PVD speaks “A Grammy is pretty much the biggest award you can get as an artist. Everyone says that even just being nominated is a huge honour and puts you on top of what you do.” Chatting down the line from his German headquarters, Paul Van Dyk admits he’s excited about being up for a GrammyAward in the new Best Electronic/Dance Album category for Reflections. ‘I don’t know anyone from the American Music Academy so I don’t know what their view on things are, but it’s great,” he repeats. “Let’s see what happens.” Whether he wins or not, his nomination is certain to boost his profile in mainstream America even further, on top the prominence he gained from being a figurehead for voter mobilisation organisation Rock The Vote in last year’s Presidential elections. Fiercely critical of the Bush administration personally he nevertheless managed to maintain the impartiality necessary for his task. “From the very first day that I was involved with Rock The Vote, I said: ‘I’m European, I’m German, I don’t even have an American passport, I cannot vote, I’m not going to tell you who to vote fo. The only thing that I’m interested in is that you, if you have an opinion – go and vote’,” says Paul. “I tried to push democracy in terms of a democratic process of election and I didn’t tell them who to vote for. Throughout the whole campaign, when people asked me who I would vote for, I never basically said I would vote for this person or that person.” And three months after Bush won, he’s as interested in US politics as ever, he insists. “I didn’t change my views on politics. For me politics is about getting involved and trying to change something,” says Paul. “I believe that’s necessary, especially in times like this where some strange small group takes over America and is trying to attack the next country (Iran), while they’re still in the middle of two wars they haven’t finished. I’m still as politically interested and engaged as I was before, I think these times it’s even more necessary that you do something when you see something is wrong.” Unsurprisingly, then, his follow up compilation to his mix CD Politics Of Dancing is called Politics Of Dancing 2, a project he’s close (-ish) to finishing. “I would say I’m still in the middle of the project, I have a lot of separate parts of tracks that I chosen, and I have to put all these parts back together and bring everything back to order,” he explains. “I’m also just finishing off a new one, – a song of mine, that’s going to be on the mix CD as well.” Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): How would you describe the compilation’s musical style? Paul Van Dyk: “It’s what I would call up to date electronic dance music, ranging from techno-y things by Chris Liebing to smoother tracks, covering the whole range of styles I enjoy playing.” Skrufff You spoke enthusiastically about catching Sasha playing a rock flavoured set in your Mixmag column recently, is rock an area you’re tempted by? Paul Van Dyk: “When I said Sasha was doing his rock stuff, it was like real rock stuff he was splaying, not just rock elements in electronic music, which I sometimes use. He was playing really cool rock tracks, somehow. But it’s not for me. He’s very special doing his own thing and I enjoy listening to Sasha doing it but I think it would probably be very annoying if someone else started trying to do it like Sasha does. I do my own thing.” Skrufff: You spent lots of energy campaigning for Rock The Vote last year, what conclusions did you reach from your experiences? Paul Van Dyk: “In terms of persuading young new voters to the polls, Rock The Vote and all the other voter mobilization organizations were very successful. People talk about numbers being between 10 and 11 million new young voters, so that’s a huge result. But obviously Bush mobilized even the last corner of the country and was able to get more votes. Fair enough, that’s democracy so we have to accept that, but that brings all of us even as Europeans and Asians and people outside of America, even more on the table now, because now we have to deal with four more years of the Bush administration, and we have seen in the last four years what they are capable of doing. Now it is even more necessary that we take a clear stand, and that if they actually go ahead and try to plan an attack on Iran, we all have to be very outspoken, not just sitting next to a glass of beer, going out on the street and demonstrating. We have to protest even more than we did before the war against Iraq.” Skrufff: You’re playing in Colombia shortly, a destination some DJs love, whilst others daren’t visit, have you been there before? Paul Van Dyk: “ “No. It’s my first time. Of course I was thinking beforehand. lets see what’s going on there but I don’t think its more dangerous than a lot of other places. I hear a lot of very good things about South America in general and especially about Colombia, and I’m looking forward to going. We have security set up when we’re there anyway, but we usually have that wherever I go, so it’s nothing too special really.” Skrufff: You’ve got the Grammy nomination for ‘Reflections’ coming up soon, are you going to attend the ceremony and will you be wearing a tuxedo? Paul Van Dyk: “Yeah we are going to be there. I have an appointment tomorrow to go to a store to have a look at clothes, but I don’t really have a clue yet.” Skrufff: Tiesto said recently that he prefers shopping with his friends rather than his girlfriend, are you the same? Paul Van Dyk: “My wife is the best advisor in all circumstances of life, so she is always with me when I go shopping. I’ll probably wear a nice suit I guess and a shirt, maybe a little flashier than usual. I really don’t know yet.” Skrufff: I interviewed Alexander from Jazzanova last year and he was telling me about when the two of you were friends growing up in East Germany, How you were both the biggest Smiths fans in East Berlin . . . Paul Van Dyk: “To be really honest I don’t have a clue who that person was who talked about me in that interview. I did try to find a picture of him on the internet to see if it rang any bells but I still don’t have a clue who he is today. He was saying things about me being arrogant and stuff like that; I’m a lot of things, but certainly not arrogant. On the other hand, it’s pretty weird that something that happened more than 20 years ago is still so important to him, if it did happen. That’s something I was wondering about. The thing is; unless he has so drastically changed in the last 20 years that he’s not recognizable anymore, I don’t have a clue who that guy is. I’m still in contact with friends from the past, big time, and no-one seems to know who he was. ” Skrufff: Did you like Morrissey’s latest album You Are The Quarry? Paul Van Dyk: “I love the album and that track First Of The Gang To Die in particular was one of my favourites.” Skrufff: Have you ever met Morrisey? Paul Van Dyk: “No. I decided at one point not to meet any of my heroes from my youth, to be honest. I found that whenever I met the people that I really admired as a kid, it was disappointing rather than exciting so I decided not to do it anymore. I’d rather keep the music alive than messing it up by having an opinion about the person.” Skrufff: Presumably you get quite a lot of people meeting you who view you as an inspiration or hero, do you find that strange? Paul Van Dyk: “I hope when they meet me they have more of a positive experience.”
