Markus Schulz talks about playing in Canada and his epic open to close sets at Stereo (Interview)

Markus Schulz needs no introduction as he's a trance legend and label boss that has been regularly slaying his Canadian sets for many years with no signs of slowing down. What has changed is how prolific he's been in the studio lately with his consistent output of trance and vocal driven songs, encapsulated in his latest Watch The World (Deluxe) release. With a show coming up in Ottawa this week and another in Toronto at Rebel next week, EDM Canada caught up with Markus Schulz to discuss his elaborate prep that goes into his Stereo sets, his latest album, and much more. 

You got to play in Toronto and Montreal for two of the biggest festivals in Canada last summer - how did they go?

They went really well. It was the second year for me doing the Dreamsfestival in Toronto, and the first doing Ilesoniq in Montreal.

I was really glad to be able to do Ilesoniq, because a schedule conflict knocked me out from being part of it in 2016. And in Toronto, not only was the main show great, the afterparty at Uniun was incredible. The beauty about afterparties in general is that everyone has been to the festival earlier that day and heard all the big peak hour tunes, so rather than just playing the same tunes again, you have the chance to deliver something completely unexpected. So I approached it with an afterhours vibe, playing a lot darker and more rabbit hole-like.

Both cities are very special in my career story, and I remain thankful to have the opportunities to keep coming back and adding a building block towards a legacy in each with every visit.

You recently released a 2 hour snippet of your Montreal open to close set at Stereo - how long did that gig last?

It was ten hours! I started at 2 am and played all the way up to noon on Canadian Thanksgiving Day. We put two hours of it out through the Global DJ Broadcast World Tour, but I am still continually receiving requests from everyone to make the entire recording available. Santa might have to check that everyone has been a good boy or good girl first...

Stereo remains one of the greatest and most unique clubs in the world. There really aren't that many clubs in the world which share the same characteristics as Stereo and remain open today.

"I'll spend months in advance preparing; digging deep into Beatport and promos and on most occasions, I¹ll be listening with the mindset of "this I¹ll save for the solo set, and this one, and this one".

You are one of the only top DJs that still do open to close sets - how do you keep your stamina throughout the set? Does it take a lot of planning to plan out such a long set, do you do a lot of "crate digging" beforehand?

The DJ life in general has a lot of pitfalls, and the only way you can survive on a demanding tour schedule is to be sensible and look after your body.

When it comes to preparing for those marathon or open to close sessions, it¹s physically a huge challenge; as well as a mental one. Generally you start thinking about how to properly train your body for the endurance from a few weeks out - like increasing the length of my cardio workout, cutting out alcohol and so on.

On the night itself, I actually don¹t eat much beforehand, and don¹t drink any alcohol at all during the performance. This way, you basically sweat everything out of your system while you are jumping around on stage; and it makes a bathroom break less of a necessity.

For the solo sets, I try to imagine the overall night as three sets combined - you have the opening portion, where you play the deeper progressive grooves and keep the mood low; allowing the ambiance to slowly build as the crowd assembles on the dancefloor. Then you have the main portion which is the usual peak hour chaos and lighting, with the big tracks and hits that you would expect in an everyday Markus Schulz set-length performance.

And finally, when you have the room grooving in unison, then you enter the afterhours, or the rabbit hole, where things get weird and trippy with various techno tracks and classics.

For the music itself, I¹ll spend months in advance preparing; digging deep into Beatport and promos and on most occasions, I¹ll be listening with the mindset of "this I¹ll save for the solo set, and this one, and this one".

So when you slowly accumulate tracks like that over several months, you¹re essentially putting together the building blocks of the set, and the graft in assembling what goes well harmonically can begin. And because the solo sets are generally reserved for special cities or clubs, there is more of an emphasis on getting your own productions fine tuned and being ready to unveil for the first time, along with making special reconstructions and mashups.

I will say however that the one gigs which prepares more specific preparation towards a solo set is for Stereo in Montreal, because you¹re starting well into the middle of the night and playing well into the morning.

Your latest release is massive, 34 tracks. Can you tell me how you put together "Watch The World" Deluxe?

The deluxe album was gradually compiled almost as soon as the original Watch the World album was released.

