Markus Schulz: “I’m Comfortable in My Skin and My Place in the Trance Scene”

Markus Schulz sat down with us at EDC Las Vegas to reflect on his career, share how he’s paving the way for rising artists in the scene, and more.

Markus Schulz has been turning heads and dazzling crowds for decades. With an arsenal of trance releases under his belt and global performances to the masses, he has solidified his place in the scene and holds fast. Through crafting emotion-fueled melodies and pushing boundaries on club smashers or unsuspecting reworks, Markus Schulz transports listeners to heavenly sonic realms. His transcendent sounds and masterful storytelling make him a true connoisseur of his craft.

The Coldharbour Recordings label boss has become a beacon for aspiring producers, providing a platform for many to showcase their talents. His support and production prowess are invaluable, and with a successful career thus far, he knows the right thing to do is to pay it forward. Among devoted lifelong listeners and newcomers to the genre, fans understand Markus Schulz’s legacy and the mark he’s left on the trance scene.

When invited to speak with this true industry pioneer at EDC Las Vegas, we jumped at the opportunity to get to know him further. From recent releases to mentoring rising acts, dance music nostalgia, “getting weird” at marathon sets, his Dakota project, and more, check out our full interview with him below!

Watch the full interview with Markus Schulz on YouTube:

Hey, Markus Schulz. How’s your EDC been going so far?

Well, we just got here, but you guys have an amazing view. I’m excited to get up on stage, and the crowd looks fantastic.

Yeah, it’s a good crowd. They’re waiting for you, and they’re ready. So despite all the changes in dance music trends you’ve seen over the years, you’ve held very steady with your progressive trance sound. Do you do anything to make it more special for a festival like EDC?

Oh, absolutely. You plan for certain milestones in the year. Planned for New Year’s Eve, then Miami Music Week, and then EDC. So this has all been all year long just planning for this, saving tracks, putting tracks aside just for tonight.

It’s going to be a special set.

Yeah, the crowd’s definitely going to be in for an experience and that’s what we always want to do. Every time we put on a show or play at a place like this, you want to bring your A-game.

So, your remake of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds works so unexpectedly well as a trance anthem. How did you make that discovery?

Actually, Sir Ivan came to me with the idea, and at first, I was very hesitant, but with everything going on, I just felt like it was a message of peace. And so the track itself though, the old Byrds song, I loved it. It’s a beautiful track. So it just took some planning and trying to figure out exactly how to interpret it in a trance way, and I’m quite pleased with the outcome, that’s for sure.

How long did it take you to put that one together?

Six months I think, to really dial it in right. We’ve been working on it for a while.

We saw that you shared your In Bloom 2024 Mix last month. Are there any up-and-coming artists you featured on the mix who deserve more attention?

Well, the whole In Bloom journey focuses on individual vocalists and the writers and everything. But for me, I always wanted to paint a picture of, I don’t know, just a steady flow from the beginning right to the end. So all of the vocalists that I put on there, I don’t want to just call out certain ones, you know what I mean? But everybody that contributed, not just this year but in years past, I appreciate them and I just love working with them. There are just so many talented singers out there that all of them deserve to be mentioned, and it would take a while.

There are so many undiscovered artists that really just need to get more attention, too.

Nobody’s undiscovered anymore, to be real. That’s the crazy thing. Even an undiscovered artist has their own fan base. So it’s great. It’s a great time for music because if you’re active and you’re out there, you’re gaining fans. It’s beautiful.

When talking about playing marathon, 10-12 hour sets, you’ve mentioned that you thrive when things “get weird.” What does that look like for you?

You don’t really know when it’s going to happen. I have certain tracks that I save for that time of the night, and there are times when I play those tracks because it’s like, okay, but people aren’t really reacting yet, so it’s like, oh, something’s a little off, something’s not right, so you kind of hold back a little bit. But then, once that vibe is there, it can happen earlier, and it can happen later, but I think it’s just the vibe of the people. I think that’s the art of DJing. You find where the vibe of the people is, and you go with that. I have an idea of where I want to go. I want to get weird, and I want to get weirder and weirder.

