ADE 2023 Sam Feldt interview

Foreign.

The most important week for Amsterdam. It's Amsterdam Dance Event 2023 Seinfeld on Enjoy television. How are you?

I'm good. I'm happy to be back here in Amsterdam. I just came from South America. The two shows in Peru and in Chile, so I'm a little bit jet lagged still. But I'm excited to be here in this important week.

Yeah, right. Is an important week for the industry, for DJs, for producers. We can say Amsterdam this week is the epicenter of electronic music, right?

I think so, yeah. And it's just an honor to be able to represent the country to everybody internationally. Like show, showcase our artists, showcase the venues and showcase why Amsterdam and the Netherlands is a key player in the dance industry. Of course you have Miami Music Week, which is awesome and more sunny, so maybe more appealing. But I think Ade is where a lot of the deals get done and a lot of the more serious stuff also happens. Instead of just partying.

That's the feelings. Always been like that. The feelings that Miami is more sun, parties and enjoy. Amsterdam is the place where you do business, the serious one. And a lot of people say because of the weather too.

I agree. I mean when you have pool parties everywhere, it's hard to do business. Right. Because if you're in the pool and drinking a nice pina colada, I think it kind of is a different vibe. I actually did pool parties in Ade as well back in the day. So we had an indoor pool. So the Heartfelt pool party, I did it for four years. So you can actually swim and do a pool party at Ade while it was snowing outside.

Why you don't do it again?

I mean, we did it for four years. I always like to innovate and bring new concepts. We had a boat party for a little bit and now this year and last year as well, we did the Melkweg iconic venue, a little bit bigger that can fit in all the fans. So I'm excited for that with a nice production. I'm going to premiere my new single there as well, which is coming out on Friday. So I'm just very excited to be able to do it in a venue like that.

Tell me something more about this new single that is coming up on Friday.

It's called Memories. So it's going to feature a very iconic melody by Likido Narcotic. I'm sure you still remember the original if you hear it. And then it's kind of the same concept that we did for Crying on the Dance Floor, which was not my previous single, but one of the bigger singles of the year, where you take a song that people might know from the past, a long time ago, 20, 30 years ago, and then take it and twist it and give it to a new generation because they might not know the old song. And I think it's great for the songwriter, of course, because you put them in the spotlight again, but it's also great for the fans because they discover a golden ollie at the same time. But I think it's important. And when you do it, you don't do like 100% a cover, but you actually create a new song with it. So that's what we did for. For Memories as well.

Right, right, right. Amsterdam is not just parties, there is not just the festival part, but there is also what is going on here at Felix Merit is panels and talking and. And one of the focus on this edition is the artificial intelligence. So what do you think about it and are you excited about it or are you more scared about it?

I'm excited about it. I'm a big tech nerd. I actually created and sold a tech startup called Fangage. I've been building websites since I was 8 years old, so I was really young. So that's always been a big passion of mine, technology. I'm a big gadget freak. So for me it's just very exciting. And I think, yes, you can be scared about it, but it's way better to work with it. Right. So if you're not working with AI or you're incorporating AI somehow in your process, I think you're going to be. You're going to see that a lot of other people that are using it are going to be able to take over from you because they have access to the AI. So for us, for example, for Heartfelt, we are using it for artworks already. Like we generate artworks for releases. With the midjourney, there's now a great piece of software called Gen2, where you can actually create videos from artwork. So there's a lot of different tools that you can use and I think you're quite stupid if you don't use them because other people are.

Yeah, but maybe. Are you not afraid that maybe one day it can replace producers in studio?

I mean, I don't know, maybe technically who like things like mixing and mastering, like things that are very technical by nature. I see that being taken over by AI, but I think on the other side, I think you still have the human touch that you need for the production process, like making something that Humans, like you know, making something that has a soul, sparks energy, like it gives emotions. I think those are very human things. AI doesn't feel emotion, it will never be able to feel emotion. So it's. Yeah, I think that's where the human part comes in. I think also performing is never going to go away. Like people want to see people perform. Right. And of course, you know, there might be AI visuals or holograms or whatever, but I think still in 10 years, 20 years time, people will still want to see when they buy a ticket to a Sam Feld show, they want to see me playing the show instead of, you know, an animation of me or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we are living in an era where everything is about visuals, exposure, so spotlights, social media and sometimes I stop myself and asking myself, is still all this about the music or it became something else?