Many of the extended versions of the original tracks were never released as singles, so they finally got their platform to be showcased. And over a period of around 16 months we started figuring out and recruiting the people who were best suited to remixing specific tracks. A lot of them would have lived exclusively in my live sets for a while, sometimes even up to a year; so when the time came to assemble the deluxe album, they were added to the extended originals.

And on top of that, there were also two brand new originals as part of this project. I had started working on New York City (Take Me Away) with Adina Butar just before the sessions for the original album were wrapping up, and it was a small thing we had done together for the Watch the World album tour in New York. But because it was so popular with the fans, not only from NY but from other cities that I was playing it, we went back into the studio and turned it into a full blown song.

The other exclusive original is a 14 minute instrumental piece titled Luce Prima, which was made for my set on the main stage at Tomorrowland for their Daybreak Session this year. The idea was that I would bookend the set with this track as the opener and the closer, and what you hear on Watch the World Deluxe is that effort combined into one track.

What's next for Markus Schulz? Any new update on your Dakota project? I'm assuming you're taking a break from albums for a while.

The next album is coming quite soon actually! It will indeed be the new Dakota album titled The Nine Skies, and it is based on the live show of the same name that was showcased at events such as EDC in Las Vegas and Transmission in Melbourne this year. The music presented is within an overall journey - where we begin as lost souls, and encounter the nine steps in life towards enlightenment.

You will be familiar with three tracks from the album already - the singles Mota-Mota (with Koen Groeneveld), Running Up That Hill (with Bev Wild) and In Search of Something Better. The next single comes out on November 13th, and that will also be this year¹s official theme for Transmission in Prague titled The Spirit of the Warrior. The set in Prague is also going to be filmed for DVD, which will be part of a special limited edition package for the album.

The Nine Skies has been a deeply personal project. I always describe the music I make as Markus Schulz, such as the Watch the World album, the live sets, Global DJ Broadcast and so on, as being for the fans - the people who mean so much to me and resonate on my frequency. But with this Dakota project, I needed to do this for me. I needed to look deep inside of my soul, travel through troubling waters and suffer through tears in order to make this show a reality. I can¹t wait for the world to hear the final product.

And as well as that, I recently finished a mix for the next installment of Talla 2XLC¹s legendary Techno Club CD compilation series, which will be coming out in the German market on December 1st.

You've got upcoming gigs in Toronto and Ottawa this month. How will those shows differ from your festival and open to close sets?

Rebel in Toronto on the 17th is going to be insane, because it¹s going to be alongside close friends Cosmic Gate, as well as Jason Ross who has made grand strides himself in recent years. And Barrymore¹s in Ottawa will be great too; I had such a fun time playing there before. Of course Toronto and Montreal are always going to be big time shows, but I value coming to the likes of Barrymore¹s in Ottawa and Beta in Waterloo because there is a lot of gratification in playing for the fans in those intimate environments.

Toronto is going to be a big event, so having the unheard Dakota tracks from The Nine Skies will be important material to showcase. And with Ottawa, it will be a case on reading the vibe of the crowd on the night; reacting to how they are feeling and taking them on whatever journey they desire.

It will be my final shows in Canada this year and I¹m determined to go out with a bang, because the country has been very good to me throughout 2017.

Who's an up and coming producer that fans should keep an eye for in 2018 and why?

If I could mention more than one, I would have to include the guy who for me is representing Canada so proudly with how his career is progressing, and that is Montreal¹s Solid Stone. He was quite a broad-ranging producer a few years ago, but decided that the deeper progressive sound was where his heart lay; and he has gone on to become one of the biggest contributors in that genre right now. I¹m really proud of how he¹s playing an ever increasing role in the clubs through our Coldharbour Nights worldwide.

The second instalment of Solid Stone's We Are One EP series is coming to Coldharbour before the end of the year, and you will have heard some of the tracks on the special Global DJ Broadcast Afterdark mix, as well as the recent World Tour from Stereo in Montreal.

And I also have to highlight the UK brotherly duo Arkham Knights, who are really hitting their stride these days. Their sound reminds me of the kind of tech-trance that was prominent in Tiesto¹s sets back when he was top of the mountain as far as trance fans were concerned.

