ARMAND VAN HELDEN A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED Armand Van Helden isn't like other DJs. He's not pretentious, projecting a studied 'image'. And he isn't self-conscious. In fact, he's won fans with his unusually frank proclamations about dance culture as much as his music. Van Helden may refer to himself as a New Yorker, but with his father in the U.S. Airforce, he grew up in far-flung places like Holland, Turkey and Italy. As a teenager, Van Helden entertained his fellow "military brats" on army bases as a DJ. Later he settled in Boston - his birthplace - to attend college. It was here that he fell into the house underground amid the fervour of the late '80s. He started promoting parties before progressing to working on his own productions. 'Stay On My Mind', released in 1992, was his first single, but it was the ravey 'Witchdoktor' two years on that ignited and, before long, he was fielding prestigious remix offers. Rather than turn out forgettable club reworkings, Van Helden pushed the envelope. His (uncommissioned) take on Tori Amos' 'Professional Widow' was a smash in the UK, eclipsing the original, while his versions of CJ Bolland's 'Sugar Is Sweeter' and Sneaker Pimps' 'Spin Spin Sugar' foreshadowed speed garage. Van Helden's first real act of rebellion - or perversity - was to release a hip hop album, 'Sampleslayer... Enter The Meatmarket' - just as he'd been identified as house music's new wunderkind. While that album misfired, he did vindicate himself in the eyes of purists with the classic garage anthem, 'U Don't Know Me' and his 1999 album, '2Future4U'. Now, two years after venturing out with 'Nympho', Van Helden is preparing to unleash another album, 'Ghettoblaster'. "It's nothing like my last album," he asserts proudly. "I'm pretty good at disappointing my fans [laughs]. Usually, if I have a fan, they know I don't just stick to one genre. Each album is its own entity, there's no connection, there's nothing fluid from one to the next. It's like big leaps to get to the next one. But [Ghettoblaster is] a throwback, and it's kinda retro, it's mid-'80s, but I'd say more soul. I think if there's any defining thing that the record has, anything that sticks out in my head, it's soul. Even though people will be like, 'Well, that's not really the sound we know from Armand', that's what I'm doing. It's more like a breakdance feel." Breakdance, yes, but not necessarily hip hop, he clarifies. "There's some hip hop on it, but I wouldn't call it 'hip hop' - it's more like hip house, there's a couple of hip house songs on there, for sure." Van Helden has long acknowledged his divided loyalties - his being equally fixated with house and hip hop. At one stage he hinted at becoming an R&B producer, such was his ambivalence towards house. Today Armand has changed his tune. He's excited by the state of dance. "It's healthy, the scene, the music - everything's healthy. I've seen it in worse places. But I'd say it's in a great place. The music is good. There's a lot of variety in the music - a lot of different people doing different stuff." He does, however, miss the early days when, with fewer producers, the DJ/producer was exalted as "a magician." Some of that mystique has evaporated. "Now everybody's got a laptop and they're making beats." And Armand wishes that the dance scene, especially in the US, was ethnically diverse. In 2007 he's actually less enamoured with hip hop. "It's weird with me. I've considered myself hip hop since I can remember, since I was a little kid, so it's always been first with me ... But I've been off hip hop for a long time now, probably three years, because the thing that happened here in the States is crunk - and I don't get it! "There was a time when NY ruled - forever, it seemed. Now if you're from NY, and you sound like you're from NY, you can't even get a record deal, so that's what's happened to hip hop. I'm not trying to take it away from the kids, because there's plenty of stuff out there - and I'm sure there's plenty of great songs - but, me being ol' school, I've lost touch to an extent." While he might consider himself old School, Van Helden has no plans to retire from the DJ game just yet. "I'll always DJ, but I won't be a DJ, I guess ... If it's time to hang it up, you should know when to be like, 'I'ma do something else for a living now or go on boat cruises for the rest of my life', whatever you gotta do!" At any rate, Van Helden, dance music's illusionist, likes to keep the club world guessing. In this regard, he's the ideal headliner for The Smirnoff Experience, to be held in a 'secret' location in April. "I'm just gonna do my thing - I don't know what else they would expect from me," he laughs meaningfully. "I'm gonna come in and play new joints off my record and hopefully play a block rockin' set - it's just what I do." Cyclone Armand Van Helden will be DJing at The Smirnoff Experience. It takes place at a secret location on Saturday April 28. To win entry head on over to www.smirnoffexperience.com.au back to top ^

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