[i:Vibes] interviews another one of the many top talents from Holland, DJ Precision, who has played at many of the top events alongside some of the biggest names...
For those readers who are not quite familiar with who DJ Precision is, could you give us a little bit of background information about yourself? Sure! My real name is Pascal van Eijk. I'm 29 years old and currently living in Zoeterwoude in the Netherlands together with my girlfriend Saskia. My daily job is working as storemanager at Only-DJs.com. Furthermore I'm a DJ. I'm resident at the Club XL in Amsterdam (together with Spider, Misja Helsloot, DJ Astrid, Dazzle etc.) and I'm also DJing at many other parties in the Netherlands and abroad. I'm also pretty busy with starting my own label called Somatic Sense. But that's all pretty premature, because it's a lot of work to sort everything out, like the administration, juridical stuff etc. How long have you been DJ'ing for and how did you get your first major breakthrough? I DJ'd for already 9 years before I started to get a bit popular. Back in 1998 I got my first real pro-residency. That was at ClubX in Belgium, which was notorious all over the Netherlands. In the meantime I also started spinning at some club nights in the western part of the Netherlands (Trancebuddha in Amsterdam and the Mushroom parties in Zaandam). In 2001 I got my first booking at an outdoor festival in the Netherlands: ID&T's Mysteryland. After that I got a few new residencies, like in Germany, at a great clubproject from Talla 2XLC, called Bostich Club. But unfortunately last weekend was the closing party, because the venue the party was given at seemed to be the wrong choice. But the Bostich Club-project will return in the future! Nowadays I'm resident at the newest club in Amsterdam, called XL (XtraLarge). I think we are one of the few real trance clubs in the Netherlands, with a great resident-team (not because I'm in it!) and superb guest-djs. Since the opening 3 months ago, we already invited Armin van Buuren a few times, as well as Ferry Corsten, Dumonde, Rank 1, Push, Yves De Ruyter, Tomcraft, Remy, Cor Fijneman, Scott Bond, Lucien Foort and many others! Over the years.. what has been your most memorable DJ'ing experience and why? I think it was spinning at the Extrema festival last summer. I was booked for the I Love Trance area (with Ferry Corsten, Misja Helsloot, Guy Ornadel, Spider etc) and after me, Guy Ornadel should spin. But because he was late, I could spin a 3,5 hour set at this festival!!! The weather was great, the crowd was awesome: it was one hell of a party! Have you had any comical or strange DJ'ing experiences? Oh, I got plenty :) Comical is certainly that I put a six-pack of Red Bull on a turntable, because I thought it was funny to see it spinning around. But I accidentally put it on the wrong turntable with the record playing. Oops! A strange experience certainly was when I spun my first big production, Albert vs. Precision - Say Yes. Many people came over to me to tell me it was great. And it's really weird when you see a full club dancing the roof off on your own production! Is there anywhere that you would like to DJ at but have yet to have the chance? Have you had any thoughts about coming over to play at some of the top clubs in the UK? Ooooh yeah! I think it's every DJs wish to spin at some of the top clubs in the UK once, like Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, Passion, R@TT, Slinky, The Gallery etc. Or those huge festivals, like Creamfields, Homelands, GCSSS, Godskitchen Global Gathering. What I heard from colleague-DJs, that's a real different experience than spinning in the Netherlands or somewhere else in Europe. It's an happening on it's own with the mad UK crowd!!! I hope I can play there once! Let somebody book me and I say yes immediately :)
If you could pick absolutely anyone... Who would you love to play alongside with for the night? That would be a battle with Armin van Buuren, Tiësto or Paul van Dyk. I already spun a few times before and after Armin, but I never did a battle with him. For Tiësto and PVD: I really think their style is great and suits mine, so I hope to perform with them sometimes in the future! Tell us a little about your producing and what you have worked on in the past. I did some solo-productions and some collaborations. It really started getting big for me with Precision & The Freak - The Progress last year. That one ended on many compilation series and scored pretty well in the UK. In the Netherlands it reached the #1 position in the dance charts. The track after that was Albert vs. Precision - Say Yes. Katana did a remix for that track and it blew off the roof last summer. It was supported by all big DJs over the world like Tiësto, Judge Jules, Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren, Pete Tong, Talla 2XLC, Guy Ornadel and many others. The track held the number 1 position in the Dutch dance charts for 3 weeks, which is pretty rare! It was also featured on many trance compilations from the biggest clubs and events like Sensation, Cream, Trance Energy, Ministry of Sound, Technoclub etc. And about 3 months ago, Katana and I remixed Viframa - Cristalle, which is doing well at the moment. Again picked up by all the top jocks like Armin, Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten, Marco V, Cosmic Gate, Tiësto, Judge Jules etc. Licensing for compilations and stuff is coming in, so expect it on many compilations again! For now, I just finished a remix on the latest track of Talla 2XLC, called A Dream Within. It probably won't be released under the name Talla 2XLC, but as Digital Tension - A Dream Within. When we got more info about a release date etc, we'll let you know! My future plans for 2003 are doing some releases at my new-to-start label, Somatic Sense. And also some exciting collaborations are coming up later this year I think! See keep your eyes open! What equipment do you use for producing? I'm working with Cubase mostly and using some cool plugins. We hardly use any hardware anymore! Only some synthesizers to play the melody etc, but that's almost it. The rest all is done with software! Do you have any tips or advice for amateur producers? Yes of course! Believe in your own style, produce what you like and DJ what you like! Don't start with a style for the hype, but do it because you love it! Are there any DJ's or Producers that you would love to work with one day? Oh yeah, I can give you plenty of names I wish to collaborate with once! Like Tiësto and Armin. But also with for example Solar Stone and Above & Beyond. Or Jurgen and Laurent from Fire & Ice, or Piet & Benno from Rank 1. One day I really hope to do a collaboration with one of these, but of course I also realise that it will be difficult. If it might happen, a dream will come true!
They have been the topic of many organisations DJ's and Producers like yourself... What is your opinion on MP3's and their impact on the music industry? Do you see a good side to these MP3's ? Well, the MP3-thing got two sides. The good thing is the promotion part. Your tracks will be all over the world, also in countries where they don't got our vinyl. So it's good that those people can hear your music too. But on the other side, and that's a very bad thing, is of course the negative aspect. Because of MP3, record companies will have problems to survive. Labels hardly earn anything on vinyl's, the big thing are the CD-sales. If tracks don't get licensed anymore, because for example the compilations-market collapsed (because everyone is burning them), then there will be less money available to give new artists a chance. New artists are always a risk, because they can't just sell records on their names, they aren't famous yet. For example, if some very well-known producer releases a record which doesn't get much attention, he will still sell pretty much, just because he's that famous producer. It's not like that with a new artist, so that's the risk for labels. And if labels don't have enough money anymore to take a risk like that, it will mean that new artists won't get a chance anymore because labels play on the safe side and only release tracks from well-known producers. Because that guarantees at least some revenues. But I have to say that I agree with the people who say that compilations are too expensive. I mean, 25 euros for one CD really is too much. So the music industry really should do something about that too! And finally, is there anything else you would like to add for [i:vibes] viewers to read? If you wanna keep posted with everything I do (diaries, news, play lists, gigs etc), make sure to visit my site (http://www.djprecision.nl). Keep an eye on my site anyway, because later on this week, the new and improved design will be launched! Respect to all of you and keep supporting the dance music!!!
Many thanks to Pascal for taking the time to talk to us!
-=Sygnus=-
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