Armin van Buuren is coming back to Jakarta with his Armin Only Embrace tour. We got the chance to talk to Dany Setiawan as the Founder of Euphorics Events and Yudha Budhisurya as the Managing Director of Livescape Indonesia about the event this March 31st 2017.
I: I would like to know the concept behind this event, how is it different from his (Armin) other concept?
D: Armin has three concepts as a matter of fact. First, just as Armin Van Buuren, A State of Trance, and Armin Only. It is Armin’s headline show. Where, he is the main act, playing his own songs, mostly from his albums. Armin Only is actually an old concept to support his new album. His newest album is called ‘Embrace’ with a lot of collaborators, from different genres, from hip-hop, rock, jazz, pop. He will bring all of his collaborators to this tour. So basically, he’s bringing the whole album on tour, including all the featuring artists.
I: So not all the performers are DJs?
Y: There’s not going to be any other DJ. He will be the only DJ. He’ll perform for 4 hours at the event, alongside other featuring artist in that album. There’s going to rappers singers, and also a full band complete with drums, bass and all. And we’re lucky because at the end of his set, he’s going to do a vinyl set for an hour.
I: How many supporting acts are going to be at this event?
Y: There are a lot. But Mr. Probz is quite known. He’s a rapper. Then there’s Cimo Frankel, a 4 piece band called Kesington, a saxophone player. For singers we got Betsie Larkin, Eric Vloeimans and Angel Taylor. Many more and they all have different genres.
I: This is such a big event, is there any difficult or strange requests from Armin?
Y: Surprisingly no. For a concert this big, they don’t request anything strange. Because Armin’s management team is very accommodating.
D: Very easy compared to any other artist.
I: It’s stated in the website that this is a merge of theater and dance music, so what can people expect from this concept?
D: I went to the Armin Only show in Taipei few months ago and basically it’s really different. Don’t expect a festival, cause it was really a show! There’s a catwalk on the stage, there’s going to be dancers, a trumpet player, the band. When I saw it in Taipei, I didn’t expect it to be that spectacular. Especially the opening, I had goosebumps.
I: How is it different from previous Armin Only concerts from his Mirage and Intense album?
Y: From the album alone the genre varies. his previous albums were more specifically trance. So for music and performances will be clearly different. Also with Armin, every time he goes on tour, he keeps developing his concept. The concept for his tour for every album has been getting more and more spectacular.
D: We can say that it’s improving. This is the peak of years of improving Armin Only.
Y: And we’re lucky that Indonesia has never got the chance to see this but once we got it, it’s the most improved version of it.
I: What about his set? Will it be the same as any other places?
D: It will be different. The differences between Armin and any other DJs is that other DJs, from what I see, plays the same set everytime. I compared Armin’s set in Taipei and Ziggo Dome, the set are different. Especially the vinyl set, he can do whatever he want. You can check on Youtube, you’ll never see the same vinyl set.
Y: And with a DJ veteran like Armin, unlike new DJs who only play for 1,5 hours, almost like a joke.
D: Well, maybe a not a joke. That’s because they don’t have enough songs to play. Armin has been in music for a long time, there’s a lot of songs he produced.
I: Will Armin open the show?
Y: Armin will open and close the show.
I: So Armin will be on stage for five hours full?
Y: Yes, four hours playing with supporting performers and an extra one hour playing a vinyl set.
I: There won’t be any solo performance from the supporting acts?
Y: No. The supporting acts came to really support and collaborate with him.
D: So, don’t be late cause the opening will be great. The opening will give you goosebumps.
Y: Dutch people know how to create that.
Take these guys words for it. Armin Only Embrace is going to one spectacular show that you sure don’t want to miss. For more info click here.
