DJ Interviews

[CHRIS]

would have been great to see him at Trance Energy. Hes far better than a lot of the Djs that were there in my opinion. For anyone who hasnt seen him live your missing out big time

[djdoubled2008]

Thanks alot exhale,you think it looks alright so?

He`ll probably get his chance ... few can understand the way the organisers judge when sending out invitations to perform at the event .. i have a couple of names i would of liked to see there too:)

[Ghost]

woah, pretty sick man

[carebox]

great stuff! when is he coming to finland?!:D

Must admit his music makes my day...feel sorry i didn`t get to go to Timisoara last year in september i believe...he performed there and it`s pretty close to me,but other problems prevented me from going-,-

Leon Bolier was born in 1980 somewhere in the middle of Holland, and allways was in love with moody music.

When he heard Energy 52's Cafe Del Mar he fell in love with melodic trance, and quit producing hardcore house.

In 2002 and 2003 he got his first record deals, together with his brother Bart. They released some tracks on Bonzai/Banshee and FTM sublabels. Back then the first contacts with Armada frontman Maykel Piron were established via Armin van Buuren, and this resulted in Leon remixing the first ever Armada release.

Nowadays Leon releases stuff on labels like Armada Music, Blackhole Recordings, Spinnin Records and Sweden-based Captured Music.

Official Leon Bolier Website!

http://www.leonbolier.com/v3/

Official Leon Bolier youtube channel!

Go check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/leonbolierofficial

Although he has a lot of work to do,as you will see from the interview,Leon Bolier took the time to answer all my questions.Enjoy

1.Hello and welcome Leon.Since we are practically at the beginning of 2009,can you share
with us a couple of words of how 2008 has been and how`s 2009 going so far?

In a couple of words, phew :)
2008 has been amazing, with the release of my first artist album, great gigs and the entry
in DJ Mag top 100. 2009 is going well too so far.. I finished a couple of new productions
and remixes, am finishing a dj mix compilation to be released in May, and i am replying to
this interview from Buenos Aires, Argentina as we speak, because i am doing some gigs in South
America.

2.Knowing you for a versatile producer/dj(from progressive to ambient,tech or even
electro)can you tell us what is your main influence(tracks,artists)?

Im influenced by anything really, from classical music (Chopin, Beethoven) to Radiohead
and so on. Back in the days it was Energy 52´s cafe del mar that got me into knowing what
´trance´ was, even tho i heard tracks like Age of Love before, and really liked those tracks.
Armin, Tiesto and Corsten have been a great influence later on. Nowadays other styles of
electronic music influence me as well indeed, especially the warm (detroit like) techno stuff
and (melodic) minimal or neotrance and more oldskool 2002 progressive. Even tho you stated
electro, sometimes the similar ´electro´ sounds used everywhere bore the crap out of me
haha.

3.You released your first album intitled Pictures,made in collaboration with a bunch of
other dj`s/producers(Galen Behr,Sied van Riel,Joop,etc),collaboration which imprinted on
the tracks different styles and approaches.The songs have also names of different cities
around the world.Can you tell us how you got to name the album and the tracks the way
you did?(Singapore,Acapulco,Beyrouth,etc)

The city names just refer to the cities - Usually i made those tracks after having been
there. The other track names just pop into my head after producing and listening to the
track I just finished.. and the track names of the vocal tracks refer to the lyrics of
course. XD and YE are a different story, XD refers to the smiley as i thought of that one
when listening to the drop in that track. YE started out as a remix of XD but I liked it
so much that I transformed it into a new track - YE being the next letters in the alphabet
following XD.

4.You played at a lot of different gigs,from Trance Energy to Godskitchen,
Love Parade,etc.Is there any particular place you didn`t get to perform and you`d like to?

Of course theres always things to explore! Like Sensation White, Creamfields, Sunrise in
Poland to name a few!

5.It`s well known the fact that you like to play in tours alongside with other great
djs(seen on Trance Energy when you performed next to Joop),but is there anyone with who
you`d like in a special way to perform a back-to-back?

Well, im not looking into having back 2 backs in special on my tours but sometimes it
happens, and that´s because we´ve grown friends in the last couple of years - thus i
already did back2backs with Joop, Sied van Riel, Galen Behr, Menno de Jong and Cliff Coenraad
to name a few. Its all about knowing each other and knowing what to do to make it a success
together. So I dont know what will happen in the future :)

6.Before starting to produce trance,you were fixed on hardcore house.We know that
Energy 52`s Cafel del Mar was the breaking point on this matter.What did you actually
feel when you first listened to this trance anthem?

It was summer, I was on summer holiday with my family, and we (my lil brother, sis, cousins)
were listening to the dutch national radio 538 which we were able to listen to there (since
we were in Kent, ENgland) and we turned the volume high and we were happy, and we loved that
song. Thats just all but remembering that sunny day still makes me smile!

7.This year you`ll be performing in Australia at the 2nd Trance Energy event held in,
among many other places,in the Belvoir Amphitheatre located in Perth.Do you agree with
the ideea of another event being held all the way back to Australia so people living too
far from Holland could participate at what`s known to be the Mecca of all trancers?

Yep I agree with that. It´s cool that Australia has the share the unique trance energy
experience! By the way, people disagreeing with that, what do they think about trance energy
being held in Thialf dome in Friesland back in the days - its only the last couple of years
that Trance Energy was held exclusively in Jaarbeurs Utrecht.

8.Could you share with us what`s Leon Bolier`s top 5 all-time favourite trance tunes?

Could change from time to time but ill try:
1 energy 52 - cafe del mar (three n one mix)
2 the age of love - the age of love (jam & spoon watch out for stella rmx)
3 atlantic ocean - waterfall
4 dance2trance - power of american natives
5 rank1 - airwave

9.At the moment there is known that a powerful economical and financial crysis has
struck the entire planet with all of it`s countries.Do you believe that this is affecting
the EDM/Trance scene from all points of views?(the number of participants at gigs,
releases and sales,event organization)

At the moment I dont know, tho I think people will always (and especially in bad times) want
to go out to party and forget about whatever is happening!

10.And in the end i have somewhat of a more tricky question...What is your favourite track
from the ones that you`ve produced?

Tricky indeed haha... some of them are: poseidon, back in the days, ocean drive boulevard,
crazy people (alternative mix), XD and YE.

Thank you for your time Leon Bolier.In behalf of all our community we wish you good luck in your career,we`ll be looking forward to your new releases(singles or remixes) and maybe in the near future we`ll have the occasion of finding out other new and interesting things about you.

The Trance Community Staff.

[CHRIS]

Much appreciated Leon & Exhale. Very Interesting read

make sure to check out his website to find out where hes playing :)

http://www.leonbolier.com/v3/

[pice]

thanks for the interview ^^
1 energy 52 - cafe del mar (three n one mix)
2 the age of love - the age of love (jam & spoon watch out for stella rmx)
3 atlantic ocean - waterfall
4 dance2trance - power of american natives
5 rank1 - airwave

nice ;)

[freeman]

Amazing! It helps aspiring Djs and producers when they read these kinds of stuff.

[freeman]

Nice stuff! Keep em comin!

[SiGnum]

mushias grasias compadre` .. gj :D

Well they have to agree to keep comin`:))

[ralq]

yeah that was interesting to read... will surely read the others interviews..

[SiGnum]

airrrrrbaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!!!

Indeed:D :X..he`s good,gotta admit it..very very good.

[lystakata]

Great read, thanks exhale can't wait to read more :)

[lystakata]

Very good interview, thanks exhale. It was an interesting read hope to see more in the future.