Joris Voorn Interview
Rob: Hey Joris, how are you? I heard you were in Leeds the weekend just gone?
Joris: Yeah was a great show and a really great night?
Rob: Do you like the Leeds scene? It’s got quite a big crowd over there.
Joris: To be honest I just love the UK in general. It always has such a good energy and people are really into the music and just love to party. It’s always just really positive vibes!
Rob: Lets start off with your album ‘Nobody Knows’, obviously that has just dropped, what was it like creating the full length, how long was the process?
Joris: It’s been quite a long process actually, I probably started it all off in about 2008. I was just playing around with a guitar that I bought from a friend of mine, and I used to play guitar a lot when I was young, and I had just finished my Balance mix so I had some spare time so I thought why not make some music for fun so I just started playing around and recorded some things in the computer and then I put all sorts of instruments on top and there were some nice kind of compositions and it was obviously very different to all my other work and all the house and techno stuff, but I really liked it and then it kind of got to the point where I thought ‘you know what, this could lead to an album in some kind of way’. Once I had that thought it was about putting it into a structure so that it made sense to me, as an artist and also personally because it was so incredibly different from anything else I had done before. I was really struggling to get it right and get the sound I wanted for myself. I wanted it to be clear it sounded like me but also that it was different so it was tricky to get right.
Rob: Excellent, and the title, what inspired the title?
Joris: I think that has probably stemmed from the fact that people know me for dance music but also from my last 2 albums you can tell that I am more diverse than that. So being on the road every weekend doing shows and obviously releasing very club and dance related tracks.
Rob: So obviously on the album there is a lot going on, a lot of instruments, guitars, synths, pianos. What was your studio setup like?
Joris: The studio setup was quite simple actually. We had some acoustic guitars and some electric guitars and mikes. Lots of shakers and middle percussion instruments, which you can hear back throughout the album, so it’s quite an organic kind of sound, so not so electronic and drum computer based. A lot of the piano stuff is all done inside the computer. Nowadays the way music production software and sample banks have been developed it sounds all real and very warm and organic, so a lot of it has been done in the computer, but I did go to London to go into the studio with a producer to listen to a musician called Shaun Lee and he is based in London and he has played every single instrument that has ever existed! Haha, so he did some great drums and percussion work, base guitar and guitar bits, basically all kind of things. Anything you can think of, he plays! I didn’t use all the parts that he played in the end but quite of nice bits did get used. So overall I think there is a very diverse sound palette you can hear, and they come from very different backgrounds.
“so it’s quite an organic kind of sound, so not so electronic and drum computer based.”
Rob: And working with Kid A, how was that? Was that good?
Joris: It was amazing! She is a very talented singer from Virginia. She was very motivated to work on the music. I had heard her music through another friend of mine who worked with her previously and I thought, I really need to get her in. She was really happy to work with me and when she returned the tracks with the vocals on, it was really something. She made her lyrics and singing really fit in with the music. It was a great balance between what I sent her, the demos, and a good lead vocal that blended very well with electronic backgrounds.
Rob: Excellent. So to summarise, do you have a favourite track on the piece? Which one for you stands out the most?
Joris: That’s a difficult one. I definitely have a couple of ones. I really like the last one ‘Dust’ that is very low tempo and is actually one of the ones that Shaun Lee worked on with the drums and bass guitar. It’s quite simple actually but there is a lot of atmosphere in there and a lot of the indie sounds and guitar sounds that I really like. Also with the combination of hypnotic synths on top I think it works really well.
Rob: Moving on, I hear you off to America tomorrow, is that right? Are you excited to be over there again?
Joris: Yeah I’m really excited. It’s always great to be over in the U.S. and they are always great gigs. It’s going to be a busy weekend because it’s thanksgiving over there so there is a lot of stuff going on so the gigs will be doubly great.
Rob: So yeah, just going back to what you just said there, do you think the current climate over there rivals Europe?
Joris: I think only in the sense when you look at a DJ’s diary as because of the scene over there it makes it harder to do as many gigs in Europe as you would like. I do think though that it is very healthy competition. There is a lot of inspiration from the scene over there. It’s still different scene to Europe as it still is rather young and new, but it is really picking up, and the people are very eager to go and listen to quality dance music.
Rob: So you recently worked with Matthew Dear who is obviously a legend. How was it working with him?
Joris: Yeah it was amazing and like you say he is a legend and has been around for a really long time and what I like about him is that he is really diverse and has done the more minimal stuff in the past but also done some really solid, euphoric techno stuff. He also does his bands and he sings and when we sent him the track he kind of laid down some moody, a bit bluesy vocals on top, which were very different from anything that I could have imagined but it really fitted well. He also did all the production for the vocals so it was a very interesting collaboration. So when you work with another artist, you never know what you are going to get back but I think in the case of Matthew it was the biggest surprise ever. It worked out really well.
“laid down some moody, a bit bluesy vocals on top, which were very different from anything that I could have imagined but it really fitted well”
Rob: Just moving on to the Christmas period, you are playing in Amsterdam at Valhalla, which is now in its third year. You must be excited to be playing that one?
Joris: Yeah I’ve not actually been there before myself but I’ve heard great things of it being an amazing festival, and it’s always nice to play that close to Christmas, as there is a great vibe in the air.
Rob: And Holland has a lot of amazing festivals. Why do you think the country is so special on the festival circuit?
Joris: Yeah it’s mad! The last couple of years the festivals have been growing like crazy! There are so many new ones and so many small and quirky ones, with a great audience. It’s the bigger festivals that are having the tough time competing with all these small, little festivals. People are a little sick of the mass produced festivals and are searching for something else. There’s a different more intimate vibe.
Rob: Obviously I need to mention the club Trouw. It’s sad to see the club close. Have you got any fond memories of the venue?
Joris: Yeah I’ve been playing there for like 5 years I think. Every single time has been amazing. They’ve all been memorable. It’s a club like no other. It’s a relatively small place, I’d say the main room holds like 700 but that’s the perfect size and the people are laid out all around you and they are really magical moments when you play there!
Rob: So in the New Year, where can we see you play?
Joris: Yeah I’m going be in Spain in New Year. There is a big festival on the 1st January. It’s called Madrid Winter Music Festival. The night before I’ll be in a club called Florida 135.
Rob: What have you got for us to be excited over in the rest of 2015?
Joris: I’m doing the opening party of BPM with Nic Fancuilli. We are doing the Lost Media Concept, that’s something I’m looking forward to and there is a lot of amazing club gigs.
Rob: That sounds excellent! Well thank you very much for your time Joris; it’s been a pleasure as always.
Joris: No worries mate, you too.
