DJ and producer Ferry Corsten talks to tabloid!

A man with a different alias for every day of the week might have something to hide.

Not DJ and producer Ferry Corsten, who tells his life story through his many pseudonyms.

There’s also a practical aspect to this creative naming: it allowed the 38-year-old Dutch-born musician to release as much music through record labels as possible.

“When I first started creating music it was like an uncontrollable urge,” said Corsten ahead of his set in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, speaking from his home in Rotterdam. “I was making music quicker than anyone knew what to do with it. And a lot of it. Labels didn’t like having so much from one artist so I started coming up with names to work under. They knew, and I knew, but it helped apparently.”

Those names include A Jolly Good Fellow, Albion, Bypass, Firmly Underground, Moonman, Pulp Victim, Raya Shaku Skywalker, System F, Tellurians and The Nutter. Corsten explains what each name — and era — means.

Ferr: “It’s the first four letters of my name, the beginning of it,” says Corsten. “It was the beginning of my career too. This is where it all began.” Born in Rotterdam in 1973, he recorded his first tracks aged just 16 but officially started to work as a musician at 17 years old after he and a friend picked up their first award, the De Grote Prijs van Nederland, in Holland in 1989.

Washing cars and selling mix tapes helped fund a passion. In the 1990s, he began releasing self-made, underground tracks, including album Looking Forward, later expanding into club-house and trance music.

Moonman: The first single to reach a chart position, Don’t Be Afraid, was released by this space-inspired fellow. “It was the start of becoming a composer,” Corsten said. Also studying to become an electrical engineer, Corsten, or Moonman, juggled technical training school with making music. Lunalife, another alias, shows Corsten’s fascination with space. “I love anything to do with moon landings and space,” he said. “If I could go to the moon, I would. When I turned 30, my wife gave me the best gift, a zero-gravity flight. It’s the same training astronauts go through and you get to fly at speeds where the G-force is lost and you feel like you are in space. It was incredible. The best gift I could ever have wished for.”

Skywalker: “This was music which was inspired in a way by my love of movies. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and I was creating music which could have been a soundtrack,” he said.

System F: In February 1999, Corsten’s second solo project, System F, was released along with the album Out of the Blue. The single of the same name became a hit on dance floors all over the world, achieving a top 20 position in the UK charts. Follow-up single Cry, produced with Robert Smit, also smashed the charts in the UK. “It was a time for a system,” he said. “A system which meant working with others.” His growing popularity in the late ’90s led to collaborations with DJs including Tiësto with singles Gouryella and Vimana, Vincent de Moor for Veracocha and Robert Smit on Starparty.

Pulp Victim: “It was around the time the film [Pulp Fiction] was released and it seemed to take over the world for a while,” he said. But for Corsten it also represents a time of struggle and a rude awakening about an industry he craved to be a part of for so long. “The British media started bashing me,” he said explaining the “pulp” part. “In UK media I had been a hero for a time. A man with new trance sounds and something different. But my time was up. It was as if they wanted payment for me being accepted into the UK. It was hard at the time but it helped me find my thick skin, which is necessary in this business.”

The Nutter: “I was working in Holland but other people around me were starting to find success in the UK,” he said. “They were coming back with weird words like ‘bonkers’ and ‘nutter’. When someone explained what a nutter was I decided it fit me perfectly and took it as my own.”

Firmly Underground: Corsten views himself as well-balanced person and says this name is just that. “It has two meanings really,” he said. “Underground spilt into three syllables kind of sounds like ‘on the ground’ which is how I view myself. I like to play with words and find hidden meanings — even if I’m the only one who knows them. Secondly this was a time when I was making music which was heavily for the underground music scene.”

Kinky Toys: “It’s maybe better not to ask,” he laughed. “No. How often do I meet people who when I say I’m from Holland they raise an eyebrow. It’s the Amsterdam connection. I’m a firm believer you should always name your pet!”

Jolly Good Fellow: “I heard the song and the posh British accent stuck in my head,” he said. “I couldn’t shake it and although it was so far from what I was producing the irony felt somehow right.” A fan of the UK, Corsten hosted a New Year’s Eve event at the O2 Academy Brixton, London to ring in 2012. He delivered the midnight set and went on to perform alongside Judge Jules, Sied Van Riel and Marcel Woods.

Corsten goes on to explain his daughter’s love of electronic beats. “She has grown up listening to electronic music in the car and around the house so that’s what she asks for. She doesn’t want Dora or any other kids music, instead she asks for “daddy’s music”. His third studio album Twice in a Blue Moon, released in 2008, was inspired by the birth of his daughter, Gabriella, now four. “Once in a blue moon is about something that only seldom happens,” he said. “With my daughter and the love of my wife, I have two things.”

Ferry Corsten: Finally assuming his birth name is where Corsten now feels comfortable. “As you make more of an impact it’s more acceptable,” he said. “This is the real me in every sense. I try and maintain a normal working week so I can have as close to a 9-to-5 job for my family. I go to the studio from Tuesday to Thursday and then I fly off for shows. Monday is my weekend and I spend the day with my family. But even during the week, I lock the studio and pick up my daughter from day care.”

Don’t miss it

Ferry Corsten plays the du Forum, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, on Thursday. Tickets for the 18+ only concert are Dh150 for general admission and Dh350 for VIP standing