A state of trance-port

DJ Armin Van Buuren maintains career high

By Mike Prevatt

Tonight might just be the biggest American gig of Dutch DJ Armin Van Buuren's career. It's April 3 and he has effortlessly sold out tonight's "Spundae" party at Circus Disco, one of Hollywood's biggest clubs. This, despite the competition on the other side of town: English dance icon Paul Oakenfold, headlining "Giant," the other Saturday night megaclub event, at Avalon.

What's interesting is that the 2,000-plus crowd at Circus looks and sounds very similar to the audiences Oakey was attracting four or five years ago. The energy of the attendees at Circus reaches fever pitch as soon as Van Buuren, 27, steps into the DJ booth. The packed dance floor is a sea of flailing limbs and bouncing bodies, with video crews filming everywhere. It just feels like one of those gigs where the vibe makes the difference. And he's accustomed to this sort of reaction at every gig he plays of late.

"Let me tell you, you never get used to it," says Van Buuren by phone a week later, as he's speeding in a car toward his next gig. "I think it would sound arrogant if I say I get this every week. But at the moment, every gig I do seems to be something big. It's just amazing. I must say, the L.A. gig was something different."

Van Buuren is just one of a handful of Dutch DJs making a big impression on the global dance community. Last year, he was polled as the third most popular DJ in the world, according to DJ magazine. He received a Dancestar USA award nomination for his 2003 artist record, 76, and just released the double-disc mix A State of Trance. He has his own independent label (Armada), a radio show that shares the name of his new mix CD and has enjoyed dance radio airplay with his recent single, "Burned With Desire" (featuring vocalist Justine Suissa). And this current tour has been his most successful to date.

Much of his success is due to the puzzling stamina of trance, which has largely been electronic music's most beloved subgenre since the mid-'90s. While he was most renowned as a producer during the genre's first and second waves--his first single, "Blue Fear," was a Sasha and Digweed crate fave almost a decade ago--he is now more beloved as a DJ who champions the warm, melodic, anthemic sound that Oakenfold made globally popular in the late '90s. However, he does reiterate what he sees as a distinction between the sort he plays and the cliché-addled Euro-cheese type that gets played in mainstream clubs.

"I'm not ashamed to call my music trance because it is trance," says Van Buuren. "I mean, Paul van Dyk can call it electronic music, but he's playing trance. He's afraid to call it trance because we all know and feel that ever since the big hype, with all the big cheesy riffs and vocals and breakdowns, ever since that happened, we basically got stuck with the trance genre and the commercialization around it. For me, it's cool, underground club music. It points more to the state you're in."

With a tour, promoting a new album, recording another (his sophomore artist release is due next year), the radio show and the label (both of which he does for free), Van Buuren has been working nonstop, making it tougher to socialize or reflect on his recent success. But he knows he must maintain the momentum and forego personal time, given a DJ's usual shelf life.

"You have to consider that your lifespan as a DJ may be a little more than regular artists in the charts, but it's usually no longer than about 10 years," says Van Buuren. "So, you have to make your money and fame in those 10 years. It's a pretty tough thing. You don't have the social life anymore. You have constant jet lag. But if you can cope with that, it's a fantastic life."