Their current single Gravity is one of the biggest tracks in my live sets all year long, and they have already fueled my current sets with their next tracks which will be coming out on Coldharbour early next year. They had a great time playing at New City Gas in Montreal back in January, so I need to get them over to Canada more often.

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My thanks to Markus Schulz for this amazing interview. Markus is coming to Ottawa this Friday at Barrymore's, and on Friday, November 17th at Rebel with Cosmic Gate. Click on the links for more ticket information. 

Markus Schulz answers 5 questions about "Watch The World" - his brand new album released today

Markus Schulz released arguably his most ambitious album today titled "Watch The World", a 17 track LP with 10 special bonus acoustic versions on a separate disc. This legendary artist is giving fans a brand new sound filled with lush vocals and unique guitar/piano work that stands apart from his 7 previous albums. Having co-written the lyrics of tracks like "Destiny", we get to see a whole new creative side of Markus Schulz. 

In this following interview Markus Schulz talks about the inspiration and creative process behind "Watch The World", and it's a must read. Enjoy: 

1) What was the inspiration behind "Watch the World"?

After completing the two Scream albums, I was at a point in my career where I wanted to evaluate and see where I wanted to go in the future. I had finished five full Markus Schulz albums and two Dakota albums. What was the next step to take me forward and make things more exciting?

So when I undertook a period of reflection, my mind cast back to the days of my youth, and the things I enjoyed. When I was at school, the one subject I excelled at was creative writing, and my teachers would always be encouraging me to try it as often as possible. However, even at that age, having fallen in love with music and listening to the radio, I was so determined to chase my dream of becoming a DJ, even at the expense of everything else.

When doors began to open for me on the DJ front, thanks to organising breakdance parties, eventually leading to playing in the gay clubs and being discovered for The Works in Arizona, the next step for me was moving into production. And when you are at that young age, you expend all of your creative energy into the music - playing around with the synthesizers and turning the knobs. So my desire for creative writing began to fade away over time.

But now, having completed this album, on a personal level it’s very gratifying to me to delve into an interest that was there in my youth, but had faded away as my DJ career began. It feels like a flame inside me has been reignited. 17 tracks later, the Watch the World album is ready with amazing stories waiting to be heard by everyone.

2) You co-wrote the lyrics for the new album, and with 13 out of the 17 tracks from the album being vocals, this is your most vocal led album to date. Was working with so many vocalists the plan from the beginning, or did it just come about organically?

It was organic, and I have to admit that the response to Destiny in particular was the driving catalyst behind the album’s theme. The person who deserves a lot of credit towards the album is Adina Butar, because of her constant encouragement in helping me realise that I was capable of writing these stories, being able to translate what I was feeling towards a listening audience.

I had a series of writing camps throughout the album process - kindly arranged by my management - three in Los Angeles and one in Bucharest. This was a wonderful opportunity to work with the singers in person, which isn’t always the case when collaborating on an album. I met Delacey at the first one in LA, and sat down with her and explained the story I wanted to convey, about meeting someone in your life who inspires you so much that you feel like you were destined to encounter them.

With it being such a personal story, it meant that much more to me that everyone out there found a deep resonance with the song and the lyrics. The reactions towards Destiny gave me confidence that maybe I was capable after all of producing something with a personal songwriting approach, and spawned the rest of the Watch the World album that you hear now.

3) There was a lot of guitar and piano instrumentation for this album, with an entire acoustic version dedicated for most tracks on disc 2. How was the experience of using a lot more instrumentation in making this album?

You know, I really enjoyed it and felt it contributed to the warmth of the album very significantly.

Nowadays, because of all the travel involved with touring, you want your production setup to be as simple as possible. Typically, on the road I have a separate laptop with Logic and Ableton on it. Ableton is good for carving out loops and rough ideas, and Logic helps me get creative with the sounds and effects. In fact, nearly all of the tracks on Scream and Scream 2 were produced this way.

However, with the production of Watch the World, I consciously wanted to utilise more organic instruments like guitars. Even if you don’t hear it in the mix, there’s a guitar buried there, or a piano that’s buried in there because it just brings out a frequency that I feel is missing or has been missing in a lot of productions lately. It just warms it up so nice. From a production standpoint, this was the biggest aspect which I have taken appreciation from.

