Armand Van Helden: There’s No Form Of Music I Cringe At

Hailing from Boston and cutting his teeth on the fabled New York club scene of the early nineties, Armand Van Helden was to become one of the true superstars of house music and beyond. The decade witnessed with a relentless DJ and production schedule that peaked with 1998’s timeless classic, ‘U Don’t Know Me’ (below).

Living at a more leisurely pace since, Van Helden has still managed to keep a foot in the door of chart and club success with A-Trak, collaborating as Duck Sauce and producing crossover successes such as ‘Big Bad Wolf’ and the briefly ubiquitous ‘Barbara Streisand’.

Reaffirming his ability as a classic innovator and selector, Van Helden has recently released a three disc retrospective as part of Ministry of Sound’s ongoing ‘Masterpiece’ series, following on from fellow luminaries such as Andrew Weatherall and Goldie (who we spoke to around the time of his release).

Comprising of both classic and contemporary house cuts, early Freestyle beats and a full on Yacht Rock selection, it charts Van Helden’s musical journey with an open minded precision (peep our review). We caught up with to chat remixing Sam Smith, his roots in the Boston club scene and how Ministry's interest in the nineties confirmed he'd made it.

You rose to prominence in the 90s when Ministry was pretty much the biggest club in the UK, but what’s your personal relationship with the club?

They booked me back when it was predominantly a real house club, headlined by say, David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, Louie Vega, the big dogs. A very classic - I’m not going to say purist - but very real, and very ‘house’. And they didn’t really let just anyone play there, and if you got booked for Ministry, you’d made it.

I was just up and coming, and it was a question of whether I was going to do what I do or was I just going to play classic house? And in a sense, I had to be on point, as people had an expectation and wanted to hear the hot thing at the time. And I did play house, but also a lot of techno.

When did you first play? What was the point that were you able to play a pure house club like Ministry?

I think it was 1995, and my record 'Witch Doctor' (below), had came out in 1994, and that didn’t seem like something they’d play. They had built this kind of classic sound, and I was on the experimental side so, kind of like, a hodge podge of house and techno. And I love Kerri Chandler records, you know? So I just had to play more of them.

And now, twenty years on, there’s a three disc set of music you love available through the club itself

The main concept for me was to have the discs being pretty separate from each other, to throw the wide spectrum in. I mean, I could make Ministry of Sound compilations every three months, I could do a Broadway show tunes collection, there’s no form of music I’m not really into or cringe at. So my childhood is on there, in a sense.

The line that drives through them all, is what I grew up with. And that’s without really touching on my hip hop side, which I also grew up with. So the Yacht Rock is my early days, my parents would blast that, and for the older crowd, that’s not that cool.

They’re pretty much just pop records, but at the same time, I just love them and not a lot of people are remembering them, and it’s just great, soulful music. And then came the freestyle selection, then house, where obviously I made a career.

You’ve had success recently with A-Trak as Duck Sauce, which obviously appeals to a much younger audience, and now there’s a CD of these older sounds. Were you attempting to introduce a younger audience to that classic sound?

Oh yeah, they’re history lessons, for sure. I want people to feel like they’ve jumped into a time machine, to recall a certain summer of a specific time. 

And having worked with people like A Trak, and then Steve Aoki some time ago, did you feel a personal desire to recconect with the roots of your taste?

Well, since 'U Don’t Even Know Me' in 98, from my point in my career, I wasn’t going to work that hard anymore. And by hard work, I mean running around trying to keep my name on people’s lips. I did that from 93’ to 98’, just hustling, and I love my career and it’s a blessing, but I thought I’d continue at a reasonable pace.

So whatever which way my genre, let’s just say ‘dance music’, it goes and mutates and changes and things come back around, or gets combined. So for me, I just kind of enjoy pretty much most of it! I just know when there’s too much of one thing now, just like anything in art, when that momentum of what feels like a revolution or renaissance is lost. 

It’s like electro or electro house, six or seven years later, a lot of pop music still sounds like that, but what’s interesting is that those records were never that big and actually often part of the indie rock thing. Just kids doing amazing, genius new production, but they weren’t on normal records. Someone like Erol Alkan was great at that stuff.

And that was the last big push, and I loved that stuff as it was very punk, a rock sensibility put into dance, and I always felt like that guy. And my little contribution to that music was 'Bonkers', with Dizzee Rascal. And that’s all I’m proficient at, as these other records had these amazing details, but I’m just from the old school, you know, I’d just do a two bar loop and that’s a song! 

You said around that time that despite three UK No.1s, you’d still never recorded your wedding anthem so to speak, your ‘We Are Family’. Seven years on, and with a few more hits under you belt, how do you feel about that statement now?

When something is a hit with the masses, I’m as shocked as they are. I’m not doing a lot of music, I’m not out there, I’m not touring, I’m chilling. But then occasionally you get a little idea, you throw something down, and some knives stick.

I’ve just been lucky to an extent, and I don’t know what that is. Maybe it’s just voodoo? With a big song like 'Barbara Streisand', I thought that was a good end, a good way out. 

If you’re not making music, what else do you like to do to keep busy, aside from in your own words, ‘drinking coffee and hanging out’. Are you still in New York?

Well, I do the eternal summer thing, I live in Miami Beach in the winter and New York in the summer. In the US we call them ‘Small Birds’, and they’re usually around 65, although obviously I’m not.

Until researching this, I always assumed you were very strongly associated with New York, and didn’t realise you were in fact from Boston. And while there’s always been a lot written about say, The Loft, or David Mancuso, the Boston scene seems like a very underwritten part of American dance music history, don’t you think?

Yes, you’re right. And it was actually quite vibrant, with the real house heads from New York actually coming up for shows and being impressed. But it was just unknown, and if you were in New York and into house music, then that’s where you were. There was no house music in Ohio or Vermont, and you felt like the world revolved around you, which to an extent, it did.

But Boston was very strong for a satellite scene, and I was very fortunate to be able to go and experience all that and be a part of it when I fell in love with house music in 88 or 89. I played at a club called The Loft, where I already had the deep house crowd on lock, but I was also introduced to rave. And rave was a very white thing, whereas deep house was predominantly black or latin. 

And I’m a mixed breed myself and like to break down walls and barriers, and decided to bring the rave thing to the extra floor at The Loft. So we had 100% real ravers upstairs and then the deep house crowd downstairs.

There was really nothing that real in Boston, and it wasn’t contrived. It was membership only, no alcohol, eight bucks in, and we didn’t make any money! But it was an amazing time. And the reason New York doesn’t know about it is that nobody asks about it, but it was an amazing time, and with this Ministry of Sound compilation, I wanted to bring a slice of that.

You’ve had a pretty amazing remix track record, from Wu Tang Clan to Britney Spears, but you’ve talked with refreshing candour about the process of remixing often being a cynical, PR led exercise. And yet, last year you scored a Sam Smith remix, and he of course is the biggest pop star in the world right now, pretty much. How did that came about?

Well, they called me. They always call me. I have never in my whole life called somebody to remix their song because I like it. I’m kind of a weirdo, I sit around, I read, I go out on my bike and then somebody calls me and says, “Hey, do you wanna remix Sam Smith?” That’s about it!

But I loved the track when it first came out, so I just tried to make it as good as I can. Remixing is a bit like being an actor, so you have to be careful what you choose. Robert De Niro has a pretty amazing track record, but then you’ll think, “Man, what did you do that for?!”

Armand Van Helden headlines Outbreak Festival this year - see the box below for tickets. His MOS released Masterpiece album is out now.

Tickets are no longer available for this event