Oliver Heldens is in the house this weekend

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Oliver Heldens is in the house this weekend
Oliver Heldens

Published: Wed 2 May 2018, 5:57 PM

Last updated: Mon 7 May 2018, 7:25 PM

DUTCH DJ AND producer Oliver Heldens' rapid rise began when his song Gecko caught the attention of fellow Dutch DJ Tiësto. Pete Tong's FFRR imprint snapped it up and took it to the UK number one spot with a vocal from Becky Hill. Remixes for Coldplay, Martin Garrix, Robin Thicke, Disclosure and Calvin Harris followed catapulting Heldens into the mainstream to the extent he is now regarded as a 'future house' pioneer.
The Friday pool & beach brunch, Ritual at Zero Gravity is where you'll find him this weekend, but before that we caught up with the artist to find out what makes him tick.
How has your own style evolved over the years?
I've been doing more darker bass heavy things with my HI-LO alias which I started in 2015. Over the years, HI-LO has become a little bit more techno influenced. While as Oliver Heldens I've been doing more melodic things over the years, with warmer and more organic sounds, and working more with vocals, while at the same time doing more clubby stuff too. In general, I've been widening my horizons and I'll keep doing this. And actually I'm not tired at all of my earlier music, I still love playing tracks like Gecko, Koala and Can't Stop Playing in my sets!
What have you got planned for your Dubai set?
For my sets I'm always working on new edits/bootlegs/remixes/mashups and those will probably surprise the crowd. I'll of course play a lot of my own music as well, but also with my own tracks I like to mash them up with other things I love. I take a lot of vocals and samples from songs, new and old (actually a lot of old ones) from a wide variety of artists like from Madonna to Eminem to ABBA to Justin Timberlake to Cardi B. Mixing them up with my own music or other tracks I love, result into pretty interesting and fun dance floor weapons. At my shows you can expect to dance and you won't stop dancing.
What do you think of our city?
It's becoming a real hotspot actually! It seems like the city is really catching on more and more to electronic dance music. I've performed at Zero Gravity a couple of times before and I always loved it. Also, Dubai is literally the perfect place to do a show in on the way to Asia/Australia or on the way back to Europe.
Where is the best place to spin a few tracks?
Wherever people want to dance and have a good time! There are so many great places all over the world, I can't pick!
What are your thoughts on the future of dance music?
I'm very positive! In the last three decades it has been evolving into so many different sub-genres/styles/sounds, there's always exciting new things going on, while at the same time the 'roots', the back to the basics stuff, never dies. They always come back and only keep growing over time. There are many DJs with internationally successful careers of longer than 15 years - that's a good sign. And since EDM became such a worldwide commercial success only a couple of years ago, it opened lots of doors for all those different sub-genres. I'm very excited about the future!
What are you working on right now?
I'm not necessarily heading into one certain direction. I'm currently working on a lot of different things, one of my next releases I'm really excited about. It's called Fire In My Soul and is much inspired by African music. The vocals on that track are by a very talented Zimbabwean singer/songwriter, called Shungudzo. Also I made a rework of Sidney Samson's 2009 club hit Riverside, on which I was very inspired by old-school electro stuff and Italo disco. And soon I'll release my remix of Calvin Harris' & Dua Lipa's One Kiss, this one is pretty deep and dark, but still melodic/soulful.
Who do you credit as influences and who are you listening to at the moment?
For my Future House style tracks like Gecko and Koala I was very inspired by the 2012/2013 UK Garage/Deep House stuff (Disclosure, Kaytranada, Julio Bashmore, MK, Dusky, Shadow Child), but I was also very inspired by the 2006-2009 Electro/House/Club sound (Fedde Le Grand, Chocolate Puma, Chris Lake, D Ramirez, Crookers, Axwell, Bingo Players, Sander van Doorn, Laidback Luke).
Right now as HI-LO I'm drawing much inspiration from Techno artists like Enrico Sangiuliano, Dense & Pika, Pig & Dan and Umek. From the more 'pop'/dance world, I love what artists like The Knocks, Sofi Tukker and Calvin Harris are doing. And the African music which inspires me the most is from this duo from Mali, called Amadou & Mariam, you should definitely check them out.
Oliver's advice on getting into the music business...
"It's all about bringing something unique to the table. There are so many people out there trying to make it in music and you'll never really stand out if you're just the next person trying to do what everyone else is doing. If you are able to prove that you can do something unique to you, it'll open many doors."
You can spend the whole day by the beach and pool at Zero Gravity as doors open at 8am. Experience four hours of unlimited pool & beach BBQ brunch. Food stations accompanied with beverages, pool and beach access from 1pm to 5pm for Dhs295 for ladies and Dhs315 for guys.
david@khaleejtimes.com 

By David Light

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