Mexico Star On The Rise – Vlind
When you think of great producers and up ‘n comers, most minds jump to Europe
But over the last 2 decades as technology expands and brings the world together, more and more producers are emerging from all parts of the world. One of those parts is Mexico City, and producer DJ Vlind is starting to show the world what they have been missing. Once you hear his tracks, you cannot ignore the quality, passion with the support from the biggest names around the world, and tracks on multiple labels, he is on fire. His perspective and influences are heard throughout his tracks and he is bringing new life to the trance world. Another future leader who will keep the power and reach of trance alive and well for years to come.
Thank you for interviewing with me today. First of all you are on fire with your production. Releases on labels all around the world like Outbursts, Grotesque, and Pharmacy, where is all this inspiration coming from?
Well, I think about the inspiration first, is like I don’t like to make music, you know aspiring the typical stuff. I always try to look into some social stuff, social problems, political stuff. I look into all that shit and try to project it to music. For me, today there’s a lot of tracks or music maybe because I loved it, you know and everything is love. So that’s where I get all the inspiration.
You have been doing this a long time, do you feel you are finally breaking through on the world stage?
So I can finally really look back and I say oh there’s like a lot of years in the back. But this finally happened something big and this is just work and work and work. With a lot of guys today, they want to be bigger in just one, two, three years. Yeah, you look at these guys and that’s not going to happen. You know the real artist needs to work like a lot of years to give a real background and also leave base and then base will grow and grow and grow.
Your latest single Velvet is phenomenal, it has so many different elements throughout the track that bring both life, emotion, and energy to the track. Is there a special meaning or back story to the track? How did it come about?
Well, that collab is with my friend. He got the idea and showed me that. I’m not usually into uplifting sound. I don’t make uplifting stuff. But when he sent me that, I really liked it and I start to put like my own self into it. I mean, it’s one of the few uplifting tracks that I really feel inspired me because there’s a lot for me.
You have had some major support from giants in the trance scene like Mark Sherry, Heatbeat, Solarstone, Bryan Kearney, and the list continues. What is your reaction when you get support from some of the biggest and best out there? Does this motivate you to continue moving forward?
Well, that’s really cool, ’cause when I started, one of the first artist that really helped me a lot was Solarstone, then Bryan Kearney, then John Askew was one of the guys that really helped me a lot then Sherry. It feels really great. When you start for example, you see a lot of these artists like “oh, wow! he’s amazing”, and if he plays a track of mine that would be like fucking awesome. But you do start to think that would be really difficult, and maybe that will happen in a lot of years from now. So when you see that these artists play your track, and then another one and then maybe Armin, you feel like it’s not impossible. It’s like you can do it. You just need to work and it feels like awesome.
I have been to shows in Mexico, and one thing I learned is that trance fans in Mexico are passionate. How does their passion translate to you when you are djing?
Well, Mexico has really big passion about trance stuff. For example, when I play last year at the Dreamstate, it was fantastic to see the people of your own country dancing, and jumping, and enjoying your music. That is like a big influence to make you continue and want to go to bigger places to play. It is big motivation. Here they feel the music, they aren’t just listening to it. They are feeling it like there is nothing else in that moment.
As mentioned before you are breaking through the scene and becoming internationally known, what has been the biggest obstacle for you so far in your career? What advice would you give someone who is just starting off?
Well, the big obstacle are the people that tell you, that what you are doing at the moment will be the reason why you won’t make it. Everybody thinks that you have to imitate or be a copy of something that’s already there. So when you believe in yourself, make the music that you want to make and not make music because I just want to be famous and sound exactly like this ‘guy’. You are just another one, there’s another guy doing the same that you do.
So what I could say to all the new guys is that they got to believe in themselves. And never listen to that shit about, “Oh, no, if you do that, you’re never going to make it”. Just believe in yourself and do the music because you have a purpose not just because you want to be famous. You need to make music that you really feel and that has a meaning. For me making music is not about love or this, but it is more about expressing something that is happening in society.
I know you have played some major festivals in Mexico, including Dreamstate Mexico 2017, what festivals are on your bucket list to play and why? Are you finding difficulty breaking through other markets?
The festival I want to play is Luminosity, that is the top. Also Gatecrashers and ADE. But the only problem that I find for myself now is that I’m in a country like really far from those festivals. So it’s not that easy for a promoter or a guy that makes a party to bring me there. I understand that, but this is the only thing that I know, and maybe one day I will make the jump and go there.
Finally, if you could only live by one motto, what would it be?
Be yourself and do all what you want to do in this life’ cause you are just going to be here like once and if you don’t enjoy that time you will be fucked!