Ferry Corsten recently made an appearance to the third most populated city in China called Guangzhou. He brought with him a set that was packed with his biggest and newest tracks. The longtime veteran of trance sat down with us after the show to share some wisdom on the industry, his various projects, and the secret to staying healthy while touring during his long career.
The night started out with a line up of local DJ’s for the event Tranception. Before 11pm struck, the club had been filled to the with local, college kids from the surrounding Guangzhou area. The crowd was alive and pumped to see Ferry Corsten. The official “Trance Family China” was on top of each others shoulders waving the flag to make their appearance known. The opening DJ’s did a great job at getting the crowd going before Ferry tookto the stage.
Finally, midnight kicks in and Ferry unleashes the beginning of his set, opening with some of the more recent releases from his Flashover Recordings Label. An amazing moment of the night came as we watched people in the crowd singing and “bah bahing” the lyrics and melodies to one of Ferry’s new tracks called “Freefall,” as well as his classic hits. Beginning with a more progressive start to his set, he eventually worked into the Trance anthems such as the new “Surga” (under the “Gouryella” alias). As the set progressed, we then got the epic tracks “Anahera” and “Live Forever.” It was amazing to see so many of the locals singing along to his tracks. This only further expanded our belief that music transcends all language. Music is for everyone.
Ferry’s set finished and we made our way back to the green room, where we immediately got into chatting about preforming, touring and staying healthy. We also talked about his record label and producers under his label that are doing really well. He shared some incite as to discovering new artists on his label.
When it comes to good health, Ferry said, maintaining a consistent schedule at home is most important. When he is at home or in the studio he spends most of his time working on new music, his podcast and working on his label. He treats it like a normal job with a schedule as if it was your typical 9-5.
The weekends are spent touring and performing all over the world. When it comes to touring and remaining healthy he shared that he is very selective about the amount of drinks he consumes and how often. He painted a picture of professionalism and great work ethic, mentioning that he preferred only to loose when he’s on a vacation or for a very special event.
We then talked about how he protects his hearing. Ferry explained that having a good pair of headphones and regulating the booth monitors to a manageable level is part of the check list. Some DJ’s that open up have the booth monitors way to loud.
With a bit of a quick change up, we got into producers who regularly support on his podcast “Corsten’s Countdown”.
RR: “You play Paul Arcane music all the time. Nearly every release for the last few months. Could that be a subtle indication that if he were to send you a demo it would be well received?”
FC: “Yeah, definitely. He puts out great records.”
We then talked about his multiple aliases; New World Punx, System F, Gouryella and more.
New World Punx is between Ferry and Markus Schulz. If you follow both of their Instagram accounts you can see they are great friends, and Ferry played a big role in Markus’ recent wedding (congrats by the way). He shared that the New World Punx project started with the rise of the commercial EDM big-room festival boom. That project was almost a way to send a middle finger to the industry getting stale and overly saturated, hence “New World Punx.” We were lucky enough to have caught one of their EDC set’s a few years back and loved it. When expressed that we were hungry for another appearance, Ferry laughed and said, “perhaps in the future.”
Before we wrapped up, Ferry gave us a look into his upcoming gig. The next day he would be off to Japan for a System F show, which he noted is more of his true trance-focused alias that came to fruition nearly two decades ago. As he mentioned a bit about its beginnings, we could pick up on his passion for the project and pure excitement for the show ahead.
We couldn’t be more appreciative of Ferry’s time and the incredible set he threw down just moments before.
Connect with Ferry Corsten:
http://www.ferrycorsten.com
https://www.facebook.com/FerryCorsten
https://twitter.com/ferrycorsten
https://soundcloud.com/ferry-corsten
https://www.instagram.com/ferrycorsten
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