4) What's one thing fans should know about this album that hasn't been said yet? Or what’s the most important thing for you to get across about it?

The most important aspect I want fans to take from it is to treat it very much as a one-to-one listening experience. It’s you and me, we’re hanging out, and I have some incredible stories to share with you if you are happy to lend an ear.

What I want to harness from the album into my livesets is not necessarily to saturate a mix with vocals, but to build up towards the vocals being very important peaks, words establishing stories that connect with each of us spiritually, stories that are important in binding us as a community.

5) Any plans for a remix version of "Watch the World"?

Yes, that’s the next step in the project, getting into the A&R process of remixes.

Right now the priority for me is sorting a remix package for the next single, Love Me Like You Never Did, but continually searching for the right names to marry a remix for every track on the album. I also have some projects left over that didn’t make the initial cut, and I would like to revisit those in the coming months to develop them into full tracks.

And as summer approaches, I’ll be itching to get one or two big melodic instrumentals as important pieces for the livesets.

Bonus questions: 

6) You've debuted a few of the tracks direct from Facebook video - can fans expect to see more of these live chats?

For sure, I think that’s a really cool feature that has been introduced through Facebook now. The speed of the comments from the fans posting is quite difficult to keep up with! But they’re a lot of fun and I’ll definitely try to do them more often, because the fans seem to value them a lot.

Although in saying that, I’ll most likely leave the most scandalous material to Snapchat.

7) When you're in the studio, do you experience any difficulty in balancing your artistic inspiration with some fans expectations of them wanting you to produce solely trance records?

Well, where I am very lucky is that I have fans that have followed me on this journey for a very long time, and they have devoted so much effort to supporting what I represent. And any time I have tried doing something outside of the box; they have embraced it and offered encouragement too.

Of course some people may evaluate the album and not enjoy it because they don’t like vocal trance, but at the same time I hope the instrumentals such as Fears and A Better You will be something that will connect and appeal fondly to them, with the emotionally-laden melodies and beats.

Everyone knows I’m always actively creating, and there will hopefully be a broad palette on offer from my output that everyone out there can at least find something to appreciate. If you like instrumentals, you have those tracks plus the entire city series collection over the past twelve months, with more new music coming in the summer. And if you like words with stories that have important messages, then a lot of the album will appeal.

8) Speaking of trance, any future plans for the Dakota project?

Dakota is still active! He’s just quietly hanging out exclusively in my livesets for the past while, especially in the open to close solo sets. Obviously it’s difficult nowadays to promote multiple releases at once, and the priority for me right now has to be the Watch the World album.

But I can assure you with confidence that Dakota is not going away and never will. Most of the Dakota tracks I have worked on in the past year or so don’t even have track titles, but they are amazing to play in the livesets. And there is that special reaction from the fans, because the trainspotters out there can kinda figure out which tracks are Dakota, and there’s a spontaneous excitement from people when they hear them, because the only place they can is in the clubs.

Hopefully, I’ll try my best to release something under Dakota later this year.

Special thanks to Markus Schulz for this excellent interview. "Watch The World" is available now, click the album artwork below to grab a copy at your favourite spot: 

If you want to watch Markus Schulz live this summer, he'll be making an appearance at this year's Ilesoniq in Montreal this August. Click here for more information.

Listen to Markus Schulz's epic ASOT Miami set

Markus Schulz continues to churn out consistently good sets filled with memorable moments and uplifting trance emotions. The Coldharbour Records boss knows how to get a dancefloor moving as it was in full display this past weekend during the A State Of Trance broadcast live from the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. He's an absolute beast behind the decks and this set reminds all of us why we can never sleep on Markus Schulz, ever. 

