SR3HABtyle: “Chainsaw madness.” Best known for: “My remixes and taking people on a rollercoaster ride!” Tune of 2012: Afrojack ‘Rock The House’.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “ZROQ.”
“LAST week I was in Scotland, the week before I was in India, the week before, Canada. I did 228 flights in the last year. I feel blessed I can do all this,“ says R3hab, aka Dutchman Fadil El Ghoul. Even more blessed, surely, given that he only got his “first good mixer in 2009” and yet has still done over 100 gigs with Afrojack after being signed to his fellow Dutchman’s label earlier in the year. “Afrojack helped me a lot. I was support act on his tour, he helped me with lots of stuff and advice. We did lots of gigs together, which was amazing.“
As well as high energy shows which take in any number of styles (“I’ll play any track I like, I don’t think of genres… electro, techno, whatever”), R3hab might be best known for his remixes. This year alone he’s turned his hand to Calvin Harris, LMFAO
and Madonna, while Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Gloria Estefan were all fair game in 2011. “I mostly ask for acapellas when I do a remix. I don’t really listen to the original, so you can really give it your twist,“ he says, before going on to explain another of his traits, the so-called ‘chainsaw sound’. “It started with my track ‘Sending My Love’, which sounds like a chainsaw firing up [makes chainsaw noises!] and people were always tweeting that at me, and so it stayed with me.“
Darker than your average Dutch house proponents, R3hab’s sound won him a Best Breakthrough Award at this year’s WMC, and is to be showcased again soon in the form of lots of new material. KRISTAN J CARYL
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “Thor, cos he can play with light- ning!” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “It should be a balanced mix between what I want to show the crowd and what the crowd wants to hear.” What does EDM mean to you? “Great music!” Should celebrities be DJs? “Everybody should do what they love!” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “Nope!” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “Beat matching is the foundation of DJing.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “Las Vegas.”
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60 QUENTIN MOSIMANN
Style: “Electro-house/progressive house.” Best known for: “Being a real live performer and a DJ singer.” Tune of 2012: “Bingo Players ‘Rattle’.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “Fred Lilla.”
A DJ who can actually sing? Surely not. Though Quentin Mosimann is hardly your average DJ — for one thing, he’s a former winner of French TV reality show Star Academy, so his singing ain’t too shabby.
Mosimann’s energetic live performances, across Europe, Russia and the US, have taken up much of his year. He also released ‘All Alone’, with fellow singing coach on The Voice Belgique (A Belgian TV talent show), Tara McDonald. “It was an awesome year,” says Mosimann. “I played worldwide, I met different
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “I would fly to the moon to organise a massive party on it, hoping that Laidback Luke joins me with his superhero friends!” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “Of course for the crowd!” What does EDM mean to you? “That’s what I live for. EDM has the power to inspire some immeasurable sensations, a real conniv- ance between the DJ and the audience.” Should celebrities be DJs? “Some celebrities think that, as it’s trendy, they can take three lessons and play in the biggest festivals with the huge help of the sync button or their computer. It’s killing the job.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “Luckily, never yet… But I fell from the decks, for sure!” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “It’s a fundamental asset to be a DJ. You can go further and propose other sides of the job, but one day, if you cheat, the crowd will know.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “To my mind it’s still Ibiza for now.”