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PEOPLE MIAMI LIVING 113 Catching up with Paul van Dyk The Grammy Award-winning DJ-music producer talks about his new album, where his luck might come from, the worst part of the business and more Words by Vanessa Pascale · Photo Credit: Christoph Köstlin Paul van Dyk recently made his rounds here in Miami for Winter Music Conference, a "tradition" that begins at Space on Friday night, is followed by a boat party Saturday, and then ends at Ultra on Sunday. Paul loves coming down to Florida since it has one of the longest and strongest electronic music scenes, he tells me as he reminisces about playing in Gainesville, Orlando, and Miami since the early 90s. While in the Magic City, he normally stays in Brickell, since it's conveniently located near downtown. Fond of the area, he's flirted with the idea of getting an apartment in here. "We're not there yet," laughs the 43-year old, during our chat this past February at Lobby Lounge in Mandarin Oriental New York. When Paul is not jetting from city to city and various countries around the world to DJ for massive crowds, he spends half his time in Los Angeles and the other half in Berlin. During this time, he is also producing new albums like, The Politics of Dancing 3, which comes out May 4 th . The third in a series, he describes it as a DJ mix compilation. "For the first one, I took music from other people and remixed it all and then mixed it together." This one is different. "Instead of somebody sending me their music and me remixing it, I actually went to the studio with the people so I could make new music. Essentially, it's an artist album, that name-wise is still linked to the original concept, but it's kinda an evolution of it," Paul explains. How would you describe your music? I ask. "Its' energetic. It's always subjective. I always try to put as much substance into what I do. It's danceable –a lot of people say its trance music. I'm not a typical techno guy, but I have techie beats. I'm not EDM, but I have a poppy hook... I think most people would consider me a trance DJ —some people are even blaming me for it." He laughs. Paul is still in high spirits from the great turnout for his show the night before, despite the fact that he's dealing with a cold. "There was a moment I was clearing my nose [last night at his show] and my ears popped and I was kinda like, Ok, everything sounds weird now. It was a bit like a water bubble. But it was amazing," he beams. From New York, Paul flies back to L.A. then to Dubai, Europe, back to the U.S., Asia and Australia —and that's only his schedule till April. He knows all this because he just had a look at the calendar before meeting with me. The waitress comes by and Paul orders a café latte. One item he often has with him while traveling, that is not music-related, is a book. He is currently reading, The Journey Home, which was recommended to him. "I like reading because I imagine what it looks like, what they are describing, so that occupies my brain, therefore I'm not in business-mode or whatever. I can relax the best because I'm diving into that world. I'm walking that little path in that book, that's what I like about it." I ask him about his passions outside of music, and he takes a moment to answer. "I think that when you're a really passionate musician, then that's the passion. Somehow everything sort of revolves around music… I like good food. I make good soups." He smiles and laughs. Growing up in East Germany, Paul learned to make something tasty out of almost nothing. "People say my soups are good," he adds. While talking about other favorites, I discover that Paul and I share the same favorite T.V. show. "I'm a big fan of The Big Bang Theory," Paul confesses enthusiastically. "I'm not such a freak as Sheldon, but I can be. Let's put it this way, I have a really weird way of saying things like he does." Happy to have "another geek" around, he feels that Sheldon's behavior has made his own more universally accepted. "I've had some funny, raised-eyebrows [before]," he says with a chuckle. "Now, it's like an established way of speaking." As for movies, he gets to catch up on those while on the plane. The latest one he caught was The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1.