Home of the Rave

Dutch superstar DJ Tiesto makes his way to Dublin later this month for a date at The O2. One of the most successful DJs in the world, he is playing in support of his latest album, Kaleidoscope, which marks a departure in his work, in that it moves away from his trademark techno trance towards more experimental terrain.

“I made a list of the top 30 people I wanted to work with,” explains Tiesto, speaking from Thailand, where he is taking a short break on his tour. “Those guys were on it 'cos I’m a huge fan of their groups. In terms of guitar bands generally, I’m also really into Muse; I just did a remix for them. I was asked to do it, although I did approach them a couple of years ago about doing a remix. They had a different management at the time I think, so they weren’t really into it. But this time round they approached me themselves, and I was very happy to do it.”
On one of the occasions Tiesto saw Matt Bellamy and the boys play live, they were supporting a certain up-and-coming Dublin quartet.
“I love U2,” he enthuses. “I haven’t heard the last album yet, but The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby are brilliant records.”
My own favourite U2 track is ’Lemon’, which of course Paul Oakenfold did a cracking dance mix of some years ago (he also did a similarly impressive reworking of ’Even Better Than The Real Thing’). Has Tiesto heard the parent album of ’Lemon’, Zooropa?
“The Roper? No, I haven’t come across that,” he replies, sounding somewhat mystified.
Er, it’s the one that came after Achtung Baby.
“Oh,” responds Tiesto, blankly. “I didn’t know that. But every album they do has two or three killer tracks. I’m into pretty much everything from The Joshua Tree, and also ’Beautiful Day’ and ’Gloria’. I’d definitely be up for a remix if they ever came calling. I’ve done a special bootleg mix of ’Sunday Bloody Sunday’ which I might drop in during the Dublin show.”
Of course, different dance producers approach remixes with varying levels of commitment. When the courier arrived at Aphex Twin’s door to pick up his reworking of a Lemonheads track, he famously popped up the stairs and grabbed a CD of a work in progress, and blithely handed it over as his version of the band’s tune. Tiesto, though – who has remixed everyone from Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Britney Spears – says he has to feel very strongly about a song before agreeing to giving an overhaul.
“I can’t just remix anything,” he explains. “With the Britney Spears song, I made something really special out of it – you barely hear it’s her. It’s not even close to the original. The remixes I did last year, they’re all indie bands, like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Editors. I love that style, and when I drop those remixes into my DJ sets now, it’s amazing because people respond to them so well.”
Is Tiesto a fan of other producers who made a big impact during the noughties, such as The Neptunes, DFA and Timbaland?
“Yeah, it’s phenomenal what Timbaland has done,” he acknowledges. “There are also a lot of fresh young dance producers out there. I like Diplo a lot, and I’m also really into a couple of guys from Sweden called Dada Life.”
Presumably Tiesto has also been regularly asked to write original material for major league pop stars?
“I’ve been approached by everybody,” he says. “It’s great, and I’m really open to it as well now. I’m pitching tracks to lots of people at the moment, including Katy Perry, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. All of those people have approached me about doing stuff, so I’ve been working on some material lately. Some of those songs will be out this year, but keep in mind that it’s production work rather than a new Tiesto track; people want me to work on a certain parts of a song. It’s a whole different production vibe to what I normally do.”