Marco V - The New White
The world’s premier dance music event, Sensation, is coming to Australia for the first time this new year’s eve. 3D’s Carlisle Rogers spoke with Marco V, one the DJs you can expect to see on the night. In white of course…
Marco V is one of a slew of DJs coming to Melbourne at the end of the year to play Sensation White. Sensation is going to be taking over the Telstra Dome, and like a George Michael video or a Star Trek utopia, everyone will be wearing white: 40,000 clubbers, all dressed in white, surrounded by the most decadent décor this side of the interior of the Sultan of Brunei’s brothel plane.
Somewhere around my office, a sprawling kitchen table flanked by books and strategically close to coffee and my trusted friend, the blender, is a list of superlatives and measurements outlining the production plans for Sensation. They include more pyrotechnics than a Kiss concert, more water cannons than the Vegas strip, more girls in white begging to be spanked than the Castle Anthrax and more VIPs than River Phoenix’s funeral. Hell, for a measly $7,500 you can have your own VIP table for 10 for the night, free-flowing spirits and dinner. There’s never been a party quite like this one in Australia.
Marco says when you’re playing to a crowd that big, it is impossible to keep everyone happy, so you just have to make it up as you go behind the decks. “I just play my tracks that I think work well and when I play for bigger crowds, I play less. There are some tracks you don’t play for big crowds whereas there are some tracks you know work for big crowds, so normally I try not to play anything too deep or underground for big crowds; most of the time that doesn’t work very well.
“I have to play commercial stuff, but some tracks have a big room feeling. It doesn’t have to be commercial or vocal songs, but some tracks have a stadium feeling that just works in a big room. I don’t really play trance like the other guys from Holland, but I do play some trance. I also play prog and techno. I never pick my music based on the style, I just listen to what I like and that’s what I play. I play very diverse sets, but I do play trance as well.”
Marco has been involved in the Sensation brand since day one, and has played several of the events – too many for him to count. It’s still one of his favourite parties in the world. “The production is by IDT, and they are known to throw some of the best parties here in Holland. I think Sensation is the best indoor party there is in the whole world. It’s really amazing, the production and everybody dressed in white really gives the party something extra. It’s a special party, there is nothing else like it; it is so different.
“The production really is incredible, the lasers and the fireworks and everything. It’s so much more than you get from a normal party. People are usually really impressed by everything happening on the stage. Secondly, everybody dressed in white gives the party this unity, a special feeling, and it’s really nice to see. The crowd is also a part of the decoration.
Sensation has been in Holland since 2000 although the first Sensation wasn’t a white party. In 2001, they introduced the idea of everyone wearing white, and it worked. “I was impressed everybody came dressed in white. I would say the first time, 99 per cent were wearing white. Here in Holland I would say that we do not like to show off. We are more laid back. We have very big parties over here, but it’s not like everybody goes crazy, like in England. That’s not the way it goes here, so that was even more surprising to me. In England, I would have no doubt that everybody would come in white because they are more up for that kind of stuff. I was surprised that it could work in Holland.”
Marco V is also about to release a few new tracks, and a new compilation on Simon Dunmore’s Defected label. “There’s a new album coming out soon. I just finished the second track with Sander van Doorn; we did a track together called Organic. But I can’t say more about the album until later. A new mix album is coming out called Combinations as well. I knew Simon because he used to come to the club I was playing in all the time. I was a resident DJ in the club and always there to see what I was doing. He doesn’t live very far away from me, only 20 minutes, so we started to work together in the studio.
The CD is called Combinations and that means that I play, essentially, what I play in my DJ sets, but in different styles. It combines different styles of music, that’s the whole idea, and so it’s very diverse. It goes from techno to trance and then some more house and laid back stuff. It has everything on it and is basically the way I like to play on a CD. It goes from Trentemoller to X-Press 2, Mistress Barbara, Tony Arzidon, DJ Raymundo. It’s very diverse.”
WHO: Marco V
WHAT: Plays Sensation White at Telstra Dome, Melbourne
WHEN: New Year’s Eve
MORE: sensation-white.com