Hello John, congratulations on your new Beatport number 1, “La Danza.” How are you?

Doing amazing! Touring nonstop and making music in between shows it’s a lot, but I love it.

At this point in your career, do you have the feeling that the hype is growing as soon you play a new track in one of your sets? How was it with “La Danza”?

I can tell right away if a track will be massive, and I knew it as soon as I played it the first time with ‘La Danza’. I had shows in Madrid, Printworks in London, and elrow in Barcelona that weekend; and it was the highlight of each set. 

On this track, you’re featuring Spanish vocals as you did earlier in your career. How did the tune come together, and who is the vocalist behind “La Danza”?

I’ve had multiple Spanish tracks in the past with ‘Esa Boca’ and ‘Viva Voce’ that were both on Repopulate Mars. I was digging for Spanish vocals and found this one in an old Nina Sky track from 2005, then got it resung and the rest is history!

With your track “Beauty Sleep” — one of your previous number one hits — you wanted to challenge yourself, trying to use as few elements as possible. Did you follow a similar path on this?

This track had a bunch of layers — especially with the percussion, where I had about 15 different elements. The difficulty on this one was giving it a melodic breakdown in the middle while still maintaining the fun, playful energy of the track.

You’ve been a big fan of using sample packs in the past. Are you still using them, and do you have any favourites?

Nowadays, I reuse a lot of the same samples over and over with my specific processing on them because I think it gives me a unique sound. So, unfortunately, I can’t think of any new sample packs to recommend. Can never go wrong with a Toolroom sample pack though. 

Do you have any tips for emerging producers on how to make sure in the studio that a track is mixed right so that it works on big sound systems?

Reference tracks! It really is as simple as making sure your track sounds as loud and clear as your favorite tracks. If something sounds off, try a new kick/clap/hat sample – it’s a lot of trial and error to get it right but you have to be a perfectionist to make it nowadays.

 What are you working on at the moment? 

I am working on tracks for my upcoming label that I can’t wait to share more details about.