Looking back over 2013 and some of the most popular tracks there’s one that comes to mind that has been a dance floor staple for Markus Schulz and it’s called “Apache” by Fisherman & Hawkins. The Coldharbour Recordings track was released January 14, 2013 and hasn’t let up since. Another massive tune of 2013 was “The Expedition” by Markus Schulz and Armin van Buuren that was produced as the A State of Trance 600 anthem. The two tracks were huge in their own ways but it’s “Apache” that has been non-stop through the whole year.
1. This Is What It Feels Like (feat. Trevor Guthrie) – Armin van Buuren
2. Dark Warrior – Andrew Rayel
3. Silhouette (Allen & Envy Remix) – Dart Rayne, Yura Moonlight
4. Intense (feat. Miri Ben-Ari) – Armin van Buuren
5. Grotesque – Ram & Alex M.O.R.P.H.
6. Dreams (feat. Natalie Gioia) [Club Mix] – Alex M.O.R.P.H.
7. Jewel (Pure Mix) – Solarstone & Clare Stagg)
8. Black Hole (Jorn Van Deynhoven Radio Edit) – Craig Connelly & Christina Novelli
9. Violetta – Orjan Nilsen
10. Apprehension (Aly & Fila Mix) – Sergey Nevone & Simon O’Shine
11. D# Fat – Armin van Buuren & W&W
12. The Evil ID – Max Graham
13. Apache – Fisherman & Hawkins
14. First Coming (Ian Standerwick Remix) – Ciro Visone
15. Six Zero Zero – Jorn Van Deynhoven
16. Boom – Marlo
17. The Expedition (A State of Trance 600 Anthem) – Armin van Buuren & Markus Schulz
18. Brush Strokes – Simon Patterson
19. Move Into Light (feat. Erica Curran) – Juventa
20. Dinodrums – Estiva
Ten-thousands of ASOT fans will touch down on Dutch soil to celebrate ASOT650 at its place of birth. On February 15th, at the massive Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, trance lovers will unite and share our passion for music, with a staggering line-up and show unlike you’ve ever seen before. To get you in the mood, we’re happy to announce the line-up for the Who’s Afraid of 138?! area, the ASOT Invites stage and Talent Room!
Coldharbour artists Fisherman & Hawkins and KhoMha will be among the amazing talent at ASOT 650!
Who’s Afraid of 138?!
Armin van Buuren
Bryan Kearney
Ferry Tayle b2b Manuel Le Saux
Ian Standerwick
Jordan Suckley
Paul Webster
Photographer
Sean Tyas
ASOT Invites
Ben Gold
Eximinds
KhoMha
Kyau & Albert
Mark Sixma
Max Graham
Protoculture
Talent Room
Alexandre Bergheau
Allen & Envy
Arisen Flame
David Gravell
Fisherman & Hawkins
Hazem Beltagui
Maarten de Jong
ReOrder
Toby Hedges
For tickets, hotel accommodations and more info click here http://bit.ly/1bk0WkF
The Schulz Army invasion of Stereo Nightclub was anticipated from the moment it was announced that Markus Schulz was going to be playing a marathon event at the legendary club, to the moment the event sold out in less than a week and then when trance fans realized that Armin van Buuren would be appearing at another club across town on the same night. Stereo Nightclub is known to stay open as late as the DJ wants to play and also for the fact that the club doesn’t oversell tickets and that the crowd expects music well beyond the current top 40 in the world of dance music.
