Daniel Ro has become one of producers to watch over the past few years as his live performances continue to grow on people in the hard dance scene so we have an interview here to show you a few things about Dan and what to expect from him with his live performance at STEREODAYS 13TH MARCH.
With your regular appearances at Stereodays becoming the set to watch what will you be delivering to the crowd this time round?
Normally when I play live sets I play all my own material, but as many of you would know by now I’ve recently launched a new label called Ballistik Recordings with David Ding and RP. So the plan this time round is to do a Ballistik production set that will feature some of our artists releases alongside my own tracks, it’s an awesome chance to showcase what we have coming up and I promise you we have some sick music up our sleeves!!!
How long have you played for and have you ever stepped into any other genres or have you always found your place with hard dance?
I’ve been playing since 2000, I’ve only ever really played hard dance in the clubs. I’ve played with freeform a bit here and there but hard house and hard trance are my first love and that’s what I’m known for. I listen to everything genre wise and a lot outside of dance music too. I write the odd bit of slower music but ultimately it’s got to be banging and euphoric for me to really feel it.
How much time and effort is involved in creating a live performance and what is most enjoyable over playing a normal DJ set?
A lot of time goes into the live sets, it takes quite a while to program everything into the sequencer (Abelton) and work out what FX chains I’m going to run, what loops I’m going to drop over the top and which bits of what tracks I will add lib keyboards over. The enjoyable part is being able to make changes to tracks on the fly and to jam live synth riffs – just whatever feels right at the time. I’ve had a few people tell me I don’t look like I’m enjoying myself in my live sets – I assure you I am I’m just concentrating hard! DJ sets definitely give you a bit more time to interact with the crowd but less you can do to the actual track that is playing.
Over the years of your career were else have you played other than New Zealand?
The UK, all over Australia and the USA.
Most memorable moments of you career?
Having been lucky enough to get flown to different countries to play and people there knowing your music is a mind blowing experience to be fair, I’ve had so much fun over the years there is no one moment for me!
What artist do you most look up to for inspiration and ideas?
One of my favourite artists is S.H.O.K.K … mind blowing European hard trance. Not that my music sounds much like his though, I just love his sound it’s really unique. There is something in everything though, everyone has something to add and inspiration for me comes from loads of different places these days.
Thanks for your time Dan and look forward to your set at Stereodays in March not long to go now.
Nice one, see you Saturday!