Menno De Jong Interview Ahead Of Passion May 3rd 2009

Ahead of Menno De Jong’s appearance on the famous Passion turntables Passion resident Genix decided to ask him a few questions…

First of all it’s a great pleasure to welcome you to Passion!

Thank you! I can’t wait to hit the decks there again…

How do you find the UK trance scene? Have you ever been to one of our nights or heard about our famous atmosphere?

I really enjoy playing in the UK, the crowd always goes “mental” as they say over there and the clubs are generally equipped with great sound systems, something which makes a DJ like me a happy camper!
A few years back I played Passion and had a lovely time there. I really like the layout of the club and the way the DJ booth is positioned in a way that it’s easy to connect with the crowd. Lots of energy that night so I hope to experience that in May too!

Your name has really been put in lights over the past couple of years from your productions… Did you ever think you’d be such a success at this level?

I certainly hoped so and worked very hard to get to this point. From a very very early age I have always been involved in DJing and making music at some level so it is a dream come true to make it my job.

Your dj’ing has obviously taken you across the globe… but are there any big parties that have really stood out for you?

There are many, many great parties out there. One of my favourites over the past years has been EDC Festival in Los Angeles. They expected 40,000 people to show, but this ended up being 60,000. To add to that the crowd went nuts the entire night. The finishing touch: The event was held in LA Sports Arena where some pretty big matches have been played.
Another one that needs to be mentioned is Sunrise Festival in Poland. This party held near the beach has some of the most amazing production you will ever see, everything from LED walls to lasers and fireworks as big as you can imagine. Also, the crowd in Poland has similar amounts of energy as in the UK!

Can you tell us a little about Intuition? The Label? Radio Shows? For those who don’t know.

Intuition is my record label (aka. my baby), it was established in 2004 and we’ve released music from artists such as Airbase, Leon Bolier, Cliff Coenraad, Jonas Steur, Orjan Nilsen, Mat Zo, Arnej, many others and myself. Recently two new sub labels were added to the family: Intuition Deep and Stellar Sounds. If you are interested in what we are releasing check out www.intuitionrecordings.com! Lots of sound clips there.

Around the time Intuition Recordings was founded I also kicked off the Intuition Radio Show. This ran for about 3 years and grew out to be one of the most popular trance radio shows around. We’ve had guest mixes from guys such as Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz and many more. Just over a year ago I switched the show from weekly to monthly as well as turning it into a podcast to make time for graduating from university. With that over and done with I am now working on bringing back the weekly Intuition Radio Show along with a bi-weekly podcast. For the moment, check out the free monthly podcast through my website or by searching for Menno de Jong or Intuition Podcast in iTunes!

What was your first major production that put you on the map?
My first ever release was ‘Menno de Jong – Guanxi’ on Anjunabeats. This was picked up by Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond and many others and was my initial breakthrough.

Can you tell us what style you think your productions are… and what goes into a Menno track?
I can actually make anything from Progressive to Trance and Tech-Trance; I really enjoy moving freely between those styles too, although my biggest interest is Trance and Progressive Trance. I think my style is characterized by warm melodies, at least one stab sound in every tune, and dreamy soundscapes.

Do you have any inspirations that have lead you to create your sound?
Life in general is my biggest inspiration. The feelings that I have, the things that I experience and the people I meet inspire me to write music. If I have a certain idea or melody in my head I sit behind the piano and start working on it and once I have something that I feel can work in a song I play it on my midi-keyboard, and start fiddling around with sounds.

What does the Menno studio consist of? What do you use to generate those awesome sounds?

Okay, other than a Mac, here’s my production kit:

Hardware:
Dynaudio Air 15 speakers
KRK Rokit 6 speakers
RME Fireface 400
Tapco Mix 60 mixer
Focusrite Liquidmix
Access Virus Ti Snow
Alesis Proton 25 keyboard
Roland HP135 digital piano
Yamaha U3 piano

Software:
Cubase 4 running…
Spectrasonics Omnisphere
Sylenth
Battery
Minimonsta
Voxengo Elephant / LF Max Punch / VariSaturator
Camelphat / Camelspace
Altiverb
Predator
And a whole lot more!

We know a little about the sound of your productions… but for those who may not have heard you DJ what can people they expect coming from the speakers when you are play on May 3rd?
I’m going to be playing the best bit of Trance and Progressive I can find! It might be a bit on the harder side toward the end, but will definitely have an overall good level of energy. That, and I’ll be going nuts behind the decks!

If you were not a dj/producer…. What would you be? Or want to be??
I would have probably done something with my background in Model United Nations, and started working for an NGO, the UN or Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Do you have any new productions or any big tunes that are going off in your sets right now?
Jep, I just finished a tune with Leon Bolier called ‘Last Light Tonight’, it’s a banging Trance track with a cool summerish melody in the break. I also just remixed Alex M.O.R.P.H. ft. Simon – Regrets on Vandit, this has been picked up by Tiesto, Armin, Paul van Dyk, Above & Beyond, Judge Jules and many others!
Other than that, I am currently working on a lot of new tunes that will be on my new mix album: Intuition Sessions Vol. 2 – Ipanema.

Do you have any other hobbies as well as your DJing? Or does that take up most of your time?
Certainly: I do Capoeira, a Brazilian sport that combines martial arts, athletics, dancing and music. To get an idea of what it is check out this little clip: youtube.com

Finally…. Thank you for your time…. We look forward to welcoming you to Passion on May 3rd with open arms… Genix
Thanks for the cool interview! See you at Passion in May, can’t wait!

Peace,

Menno :)