Markus Schulz had mentioned leading up to his appearance at Stereo Nightclub that he’d be playing for at least five to six hours. He ended up playing for seven and a half hours from 4:30 AM until noon. You read that correctly, he ended at noon. After the typical high fives, pictures and autographs a lot of the crowd finally walked out of the club after 12:30 in the afternoon. Markus has teased that the night was recorded and he’ll upload it to his SoundCloud page. We’re waiting like everyone else to see if it’s just a portion of the set or the whole thing. Whichever it is we’ll be listening and sharing the moment it’s online. UPDATE: Scroll down for links to Markus’ full Stereo set broken into two parts, clocking in at 463 minutes, no cuts, no edits, just exactly how it went down that night! We’ve compiled a full track list: http://bit.ly/StereoMTLtracklisting
Our interview was scheduled for just before 4 AM but for a brief moment we expected the whole thing to be scrapped when Markus Schulz had arrived in the DJ booth with one of his good friends, Armin van Buuren. The club had erupted at the sight of these two appearing together in the same DJ booth, a sight rarely seen even at an A State of Trance event. Markus had been at New City Gas prior where Armin had played. After Markus took some time setting things up in the DJ booth he retreated to the upstairs for his media commitments while Armin was signing things and taking pictures. For those on the dance floor, we apologize for delaying the start of his set by a few minutes.
Anyone given the chance to interview a veteran like Markus Schulz could spend an endless amount of time picking his brain about a variety of topics but with time against us we focused on a few things going on at the moment with Buenos Aires ’13 being the focus. When the Buenos Aires ’13 track list was announced the majority of tracks were unreleased tracks with a majority having never been heard before or known as an ID in a set, not an easy task to accomplish with 38 tracks on the compilation.
When asked about the process of picking artists for the compilation Markus said, “It’s a lot of the artists that I’ve been supporting and playing on Global DJ Broadcast.” So for any up and coming producers out there try to get your tracks onto a broadcast and if the sound is appreciated you may get asked down the road for an exclusive track.
“It’s not like a one month process, it was a whole one year process,” Markus said talking about what goes into something like this. He continued saying, “As a matter of fact I am already starting next year’s compilation now. It’s constantly working with artists and trying to envision the way you want the compilation to sound. It’s also working with artists to try to get that sound that it is that I hear in my head.”
Less than two weeks after the 2013 compilation the work has already started on the 2014 edition. No, the city it will be based off of has not been announced.
Another challenge is working with artists to keep the tracks unreleased. With a project like this you also want to try to keep the tracks from being played in a lot of sets so that they’re fresh with the release. We live in a world where music comes and goes so quick and it makes compilations like this something to look forward to with new music.
Talking about that topic Markus said, “Sometimes it’s very difficult you know. You’ve got these amazing tracks and you want to play it.” One of the tracks he mentioned not holding back on is Grube & Hovsepian’s “Trickster” which was three years in the making for the Coldharbour duo.
“I am not going to hold back on playing them, I am going to play them anyway,” he said.
“Remember This” is another track that was not held back on and debuted at Electric Daisy Carnival 2013 in Las Vegas and was an instant hit with the melodies. At the time it was an ID but a track that was an instant hit. The track was originally planned for Scream 2 but was given the push early and added to disc one of Buenos Aires ’13.
A compilation like this can also be stressful for an artist and when we asked about the feedback so far he said that it had been fantastic while adding, “But you know the thing is this, I am really at a point in my career where it’s like I want to show who I am as an artist. And so you know, I try not to worry too much about what the response is going to be. I just want to be an artist and do things that I enjoy doing and I know that I have such a great loyal fan base, that they’re there with me. I try not to worry too much about the backlash or the feedback.”
Along with the unreleased tracks another big part of live sets is the visuals that are present in a majority of clubs around the world. There are in house VJs but there are also VJs who travel around the globe with artists. Since the Scream bus tour Markus has been traveling with VJ Infinight. Stereo Nightclub is one of the rare clubs that only has a couple of projectors and lights from the ceilings but as Markus said, “Some of these venues where we’re wrapped in LEDs it’s great. And Morgan has been traveling with me since the bus tour. I think it’s very important because with the visual I want to make a show. I don’t want generic visuals of shapes, and you know weird warping things. We really try to put together a show where the music and visuals are connected.”
We’ve grown the Schulz Army in big numbers over the past year so we had to ask about the presence around the globe with t-shirts and flags being present at places not only in North America but also in places like Beirut, Tunisia and Tomorrowland. He replied saying, “It’s amazing. You guys are amazing. Sometimes when I walk into a club I am jet lagged or whatever and I see everyone with the t-shirts, the flags and everything. It’s just like wow!”
