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BEST OF 2017 Interview with Caymen

Your Name: Caymen
Your location(country,city): Braunschweig

Dimitri: Can you mention your biggest music career achievements in 2017?
Caymen: My biggest achievements in 2017 are the releases of my tracks Head Over, Verano and Scopello.
Dimitri: Can you mention your biggest personal life achievements in 2017 that make you extremely proud?
Caymen: I am very proud of my family, which gives me the necessary freedom for my music and DJing. Weather I'm very overwhelmed about the great feedback of my fans. It's a good feeling to know, that the musical things I produce  find the nerve and appeal. It's nice to see that what you do is well received by people. That's a great feeling.
1) Best Track from other artists:
Difficult question to find the right one. If I had to answer ad hoc, I would say Allen & Envy feat. Neev Kennedy - Without You, remixed by Dan Stone. It's a powerful but also an emotional track with a great vocal.



2) Your top 3 2017 personal productions
That's easy to enumerate.
Caymen - Verano



Caymen - Scopello



Caymen and MarkL2K - Head Over



3) Best Artist (Dj & producer):
I would say that Armin van Buuren, Aly & Fila, M.I.K.E. Push, Jorn van Deynhoven, John O'Callaghan, Sean Tyas, Kai Tracid, Blank & Jones, and Paul van Dyk, Manuel Le Saux, Rene Ablaze,  are names that do not require further description. They are legends.















4) Best Remix from other artist:
It is currently Elucidus with his bootleg from System F feat. Armin van Buuren - Exhale (10.2017).



5) Best Remix that you have produced?
Unfortunately, I haven't had any specific requests for that yet and have rather focused on my own tracks. But I'm open for it and look forward to it.

6) Best Remixer:
Currently it is Elucidus



7) Best Electronic Music Album:
The good old days .... Yes, they stay. Music albums like Contemplate or Trance and Acid by Kai Tracid, Out there and Back by Paul van Dyk, Substance by Blank & Jones are legendary. But also the younger generation like Mirage or Intense by Armin van Buuren or Group Therapy or Acoustic by Above & Beyond are great.



9) Best Electronic Music Compilation:
There are years in between, when I bought a compilation. I already owned the tracks, and if a DJ puts 40 tracks on a disc in a 60 minute mix that's too much, I think. Okay, you can say to get inspirations of transitions it's perfect, but I play my own style. I prefer to listen to radioshows. That's my source of inspiration.

10) Best artwork/cover of an Album or Compilation:
My absolute favorite is the art work of Universal Religion 6. A terrific work.



11) Best Lyrics in an Electronic Music track (it can be your production or from other artists)
My absolute favorites are This world is Watching Me, Shivers, Be Your Sound and Till the Sky falls down.









12) Best Vocalist/Singer featured on Electronic Music track:
Susanna, Betsie Larkin, Emma Hewitt, Vera Kramer just to name a few. But there are certainly many more with grandiose voices.



13) Best Electronic Music Label:
There are too many in my opinion. the biggest and best known are Armada Music, Black Hole Recordings, MPS, Armind, Redux Recordings, Extrema or Bonzai Records to name but a few.





14) Best Electronic Music Video:
Ever? Armin Van Buuren - Shivers

15) Best Online Social media for communication with your fans:
For me the best Social media for my communication is Facebook. Here I can reach a lot of people just in time over the globe.

16) Best Twitter or Facebook message or Instagram message you received from a fan or friend or you have read on someone else’s account:
All fans of my little fanbase send great messages. It's hard to say which one is the best - they are all great. But the funniest message was on my private facebook profile .... Hey do you know Caymen or did you hear from him? He looks exactly like you, do you have a brother?

17) Best music composition software:
I've been working with Cubase for years and I think the program makes a lot possible, even for not so big and experienced producers.

18) Best Club Event or Open Air Festival:
I rarely visit clubevents as a guest. I love to go on Open Air Festivals in summertime. My personal best and now also Open Air at least partially, is the Luminosity Beach Festival. I visited this event for the first time in 2007, where it was still very small. It was a great atmosphere.



19) Best personal DJ Gig:
Unfortunately, there are still too few bookings. But on every event I played, was great and it was a honour for me to be there.

20) Best DJ set of the year from other fellow Dj:
Well, there a lot of good DJs. Partly known and partially unknown DJs.

21) Best country that you have played in 2017 and where did you met the best festival/event crowd:
Unfortunately, I could not perform in a country other than Germany as a DJ. But I have attended many festivals and events and I have met great party people everywhere.

