Armin Van Buuren is nervous.
On Friday night, the Dutch DJ will bring his brand new concept show Armin Only Embrace to Meydan in Dubai, and it’s only the second stop after a May 6 premiere in Amsterdam.
Van Buuren describes it as “a DJ set but mixed with a lot of theatrical elements, live dance, live singing, guitar strummers, fireworks, confetti, the whole thing.” It’s a new kind of show, which means a new kind of nerves.
“For me, it’s unknown territory,” he tells tabloid! over the phone. “We’re not even sure what we’re doing exactly ourselves, because there’s no standard for this. There’s no other DJs that do this. But I think it definitely adds to the excitement of people.”
To break it down, Van Buuren will perform a four hour set based around his latest artist album, Embrace. An hour will be dedicated to new music he composed specifically for the show. Various artists will help to create ‘special moments’, too — for example, a ballet dancer with the spotlight solely on her.
Underlying this is an overarching storyline — one that Van Buuren isn’t keen to spoil for his fans. It all came together with the help of theatre director Jos Thie.
“He’s more of a senior guy, he’s a little bit older, and he worked on big theatre shows in the Netherlands. He doesn’t know dance music, but he does know theatre,” says Van Buuren. “I think the world of dance can learn a lot from the world of theatre. Theatre knows so much about lighting, about preparation, about rehearsing, about staging, a lot of things that dance music doesn’t have but actually needs to use.”
Earlier this month, he and his team held tryouts and three weeks of ‘very rare’ rehearsals in Brabanthallen in the south of Netherlands, upon the insistence of Thie.
“I don’t think anybody rehearses his DJ set. You just prepare your set in the studio, and then, you know, the announcer calls your name and you go and you play your big hits and you cash in and you head back home,” says Van Buuren. “But that’s not the case with Armin Only. It’s a carefully planned show, without being exactly pre-programmed.”
Ahead of the big day, he told us what he’s been up to in his spare time, and why bringing his daughter on stage for the first time melted his heart.
How are you? How’s your day going so far?
I’m very well! It’s sunny in Holland, so it couldn’t be better. I had my piano lessons this morning and brought my kids to daycare, so everything is good.
Piano lessons? Is that something you’ve been doing for a while?
Yeah, yeah. I do it more as a hobby, it’s not really meant for something I would do on stage, but I just love playing the piano.
Tell us about the show you’re bringing to Dubai this weekend. What inspired you to do something a little different? I’m sure if you were to do just a DJ set, your fans would still come out.
It’s also to make it a little more interesting for myself, you know? I’ve been a DJ for 15 years now, 16 years, and I love playing and I still do that — I still play shorter sets, longer sets, I play in clubs, I play in big festivals, and I still love doing that, but the Armin Only show really gives me an opportunity to try and take DJing to the next level for myself. So instead of just playing a track and having a vocalist come on stage, I build an entire show around an album, which gives people more value for money … That’s why I decided to really invest in my show. I mean to be honest, financially, it’s not the best decision I’ve ever made, but it is really something — it’s Christmas dinner with Armin Van Buuren. I want to stress that each Embrace show that I do is different, because the freestyle elements that I have are different every time. So if somebody sent me a track an hour before the show, and I really like the song, I want to play it, it’s possible. That makes Armin Only exciting, because it’s still a freestyle DJ show.
The show is called Armin Only, but you have all these different aspects coming into it now. Why did you decide to call it Armin Only?
I’m the only DJ, there’s no other DJ. I’m sort of the middle, and I connect all the different elements in the show. The idea started from when my manager said, ‘I want you to play longer sets, because I want to show that you can play more diverse than just the trance-y stuff.’
I really got my kick out of playing longer sets, because it gave me more creative satisfaction. You can play more progressive stuff, more house-y stuff, tribal stuff, and then build it up towards a trance set. Like I said, it’s like Christmas dinner. You don’t start your Christmas dinner with dessert. If you have a really nice first course, and then you build it up to the main entree, then the entree tastes better, because you’re more geared up for that, instead of just giving the entree straight away.
You mentioned theatre as an inspiration. Are you a fan of the theatre? Are there any shows that have stuck with you?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m a big fan of the Cirque du Soleil shows, of course, in Vegas. My parents as a kid always brought me to a lot of theatre shows — but even the circus, cabaret, musicals and all that sort of stuff. I think, if you watch a beautiful show, it can really excite you. It’s even better than going to a movie, because there’s actual people on stage performing for you.
You’re making us hungry…
[laughs] I do a lot of food analogies, I like them!
Last month, you brought your daughter on stage with you. Did she have fun? Does she understand what you do?
I don’t think she really… She knows her father, she knows he’s special, because in her school already people are saying, ‘Oh, you’re the daughter of Armin Van Buuren’, so for her it’s a pretty big deal. Once a year, I do a free party in my hometown in Leiden, and it’s on King’s Day, so it’s a special day in Holland. It’s a perfect opportunity for her to come out, because I play an early set and the music’s not so loud. She only wanted to be backstage with me. Her mom, my wife, she was standing in the crowd, and Fenna was just going, ‘No, I want to go to daddy, I want to see him!’ And then my wife filmed her doing the arm thing [in the clip, Fenna mimics Van Buuren’s arm waving]. And then I got all the views on the internet.
If you post anything with a baby in it online, it’s going to be popular.
I want to stress that I don’t want to use my daughter just to get more clicks on my Facebook page. But in this case, we were just — I sort of melted, because it was in my hometown, it was the first time my daughter was on stage. It was a special moment. She’s four-and-a-half now, she turns five this summer.
DON’T MISS IT
Armin Only Embrace will be held at Meydan from 8pm to 2am. Tickets Dh599-Dh1,500 on platinumlist.net. 21+ only.