A DJ will do everything they can to appear being tired and jet lagged and this just shows that showing signs of support from the crowd can give an artist the sense that they’re right at home with like-minded people ready to have a good time. You can purchase Schulz Army t-shirts, flags and decals here: http://www.schulzarmy.com/merchandise/
One trend that has emerged in 2013 has been marriage proposals and weddings. Electric Daisy Carnival 2013 in Las Vegas married ravers for the weekend and also allowed people to get married at the festival with the proper license. At the Toronto solo set by Markus Schulz in June 2013 there was a wedding proposal during “Perfect”. Since then Tiësto was a part of a wedding in Las Vegas and another couple was married on the Groove Cruise while Markus Schulz played. Given all of that we asked if he thought about becoming ordained and he laughed saying, “It’s pretty cool. It just goes to show you how far this music has gone into people’s lives. Where they want the music to be part of special moments in their lives.”
Toronto and San Francisco are two cities close to us so we also had to ask about the idea of solo sets in those cities again. He said, “They’re all on my list. You know I definitely love doing those. Those are special cities that I always plan on doing long sets in. Whether it works out or not that’s a different story. But I always plan when I go to those cities to do long sets.”
Whether you’re in one of those two cities or anywhere else in the world if you’d like a marathon set find the local promoter who could make something like that happen and start building support for such a thing. Events don’t happen without the support of clubs and promoters who make things happen.
Markus Schulz was the reason Stereo Nightclub had sold out in less than a week so without hesitation we wanted to hear him get started and so did the rest of the club so we asked him about dragging Armin to the club and Markus replied with a smirk saying, “Yeah he’s here. He gets to hear some techno tonight!”
Here’s a brief glimpse of the night from the DJ booth thanks to kärl k-otik (a Montreal DJ):
Markus Schulz – Marathon Set Live from Stereo, Montreal Part 1
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/116614990″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Markus Schulz – Marathon Set Live from Stereo, Montreal Part 2
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/116617934″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
On a Saturday night in Los Angeles Suzanne Welker Jurgens from the Schulz Army had the chance to sit down in the green room at Avalon to talk to Tim Grube, Mike Hovsepian and KhoMha about Coldharbour no longer being under Armada, Coldharbour Nights, the DJ Mag Top 100 poll, kandi bracelets, the EDM explosion and more. Grube & Hovsepian are two of the driving forces at the Coldharbour studios, relative newcomer KhoMha has been KhoMhatizing crowds at every chance.
When a lot of people hear the name Coldharbour they think Markus Schulz but a Coldharbour Night is more than just the Unicorn Slayer. As Mike Hovsepian put it, “The Coldharbour Night concept is basically three acts, Grube & Hovsepian, KhoMha or Beat Service or Mr. Pit.”
“You get the old Coldharbour sound through us opening up the night and it’s just a nice little build throughout the night. And that’s what we do with the formula for Coldharbour Night,” Tim Grube said. “We originally did Dallas but these major cities are nice too. All these cities just blow up, it’s amazing.”
One of the highlights of a Markus Schulz open to close set is the journey he takes the dance floor on by building the night into a mid set and then closing it out and these nights follow the same formula. Grube & Hovsepian open followed by KhoMha and then trance to close the night with Beat Service or Mr Pit.
Suzanne Welker Jurgens interviewing KhoMha, Mike Hovsepian & Tim Grube at Avalon in Los Angeles
Heading into 2014 dance music continues to grow in popularity and embrace new audiences, the talk of a bubble that could exist but as Mike Hovsepian says, “Embrace it, live in the moment.”
“If EDM is blowing up in the states it’s a good thing,” Tim Grube said. “Because we’re able to explore other cities that we’ve haven’t been able to before, because it’s been all over the radio and people are getting familiar with the sound. As DJs it’s pretty good. It’s really good for us.”
