Exclusive interview with ARTY

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Photo by Kat Lam

By Andrew Walker

This past Friday, Russian trance superstar ARTY made a stop in Calgary before another round of tour dates and his anticipated Miami Music Week sets with Armada and Anjunabeats. And in typical fashion at The Palace Theatre, his set was full of unreleased bangers that had the crowd going all night long. I had the chance to sit down with him and talk new music, life on the road and some surprises along the way:  

Andrew: Welcome back to Cowtown! You’re usually here during Stampede in the summer but what brings you back before the start of spring?

Arty: My friends! That’s what brings me back and of course the amazing crowd. It’s my fourth time at Palace Theatre and it’s one of my favorite venues, every time I come back here I know it’s going to be a great show.

How do you balance shows on the road while preparing for a major festival at the same time?

Whenever I play in the clubs, it’s just a fact that I’m going to be playing a longer set. It’s also a different vibe, you have more time to make your set a journey and you have more of a connection with the crowd. My perfect set is in waves where you hit certain points, then go a different way while telling a story. With festivals, it’s hard because you only have an hour, so you try to squeeze as much as you can, and you’re usually 50 meters away from the crowd. that’s probably the biggest difference. 

You’ve put out so much music lately both as yourself and ALPHA 9, what was the process like creating all of those tracks in such a short amount of time?

This coming week is the beginning of something that will be very exciting: the first track off my EP, also the first part of my album that I’m releasing later this year. It’s 12 club records I made with my friends. It really started out with us messing around in the studio in Russia and we did one, two, three and then four tracks together. It kept growing and we figured we could release it as an EP but then realized it could be so much bigger. I also wanted to create a platform to give these guys some attention. One of them I’ve known since I was 14 who actually introduced me to dance music, another since 2008, so that will be an amazing amazing concept.

ALPHA 9 we just released a new track on Anjunabeats as my way of coming back to the Anjuna family. And we’ll have much more!  

Let’s talk about “You’re Not Alone”, your first single of the year with Griff Clawson, what was the process like on creating the track with him?

Griff, he’s an amazing guy, he has an incredible voice and we also made three new tracks too. There are also two other co-writers on the track from “Daydreams”, they sent me this idea and I kept listening and was so captivated by the verses. So, we got together in the studio, wrote new lyrics, melody and a hook. Then took the track and added a new harmony, made a basic drop and sent it to my friend Nikita for feedback, and he sent me back a new sound and we finished the track on his end and then when it was ready to go I took the stems back and that took me 2 and a half months to finish with all the stems and polish it and make sure it sounds the way I want it to. It was a long process but I’m really happy with how it turned out!

There have been a number of DJs that have put their careers on hold to give their mental health a break, you once tweeted out that it can get lonely sometimes, how are you able to cope with that and are there any new techniques you’ve done in the last few years on the road to improve your health?

The one thing I figured since I spend so much time in the studio every day is to go to the gym and meet up with my friends. I only have a certain amount of time to meet up with them though, especially when you’re on the road, afterwards you’re tired, your back home and you have this massive anxiety on your shoulders because your body and mental state are exhausted from playing all those shows. But when I come back, I always conference call with my friends from Russia and twice a week I talk to my parents. But you have to stick to it, if you don’t do any physical activity and sit in the studio all day long it’s like driving yourself up a mountain, it’s important to take breaks and to figure out your routine. I have one, go grab coffee, make breakfast, hit the gym, go to the studio and then go back again the gym at night and then back to the studio, that’s basically my day and when you figure it all out, it becomes easy and you know you have it all laid out and no freak out as much.    

Before we go, Lily Collins was in your “Save Me Tonight” music video, but if you had a famous actor play you in an upcoming video for a new single, who would you pick?

Noah Centineo! He directed the video, and he’s a talented actor too. I hope that he’s directs some upcoming videos!

Big thanks to Arty for letting me talk to him before his set! Check out Outburst here: https://armas1725.lnk.to/Outburst

Photo by Kat Lam

Both Veld & FVDED Mark Change For Canada's Dance Music Festival Circuit

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By Ryan Hayes

With the recent release of the Veld's 2020 lineup an official shift has begun within the Canadian festival landscape. This year Veld will be helmed by four powerhouse dance music artists; Armin Van Buuren, Illenium, Marshmello, & Martin Garrix. This slate of headliners marks the first time that Veld has not had a major rap act gracing the top of their roster since 2015 when the festival was still, for all intents and purposes, a dedicated EDM festival; the 2015 lineup did present patrons with two rap acts, A$AP Rocky and I Love Makonnen.

In the four years that followed (2016-2019) Veld became a full on hybrid festival riding the wave of rap and hip-hops integration in to the world of dance music, in an attempt to feel fresh and relevant. During this time period festival headliners included;  Travis Scott, Future, Migos, and most recently Cardi B.

However, it takes more than a few big names to make a festival a true hybrid. 2020 marks Veld's lowest percentage of rap/hip-hop acts since 2016; over a 10% drop in non-EDM performers when compared to the 2019 iteration. Currently under 20% of the festivals scheduled talent is drawn from outside of the realm of EDM.

Outside of Veld, in the Canadian festival circuit as a whole, there has been a reshuffling of dance music talent.  House music leaning acts continue to increase their presence while EDM artists who focus more heavily on integrating rap in to their sets have begun to wane.  This shift can be seen on top of the diminishing power of rap and hip-hop artists, both as a result, and a contributing factor, to the continued evolution of the festival landscape.

The major question now is, will the 2020 festival season be more successful than 2019—and if it is, does that mark the end of the major push for hybrid festivals?

Coupled with the evolution away from rap integration is the deconstruction of the headliners reign of power. This year lineups are bigger than ever—Veld's 2020 lineup is, by far, it's largest offering to date in terms of pure numbers. Within the festival circuit there is a trend away from spending all your money on headliners, and through these means focusing on a really flushed out middle tier of talented dance music artists.

Nowhere is the shift away from rap and towards an EDM heavy mid tier more apparent than BC's FVDED in the Park.  This year FVDED's  heavy hitters (outside of their three headliners) include; Alison Wonderland, Alesso, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Dave, and Gorgon City. Four of the aforementioned acts are EDM artists, and that is a major shift compared to 2019 when three out of five of the festivals largest second tier artists were rappers, and one of two EDM artists had strong hip-hop underpinnings; Tory Lanez, French Montana, Louis The Child, RL Grime, 6lack.

FVDED also supports Veld's move away from a hybrid focused event. Although FVDED has roughly the same amount of rap/hip-hop acts as it always has, the 2020 iteration marks the events most EDM artists since 2017; and the first time the festival has had a dance music headliner on each night since Jack U and Zedd headlined in 2016.

Both Veld and FVDED stand as strong evidence that 2020 marks a turning point. As EDM continues to drift out of the pop-culture ethos the fans who have stuck with the genre are evolving, and finding their own particular niche soundscape. Where this road will ultimately lead is unclear—however—this year seems to be proving pivotal in the shift towards more dance music centric events. Escapade, the dance music diehard, sold out in days, Veld dropped it's rap headliners, and FVDED refocused it's budget on dance music.