Grand Designs!

No wonder Dutch superstar DJ Fedde Le Grand’s new track is called ‘So Much Love’. Watch the video, which shows him playing to crowds of thousands from Croatia and Serbia to Amsterdam and Switzerland, and you can see he’s clearly got a lot of fans eagerly anticipating his every release. The DJ booth, it also turns out, is a great vantage point to catch the hand-picked cream of a festival’s dancers, just one perk of the job.

To celebrate the new single – which you might recognise as sharing the same sample as a classic Thomas Bangalter and DJ Falcon track - we have this latest instalment of Fedde Le Grand TV, featuring yet more international time zone madness, and a whole host of Fedde’s recent and releases to sample, from the epic Sultan , Ned Shephard and Mitch Crown vocal collaboration ‘Running’ to the dutty Patrick La Funk banger ‘Autosave’ - something any producer worth their salt will have been glad of after a software crash!

As well as that we caught up with Fedde for a quick Q&A.

Fedde Le Grand preview by djmag

What have you been up to lately?

"The only thing I haven’t done is stopped. It’s been totally mental the last few months, the summer season has been probably my busiest ever, in fact I think this year has been my busiest and biggest ever. I’ve also had a lot of releases over the summer – actually as far as releases go I think this has been my busiest year ever too. At the moment I’ve got 'So Much Love' at #1 in the Beatport charts and the video has gone crazy on YouTube, we’ve had almost 350,000 hits in a week and a half, it’s a great look back at some of the highlights of the summer for me."

This summer you’ve played at all four corners of the world, and everywhere in between: where’s been the most exciting place to play?
"For me there were two places that were really special, just because I hadn’t played there before and I’d really wanted to – Coachella in California and the EXIT Festival. They were both a trip. Coachella was amazing and I got to see a lot of amazing acts, it was definitely more of a non-electric festival so there were loads of bands there, I had a really great time hanging out and watching them, and my set went down heavy too, I got a lot of love back from everyone in the crowd. EXIT was perfect, and I’m really glad because I’d heard so much hype about it so if it hadn’t lived up to it I think I’d have been really disappointed. But from start to finish, it totally blew me away, it’s so worth people taking the trip out there to go. The location is insane and just makes your jaw drop, and the music line-up is spot on."

Your latest single 'So Much Love' utilies a sampe made famous by Thomas Bangalter and DJ Falcon. Why did you decide to go down the same route and how did you set about making it your own?
"I love the Together version of the track, but it’s actually a sample taken from a really old '70s funk track by The Real Thing, called ‘Love Is Such A Wonderful Thing’. It was on one of the first funk albums I bought when I was about 13, and I’ve always loved that vocal hook. The Together version was such an inspiration, but I’ve always wanted to do my own thing with the original and last year I did. It seems like everyone loves it, so I’m really happy."

 You’re most well know for more commercial tunes like ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ and 'Let Me Think About it’ but as some fans will know you’re also successful in producing darker, more minimal stuff like ‘Take No Shhh’. What vibe can we expect from your next releases?
"I don’t really like to categorise anything that I do, or say that yeah, I’ll make a really lowdown tech-house track next. I really does just depend on how I’m feeling – if I’m in a minimal mood when I get into the studio then that’s the way I’ll go. If there’s a vocal or a melody that’s bugging me then I’ll end up making a more overground track."

Can you tell us a little about your involvement with Toolroom and your involvement with their party at Brixton 02 Accademy on 1st October?
"I’ve done quite a few releases on the Toolroom label lately and I’ve got a great relationship with the team over there. Mark’s a fantastic guy and if we’re playing the same event we’ll normally hook up for a back to back session and try to outdo each other on the decks. I’ve played the Toolroom Knights parties at Ministry and the crowd have always been fantastic, it seems likes it’s a real heart-of-London crowd, so I’m really excited to see what happens when they get hold of a venue that’s as big as the Brixton Academy. I don’t think it’ll be standing by the time they’re done with it."

What have you got in the pipeline for Flamingo Records and what else are you up to in the near future?
"I’m starting to put the plans together in my head for a second studio album but at the moment it’s totally up in the air and I haven’t dedicated any time to really sit down and think properly about what exactly I want to do. My diary is still rammed, and even after the summer is over, I’ve got a six day tour of America and Canada, then we’re already thinking about the Amsterdam Dance Event so I’ve got to get my business head on as well as my DJ head and make sure we make the most of the time we’ve got there. I’ve also got a tour of South America coming up in November and a North America tour in December again, which I think will be off the scale."