Darude: ‘There are no shortcuts to becoming a successful producer’

Darude's story is one of duality: even though he's had one of the most commercially successful releases of all time - we all know which song's at play here - he feels like music should be about total and utter creative freedom instead of monetising music. In fact, he needs complete musical liberty to do what he's best at. 'You know what, that's the actual challenge in today's music scene. In an ideal world, you would grind and grind, and do your thing, and enjoy every bit of it, and only then would it ideally make money for you. But it doesn't always pan out that way. So the longevity of your career should be in finding things you truly like and then seeing where it takes you.'

That grind is part of why Darude started his label this year called 'Vibing Out', but also because the Finnish producer was sick of someone else looking at his work from a commercial point of view. 'If I present a track to an A&R, it's meant to sound exactly like that. I don't want to sound like Avicii or David Guetta - actually, I don't want to do things people outside of my creative bubble tell me to at all.' That creative bubble of his is small; it's just him and his wife, plus a team that works at his newfound label and supports his releases. 'One of my latest tracks was in the works for ten years. I've dreamt of releasing it forever. Somehow, I feel like it would have been tough to sell to a label that wasn't my own. I decided that this was the moment I wanted to try it alone.'

That might be an amusing thought for some, being in the game for over twenty years, and having made one of the best trance tunes ever to your name, and just now going DIY. Still, Darude is about more than quick wins. The man has always thought of music as a marathon. Another reason for starting a label at this point in his career is that he gets more demos and promos than he can honestly count, because, well, everybody wants a hit record like his, and wants to know how he’s done it. Ville Virtanen sits in his self-proclaimed happy place when he talks to us, a.k.a. his studio, and explains that some of the tracks he receives are actually worth the listen and quite good.

He listens to many of them in his futuristic and extremely tidy studio, from where he streams to his ‘Vibing Out’ community almost weekly and even gives fans feedback on their productions. When Darude occasionally feels the tracks, he wants to be able to play some of them in his well-visited DJ performances, and the easiest way to do that is to release them on his own label, where there's no hassle about music rights. It’s about giving back to the new generation whilst also plainly thinking about what serves him at that time. Baseline is, the enormous crowds still and will always expect him to deliver, wherever he goes.

There simply is no shortcut

It’s almost like he’s repaying his dues after years of earning his stripes and trying to stay relevant while still sounding refreshing - which he’s successfully managed to do. For instance, he still releases tracks that sound like that sweet euphoria that took over pretty much every dance floor in Europe from the 90s to the late 00s, without ever sounding dated.

The question of how he’s managed to ‘do it’ is always the first one to be asked, and coming from the man who scored a monstrous global hit, with the aid of JS-16 (Jaakko Salovaara) of Bomfunk MCs notoriety, to later playing the Eurovision stage, the answer will always be: there simply is no shortcut. ‘I’m from Finland, which isn’t an underrepresented county, but it’s also never been at the forefront of electronic dance music. I just needed a mentor or guide to show me how producing was done. We didn’t have a lot of local dance idols or places you could go to mess around with stuff. Luckily, Jaakko did that for me, which kickstarted my career. It’s way more accessible nowadays, which is a great thing.’

‘I see the beauty in saving money for months to buy a weird, little piece of equipment, and once you buy it, it turns out to work the exact opposite way of what you expected of it. I see the beauty in reading a manual over and over again, to maybe achieve a sound you always dreamt of - and then still doesn’t grant you instant success. It feels so rewarding when you finally achieve something creatively. I feel like those rewards may be missing in today’s music scene because sometimes, things can be achieved so easily.

On the other hand, the good thing about these days is that many more talented people can get their hands on good gear and get opportunities from it.’ Without wanting to sound like an ‘old fart’ - his words - Darude thinks it might be good for young and aspiring producers to struggle a bit. ‘In music production, there are no shortcuts. If you want to be good at it, it could benefit just to try over and over again, learn, and build until you can no more. And when a breakthrough song or chance does pop up at that point, at least you know you have a solid background, and you also might have a back catalog from where to pull from, which helps you get past that one track.’

The question on everybody's mind: does he ever get sick of playing that one track that's shaped his career? No. It's a definitive no. 'Don't make stuff for anybody else. Make it for yourself. If you like weird polka, or if you like hardstyle, or if you like whatever, make that, and try not to make something you think the marketplace wants. If you never get wildly successful financially with it, which is most of the time, you will still always have music you believe in and stand by, which you can be very proud of. At this point, at twenty years in of playing that song over and over again - if I didn't like playing it myself, that would've been so, so horrible. It's almost so simple and cliché, but it's about sincerity, your drive, and doing what you like.'

'It has always been about that one memorable hook'

So, what would his advice be to young and aspiring producers trying to get into the game with a good track that shapes an authentic sound? 'In dance music, especially how I grew up with it, it was about the build-up of a song, plus the hook. It's still all about the hook. It has always been about that one memorable thing in a song, though. It could be a gnarly bass, or it could be some percussion stuff, and when you have something good, I would also say not to overproduce. You don't need 200 tracks on a project for a track to be good. You could only work with twelve tracks, and the song could still sound amazing. If you want something catchy, the main thing should be repeating a lot. I know the big thing today seems to be a vocal hook and a big synth hook because people need to be singing something to remember that tune so they can go to the DJ and ask for it.'

With his tell-all gigantic hit without any vocals in it at all, Darude remains a man of duality. But that doesn't stop him from experimenting or getting nervous when he tries new stuff. He knows, or maybe just feels, when a track 'has something.' And that's not only talent; it's also just a lot of grinding. 'You know, I could work for six months on a track when I was younger, but I've set this new rule up for myself: I only get to spend six hours on it. If it doesn't pan out to be anything after six hours, I'll scrap it. A couple of those scrapped songs later make it to releases, but only when somebody else remixes it or I revisit it at a later point.'

'Competition doesn't add anything to the experience of music'

And even though his creative bubble is small, Darude still invites those in his 'Vibing Out' community, be it online via stream or offline during ADE Lab, to pick his brains and get inside of his creative process, and help him shape the newest trance/dance earworm. He's ready to help those seeking the next step, just like Bomfunk MC's' JS16 did when he was still figuring out his career. 'There's no point in competing with your music and art. Like, yes, somebody is going to say that one track is better than another, but music is not a competition. I always get asked who I see as my biggest competitor, but you waste a lot of energy if you look at it that way. There's room for all of us. I want to high-five pretty much everyone I come in contact with, especially my peers. Rivalry doesn't add anything to the experience of music, and it's always been about that for me.'

If you would like to enter Darude's 'Vibing Out' world and get real-time feedback from the hit producer, make sure to be at his ADE Lab on ADE Thursday, where he invites participants to hand in their USBs and gives feedback to two lucky people in the audience.