“We play towns we’d never think about playing three or four years ago, like Fresno which we played with KhoMha and that’s not known for EDM,” said Mike Hovsepian. “Norfolk, we were there. KhoMha is going to be there. These aren’t EDM towns, they’re embracing it, they want it and the promoters are giving it to them.”
We asked Mike Hovsepian about the acronym EDM and he said, “I don’t get why people make it a big deal. So EDM, it’s like Electronic Dance Music. It defines all of the genres. I see people arguing about it saying ‘no it’s trance, don’t call it EDM’. Who cares! It is what it is.”
When speaking about popularity the DJ Mag Top 100 poll immediately comes to mind. Tim Grube spoke about its relevance and he said, “It’s going to be around. It’s not going to end this year, it’s not going to end next year, it is going to be around for a while.”
“I think it is more important to the smaller guys to get voted in,” Mike said. “Because that in effect helps you get booked. Because some promoters do book based off of the DJ mag. I think fans should vote for the smaller guys. Continue to still vote.”
Tim Grube agreed, “Continue to still vote.”
No matter where you live the bookings are often based on the popularity of artists. This could be the DJ Mag rankings but is also based on demands of the fans. It’s important to still vote but Tim Grube adds on, “get on your Twitter, get on Facebook. Just tweet. Tweet your favorite artists and demand them in your city. That works better than DJ mag, in my opinion. It’s the word of mouth and getting it out there on the social networks.”
Mike spoke further saying, “You reach a certain point in your career like Tiësto, Markus, Gareth and Armin and I don’t think it matters anymore to them because they have their fan base. They have their loyal fans.”
Tim added, “It helps certain artists.”
Speaking of asking your local promoters and artists about visiting your city the idea of a Coldharbour Tour has been talked about. Tim and Mike said, “We’ll eventually get there. Maybe do a bus tour.” So if you’d like to see any of these guys in your city take the time to get on Twitter and Facebook and mention it to them and also reach out to your local promoters as well about the idea.
The end of 2013 will continue to be busy for the guys. KhoMha shared the biggest news for himself saying, “Right now I working as well with a big collaboration with one of the biggest trance legends Cosmic Gate, so yeah it’s great.” KhoMha’s track “Hydra” is set to be released this month and he also said, “there is a new Coldharbour release (I can’t tell you the name of course). It’s going to be maybe at the end of the year.”
Grube & Hovsepian recently released their track “Trickster” that rose to number nine on the Beatport charts which was an accomplishment for them. Tim said, “It went in as four or five jumps” Mike added on saying, “80, then 40, then 18, then 14, then 13 and finally nine. I woke up in the morning and logged into Beatport and it was 14 or 13 the night before and I refreshed and it’s like top 10! Woo!”
Markus Schulz is releasing his latest city series compilation titled Buenos Aires ’13 and will feature three Grube & Hovsepian productions. Their own tracks “Trickster” and “Palermo” and the third is “Fair Winds” that they produced with Elevation.
Trickster was also remixed by Italian producer Gai Barone. How did two guys living in Miami connect with someone from Italy to remix a track? Tim Grube explained, “That’s funny we were sitting in the studio and decided that we needed something different. We play a lot of opening sets, like tonight and obviously we cannot play our 132 big room track Trickster. We leave that up to everyone else, even when we do our main headline set. We needed something that is our style that the old Coldharbour fans would love and we could count on Gai Barone because he has been on fire lately. Markus has been supporting his stuff for the past couple of years. There’s a track that just came out from him (Gai Barone remix of Danilo Ercole “Player One”) that we truly love and we wanted that kind of similar sound and he nailed it. It was perfect, it was great package, a big big room, a nice progressive trance track, deep. It worked out.”
Another bit of big news in the second half of 2013 is that after eight years Coldharbour Recordings and Armada Recordings are no longer affiliated. The two had been working together since 2005.