22) Best Radio show or Artist Vlog?:
There are many. From A State of Trance to Club Elite Sessions to Redux Sessions, Trance Army Radio Show and Cadence or Sound Escalation. But the "little" shows like TranceChill, MarkL2K and Friends, Dynamic of Trance and Redroom Trance Sessons are great shows with lots of talents.



23) Best Radio station:
Puh.... difficult question. There are a lot of great stations in the world. I often listen to various shows on AHFM, Digitally Imported. I also occasionally listen to AHFM, but I also have shows at Trance-Energy Radio, Radio Herzblut Cologne, ETN FM. The operators of each show are all big supporters. I have great respect for the work they do and I want to say THANK YOU once more. I regularly listen to these channels. Great work guys !!!

24) Best Online Record shop that you purchase your music:
I mainly purchase my music on Beatport or iTunes. But it's also the case that I get the latest tracks from DJ colleagues to check or play them.

25) Best music related website that you visit frequently:
Oh, difficult question. Well I think every website has something special individually. I visit many websites of big DJs to listen to what's new and where a trend might go. That's why it's hard to say this is the best website I've ever visited. However, I already look at Armin van Buuren and M.I.K.E Push website ...

26) Best Smart phone or smart phone application:
Clear WhatsApp, Facebook, Mail and my calendar. Without those I would sometimes be stuck.

27) Best Dj equipment (software or hardware):
I use two Pioneer CDJ 2000 NXS paired with a Pioneer DJM 900. However, I also like to use my old Reloop Terminal Mix 4 together with Traktor 2 Pro. That's where I feel at home and the performance is a lot of fun. There you have all the necessary functions you need. In combination with a Mac you have a stable and functional system that runs reliably.

28) Best new sound or sample that has been used in Electronic Music this year perhaps introduced first by you?
Unfortunately, I can not serve with that yet.

29) Best tip that you learnt this year for your Djing techniques or music composition:
I'm rarely in exchange with other colleagues about tricks. I have my own style to perform and that makes each one of us so unique and also a little bit interesting. I often sit for hours only in the studio or stand behind the decks and just try out.

30) Best piece of advice you got in relation to your career in 2017:
You produced such great tracks. Publish it and I did it... The result is the overwhelming feedback.

31) Best hobby or activity that you spent a lot of time in 2017:
Clearly the music. There is no time for more :-)

32) Best holiday destination for 2017 either to relax or to perform in a club or festival:
My best destination for 2017 was Ibiza. There are many nice places to relax. And if you like good music at night, there is everything your heart desires on the island.

33) Best Electronic Music magazines in printed form not online:
FAZEMAG is the only printed magazine I buy regularly. I get the rest of the information and news through the resource-saving internet.

34) Best Movie of the year that may inspire you to compose a track:
I don't depend on any film for my compositions. As I said before, the sounds and coherences arise in my head. The thoughts that arise are rather different origin. but what they are remains my secret. A magician does not reveal his tricks ;-)

35) Best online/PC/video game of the year that you have played this year?
Whaaat? Playing Games??? Send me time, than I will have time to play gams on my PS4.... You're funny... ;-)

36) Best soundtrack for video game of the year:
See above. I think questions like this are for game players, not for growing DJs.

37) Best electronic music related joke you heard this year and make you still laugh:
That's a good cue ... The best joke in 2017 was the offer to learn the DJing in two weeks, even for inexperienced music. I've been behind the decks for over 20 years and in my childhood I already mixed my own tapes. Afterwards with vinyl, CD and mp3 etc. My opinion is that you have to have a flair for music, you have to feel it to make something audible out of it. I always say  it's like iOS and Android, you love it or you can't work with it.

38) The saddest electronic music news you heard this year and still makes u cry:
The saddest electronic music message this year was the news of the death of Robert Miles. In my early days as a DJ, there was no way past his legendary track Children. Rest In peace Robert.

Dimitri: Finally, please tell our readers your plans with your future releases, tracks, albums, collaborations, Dj gigs.
Caymen: It's hard to say how far I can go and lead my inspirations for new tracks. The fact is that I still have some new tracks in my head and my bag. And yes, I try to make my first Album in 2018 or 2019. I 'm always open for new compilations with great DJs. I'm also not a big DJ but I also like to give newcomers the chance to build their own fanbase. And who knows, maybe one of them will be a big one. After all, as always, it takes a good deal of luck to be heard and accepted by the very big DJs. We will see how far I personally will come. I'm always working hard to get gigs to play somewhere and to be heard and noticed in the scene. This is not easy and takes patience, time and one or the other relationship and support. 


Thanks to Rene Ablaze at Redux Recordings for organising this interview.

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