Fedde Le Grand Interview: It’s an honour to be considered one of the best'

Photo: Fedde Le Grand at Ultra Korea

Since ‘Put Your Hands Up for Detroit’ catapulted him into the spotlight back in 2006, Fedde Le Grand’s presence in house music has been both prominent and influential.

Dubbed by many as the catalyst that saved the genre, the Dutchman has continued to push the boundaries of creating music, which is evident in any electronic project he has had the opportunity to produce. His distinguished, creative beats, melodies and rhythms speak to a generation of dance music lovers and will continue to do so for many years to come.

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As well as crafting an array of iconic dance tunes, Fedde is renowned for his innovative remixing skills. He has produced contemporary masterpieces off the back of some of the biggest commercial releases to date, including hits from Coldplay, Madonna and Fatboy Slim.

He continues to take centre stage at some of the world’s biggest dance music events, with an explosion of originality and ingenuity apparent in all of his live shows. Fedde’s latest concept ‘GRAND’ will see exciting new performance techniques brought to dancefloors all over the globe throughout 2016.

His success over the decade boils down to his motivation and dedication to ensure dance music never fades. Fedde’s passion for reinvention is one of the reasons dance music still has the ability to evolve and move seamlessly alongside trends in the industry, whilst still firmly holding on to the originality fans crave. 

DJ Mag have hailed you as ‘one of the top 30 most influential DJs’ in dance music. How does it feel to be given such a prestigious status in this area of the music industry?

It’s an honour to be considered one of the best along with so many other great DJs. This is what I aspire to be, so I am very glad my hard work has been paying off. The hardest thing in dance music is continuing to produce inspiring material, and it feels great to be included with so many other new talented DJs. 

What do you think it is that makes you stand out as such an influential and innovative house music artist?

I truly believe that it is my love for the music. It is the reason I got into this and it is the reason I continue to tour consistently and produce music. If my heart wasn’t in it, I don’t think I would have carried on for as long as I have.

This is all a passion for me, I’m always striving to be better, trying to be innovative. Until the day that my heart's not in it, I will continue to push myself and give everything that I can to my fans and to my music.

Credit: Fedde Le Grand/Chelsea Werner

What advice would you give to up and coming DJs who wish to make a long lasting impression on the dance music industry?

My main advice is always just practice as much as possible until you have perfected your sound. Only you will know when that is done, then your mission is to get it heard by as many dance music fans as possible.

If you truly have a unique and great sound, people will want to listen, and the music will eventually start spreading on its own. But you must captain the beginning stages of getting people to listen, so play in as many clubs as you can.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to show your work, don’t be afraid to fail, and never let criticism bring you down, use it as fuel. It’s much harder to become a DJ now since everyone wants to be one, so you have to be ready to work harder than everyone else, and just don’t quit, keep working until you can’t any longer. 

Over the years you have released countless remixes of some of the world’s biggest commercial tracks, has there been a particular favourite track that you have enjoyed working on the most?

I have enjoyed working on all of them so much, but I would have to say the remix I did of the late Michael Jackson’s 'Love Never Felt So Good' has to be my favourite. It was just an honour to be able to work on such a great song, by one of my favourite artists of all time.

I’m very proud of my 'Paradise' Coldplay remix. The fans loved it and Coldplay themselves were such big fans they added me to their tour which was insane.

What skills are you able to learn and develop when working on remix projects that you may not necessarily develop when working purely on your own productions? 

Working on your own productions allows so much more creativity, so I would say it is the other way around. Working on remixes can sometimes be limiting since you don’t want to completely lose the sound of the original track, especially when the track is already amazing.

With that being said, working on my own productions allows me to collaborate with others a lot more, and it really challenges me to create brand new meaningful tracks. Perhaps there is a bit more pressure, but it always is a wonderful process to turn an idea into an actual song. 

You are renowned for some show stopping live performances over the years, how do you prepare for live events? Do you have any different preparation techniques for festivals and club nights? 

I spend a lot of my time just making sure I am up to date with what people want to hear, as well as making sure that I include exclusive demos and tracks in my setlist.

At festivals the crowd have sometimes never seen me DJ, so I try to play more of my collection whereas at clubs I like to get real underground with my sets.

You are back at the Ministry of Sound in London to help contribute to their 20 year celebrations. What kind of set and sound can the audience expect to hear from you?

With the new album, "Something Real", out along with the remixes of some of the tracks, you can definitely expect to hear that. I’ve got a bunch of music from Darklight artists that I’m excited to share as well.

Since it is a massive anniversary celebration I want to give the people of London a classic set that can encapsulate the past 20 years, but also throw in some tracks that I’m passionate about at the moment.

Arguably one of your biggest ever releases was ‘Put Your Hands Up for Detroit’. What were your initial ideas behind the creation of this track? What did you want to achieve musically? Were you expecting this track to become as big as it has?

I definitely knew it would be a huge record, and its great that it still receives a huge amount of love ten years after its release. At the time I really just wanted to make something that was pure to the city and sounds of Detroit. The people still want to hear it, so I think I achieved my goal with it.

As well as your radio show ‘Darklight Sessions’ and recent album and remix compilation releases are there any other projects in the pipeline that we can expect to see from you in 2016? 

I’ll be touring immensely this summer, and continuing to work on new music to follow up the album with. I’ll be sure to give my radio show listeners plenty of new music to be excited about!

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