While covering their performance at Playhouse Hollywood last Friday, we had a chance to sit down with the Belgian brothers Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike to discuss current workings, past accomplishments, and plans for the future. These guys are some of the coolest, nicest, and funniest producers we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Read the full interview after the jump, and make sure to check out our comprehensive review, complete with pictures from the evening!
Raw Goodage | Electronic Music Blog – Exclusive Interview w/ Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike
We heard this is your first show in Hollywood. Welcome! How do you guys feel about that? A lot of support already?
Twitter wise, we can tell what’s happening! People are blowing us up about tonight.
Your last US tour finished off at Escape from Wonderland. You guys had one of the best (and most memorable) sets of the night. It was full of energy and you guys would quickly transition from track to track. Is the reaction from an LA crowd any different from other places you play?
I mean, like I was saying before to the owner of the club, Tomorrowland is up here (motions with his hands), and everything else is down here, but Escape From Wonderland was [right up there almost].
In just 6 years, the Tomorrowland festival has grown from just 10,000 attendees to over 120,000 as of last year. What has that been like to be a part of?
I think its even more now! Its growing man, like, I think we can actually make a new country with all the people who want to go.
Favorite place to play?
It’s still Tomorrowland. It’s my home town as well you know? I actually live less than 5 minutes walking distance to the festival.
Camera Guy : After party at your place? Like Mike: Yea man!
You guys obviously have different roles when performing, but what’s the workload like when you produce? Is it a joint effort or are you guys both good at different aspects of it?
I (Like Mike) always tend to come up with the ideas and the melodic stuff, play the melodies. He’s (Dimitri Vegas) more the technical programmer and makes it work for a club. I can look at a classical track and make something out of that, but it wont be ready for a club; he [takes it the rest of the way]
You have your own record label called Smash The House. Can you tell us a little about how you started off? Any exciting upcoming releases on the label that you can share?
We’ve got some different artists that we’ve signed now. The latest track is from Wolfpack. [They are] three guys from our city and are doing very well on Beatport. There’s more Belgian talent that we’re supporting; we’re trying to build like a momentum – which is also the name of our new track as you know. So far it’s going really well and everything we’ve been doing has been going up on the charts [which is all you can ask for].
More and more mainstream artists are collaborating with EDM artists, or asking them to remix their tracks. What do you think about this growing relationship between mainstream music and dance music?
In the end it’s all music man. People like to listen to whatever is popular and hot, so why not mix it up?
Speaking of collaborations, your collab with Dada Life and Tara McDonald “Tomorrow (Give Into The Night)” was one of the biggest tracks of 2010 and the official Tomorrowland anthem. In your opinion, what is the biggest track you’ve put out so far?
We tend to make so many different styles it’s hard to say. The remix we did with Axwell, “One Look,” has done really well, people are still playing it. The “Alarma” tune we just did was something totally different, but everyone is playing it. I cant really say you know? As far as big, to the world, maybe the Lady Gaga remix “Marry The Night.”
Tell us a little about your upcoming track “Momentum.”
Its something different from what we used to do. We have been listening to house music, electronic music, for such a long time, and I tend to get this feeling that there are so many copies of copies of copies, and so many of the same drops, more or less, and we wanted to do something else. Maybe it’s time for something new. It’s not as “hard” as what we used to do, for sure, we’re still going to do some hard stuff in the future, but yea there’s a lot of great reaction to it. When we made it we were not sure if it was us, but when we showed it to people they were like “wow this is amazing,” so why not do it?
We’ve heard you guys say that a lot of time, people can put in tons of work and get barely any recognition. You guys finally broke the DJ Mag Top 100 list this year. What did that mean to you?
That was like a milestone in our career, man. Now the next one is to go up even higher, you know?
You’ve both said that your lives changed after moving to Ibiza. How did that influence your careers?
Like you said, before I (Like Mike) was listening to hip hop. I had even done three albums in my language and stuff like that. At that time I was totally into that. After a few complications in my hometown, my parents told me to move to where my brother was, and he was in Ibiza working as a DJ in a hotel. I went there and went to Subliminal Sessions with Eric Morillo [And that is where he got you guys to switch from vinyl to CDJs, I believe]. The rest is history.
Is there anything you’d like your fans to know about you that they might not already know?
Well, a lot of people don’t know we’re brothers! People ask us how we met, and it’s hard to not respond with something funny like “You know, in our mother.”
Finally, we always ask, what is your favorite drink to start off the night?
Usually dinner goes with wine – I’m European. After that I drink champagne. I used to drink lots of vodka and liquor and stuff before that, but it gives you such a bad hangover. But I’ll make an exception tonight (swigs from the Grey Goose bottle). Hollywood, this one’s for you!
Make sure to check out our full review of the evening, along with the complete set of photos!
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