Yeah, I get that thought. I mean definitely with the new generation you have less and less time to make an impression. The scrolling on TikTok generation, right? Maybe one second you decide, hey, I'm going to watch this or I'm not going to watch this. And before songs were 10 minutes long, so the first minute was just an intro that would never work anymore. Right. With this generation, with this technology. So you have to adapt your music to it. And like for example, I've been doing more songs where instead of starting with the verse, you start with the chorus. Right. So immediately you have the chorus, the most hooky part of the song come in at the first time and then you move to the verse. Just because I might lose. A lot of people that hear the verse, they think, ah, it's too slow, whatever. And then they never hear the chorus. Right. They never get to the best part. So I get you. And I think as artists we need to deal with that fact.

Yeah. Where we are going as industry, I mean the electronic music industry, where we are going.

Yeah, I mean that's a difficult question. I think in terms of genre you see that everything is kind of moving in circles, so cyclical. So right now you see a big hype around house music, tech house, techno, which are genres that have been around for such a long time but have been underground for a long time. And now I think you see them moving to the mainstream with guys like for example, Fisher or John Summit or Chris Lake, like really playing the big main stages of festivals with tech house, which is kind of unique, you never saw that before. But I also think. And there's a lot of constants as well. So for example, things that Will never go away. Like a good melody, a good vocal, like a good production. Like, I think those key elements will stay intact and then, you know, the genres might fluctuate. Like my. My genre that I started with was Tropical house back in 2014. Like, if you listen to my music now, it sounds quite different. It's still melodic, it still has the same characteristics, but it doesn't have the same synth, for example. Yeah, so it. It evolves.

Evolution, yeah.

Everything evolves. And so genres evolves, artists evolve, and the industry evolves as well. So. Yeah, exactly.

If you have to give a suggest to the newcomers, dj, or maybe someone that is watching you right now and say, I want to be there, give them a suggest how they can start.

I think it's important that you make stuff that you really love yourself. I did that wrong for a long time. So I always thought that I should be making, like, stuff that Hartwell could play or that could be in the beatboard charts or whatever. So you're always one step behind because you're always imitating what other people are doing. You listen to the song, you make, you try to make the song sound the same and then you finish the song. And if you listen to yourself and you think, hey, what do I love listening to? You get a little bit more creative, right? You can make things that aren't there yet. And the good thing is there are so many people in the world that even if you make the weirdest shit, there's going to be people that like it too, Right? As long as it's good music. Look at, like, very small niche genres, for example, and how big they are. Like, for example, here in the Netherlands, you've got a big heartstyle community in Italy as well. And if you see the fans there, they're way more loyal than my fans because they are so dedicated to the heart sound, which my mom wouldn't play because she hates that it's too loud for her. But what I'm trying to say is that there's always going to be a market for your music. If it comes from your heart, if.

It comes from you, it's not easy because out there, there is already everything. So create something new, okay? Follow yourself, but create something new. Right now, it's very difficult. There is everything outside there.

I would say that everything is a remix. So, like, everything, like, you can say it's an original. But hey, you got the inspiration from somewhere, right? Maybe you got it from a video game, maybe you got it from a movie trailer, maybe you got it from another Genre, a sample pack, whatever. So it's always remixing some idea that you got from somewhere. It might be released as an original, but it's always a remix because where did, where, where did the parts come from? Right. Where did you get the inspiration from? So making something new is, I think, an illusion. I think the people that do well are the people that can take that inspiration and mold it into something new. Right. But even if you look at the artists that have a lot of hype right now, for example, like tech house, it's been around for a long time. But what. What they've done now is they added elements of the mainstream, like the EDM songs, the big stabs that people love, that have a lot of energy, and blended them together with the tech house beat. So that creates a new genre, which is kind of cool, but it's actually a remix between EDM and tech house. Right. So that's kind of how I see it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's your plan for the winter? I know that Finnish ad you will fly in United States. I'm right?

Yeah, yeah. Correct. So I'm kind of bouncing back and forth between here and the us. I'm also going to be doing a big festival in India called Palm Tree Festival. It's run by my management company in Kygo, so I'm excited for that as well. Then probably a big show for New Year's. Not announced yet, but the rest of the year is a little bit more chill. I had a very busy summer, so I'm also working on an album. I'm working on 25 tracks at the same time, so that needs some love as well. And I have a baby coming in April, so I also need to prepare for that a little bit and create.

Some room, you know, that's a big, big production.

Big remix to my life for sure.

The big one.

The biggest one so far. Yeah.

About the new album, we have to wait 20, 24, right?

Yeah. So what I'm gonna do now is I just signed a new deal with Sony, so that's for two albums. The first big single of that is going to be Memories. And then I think usually four or five singles later, you drop the album. So just top of mind, I would say end of next year is when that should drop.

Okay. So we will stay tuned for more.

About the new one next year at ade. Probably I will be able to tell you more about it or maybe it's already released.

We will be here for sure.

Great.

So we will be here next year to listen more and for now. Thank you so, so much. SEMFELD on Enjoy.