That’s the goal.

That’s the goal, but how deep, and at what time, and for how long, that’s the only thing that’s to be determined when I’m playing. The great thing is that a lot of those tracks, I don’t get to play that often. So sometimes I play the track, and I take a step back, and I become a participant in it as well, just like everybody else. There are a lot of tracks that I hear every single time I’m playing, but when I get to play those tracks that I don’t get to play that often, I become a fan of the music all over again.

So, some trance fans tend to see their idols as larger-than-life figures. Do you often feel pressure to measure up to a standard like that?

You know what? I’m comfortable in my skin, and I’m comfortable with my place in the trance scene. My goal at this point is to leave a legacy and bring new people on, for example, Daxson, we’re bringing him along right now. He’s blowing up, he’s amazing. To me, that is really what I love giving to people, working with people like that and just building them to a point where they’re going to be the next stars. So no; I’m comfortable in my skin and people that look up to me, it’s like, “Okay, that’s great, but here’s Daxson. Check him out.”

What do you find yourself listening to outside of trance or even outside of dance music as a whole? Or is it just that?

That’s the thing. The beautiful thing about my open-to-close sets is they really show how eclectic I am musically. I don’t play hard rock or even rock or anything like that. But the point is that some of the tracks that I do play are inspired by different genres, and it just depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I love nostalgia. I’m just embracing nostalgia right now. I think you get to a certain point in your career or a certain point in your life where you look back, and you’re so busy grinding out that you didn’t get to, I guess, really embrace-

Appreciate the moment.

… and appreciate. Exactly. And now I’m looking back at some of the tracks that we’ve gone through 10 years ago, 15 years ago, even 20 years ago. And I listen to them with a different ear now, with fondness and all the memories come back. So I’m a big fan of nostalgia. I think it’s very important in our scene.

I feel like everyone’s longing for nostalgia now, reminiscing about the “golden era” of EDM.

Yeah, but you know what I always say? This right here is their golden era. Everybody has their golden era and the stuff that we’re hearing now, ten years from now, we’re going to look back and go, wow, those were the days.

Do you ever feel inspired to start a side project that your fans might not expect?

Yeah, I’ve had that idea. We have the Dakota project, which is darker and deeper. A new Dakota track is coming out next month. I’m quite excited about it. But to try something completely different, oh yeah, we’re working on it. I think people kind of get a taste for it. Every year I do a show called the New Year’s Rehab, and it’s kind of the day after New Year’s, and it’s inspired by when I was a teenager listening to Italian disco and all the music that was happening in the gay clubs back then, and people like Purple Disco Machine that are blowing up with that kind of sound. But there’s a lost era in dance music that is, it’s missing. It’s missing and I’m putting together an alias that’s going to focus on that.

The thing is, it’s an alias for a reason. It’s so I can experiment with it. Whether it takes hold or not is a different story, but it’s just something that I can enjoy and be an artist without people going, “Oh, Markus is changing his sound,” or whatever. No, it’s just like I have this longing for nostalgia and going all the way back to the Italian disco days to try something. And Italian disco is not really disco. It’s more like the very first synthesizer kind of track. I don’t know, they’re kind of quirky, a lot of these tracks, but the really good ones, they’re really soulful and have some meaning for me.

Any insight on when we can expect more?

I’m still working because you know what? I have one track already done, actually, a couple tracks already done. But I feel like there’s a missing element that I’m still trying to find that makes it special. It’s like the cherry on the cake. I don’t know yet what it is, whether it’s a vocalist or another instrument or whatever. There’s just something missing and I’m looking for that.

You will find it, I’m sure. To close with, are there any upcoming shows that you’re excited about? Anything else we can expect besides the alias on the horizon?

Well, every week, there is an amazing show coming up, but the shows that I really love are the festivals. There are a lot of festivals this summer, and obviously, here at EDC, it’s almost the beginning of the summer festival season. So, I’m honestly really excited for the whole summer.

Yeah, festival season’s in full swing, and we’re getting there. Well, thank you so much for chatting with us today.

Thank you.

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