Playing a few parties in countries as far flung as Japan – half your luck – is the quintessential and at-times random life of a DJ and producer. “I’m just hanging out,” explains a pretty content Justin Van Der Volgen. “Actually, I’ve always been a fan of how draft beer is poured over here and thought they had such a crazy technique – so last night I made my way behind a bar to learn it,” he says laughing. “The bartender showed me the secrets and then politely asked me to go back to my seat. Tomorrow, I’m heading to China for the first time for a party in Shanghai, which is very exciting – and then I’m coming back to Australia.”
Travels aside, Justin continues to call New York home – and while spending most of his time based there – he remains impressed that the scene in the USA is as strong as ever: “there are tons of new venues opening up and lots of great music being made,” he claims. “I have no complaints about how my sound is accepted here either; but I do consider myself lucky that enough people are interested in what I do outside of home so that I get to travel and see the world.”
He goes on to explain how music was always around when he was a kid in growing up in Sacramento, California. “My parents met while playing folk guitar in the late ’60s. Then I started playing the guitar when I was 11 years old and wanted to be in a band, but nobody I knew could play any instruments, so I had to teach a bunch of friends how to play various instruments to put together a band. Eventually through the scene, I met the people of Out Hud in the mid-’90s and spent my ’20s touring with them – then we moved to New York pretty early on and being here influenced us in a big way.”
Making a base for himself then in arguably the greatest city in the world, the Big Apple has created, molded and inspired Justin into the artist and producer that he is today. Thoroughly enjoying his time in the studio too, he explains that he is working on various bits and bobs while keeping himself busy. “Recently, Hell Yeah records from Italy released an edit I did of an Alexander Robotnick track. Marco, the owner of the label heard me play it in Italy and asked what it was – and later on licensed the song and put it out, so that was pretty cool. I also released two edits on the label My Rules Records earlier this year. I’m also hoping to finish a project soon with Eric Duncan, Johnny Sender from Konk, Pete Z and Aaron Bondaroff – and after the Australian tour, I’m heading to Berlin to get some TBD work done with Doug Lee.”
Otherwise musically, he is enjoying the deviation away from the disco and house sounds he is well known – and highly regarded for – to something a little more experimental – particularly when the occasion suits: “I’m definitely playing more of a combination,” he chimes. “It depends on the situation but I like to play across a selection of old and new music from different genres and at various tempos. It always depends on the audience to some extent – for example, more electro sounds do sometimes work better for larger settings.”
But disco remains his great love and while he has seen the genre evolve over time, he remains committed to the cause. “It’s probably because I grew up hearing to it,” he suggests, when asked what it was and is about the sound that appealed to him so much. “I grew up watching dance shows like Solid Gold and Dance Fever; even hip hop in the early ’80s, using replayed or sampled disco breaks – it was definitely everywhere. And with today’s technology, the ability to take small samples of old records and to add new instrumentation and drums to make something fresh means that people are constantly doing new things with disco. Hopefully that continues so the genre does keep evolving in that way.”
So despite getting caught up in the whirlwind that can become the electronic dance music movement – unlike some of his compatriots, he does enjoy finding the time to do things that are slightly extra-curricular. “You have to find the time,” he agrees. “I really enjoy watching cooking shows, hanging out with my friends in Brooklyn and travelling with my girlfriend. This summer we did a two-week road trip all over Croatia on the way to the Garden Festival in TIsno and hope to do something similar again soon.”
Finally – and I remind you that Justin has played a number of particularly memorable gigs in Australia in recent years – he expects things this time for his performance at Melbourne Music Week should be a little different. “This will be my first time playing a festival-related event,” he says. “It should be really cool – I’m also really excited about the new music I’ve brought including some of my own works in progress. I’m pretty psyched to play them for you guys.”
BY RK
