Zone Magazine Issue 011 - Paul Oakenfold
In our feature interviews in this issue we talk to cover man, and one of the pioneers of dance music, Paul Oakenfold. Paul is without a doubt one of dance music’s leading lights and his story is one that is littered with success after success. He has single-handedly achieved more in his career than most dance DJ or artists could dream of. Next up is international God that is Hardwell, talking about his imprint Revealed Recordings! We also talk to Sam Feldt, whilst still a young pup at 23, Holland born Sam burst onto the dance music scene in 2015 with ‘Show Me Love’, which proved to be his definitive claim to fame.
In our feature interviews in this issue we talk to cover man, and one of the pioneers of dance music, Paul Oakenfold.
Paul is without a doubt one of dance music’s leading lights and his story is one that is littered with success after success. He has single-handedly achieved more in his career than most dance DJ or artists could dream of.
Next up is international God that is Hardwell, talking about his imprint Revealed Recordings!
We also talk to Sam Feldt, whilst still a young pup at 23, Holland born Sam burst onto the dance music scene in 2015 with ‘Show Me Love’, which proved to be his definitive claim to fame.
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feature interview [netherlands]<br />
Sam Feldt.. A name fairly<br />
dominant in the recent dance music<br />
boom! But, where did he come from?<br />
How has such a young lad come up<br />
through the ranks so quick? <strong>Zone</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong>’s Brett Kydd investigates.<br />
Whilst still a young pup at 23,<br />
Holland born Sam Feldt burst onto<br />
the dance music scene in 2015 with<br />
‘Show Me Love’, which proved to be<br />
his definitive claim to fame. The track<br />
is a unique take on the eponymous<br />
90s dance classic, completely<br />
restructured with the vocals used in a<br />
completely new way. It receives<br />
massive DJ support, scoring millions<br />
of SoundCloud plays, marking Sam<br />
Feldt’s definite arrival as headlining<br />
artist.<br />
It started long before the<br />
aforementioned single which catapulted<br />
his career - Sam Feldt worked behind the<br />
scenes as a producer for quite some time,<br />
perfecting his musical talents. The end of<br />
summer 2013 was when he made gained<br />
ground and released his early work.<br />
Within a year of this Sam was snapped up<br />
by none other than Spinnin’ Records and,<br />
from there, released his first track under<br />
the label.<br />
It didn’t take long for the young<br />
producer to gain the attention of<br />
international dance media as he proved to<br />
be already at the top of a new exciting<br />
wave of melodic deep house. Besides<br />
releasing his first original tracks with De<br />
Hofnar, the widely popular ‘Bloesem’ and<br />
a sophisticated edit of the Fleetwood Mac<br />
anthem ‘Big Love’, he also presents<br />
catching remixes for popular folk band<br />
Mumford And Sons, Naxxos, I Am Oak<br />
and Jose Gonzalez.<br />
By the end of 2014 the instant classic<br />
summer tune ‘Hot Skin’ came out, made<br />
with fellow producer Kav Verhouzer and<br />
building up to over 800.000 YouTube<br />
views after its release. At this point, Feldt<br />
is already a reputable name delivering<br />
loveable vibes on a regular basis.<br />
Racking up the stats with almost two<br />
million plays on SoundCloud as well as a<br />
#1 Hypem spot for his remix of the<br />
Sander van Doorn & Firebeatz release<br />
‘Guitar Track’, you could say Sam has<br />
placed his feet firmly under the table.<br />
Sam has played all around the world,<br />
sharing the stage with the biggest names<br />
in the industry like Kygo, Robin Schulz,<br />
Thomas Jack, and Kölsch. His sound is<br />
characterised by beautifully built<br />
melodies, lots of atmosphere and emotion<br />
packed in a tantalising but often chilled<br />
out groove.<br />
Meanwhile, the Dutchman explores the<br />
wide world of this fetching new deep<br />
house sound with his mix tapes and radio<br />
shows presented to his SoundCloud fans<br />
regularly, making him more than a<br />
household name in the recent house<br />
scene. A new flame has come, and it’s<br />
getting brighter by the day.<br />
I had a chat with the extremely busy<br />
DJ & producer to ask him about his latest<br />
tracks, life on the road, and new geeky<br />
technology.. In brief, this feature covers<br />
the important parts of our conversation..<br />
You're the man behind the most<br />
recent remix of one of the most iconic<br />
dance songs of the 90's. Your version<br />
is a lot more down tempo compared<br />
to previous releases. What was your<br />
inspiration behind this 'Show Me<br />
Love'?<br />
I found an amazing cover of it by<br />
Kimberly Anne on YouTube. When I heard<br />
her voice singing the track in such a<br />
different and emotional way I knew I had<br />
to do something with it.<br />
DJ & Producer EDX added to the pack<br />
with his remix of 'Show Me Love' - So,<br />
what do you look for when giving the<br />
thumbs up for someone to remix your<br />
track?<br />
It has to serve a specific purpose.<br />
Looking at the Show Me Love track, the<br />
original is really chilled and not really<br />
something for the clubs. For the remixes<br />
we decided to look for a good club mix<br />
and I think EDX nailed it.<br />
It's not all about that one track<br />
though, as you were first picked up<br />
by Spinnin' Records who signed your<br />
debut track with De Hofnar -<br />
'Bloesem'. With the deviating work<br />
you've came out of the studio with,<br />
how would you describe your sound?<br />
I'm not a big fan of genres and would<br />
describe my music simply as Sam Feldt<br />
music. The key ingredients are emotions<br />
and melodies. The rest is not really<br />
relevant: I release tracks ranging from<br />
100 bpm to 128 bpm and from pop to<br />
progressive house.<br />
I'm excited to see that you've got a<br />
new track out, tell me about it!<br />
I've just released Summer On You, a<br />
collab with Lucas & Steve and Dutch<br />
singer Wulf. It's getting picked up really<br />
well and all over the Dutch radio at the<br />
moment. We just crossed 10 million<br />
streams on Spotify too so I'm really<br />
happy to see it's going so well!<br />
Is there any exclusive collaborations<br />
on the way you can tell me about?<br />
Definitely, there's a new single coming<br />
up with Deepend (you know, the guys<br />
from Matt Simons - Catch And Release<br />
Remix) called Runaways and a new one<br />
with Alex Schulz and the singer of Cheat<br />
Codes.<br />
Just on that topic, who would be your<br />
all-time favourite artist to collaborate<br />
with?<br />
It has to be <strong>Paul</strong> McCartney!<br />
Who is your breakthrough artist for<br />
this year, who is really doing it for<br />
you at the moment?<br />
Oooh, there's too many to mention, to<br />
be honest. Although, when I’m putting my<br />
Heartfeldt radio show together I always<br />
include a lot of tracks from the guys I feel<br />
are doing great things.<br />
Connect:<br />
http://www.soundcloud.com/<br />
samfeldt<br />
Words By Brett Kydd<br />
Pics By Fanny Van Poppel<br />
" I'm not a big fan of genres and would<br />
describe my music simply as Sam Feldt music.<br />
The key ingredients are emotions and<br />
26 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE<br />
melodies. "