Q: Introduce yourself
I’m VANDER - passionate DJ and producer from Dominican Republic and based in Amsterdam.
Q: Analog or Digital and why?
I would say both because you can get cool stuff from them. It’s just different.BUT, if I had a gun in my head (haha) and I had to choose one or the other, I think I would go analog for its warmer sound.
Q: Favorite Club/Venue and why does it stand out from the rest?
De Marktkantine in Amsterdam. Besides having a great and huge infrastructure they have the most passionate and professional team I know. They all have a huge space in my heart.
Q: What was the driving force that got you into DJing/Producing and when?
Not sure what’s the driving force, it just comes naturally to me to create music. I’ve surrounded myself with music since I have memory. If I wasn’t listening to music at home I was playing bass in different rock bands in my home country for basically all my teenage life. I was also throwing parties since I was 13 years old. I even got kicked out of my middle school for it (haha). That was when I discovered the art of DJing, actually. I am lucky enough to have a very experienced (more than 20 years) DJ uncle that has been guiding me and taught me how to DJ but it wasn’t until I was 20 that I discovered raves, house music and techno and I started to get more serious about this.I moved to Melbourne, Australia for six months when I was 21 and that’s when I dived into the rave culture. I was partying every weekend and I fell in love with the dance culture. I fell in love with what our culture represents and what brings to the world. The more I was getting into it the more I wanted to be involved. I remember like it was yesterday when I said to my friend Diego, “I want to do this for the rest of my life. I’m going to become a DJ.” The week after I bought myself an ableton launchpad mini and that was the beginning of this amazing journey.
Q: If you were to have a superpower, what would it be and why?
Teleportation. I would save so much time!
Q: Favorite Dish?
Burgers.
Q: What’s your biggest fear while performing?
I would say that my laptop dies on stage but then I saw a video of a guy jumping to stage to say hi to the DJ and then literally pulling the desk to the floor so I changed my mind to that hahaha. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icZZKMAnjRQ
Q: 1 person you’d dream to have a coffee with?
Good question. Gary Vaynerchuck. That guy is a machine.
Q: If you would have been given the chance to do a film score from the past, what movie would you choose and why?
I’m not much into movies but I would go with Batman: Dark Night. Besides being one of my favorite movies, I think action movies are super cool to make the music to it. There’s a lot going on energy-wise so there’s room to go crazy in their climax while also having room to go quiterer and dramatic in different scenes.
Q: Recommend a Hidden Gem in your Home country
Vale La Pena - Juan Luis Guerra ;)
Q: 3 Tracks that got you into electronic music
Daft Punk - One More Time
Nicolas Jaar - The Ego
Blond:ish feat. Thomas Gandey - Voyeur (Jay Shepheard & Martin Dawson Remix)
Q: Tell us about your upcoming releases and plans for this year (Exclusive release/announcement)
For this year I’m working in a new platform to give myself and my producer friends a space to explore their creativity. It will be a digital label but we will operate very differently. Can’t talk much about it but if you follow me on my social media you will hear about it (very) soon. I'm working on four EP's at the moment as well. All collaborations with great friends and producers. Bora Uzer, Mynox & Myself are working in one EP called Breathe.Mynox & Vander - Le Petite Fleur (I closed the podcast with the track for you guys to preview.)Lev Tatarox & Vander - The PathJose Noventa & Vander - Groove in Control. We want to release all next year. All the tracks have been receiving great feedback so I’m very curious about next year. It will be a good year.
Q: Tell us a fun fact about yourself that most of your listeners don’t know.
Hmm… Fun fact: I came to Amsterdam to pursue a masters degree in Civil Engineering but I quit after a year to fully focused on music. Best decision ever.
Vander Socials
Interviewed by GBS - August.23.2019
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