Tim Grube immediately eased concerns saying, “Fans don’t even need to worry, Coldharbour is Coldharbour. It’s still Coldharbour and Markus is still fully behind it. It’s just not Armada.” Tim added on more details saying, “And the thing is that we have to evolve a little bit. We want to do more different things that we weren’t able to do. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. So we wanted to expand a little bit and we were able to do that with Markus. He’s able to make us expand and make us get more on the radio. We want to expand in the states because it is blowing up here. Us taking more control and us having more control over the artists. We had to. It’s not a bad thing that we left. Nothing is going to change from the forefront. It’s just the back end internal stuff. The forefront is not going to change and the quality is still going to stay the same.”
Audio Cargo is another record label that was created in 2013 and Tim explained the label further saying, “It has nothing at all to do with Coldharbour. It’s like Armada vs. Black Hole. It’s totally different. That label Audio Cargo is fueled towards commercial radio tracks, vocals. We just signed a new Jonathan Mendelsohn track that will probably come out the end of September or early October by the Venom One guys. We had our first release which was Memory Lane on there. It’s not something you’ll hear a release from every two or three weeks like Coldharbour. It’s when we have a great great vocal commercial track.”
Stay linked up with Coldharbour (Facebook, Twitter) and Audio Cargo (Facebook, Twitter) to stay on top of all of their new releases.
Markus Schulz has often called KhoMha his little brother from another mother so we asked the guys what they considered him.
Mike Hovsepian said, “His older brother from another mother.” That got some laughs from everyone in the room.
Tim Grube, “He has many different names.”
KhoMha added, “Well you know, Markus is really important person in my life. There is a before and after an Markus in my career. He’s been an inspiration to me. He’s an awesome person with me. He not only supports me as an artist, but always he tries to give me good advice and something like that! He is really great!”
We mentioned what a great experience the Scream Bus Tour must have been and KhoMha added, “Yea, he is one of my biggest inspirations. It’s kind of awesome.”
What are some of the funniest things you’ve seen from the DJ booth?
Mike: Well tonight we just saw three or four guys throwing punches and a guy with a bloody face and security guards breaking it up. There were like five or six security guards.
Tim: Huge fight, right in front of us. We saw him get hit in the face and it was like… oooph! It was bad.
Mike: There was a big brawl out in the middle of the dance floor during one of the tracks. They just dragged them off the dance floor.
Tim: That was the craziest fight. But I think for myself it was when I was with Markus in Bogotá. Some fan took the whole DJ booth and pulled it out into the crowd. He was drunk. But it was the type of booth that was standing still but it went like right into the crowd. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.
Mike: KhoMha’s peeps.
Tim: Colombians. They party hard!
What are some of the strangest things you’ve had to autograph?
Tim: What haven’t we autographed.
Mike: Sometimes we feel uncomfortable because they ask you to sign certain places on their body. I’ve never done that. But we’ve been asked to autograph breasts before, butts.
Tim: You do it!
Schulz Army: There was a girl at TAO Beach that was proudly displaying her signature.
Mike: Sometimes those signatures turn into tattoos.
Do you ever compare kandi after the set?
Mike: I wasn’t that big on bracelets, but I’ve embraced it after KhoMha and Tim started wearing them. It’s a good conversation starter. People see you wearing them. They’re like what’s that? Cool!
Tim: I usually wear that (referring to #SchulzArmy), but I left mine at home this time.
But you’ve got the Unicorn Slayer one.
Tim: I always wear that. I wear that every day.
Mike: It’s his good luck charm.
For the last question we asked about the old Markus Schulz pictures that have surfaced from the 1990s and whether they pick on Markus about that or his old remixes. Tim Grube took the reply and said, “We have, but now it’s all out there. So it’s like the joke is like… okay. He always gets a kick out of it when he sees it. The memories that come back, where he’s from and all that. It’s always good to see that type of stuff.”
It appears as if unicorns are learning to stay away from the Scream Bus Tour thinking that they are safe elsewhere. Armin van Buuren is on tour in support of his Intense album and recently performed at the Oakland Fox Theater where this sighting occurred.
This unicorn must not have known that Armin and Markus are friends and was slayed when Armin played Nothing Without Me, The Expedition, Apache and Fortuna which are four songs that are staples in the slayers set.
