of thing – we’ve all heard that enough.
Are there any guys from the new wave who you admire?
Let's see ... [long pause]. That's a good one – it doesn't really sound very convincing if there's such a silence, right? Er, hang on, let's see. I recently heard a set from Martin Garrix and it's not just all Animals, you know, it had some really cool UK garage sounds to it, some melodic dance as well, so it was pretty diverse.
A lot of guys are crossing over by working with celebrity vocalists. Is there anyone you wouldn’t work with?
I think I’d steer clear of the real pop divas and guys. I’d rather look for collaborations in alternative rock, something like that – people such as Coldplay. It’s pop but it’s not like commercial dance pop. That would be top of the list.
Alongside Tiësto and Armin van Buuren, you were part of that wave of massive superstar DJs who broke out of the Netherlands at about the same time. Do you guys ever hang out and talk business?
I think it’s more like we all started in a small community in the beginning, hanging out in the same record stores, and now everybody is doing their own thing all over the world. It’s not like we have tea with each other. The competition is healthy – we like to keep each other on our toes.
You’re in your 40s now. How long can you imagine being on the road?
It’s getting harder, in the sense of your family life also being there. I have two kids now and that’s where you want to spend your time. Also, you’ve got to be careful that, after so many years, it doesn’t become – boring isn’t the right word – mundane or stale, is that it? You need to make sure you find that element every time that drives you. It’s hard to say, but at some point there will be a moment where I start slowing down, yeah.
So, how much longer?
Let’s say 10 years. Unless I’m living like Carl Cox and still going like a rocket.
• Ferry Corsten is at Eden Beach Club Thursday, March 26, from 9pm. Dh200 for men, free for women. Groove Armada perform Friday, March 27 from 5pm, free entry. For reservations, call 04 277 1477
rgarratt@thenational.ae