Tracklist: 

01. ID
02. Markus Schulz featuring Delacey - Destiny (Omair Mirza Remix)
03. Sean Tyas - Reach Out (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix)
04. Dash Berlin & Andrew Rayel - Till the Sky Falls Down (Andrew Rayel Remix) (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
05. Omair Mirza featuring Avari - Perfect Imperfection
06. M.I.K.E. Push & Airborn vs. Alex M.O.R.P.H. & Driftmoon vs. Sean & Xander vs. Zedd & Foxes - 29 Legacy R2D2s of Clarity (Markus Schulz Mashup)
07. Markus Schulz - The Spiritual Gateway
08. ID
09. Jerome Isma-Ae - Overdrive
10. Radio Slave featuring Danton Eeprom - Grindhouse (ID Remix)
11. Marcus White - Backdrop
12. Protoculture vs. Delacey - In the Air of Manticore (Markus Schulz Mashup)
13. Mauro Picotto - Eterea (Mark Sherry Remix)
14. Arkham Knights - Blackgate
15. New World Punx - Torque
16. Arkham Knights - Legacy
17. Giuseppe Ottaviani - Musica (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
18. Markus Schulz featuring Soundland - Facedown (Club Mix)

Listen to Markus Schulz's full 8 hour set from Montreal

The famed Montreal nightclub Stereo is not known to book acts beyond the underground techno/house/deep house artists. The space is magnificent and is matched by a custom made stereo system that provides a unique experience. Markus Schulz has been making annual stops to Stereo for the past few years and each time his shows have sold out instantly. He loves playing his legendary open to close sets there as he is free to play whatever he wants, which tends to be a ton of techno and progressive mixed in with trance. Below you'll get to listen to his full set that he played there in the later half of 2015. 

If you ever get to chance to see Markus Schulz at Stereo this year, do it. 

Preview the upcoming 2-CD Trance Nation release mixed by Markus Schulz

Trance Nation has long been one of the most important CD releases within the trance world for more than a decade. They are primed to release their next compilation and the Ministry of Sound has picked Mr. Coldharbour Records himself Markus Schulz to curate the series. The first CD starts off on the more progressive and mellow side, but quickly heats up as we get into the 2nd CD which is filled with trance belters. If you want to sample the release, you can check out the minimix right now: 

Trance Nation mixed by Markus Schulz will be available on October 2nd, 2015 on iTunes. You can pre-order it right now by clicking here. 

Full tracklist

Disc 1

01. Marscela - Time Plex
02. Chicane - Fibreglasses
03. Gai Barone - Un-Theme
04. Markus Schulz presents Dakota - Twilight of the Night
05. Sergey Shabanov - Whirlpool (Crystal Design Reface)
06. Judge Jules - Turn On the Lights
07. Giorgio Moroder featuring Sia - Deja Vu (Markus Schulz Remix)
08. Rank 1 vs. M.I.K.E. Push - Juno
09. Rex Mundi - Radiance
10. Markus Schulz - Daybreak (Boom)
11. Nifra featuring Seri - Army of Lights
12. Tritonal - Gamma Gamma (Ferry Corsten Fix)
13. Mr. Pit vs. Fisherman & Hawkins - Doppelbanger
14. Klauss Goulart - Bashert (We'll Meet Again)
15. Tenishia featuring Adina Butar - Don't Let Go
16. Dimension - Moments
17. Solarstone - Solarcoaster (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Remix)
18. Markus Schulz featuring Delacey - Destiny

Disc 2

01. Markus Schulz & Vassy - Tomorrow Never Dies (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Intro Mix)
02. Genesis - Supernova
03. Ron Alperin - Knockout
04. Arkham Knights - Knightfall
05. Danilo Ercole - Format
06. Dan Thompson & Ron Alperin - The Punisher
07. Jes - Two Souls (Fisherman & Hawkins Remix)
08. Dimension - Cima
09. Markus Schulz - Lost in the Box (London)
10. Dawn - The Truth We Can't Escape
11. Elevation vs. Grube & Hovsepian - City of Angels (Purple Stories Remix)
12. Markus Schulz - Remember This
13. Solis & Sean Truby vs. Harry Square - Concrete Jungle
14. Dave Neven - Drifter
15. Gouryella - Anahera
16. Artisan - Worlds Apart
17. New World Punx featuring Cara Salimando - Memories (Markus Schulz Remix)
18. Markus Schulz - Avalon (Los Angeles) (Trance Nation Outro Mix)