NEWS
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Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Interview
House | Monday 28th April 2014 | James
The brotherly team that is Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike have burst into the EDM scene with a swift and overtly large bang. The Belgian duo have risen to DJ superstardom over the course of the last two years through a number of ‘Mammoth’ releases and sell-out shows. The mass worldwide attention has developed a following with the might to snatch up 20,000 tickets in less than 24 hours for their ‘Coming Home’ show in Belgium. After filling in for David Guetta at last year’s Creamfields and presenting an earth-shattering set at Tomorrowland, the duo have been officially certified as on of the biggest DJ acts in the world.
DV&LM have solidified themselves as a major part of the Creamfields 2014 proceedings with their ‘3 Are Legend’ show alongside Steve Aoki set to be one of the highlights of the weekend. Their UK tour, ‘Smash the House’, due to commence over the May bank holiday weekend is sure to showcase the epic, exciting and huge atmosphere representative of their label of the same name. Joining the duo for their London, Manchester and Liverpool performances will be names such as Wolfpack, Tommy Trash, Nervo, Dyro, R3hab and Blasterjaxx to name a few.
The Belgian brothers have had a string of mighty releases to reach Beatport #1 stature including ‘Wakanda’, ‘Turn it Up’, ‘Madness’ and the recent Martin Garrix collaboration ‘Tremor’. In light of all this, we caught up with Dimitri to hear from the horse’s mouth what it’s like to be skyrocketed into the scene, guns blazing.
G: Hey Dimitri, so you guys are heading back to Creamfields this year. Your set last year was a renowned game-changer for the festival when you stood in for David Guetta. Are you excited about performing your ‘3 Are Legend’ show with Steve Aoki at the 2014 installment?
DV: Yeah definitely, I mean, last year’s Creamfields was such an unreal experience for us. Playing the main stage was incredible; getting the opportunity to fill in for David was a real honour and I think it did so much for our career in the UK and we just can’t wait to be back. Mike and I have been friends with Steve for many years and we’ve been touring together, playing together and doing a lot of B2B and at a certain point we just thought we would try to do something different you know? When there is a 3 Are Legend show there really are no limits and musically anything is possible so we just play whatever we like. It’s just a project between friends and we’re very excited to see where it goes.
G: Awesome. It’s fair to say that you guys have blown up hugely in the last year, was there ever a moment where you felt it shift from brothers producing together to playing epic shows to thousands of people?
DV: It’s hard to pinpoint a specific moment. 2013 did so much for us production wise and show wise, it’s hard to pinpoint where the exact turning point was for our career. I think our song ‘Wakanda’ kick started a certain kind of buzz and then the release of ‘Mammoth’ really took it to the next level. After that, our releases just took off, but the combination of ‘Wakanda’ and ‘Mammoth’ within three months really did a lot for us. It’s been an amazing roller coaster ride and it just goes faster and faster without you even noticing. It’s been a life’s work for us really, I started DJing when I was fourteen and I’m 32 now. At certain points there have been times when it’s been like “ok, maybe this isn’t going to happen” but it’s a crazy ride and we enjoy every minute of it.
G: That must be an amazing feeling! In terms of the DJing and production, what roles do you guys play? Is there ever any brotherly conflict along the way?
DV: Well in general, I’m more of the DJ and Mike is more of the entertainer. Set wise, I’m usually taking the lead and production wise, it’s Mike that comes up with most of the crazy ideas in the tracks. In most cases I pick the songs for the shows and Michael comments on them; most of the time I will follow him in what he says. Say if I pick thirty tracks for the show, he’ll pick out five and be like “these five are shit, you should throw them out” and that’s the way it goes really.
G: Your track ‘Tremor’ with Martin Garrix has just topped the Beatport chart; can we expect any other major releases in the near future?
DV: Yeah we are amazed at the reaction to Tremor, we are so excited about the buzz and being Beatport number one, I think we have something great together with Martin. In terms of the future, we’ve got so many new tracks ready that we’re constantly debating everyday about which one is going to be the next release. I would say just to keep an eye on our Facebook and see what comes next. There are so many songs ready and a lot of exciting stuff coming out.
G: With your UK tour ‘Smash the House’ due for the upcoming May bank holiday and two big shows at Creamfields in the diary, what is it about the UK that makes you keep coming back?
DV: We love the UK! The UK crowds are probably the rowdiest in the world. Honestly, every show we’ve done in the UK has been absolutely crazy so we expect an awful lot from this tour. We love the UK so much that we’ve decided to host the summer in Ibiza in a very UK orientated setting. Unfortunately we can’t announce which club we’re at yet but we’re going to announce that in a couple of weeks. Hopefully we’ll see a lot of our British fans this summer and on the tour of course. As for Creamfields, what can I say; it’s the highlight of the year and the more we can play there, the better! You never know, there might be a couple of surprises of us popping up on the Saturday as well but you’ll have to wait and see.
You can grab tickets for Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’s UK tour here:
Creamfields tickets are still available, grab them before they sell out!
www.creamfields.com
