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Markus Schulz
Photograph: The JoelsonsMarkus Schulz

Q&A: Markus Schulz

One of the trance world’s biggest names, Markus Schulz, celebrates the release of Scream 2 with a start-to-finish set at Pacha.

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He’s one of the biggest DJ-producers in the trance world—and in the entire EDM universe, for that matter—but Markus Schulz isn’t one to rest on his laurels. One of the hardest-working men on the scene, the veteran seemingly just finished touring the world to promote 2012’s much-lauded Scream album on the Armada label. But he’s already about to drop its follow-up, Scream 2—and he’s celebrating by spinning a series of start-to-finish DJ sets, with an eight-hour session slated for Pacha on Saturday, February 8.

Many fans felt that Scream was one of the best trance albums of the past few years. Did that give you any worries about topping it with this one?
Not exactly, and I’ll tell you why: Once I finished Scream, I still had so many ideas and so much inspiration, especially when I was on the Scream tour, that I really just kept on working with the same mind-set. It was almost like I never really finished Scream; I just kept going. So this is really the sequel.

Hence the album’s title, Scream 2.
Exactly. Those ideas that made the first Scream what it was were still flowing in me. It wasn’t like I felt I had to top anything. It was part of a continuing story.

As with Scream, lots of the songs are pretty epic-sounding. Is that big sound something you strive for?
Yes, and I think that’s because I’m inspired by all the gigs that I do. When you play in front of 20,000 or 30,000 people, you tend to make music that fits in that setting. My first few artist albums were actually a little bit more mellow. But as I started growing and I started playing bigger and bigger venues—and the crowds started getting rowdier and rowdier—the music followed the inspiration that was given to me.

That makes sense. You have a lot of guest singers on Scream 2, but I wanted to ask you about one in particular: CeCe Peniston, the vocalist whom clubbers of a certain age will remember from the 1991 house classic, “Finally.”
There’s a cool story about how that happened. A long time ago, when I first started in the music industry, I was working in this music studio in Arizona. I used to take out the trash, run and get coffee or whatever; that’s how I got my foot in the door. That’s where I met CeCe, who is from Arizona. One of my friends was a cowriter of “Finally,” so I got to meet her and actually see how “Finally” developed and all came together. I was like, Wow. Many, many years later, I was doing a gig in Avalon in Los Angeles, and she was hanging out there. We got to talking about old times, and her manager was there, and he said, “Hey, why don’t you guys do something together?” And we said, “Yeah, let’s just do it, for old times’ sake!” And that’s what we did.

You wouldn’t necessarily think CeCe’s voice would work with your kind of music—but I think it does.
I was really surprised by how beautifully it came together. I think it’s what you would expect when you combine CeCe’s singing and my production—but I didn’t really expect it to happen in such a natural way. And to end up working with her all these years later is really great.

It must be even more fulfilling when you consider the fact that she’s such a big part of house-music history.
Absolutely. It makes me realize how far I’ve come, from sweeping the floor in the studio, and then having her sing on my song all these years later.

You’ll be playing from start to finish at the Scream 2 release party at Pacha, right? What’s that—like, eight hours straight?
Maybe longer! Who knows how long it will go. I owe New York City an open-to-close set. I do those in special cities all over the world. Of course, the vibe has to be right and the club has to be right; it’s not something I would do in Atlantic City. It’s going to be a very special night, the kind that goes back to my early days of deejaying. After I would sweep those studio floors, I’d go to my club gig, open up the night and keep playing till everybody left. It’s a throwback to those old days, when at the end of the night you would just sit there and think back about what a great night you had.

That used to be the standard operating procedure for DJs, but there are a few New Yorkers—Junior Vasquez and Danny Tenaglia come to mind—who are particularly known for their epic sets.
Danny Tenaglia is one of my biggest inspirations, and to be able to do an open-to-close DJ set in the same booth as he plays in is amazing.

Didn’t you have a whole stage to yourself at last year’s Tomorrowland festival in Belgium?
Yeah, and I got to play 13 hours there! Because that was a festival and not a club gig, it was a challenging set. In a club, you can go down the rabbit hole and get a little freaky—but at a gig like that, you have to keep people’s attention or they tend to wander off. I think I’ll be able to have a lot of fun at Pacha, though.

I suspect your New York fans are rabid enough that they’ll follow you wherever you want to go.
I hope so! We’ll see.

What’s your deejaying
methodology nowadays?
I use a hard drive with CDJs.

That’s pretty old-school, relatively speaking! Nice to know that you are keeping the DJ arts alive.
Well, I have a laptop that runs [DJ software] Serato, but that’s only for the time code; there’s video that has to be timed to the music. But other than that, it’s old-school deejaying, for sure.

So what’s next? Are you still working on the New World Punx project with Ferry Corsten?
Yeah, we’re still doing New World Punx. I’m also putting the plans together for a full Scream 2 tour. And it’s never-ending: From that, we go right into the Ibiza season. It’s nonstop!

Yes, but I’m guessing this is what you were dreaming of when you were sweeping those floors.
It is—but I always tell people, be careful what you wish for. [Laughs] I am one of the lucky ones, and I never take this for granted.

Markus Schulz plays Pacha on Saturday, February 8.

Follow Bruce Tantum on Twitter: @BruceTantum

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