Mike van Fabio Interview [Q&A]

Mike van Fabio – Born 6 Dec 1991, Polish Trance music producer, remixer and DJ.

His passion for electronic music started yet in early childhood, after Robert’s Miles ‘Dreamland’ album was released (1996). About ten years later, influenced by events like Trance Energy and artists like Johan Gielen, 4 Strings or ATB, Mike decided to take his first steps in music production. Up to the present day his tracks and remixes are supported by the biggest names of the world’s Trance scene like Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Aly & Fila, Giuseppe Ottaviani, John O’Callaghan and many more. He made himself a name with releases on labels such as Armada Music, Black Hole, Monster Tunes and Amsterdam Trance Records.

Mike is also 1st place winner of Tritonal’s Lifted remix competition in 2013.

-Tell us please how you begin with music and djing?

I started to listen to Trance music in early childhood after hearing Robert’s Miles tracks from Dreamland album in radiostations. Those tracks were Children and Fable.

When I was 10 maybe 12 years old, I became a big fan of events like Trance Energy, Sensation or Sunrise Festival. I was obviously too young to participate in events like that but I had tons of clips and after movies from my favorite DJ’s gigs like Svenson & Gielen, 4 Strings, ATB or Rank1. 

That’s where it all started and I thought it must be an awesome feeling to play your own tunes in front of thousands of happy people dancing to it.

-How do you stay up to date with the latest music trends?

I usually browse Beatport charts like Top 100, sometimes I check other producers’ charts or youtube channels of my favorite producers & labels for something new. Listening to the radio shows of my favorite DJs is also a good way to discover something new and cool.

-With which labels and artists have you worked?

I worked with really many labels like Armada, Raz Nitzan, Monster Tunes, Abora, Infrasonic, Suanda, Phoenix, Enhanced, some sub-labels of Black Hole Recordings and recently new label of Darren Porter – Reason II Rise Music where my latest single was released. I had the pleasure to work with legendary names like Geert Huinink (Armin’s and Tiesto’s co-producer in some of their past albums), had a few collaborations with some cool artists like Allen Watts, Madwave, Alex van ReeVe and also produced few vocal trance tracks with some great vocalists like Elles De Graaf, Denise Rivera or Kim Kiona and many more which I was a big fan of even years before I decided to try my luck in producer’s career. I also had the opportunity to officially remix songs from some great artists like 4 Strings, Talla 2XLC, Allen & Envy or Icone. 

-Any new releases?

A few days ago my new remix and single were released. 

My new uplifting tune entitled ‘Spacewalker’ on the new label by Darren Porter “Reason II Rise Music” and my remix for really talented Polish duo KBK & Nayenne that is out on Suanda Music.

I’m currently working on some new uplifting tracks and one vocal trance project, so I hope to reveal more news very soon 🙂

-In the studio, what’s your set-up?

I work with FL Studio since version 7.0 if I remember well. My studio setup is currently two KRK Rokit 8 studio monitors, PC on Windows with FL, Novation Launchkey 25 midi keyboard, mixer channel controller by Behringer and that’s all.

-What’s your creative process in the studio?

I usually start from the main melody, trying to create a climax/drop part in the first place, and then after I have what I expected more or less, I’m focusing on building the rest of the track around it. I prefer to start from the main part and then decide how to build the rest of the track that fits its style.

-Your typical DJ set-up?

To be honest, I am still developing the DJ side of my career and I didn’t have the opportunity to perform on many events so far but I think usually it was DJM-800 and CDJ-1000 or CDJ-2000 which worked for me very fine.

-What have you done online? Have you seen any DJ video streams that impressed you?

I don’t have my own radio show or podcast yet but yes I noticed there are a lot of DJs now who put really big effort into their DJ streams and to entertain their listeners. You can notice how interactive those streams became (for example lot of DJ shows on Twitch)  which I think is a really good and helpful thing to keep your audience grooving.

-How do you think the electronic music scene was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

I think it was affected pretty much, especially on the DJ side of the scene.  As we all know, most gigs were canceled those days and a lot of DJs and their managers / booking agencies lost their pretty significant part of income. You can also notice a lot of producers and DJs started their own support programs and educational courses for other producers and even beginners to deal with this situation which is a really good thing in my opinion. Hopefully, everything is going to come back to normal and there will be no more stress about if your favorite artist will appear on the long-awaited gig or if the event will successfully take place as planned without postponing it a second or third time.

-Do you have other activities beside music?

Yes, I’m a fan of shooting, having my own collection of rifles and guns, taking part in shooting competitions, riding motocross and offroad vehicles, reading much about space, the universe and various related things but I think music is still what I spend the most time on.

-What can we expect from you in the future?

I hope to deliver much more tracks than during the past 2 years. I really wish to start working on my artist album but there are still few collaborations and unfinished projects which I’d like to finalize first. You can surely expect some releases including vocal and non-vocal tracks and probably at least 2 collabs with other producers yet this year  😉

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