Ten Minutes With Dannic [Dance Rebels Exclusive Interview]

Not very long ago you were in the same spot as Julian Calor and Joey Dale, so how does it feel to now be their mentor and in what ways do you help them?

I think it’s great, I mean my career is blowing up so fast now and I’m very thankful for that. It’s just weird to see how fast things are changing and it’s just great to be a mentor for them.

How do you plan your sets and do you always mix live?

I’ve been mixing for 11 years now so for me I feel like I’m always on automatic mode. I never plan my sets I always go with the flow, I always look at the crowd and try to determine what will work best in that moment. It’s all about timing for me. I keep the CDJs on CDJ mode all the time, never on vinyl. I mean sometimes I use vinyl mode to backspin or to scratch, but mainly for me it’s about interacting with the crowd. It’s all about playing that certain song at just the right moment. That’s the most important thing.

Can you describe what it was like to play that B2B2B set at Ultra? That must have been incredible. 

It was incredible. It wasn’t planned of course, so for me it was a big surprise, but in the end it was the best thing that could have happened. I only had 10 minutes left of my original set because of the weather; they were going to shut down the whole place. Dyro was supposed to go on and he was like no we’re going to do this together and then Hardwell came on the mic and he just hyped up the place and the whole stage just filled up with people. It was way over capacity and it was just great.

Do you have big collaborations or any big tracks coming out that you think fans will be excited about?

Well I just released my new track with Bright Lights, “Dear Life”, and that a was a really hard track for me to make. I had actually finished the instrumental of that track in November of last year and I sent it out to some vocalists, but Heather just killed it. There’s just nothing else you can say about it, she just killed it. I was nervous about having her on the record at first because Hardwell and Dyro had already done tracks with her and I didn’t want to be a copycat, but she nailed it and that’s why she’s on the track. I have a like 4 or 5 new tracks coming out on Revealed soon though that are really great including a new collab with Merk & Kremont. They’re super young, talented guys that also make progressive house and electro, but with a groovy twist. I also have a collaboration with Dyro coming out soon which is about 90% finished now and I’m super happy with that one. We’re actually gonna play that one tonight and I’ll give you guys a little inside scoop; all three of us (Hardwell, Dyro, Dannic) are actually working on a track on the bus right now.

Since you tour so much it must be hard to get studio time. How do you produce your tracks most of the time? 

I use Ableton for my mashups, edits, and for my radio show, but for everything else I use Logic. I’ve taught myself to produce on the road, but I can’t finish anything without being in the studio. I need my studio monitors, I need my hardware, UID software, and stuff that I use for compression and EQ. What I can do on the road is basically get down my demos and my sketches and then once I get home I finish up the track.

Any interesting stories about yourself?

(Laughs) what do you wanna know? I actually released my first ever web series called Front of House TV where I give people more insight into my personal life and my DJ life. I get the feeling that people don’t actually know me yet, because they only see the DJ and the producer. There’s much more to me than that though. There’s always a different side to the DJ thing, people always always romanticize it you know? They’re like “Oh you travel the world, you’re always partying”, but there’s always a downside. I miss my family a lot, my friends. I’m really a social guy, I need my friends everywhere and that’s why I’m really excited about this kind of tour because I’m actually playing with my friends and having fun.

Can you describe how it’s different playing with Dyro and Hardwell compared to playing with people that are maybe just your colleagues and not close personal friends?

I can get along with a lot of people, but we’re all very close. There are a lot of Dutch DJs that I know from back in the day and we all started off at similar times, but it’s just different playing and touring with your best friends. I can share all my private things with them and everything and that’s not something I want to do with someone I only know as a colleague. Of course we’re talking and we’re having fun, but it’s not like I can share my problems or my tips and tricks. We try to keep that stuff in the family (laughs).

What was the moment when you felt like you made it?

The most important moment in my whole career was when I quit my day job as a marketing manager. One of the main reasons was that my family was really supportive about my decision. They all know me very well obviously and they thought that I had the talent to make it big. They really encouraged me to follow my dreams and they said you can always go back to being a marketing manager, but you’re going to regret it if you don’t take this step. That’s something that I’m super thankful for, but I’m also thankful for Hardwell. That guy is very supportive of me and he’s also one of my best friends. That’s not the main reason he helped me though, if I didn’t deliver there’s nothing he could do to help me. I’m just really thankful for his support though and I think we all do a great job of supporting each other on the Revealed label. It’s good to be around friends with the same goals.

Deadmau5 has criticized many artists for making mainstream tracks and he made fun of Martin Garrix by dropping his own edit of “Animals” at Ultra. What’s your opinion on your music becoming mainstream? You’re sound appeals to a really wide variety of people, but is this something you want or do you want to stay in the niche of EDM?

Everyone’s always talking about mainstream music, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It’s been there forever, in the Netherlands dance music has been big for over 20 years, it’s always been on the radio. I always try and come up with my own unique sound within EDM. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with mainstream music and I laugh at Deadmau5 for playing that “Animals” edit. I like “Animals”, that track is just cool. He’s just a little bit weird (laughs), so he can do that. I’m not offended by that, I just make music that I like and it’s just great that people like it as well. I’m not going to stop making music I love because some people think that makes me less credible. I just make music that I like.

Have you ever though about producing Top 40 music or for someone that is truly a pop artist like DJ Snake did with Lady Gaga?

Yeah I actually have had some requests about that from big labels and from big artists. At this point in time though it’s really important for me to focus on my career and on my production, but in the future that’s something I would love to do. I would love to produce a hip-hop track or just something totally different. I think it’s really cool to think out of the box and to come up with different styles of music.