Call Markus Schulz “butter” because the man is on a roll. He’s recently traveled across the globe with Armin Van Burren on the “A State of Trance (ASOT) 600” tour, announced a new partnership, and dropped a new album. As if that weren’t enough, he’s about to embark on his own “Scream” album bus tour which will make stops all across the U.S. in April and May.
He’ll be rolling to Philadelphia for a stop at Soundgarden Hall on Thursday, April 11th (with The M Machine) and we had a few quick questions for him (with an in-person interview to follow) before his performance here next week.
Independent Philly: Your upcoming Scream album bus tour is making a stop in Philadelphia next week and you’ll be playing the Boom Box festival at Penn State as well. What can your fans expect at one of your shows if they’ve never seen you spin in person before?
Markus Schulz: Between festival and club gigs, it differs hugely. At festivals, with the shorter set lengths, you need to come with something more compact. At club gigs though, that situation reverses. Playing across a broad span of electronic music, it (a club gig) allows me to explore all the musical areas I’m into – everything from deeper progressive and techno-ish moments, to tough trance thrash, and then off the cliff top dive down the Schulz rabbit hole!
I love to play the longer sets. To put that in context, New Years Eve last at Avalon in L.A., I spun for 12+ hours straight. For this tour, sets will lean more in the extended set direction.
IP: Do you prefer to be in the studio producing or out on the road playing gigs?
MS: As a DJ/producer, one never takes preference over the other. They are both entirely different (yet naturally linked) practices. They both offer completely diverse, yet equally enjoyable highs. One takes place on stage, in front of thousands of people; the other is capsulized and away-from-the-public. From that I can imagine how fans might think that DJing is the preference. Not the case though.
IP: What can you tell us about your New World Punx partnership with Ferry Corsten?
MS: Ferry and I started playing together b2b last year and working on a few reboots of some of our old, not-forgotten favorite tracks. “New World Punx” is a sort of formalizing of that. The name comes from my ‘The New World’ track and Ferry’s ‘Punk’ track. It’s now this kind of umbrella name/term for what happens when our two sounds meet. We’ve just finished playing the opening trio of nights/sets and the response has been incredible. Can’t wait to get stuck into more of them.
IP: Tell us a little bit about your experience on the A State of Trance 600 tour…
MS: As you’d expect, every ASOT season offers another best new level in terms of what it delivers. 600 though has made an almost impossibly large leap. It started around ‘amazing’ and every gig since has just got better and better. Ultra last weekend was off the hook – an incredible atmosphere. I think this weekend just gone by however managed to top it. Ferry and I played a New World Punx set at Madison Square Garden and I know it’ll be a night I’ll still be recalling in 20 years time.
IP: Would you like to give a shout out to your fans in Philadelphia?
MS: Sure! Guys, Philly is a place I love to play and it’s been a touch too long since I’ve been back. We’ll be putting that to rights next week though! Looking forward to seeing all you next Thursday night at Soundgarden Hall. Be in no doubt: unicorns will be slayed!
We can’t wait to be on hand to cover Markus Schulz set at SGH as well as get his answers to a second round of questions! We’ll hope you’ll join us Philly for what promises to be an amazing night of Trance music.
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