One of Armin van Buuren’s favourite producers of 2008 and according to Ferry Corsten one of THE new Trance Guys. He won the “best new face”Award at the Trance Awards 2008 in London and has spun across the globe on events such as Trance Energy and Gatecrasher,Godskitchen and many many more. A few years ago he didn’t own a single piece of studio equipment… Now he’s odds-on favourite to become EDM’s next big breakout and the latest graduate to join trance music’s elite ‘Van Clan’.
He is Sied van Riel...

2008 was quite a year for you, culminating with you winning ‘Best New Face’ at the Trance Awards. How did that feel for you?
It was indeed a massive year for me. Winning that award was the icing on the cake for 2008.Totaly unexpected.So much good and talented producers/dj’s out there at the moment so when I won it I was stunned... it was absolutely a highlight of the past year.

Is is true you only produced your first track in 2006? That’s quite a long way to come in such a short space of time…….
yeah it’s true.. my first ever production/release was “Fearless” on Subtraxx which is owned by my good friend Miika Kuisma from Finland. He heard the track first and signed it right away. I was soooo happy you don’t wanna know. I managed to make a track and release it in 6 months from starting to learn how to make music. Pretty damn fast when I look back now.

April will be the first time you have played for us in Birmingham, what have you heard about the club and what are you most looking forward to?
Everybody who played there and whom i know is like.. “dude that club is awesome” ...”you will go nuts there etc etc “so all I can say is.. please bring on april 17th. I can’t wait ...Bring on Birmingham !

The UK was once looked at as the epicentre for the worldwide electronic scene, do you still think this is the case? how important to an overseas DJ’s career is the UK’s scene?
I always say that every dj needs to go trough the UK in order to grow !! So to me it is still the epicentre. Y’all have so many good events and brands which are known world wide.And so many promoters from around the world look at the line ups y’all have got going on... I’m not going to lie about that. So the UK scene is very important to any dj that isn’t settled yet.. and even then they still need them.... that’s what I think !!

I always see events advertised in your home land of Holland, the likes of Trance Energy, Dance Valley, Mysteryland, how do you feel these events measure up to other events around the world?
Those are massive events in Holland and it’s cool to see that Trance Energy is going overseas as well now in 2009. I have never played on Dance Valley or Mysteryland yet but damnnnn do I want to ! I want to do them all. Compared to other countries with their events I think Holland is just starting when it comes to international growing and expanding. You guys where early birds when it comes to expanding brands on a global level. Although Sensation has been rockin’ it world wide and very good as well but the rest is now following I think.

What makes a successful DJ? With so many DJs with the word ‘van’ in their name, is this the secret to success?
Nah, it’s a good marketing tool I suppose because everybody is nuts about the “Van” but your music and dj skills have to rock as well. It’s all about the complete package I think.
I mean you can’t sell a piece of shit if it’s called “Van Shit” and stinks... best to make it smell good 2 then... that would make it a lot easier to sell now init ?
Everybody is talking about me being added to the “Van Clan” but I want to have a “Riel Clan” .... Van sounds nice but Riel is Keepin’ it Riel !! No BS.

Any productions or remixes in the pipeline we should look out for?
I’ve just finished a remix for Afterglow Recordings... a track from Store N Forward called “Hello World” which will be released soon. It’s summerish warm and proggy. The whole package is massive !
Erm now i’m doing a remix for Intuition Recordings and that’s my last remix for a long time. Still working on my album which is planned for 2009. The remix I made for Armin van Buuren has also been released in Februari i think. New EP coming up though !!!!!!! can’t sit still.

Your radio show is gaining popularity by the month, is the show a good representation of the music you play in your live sets or do you use it to air material that perhaps wouldn’t normally fit into a Sied van Riel set?
Yeah “Rielalistic” is growing rapidly.. kinda stunned by it. Last month I updated my facebook status with “Rielalistic on now on ah.fm” and i got more then 100 replies on it. They where using it as forum !!!! How cool is that haha. It is slightly different then my live sets but it does have the build up i love. I can use my radioshow to show people the other side to me as well. Live it depends on my set time and what the crowd is like. I go in early to see and taste the vibe and take it from there. What I play is always my style but the build up or track choice can be different then what you hear in my radioshow. When you play 1 hour you do not have time to do it all. People also have expectations and the night has to rock as a whole... and when I feel like bangin’ on all cylinders I will defiantly do it !!

What are you listening to right now?
Ow my god.. i’m gonna be honest here.. the radio is on and Lady Ga Ga .... Pokerface is on now.I would love to see her backstage somewhere and show her my “pokerface” if you know what I mean.

I see April is a huge month for you, playing at all 4 Australian Trance Energy parties and also all 3 of the ASOT 400 parties, that’s huge! You must be really excited about that?
Dude I sometimes have difficulties to sleep when I think of it in bed. 3rd i’m in Cyprus, 4th Talltrees then straight to Australia for TE after that straight back to Europe for all 3 of the ASOT 400 events + there is more in the pipeline for the 1,5 weeks after that. I love it ! bring it on .. this is what I am doing it all for...what i dream of ... Making music and Playing music out live .. partying with the people. The only thing I need to do now is call my doctor and ask for some “Van Sleeping Pills” for the flights cause I expect very little sleep in between gigs but hey.. you won’t hear me complaining.

I bet you’ll need a holiday just to recover from it all!!! With that in mind, where is your favourite holiday destination?
No holidays for me ! I want to rock it hard in 2009. I can rest when I’m old is my motto... BUT my favourite holiday destination always was Salou in spain. I love that city and been there many times. May I add that I like the calmness of Finland a lot as well !!

Finally, what is your ‘fail safe’ track, the one track you always know you can play if things aren’t quite working out as you’d liked and will get people onto the dancefloor every time without fail?
damnit that is a good question. I never been in a situation like that before to be honest I think. You can always drop a hit or a known bomb... As in my radio show I sometimes drop a classic or 2 now a days but that’s not to score points.. it’s because I love the tracks and never had the chance to play them out back when they where hits as I wasn’t playing around back then. Helsinki Scorchin’ is one of my favs by Tab and Super 8.