Dave Winnel is conquering the world, performing in Japan, France, Bali, Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Croatia and the Netherlands and playing festivals like tomorrowland and Stereosonic.
Chasing the Sun, Dave takes Amsterdam as his residence for one half of the year and Sydney for the other half. Known as the funny guy, his infectious personality shines through his music, blending future/tech house and heavy hitting drums and baselines. He has released tracks on internationally acclaimed record labels Armada Music, AXTONE, Def Jam, Size, Ministry Of Sound & Big Beat.
Viralbpm took the chance to have a chat with the favourite and multitalented artist about a variety of topics. Aside from his current records and his upcoming plans, he revealed to us his favorite albums, albums that in some way kept his inner fire for the love with dance music alive and “burning” throughout the years.
V1. Let's talk about one of your impressive releases. How did you come up with the title “Lily Of The Valley'(The Journey)”?
Dave Winnel: The EP started with the first single, ‘Lily Of The Valley'. It is the successor to my 2014 track ‘The Great Valley'. The place ‘The Great Valley' being the destination from ‘The Land Before Time', where Little Foot and his Friends are trying to reach, a place where they can be free and be themselves (total happiness)without a worry in the world. Like ‘The Great Valley',
The name of the EP comes from a small flower also known as ‘May Lily' which means ‘return to happiness, which I think is just the perfect title, as for me this is the kind of music which really excites me and I keep seeing myself going back to.
V2. What were your initial artistic intentions for this EP?
Dave Winnel: I wanted to write something without thinking: no thinking about labels, genres or rules. What would happen if I just let go of what people might think of the end product and just regurgitated what was inside.
V3. You're one of the most diverse artists out there. Is it hard for you to try out new things, but in the same time keeping some kind of artistic identity?
Dave Winnel: Trying out new things is easy for me but I think it's also one of my down falls as all my releases sound so different. I love so many differnent genre's so I like to take elements from all of those and mash them together to create something new and different each time.
V4. 4. What do you think about music nowadays? Are artists keeping it safe? Or do you hear out there new stuff, artists who try out new things and who try to make progress in their genre?
Dave Winnel: There's never been so much music out there. It's so hard to keep up. There's sooo much amazing music.. but then there's also so much garbage… and I'm not talking about poorly produced/written music (that I can understand as we all have to learn and evolve).. but there's so much lazy music out there. For example when ‘artists' grab a few loops from ‘SPLICE' and wack them together and release it for the sake of having music out there. There's too much of that going on now. But in saying that.. there's never been so much amazing music out there. I'm constantly listening to these guys coming thru creating boundry pushing shit, like Matroda, Odd Mob, Chris Lake, Mercer, san holo, & Qubiko to name a few.
V5. On what other projects are you currently working on? Anything you can already reveal to us regarding 2019 releases or projects in general?
Dave Winnel: I've got a super cool club tune coming up next on Armada Music, called ‘Smoke Machine'. I'm also working with Faderpro & Armada University to bring more ‘Production Videos' and courses online for buddying producers.
V6. What tools and programs are you using for performing live and creating your own music?
Dave Winnel: For producing I'm using Ableton Live. I've used everything from Fruity Loops, to Reason but nothing compares to Ableton. All my instruments are in the box (Laptop) so I can travel around where ever I want and still be able to produce. I mainly use Serum, Diva, Massive, Sylenth1, Waves, & ProQ. For DJing I'm using the Pioneers!!!
V7. Are there any artists out there, or maybe songs or albums, that influenced you as an artist in general?
Dave Winnel:There's been 3 albums that have not only influenced, but also made me fall and stay in love with dance music. These are…
The Prodigy – Fat of The Land
Tiesto – Magic 6 (Mix Compilation)
Deadmau5 – Random Album Title
V8. Thank you for your time and we wish you all the best for the rest of the season and the future in general. Any final words you want to share with the Viralbpm readership?
Dave Winnel: Keep sharing your love of music with all your homies, and hopefully see you on a dancefloor one day!
