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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
99
Ferry Corsten
14

From: Holland 
DJ style: Trance.
Best known for: “Uplifting, energetic sets/productions and my Gouryella project.”
What’s the next new big track? “Andrew Bayer’s remix of Push ‘Strange World’.”
Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2016: “Dimension.”

Over the last 12+ months, Ferry’s been experiencing the full weight of The Gouryella Effect. Returning one of his most popular alter egos to the fore has placed the man from Rotterdam squarely back at the top of trance music’s headlines. And all it really took was two singles. ‘Anahera’ ended 2015 by hoovering EOY titles, including A State Of Trance’s Single Of The Year and Beatport’s No.1 trance seller. Twelve months to the day of its release, he did it again with ‘Neba’, which, Ferry recounts, “had people literally crying on the dancefloor” and was a comparably “emotional experience for me as a producer.”

Collectively, those two tracks powered his Gouryella stage show, which has been putting hands aloft in places as far and wide as Hungary’s Balaton Sound, EDC Las Vegas, Tomorrowland and Ultra Europe. 
Which is just as well as, aside from ‘Neba’ and the just-released Cosmic Gate collab ‘Event Horizon’, Ferry’s been production-quiet in 2016. “I took a lot of time off this year to work on my fifth artist album, which is taking longer than I thought. Taking Gouryella to the stage still made it an amazingly creative and fulfilling year for me.” 

What have been the new frontiers for you this year?
“Bringing to life the live aspect of Gouryella.” 

Is electronic music taken seriously enough as an art-form?
“I think that there are plenty of genres within the electronic dance music space that can be seen as a form of art.” 

What’s the best new bit of DJ/production technology, and why?
“Right now I really love the latest Native Instruments stuff. Simply amazing.” 

If you had to switch your style to another genre, what would it be? 
“It would probably be house or chill-out.”

As a fan, what is the top price you would pay to see yourself DJ?
“I’m priceless. I wouldn’t be able to afford it. Just kidding!”

What can be done to prevent drug-related deaths at dance music events?
“I remember hearing about having your drugs tested in Holland here at events (if they were clean you got it back, if they were poisonous they would be confiscated). I honestly don’t know if they still do this. I know this idea is very radical, but knowing that people will take drugs regardless of it being illegal and there are sanctions for using it, at least this could help prevent further deaths. Education/awareness about drugs is key.”

How can we increase diversity in dance music?
“By having a clear-cut identity to your own sound. What happens very often now is everyone wants to sound like the sound of now, making everyone sound the same.”