Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike

Around 18 months ago, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike were heroes in their home country of Belgium. But, in just two years, their remix credentials, ability to make a European Number 1 crossover hit and gain popularity for their high-energy, bouncing and fun shows has seen the brothers-in-arms’ trajectory rocket skywards. It’s all based around techy-beats and massive synth lines, coupled with a rock star attitude and a grateful and hands-on approach to their growing fanbase.
 
They’ve been checked by The Swedish House Mafia and even named as breakthrough artists of last year by Sebastian Ingrosso.  Popular and genre smashing remixes including reworks of Abel Ramos’ ‘ Rotterdam City of Love',  and of course ‘Leave the World Behind’ by SHM and Laidback Luke. With two new tracks (‘Rej’ and ‘Alarma’) coming out around now – pulled forward due to intense demand – the future certainly looks bright for this continental duo.
 
With Dimitri and Mike coming to Cream this coming weekend to help celebrate the clubs birthday, as well as recently supporting Swedish House Mafia at Pacha, please meet these superstars in training before they go stratospheric.
 

How and when were you first infected by electronic / dance music?
Dimitri: “Well I have a long history when it comes to dance music, I started DJing at a very young age, I think I was about 12 years old when I first started making mix tapes with a discman and a cd player linked up in some weird way to a cassette deck, mashing up different kinds of music into one track… a short period after that I got my first vinyls and slowly got into the hard techno sound that was very popular at that time. When I was 16 I already had all my equipment and I had built up quite a bit of experience by playing at local bars, party’s and cafes. That was also the first year when I moved abroad to another country for the first time, I spent my summer dj’ing in Mallorca, where I was hired as a hotel dj, which also gave me the opportunity to play at local clubs. One year after that I moved to Ibiza to do the same and that’s where my eyes really got opened, watching the big ones play at those amazing clubs… it was just perfect! At that point I realized, this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life…”

Mike: “It’s kinda the same story for me, except I was really into Hiphop until I moved over to Ibiza with Dimitri and had the same experience. At that point I was writing a lot of lyrics and trying to do some rap beats and record on top of those, so I had a little bit of experience when it came to MCing. I remember at one point seeing the Audiobullys playing together with Erick Morillo in Pacha…that’s where I had my epiphany! Shortly after that I picked up the mic at a party where Dimitri was spinning, and tried doing some vocals while he was playing, people went absolutely bonkers….and voila the duo ‘Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike’ was more or less born!!

When did you start making music / producing, and how long was it before you started making tracks that you were really happy with?
Dimitri: “After spending those years in Ibiza, we kinda realized that you had to make successful tracks to become a huge name in the business. I already had some time playing with Cubase and acid but more for making edits and mash ups of the music that I was going to play… so we didn’t really have to start from zero. I moved in with mike and his girlfriend, spent all the money I had made in the past years on a good PC, software and speakers and we started working day after day on music, first together, after in shifts. I think that pc hasn’t been turned of in about two years; seriously, we were working day and night on that thing. But It was quite shortly after buying the equipment that we already got signed with some tracks so that part went quite well…”

What have been your personal favourite tracks / productions so far?
Mike: “Well I think I can speak for the both of us when I say, the remix we did for ‘Leave the World Behind’ is one of our all time favourites, we still play it J I also liked the remix we did for ‘Rotterdam City of Love’, ‘Work this pussy’ was a banger we played out a lot. And more recently ‘One Look’,‘Generation X’ and ‘Madagascar’. But we’ve got a lot of new ones coming that might take over on those.”

Who would you most like to work with?
Dimitri: “We’ve already had the opportunity to work with or for a lot of our favourite ones, like Axwell…and a bunch of other artists that I still can’t say anything about sadly enough.”
Mike: “For me it has always been a dream to work with big urban/pop artists from the states and that dream is also slowly coming to fulfillment…but there is a long list to go from untill we are satisfied.”

What have you got in store for the coming months?
Dimitri: “Well we’ve got an amazingly big list of productions we are going to release in the near future, a bunch of collabs and some really big remixes for some huge names… Next one up is remake of the alltime classic ‘Rej’, which we will be releasing on our own label ‘Smash The House’ the 28^th of September and shortly after that we’ll be releasing ‘Alarma’ a collab with Italian rising stars Promise Land; after that it’s time to drop ‘Momentum’, together with Regi…”

What can we expect from one of your DJ sets or live sets?
Dimitri: “A lot of energy, a lot mash up’s and re-edits, we almost never play a track in its original form, we love to set it to our own hand and a whole bunch of unreleased tracks of course! We really love to interact with the crowd and make them scream and shout all through the set!
Mike: “While I’ll be screaming and shouting back at ‘em through the microphone, haha! No, seriously we always tend to be very active and try to push the limits further and further every set we play. I also love to do the FX and fiddle the knobs while Dimitri is playing, so we kinda got four hands working at the same time! I really pick the time and place for crowd interaction…”

If you weren’t a DJ/producer/artist, what would you be?
Dimirti: “I dunno, a famous movie star…hehehe, no seriously that always has been my second ambition, to become an actor. Who knows what the future may hold?”

Mike: “For me I certainly know what the future WILL hold aside from music, I really, absolutely, am a huge food fanatic. I’ve been cooking almost all my life, I make original dishes from all over the world and I tend to put in a lot of effort just to finish that dish the perfect way. For example, finding every spice and herb freshly as available and stamping my green, red or yellow thai curry paste the old fashion way… instead of buying a can at the supermarket. I just love those little details, and the same goes for producing.”

Which other producers and DJs and artists do you really rate?
Dimitri: “Well I must say I have a lot of respect for the ones that have been around for so many years and still manage to do it as good and energetic as when they started doing, or even better!! For example Tiesto, I don’t know where he gets all the energy for playing at sometimes 6 different countries in 3 days, he is an absolute boss when it comes to being around for years. We’ve been touring for two years now and I already had a little taste of how hard it can get! Erick Morillo is another perfect example! I also really love what Axwell, Seb and Steve are doing, they just keep amazing you every time and are a huge influence on the dance music scene, together as ‘Swedish House Mafia’ and also in their own ways. Also Afrojack is a very talented producer and DJ and I really play out almost everything he does! He also managed to make his own new style!”

Catch Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike playing at Cream this Saturday as part of the clubs birthday celebrations. More info and tickets available at www.cream.co.uk/cream/cream-celebrates-19th-birthday. 'Rej' is avaiulable on Beatport now.