Interview with Armand Van Helden ahead of his return to Gatecrasher

US dance legend Armand van Helden returns to Gatecrasher for the first time in six years.

We caught up with the DJ and producer to talk collaborations, Duck Sauce, and how 'Barbra Streisand' was nearly 'Neil Diamond'.

What do you think of the UK club scene?
The UK scene has always been the healthiest in the world, with Australia probably number two.  Everything I do is led by what happens in the UK; the movement and progression of the scene is one of the healthiest in the world.

Where is your favourite place to play in the world?
I love playing in the UK, it is just that the weather is depressing. I mean I live in New York, it’s not that much better! So in that respect I like to play in Australia, for a large part of the year you get mild, decent weather, so Australia might win overall. It’s got a pretty vibrant club and festival scene but also has the beaches and the weather.  I love New York and the UK, but I can’t really say they have brilliant weather.

Last time you played at Gatecrasher was in Sheffield in 2005. What can clubbers expect from your set this time around?
I like to come in and bang it! I try to take clubbers to a few places they’ve never been before and keep my sets full of as much variation as possible, but always with the understanding that at the end of the day, it’s a party and that’s what people are there to do.

'Barbra Streisand' was the biggest club track of 2010 for Duck Sauce. What can we expect from you this year?
I don’t know, me and A-Track have finished an album's worth of material so hopefully one of the tracks has something. But all the tracks are weird, ‘cause Barbra Streisand was so weird. The main idea is to make people feel good, a bit of irreverence, a bit of fun.  So really it is not predictable, it’s almost powered totally by goodwill.  It’s really going to be people who decide the next track. Barbra Streisand grew organically, and I think it will be the same again.

Did you expect 'Barbra Streisand' to be such a huge chart and club success?
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think anyone hearing it on first listen would have predicted the success. I mean they’d be like, 'what is this, is this joke?' I mean it was like comedy, so who knew that it’d be a success? I really never could have predicted that.

I heard on the grapevine that you were toying with another celebrity name as the hook?
We did try out a few other names but there weren’t too many.  Neil Diamond was a contender, but just didn’t sound as good as Barbra Streisand.

What were the criteria? Why did you choose Barbra Streisand?
A Track and I have a brainstorm, or maybe a brain-quirk. He spits out ideas and I spit out ideas, we throw them up against the wall and see what works. We usually end up laughing, that’s kinda how it worked for 'Barbra Streisand'.  We both have wacky senses of humour and we're drawn to these things that make people sit up and listen. So we had the track without that part and realised we needed to add a something into where the gap was.  The first idea was to put some sort of word there, some sort of silly sample. Then, instead of looking for a sample, we decided we should just say something, we should say someone's name. Then I had a moment when I thought , we gotta say someone's name, someone in music, who has nothing to do with this... After three or four shots we tried Barbra Streisand and both just started cracking up so we knew then, that would have to be on the track.

Are you aware of the gobarbra.com site where you can customise your own Barbra Streisand track?
Yes I am aware of it, I played on it for hours when I was first shown it, it’s very funny!

We read you have an album planned for 2011?
Yep, there will be a new Duck Sauce album and a new Armand single out before summer.

You’ve worked with the world’s biggest stars. Who has been your favourite collaboration?
Working with Dizzee Rascal on ‘Bonkers’ was amazing, I’d love to work with Dizzee again. The thing that has been somewhat recurrent in my career, is that all of my songs that have been number one or crossed over to pop were unintentional. ‘You don’t know me’ was a quirk and ‘Bonkers’ was a quirk.

You’ve remixed for the top artists in the world, from The Rolling Stones to Puff Daddy. If you could work with any artist dead or alive who would it be and why?
Steely Dan for their prolific songwriting and Michael McDonald because of his amazingly distinctive and soulful voice.

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