Andrew Rayel, one of the most beloved trance artists, has big plans to make 2017 even better than the previous year. With a new album on the way he had plenty to talk about. Luckily, he was kind enough to sit with us at EDMTunes and talk with us about his time at Miami Music Week and what he has in store for the rest of the year.
What’s your favorite part about Miami Music Week?
The thing is I get to hang out with people that I miss a lot. Like a lot of my DJ friends, a lot of my management, and a lot of the people that I work with that I don’t see every day. Everyone is here. Even when walking on the street, you will meet someone. Like in 10 minutes I will see a familiar face that I haven’t seen in a long time. So that probably is the best thing about this.
Any fond memories that stick out the most?
Probably the first time I played A State of Trance. It was actually the first time I came to the United States. I came straight to Miami and the first gig I did was Ultra 2014. So I have a very special feeling about Ultra and Miami.
What kind of expectations do you have about 2017?
I have huge expectations for this year as I have finished my second studio album which is called Moments and it’s going to be released on May 5th. I mean I’ve done collaborations with Emma Hewitt, with Christina Novelli, with Eric Lumiere, and with ATB. I have huge expectations from this album now. We have lined up a huge tour. We are doing so many cities that I’ve been to and I haven’t been to. Club shows but also big venue shows like Hollywood Palladium, Civic Center in San Jose, Webster Hall in New York, Echostage, New City Gas in Montreal, Vancouver. So many big two to three thousand people shows. Which is a first time for me doing it as a solo show. And I’ll be playing three hours for most of the shows.
Your radio show “Find Your Harmony” has been only getting better and better with each episode. If you had to make a Jan-Mar 2017 mini mix, what current track would you need to include?
It’s definitely tracks that I released recently. So ‘Tacadum’. It was in a previous episode and it will probably be in the next episode as well. It got such a big reaction that I did not expect. It’s funny that when i released it, not a lot, but some people on my Facebook page said that I’m following the trend doing this psytrack. But just so they know, I produced this track more than one year ago. It was just the same track without the vocals. Actually, last year during Miami Music Week I had to go to L.A. California for Beyond Wonderland to replace Paul Van Dyk. And already back then I played ‘Tacadum’ at Dreamstate Beyond Wonderland which was a year ago. So I definitely did not follow any trends.
So recently there are many artists such as Arty, Sander van Doorn, and W&W returning to trance at ASOT this year. What do you think about that?
I love it because now I am going to have more trance music for my sets. And I know these guys produce amazing tracks that I am going to love. Most of the tracks will be suitable for my sets, which was very hard for me in the past years because a lot of them were producing different types of music that wasn’t really something I would play in my sets all the time but now it’s better for me because I can get more music that I like.
Do you plan on catering to the old school fans this year as well?
Absolutely yeah. Even in my shows I have three hours so I’ll definitely be playing some of my older stuff. It’s like a part of the show. It’s not like I’m only going to be playing stuff from the Moments album. There’s going to be older music as well for sure.
Can you tell us something special about your upcoming album, Moments?
I just mentioned earlier, the next single from the album is going to be with Emma Hewitt. It’s called ‘My Reflection’. I’ve tried to do a collaboration with Emma for such a long time. She is one of the best vocalists and the track is absolutely amazing. And It’s actually included in the A State of Trance compilation that Armin announced yesterday. It’s going to be released in April, so not too long but I can’t tell you the exact date. And in May you will get the whole album.
Check out Andrew Rayel’s set from Ultra 2017 below!