Markus Schulz

German-born US-based Markus Schulz is often credited with being one of a handful of US DJs that permanently revolutionised the US Trance scene. With a distinct sound that constantly falls between Trance and Prog-House, Markus Schulz’s weekly radio show The Global DJ Broadcast has attracted tens of millions of listeners across the globe, consistently propelling Markus’ own production into top positions in the Beatport and other electronic charts. Music-News caught up with him to talk about developments in the global Trance scene


1) You’ve been in the scene for years- how have you seen trance develop?

I think Trance died in some peoples eyes over the last couple of years but every where I’ve been playing around the world it feels like it has this resurgence right now, and I think we’re back on an upcycle again, there’s been a lot of especially in the last 6 months - of interest in the Trance scene, in the Trance artists and also the stages at these festivals, the Trance stages have been some of the busiest stages out of all of them, I think that its making a huge comeback but to be honest with you its never been, it never really went anywhere its just when you consider the success that Trance had in the past, it was on a little bit of a down cycle but at the same time it never really went anywhere.

2) What do you think is driving this resurgence?

I think first of all the media doesn’t want to talk about the same things all the time, and the trance scene started to get a little bit tired. But some new artists have risen up and some new artists have come up with some new sounds and some new twists, and I think that the media have once again become tired with the mainstream house stuff and started looking for what else is out there they’re realising “Oh my god! The Trance scene is huge, its blowing up and amazing things are happening so I guess that’s kind of been one of the reasons”

3) Its such a ‘big’ sound - perhaps best suited to superclubs, festivals. It’s been said that this makes Trance a difficult genre to break into for new artists as its hard to play it out in the smaller venues and clubs where emerging talent usually starts out -

The stuff I do is a lot more club friendly anyway, the stuff I do at festivals is more stadium-esque but thats not always the case. If Trance is done right it works very well in the club, I think the problem is there was a lot of DJs that rolled out their 90 minute set and didn’t know how to build a set and just kind of banged it end to end and that’s one of the reasons why Trance started faltering in some of the clubs and it was a lack of DJs that knew how to play it in the clubs. Particularly opening sets - when you’re starting a night and you’re opening with tracks at 140 BPM it just doesnt work. I think some people left the Trance scene and at the same time new people came in, and those new people had some growing pains, but now its exciting and people are starting to see a huge resurgence hype-wise.


4) Your well known for your radio shows - do you feel radio can survive? Is it as important?

Radio’s very important. The traditional terrestrial stations has got less and less but that being said, its still the only in many ways and for many people the only viable place you can go to hit the mainstream market. I guess we almost as a producers and enthusiasts have to nurture the online stations, stations like di.fm would not be where they are now if it we didnt all support it and they didnt support the scene. It goes both ways. A radio will support a scene, and in return the scene needs to support radio. For me and my own brand - radio’s really important - I’ve been doing it for 8 or 9 years now and I owe a lot of my success to that.

5) You’ve DJ’ed all over the world. How do you feel the British or European Trance scene compares to the American one?

I think what you’re starting to see in Europe is what happened in the US over the last couple of years, you’re starting to see a kind of youth movement here. The scene was beginning to feel a bit tired and now you’ve got this new, exciting influx of youth in our scene and with it they’re bringing new producers, new ideas and their bringing this new found passion and energy into the scene. I’m definitely seeing and feeling a big youth movement.

6) As an international act do you see the Trance scene, like house music in particular, becoming increasingly global going forward?

Trance when you think of it probably was the first truly international genre, and certainly the resurgence we’re seeing is affecting all areas. The style is different however - this is no longer that infamous “Big Brother Theme” sound. Some purists do scoff at it, but its the new generation’s trance music and they’re bringing their own ideas and own spin to it, making it fresh again internationally, scene-to-scene. Trance in general has been the sound in many ways of the ‘internet generation’ and the sound is everywhere. i do 150-175 gigs a year and I see it first hand from the Middle East to Asia to South America to South Africa, Europe, US, Trance is everywhere and as each new area emerges Trance will be there with it.

7) Production and DJing-wise there’s recently been a lot of genre-crossing between house, bass music. Trance is a pretty distinctive genre though - will this happen to the same extent with Trance DJs?

You’re already beginning to see a lot of Trance DJs playing house and it’s sub-genres into their sets. A lot of stuff under the house category today could be increasingly seen as an offshoot of trance anyway. I think that with modern technology you are able to incorporate different sounds and different styles. Back in the day everything was on vinyl and it was all classified: it was trance or it was house or it was another genre and you couldn’t mix and match it as well because the tracks weren’t produced in the same way - nor was their the technology to create the same mash-ups you can today. Now you’re able to incorporate more sounds not just in your production but you can incorporate different sounds from anything into your live set. With that Trance DJs have already started experimenting with all kinds of different sounds.



8) What are your own plans going forward?

I love what I’m doing and where the music is right now - I just realised my new album ‘Scream’ which still has the Markus Schulz soul to it but at the same time its got a new twist on it as well,. It’s exciting to just evolve as an artist and kinda grow as the scene grows. I look forward to touring and promoting both the album and myself as an ongoing DJ.

9) What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

Find your sound, the sound that really represents you as a person, as an artist, and then work on creating that sound both in your DJ sets and in your productions. You really need to have your own production because they’re your business card as to who you are as a DJ. The easiest way is to find a circle of DJs that you have a good connection with musically and make music for each other, that’s a good way to break through.


Markus Schulz New Album ‘Scream’ will be released August 31. For more info go to http://www.markusschulz.com/