“It’s lonely at the top,” – or so conventional wisdom tells us.  But to Armin Van Buuren, the Dutch DJ ranked number one in the world by DJ Magazine’s most recent poll at the end of 2007, it would seem that the exact opposite is true.  If anything, Armin’s increased popularity has only brought him closer to his roots – the fans around the world that have helped him cement his place in modern music history, and the global music community that has embraced him as their poster boy for all that is melodic dance music.

“I think it’s as strong as ever,” Armin says when asked for his reading of the global dance music community’s present-day pulse.  “Trance has had a very good year, and it looks like trance will have a good year in 2008 as well.”  As one of the most well-travelled DJs on the globe, Armin’s hectic international schedule gives him a something of a bird’s-eye view of the industry’s trends. “South America is particularly good at the moment,” he notes.  “I’ve just finished a big tour there and it was amazing.”

But for as much as South America is coming into its own, Armin notes, the global ground zero for all things that go bump in the night is still the tiny Spanish island of Ibiza.  “There’s no island in the world where you can find so many of the world’s best and biggest clubs with almost all the big DJs stopping by at least once,” he says.  “Every year, people try to find ‘the new Ibiza’ - like the Greek islands of Mykonos last year, or Ayia Napa the year before - without success. Ibiza will always be there. It’s a unique place.”

Part of the secret to Armin’s continued success in what is admittedly a highly competitive landscape is his ability to continually identify and embrace the fresh and the new in his performances.  “I don’t like doing the same thing twice, because I’m afraid it won’t appeal to an audience anymore,” he admits.  “You can’t have the same singer, the same opening, and so on.  You need to surprise people with something they’ve never seen.”

But while Armin has been quick to embrace new technologies in some instances – most notably his recent incorporation of DVD-based video in his live performances – he is still an adherent to traditional DJ techniques in the booth, preferring to put his mixes together by hand in the DJ each night, rather than relying on the assistance of a laptop for beatmatching and organizing his tunes.  “I still find DJing with CDs the most comfortable at the moment,” he says.  Even when it comes time to put together mixes for retail release, Armin is equally comfortable releasing computer-based studio creations, like his “A State of Trance” series, or straight-from-the-soundboard livesets such as his “Universal Religion” series.  “A live mix always has more of the factor of chance, since it’s mixed live and I make my choices based on the dance floor, not on the cd listener,” he explains.  “A studio mix, perhaps, has more flow because you don’t have to take an audience into account.”

Of course, DJing is only one aspect Armin Van Buuren’s musical identity.  As a producer, he cut his teeth in the industry at a time when the equipment needed to create quality dance music cost thousands of dollars – unlike today, when virtually any computer can churn out dancefloor-ready tunes. “It’s easier now to have a high quality recording studio at home,” he notes, “but that doesn’t mean you can make a dance record. It’s all about the ideas and how to use your equipment. In fact, with modern production possibilities I think you have to spend more time now on producing than a few years ago because there are more tricks you need to know. In the end, it’s all about the chef, not about the kitchen.”