Slamming techhouse and techno, that is our first association with Michel de Hey. Over the years he opened the door to techno and techhouse for a major crowd of lovers throughout. He succeeded to get a solid reputation abroad through his excellent DJ performances at clubs, parties and festival events across the globe! This time he will be hosting a stage at paradigm: HEY! invites. Michel managed to invite no one less than Michael Mayer, Subb-an, Premiesku *live and Livio & Roby! Enough reason for us to ask Michel a few questions and to get you in the right mood he made the Paradigm set of the month.

I look back with a super big smile, and I am still smiling. :) I never expected that I would be still playing and more important, enjoying this more than anything. Sometimes your private life can cause some limitations, or I should say your focus is temporarily on other things because of love, death, family or other aspects of your life. But I always return to the music. :) For me it has always been the love of music, playing music and making people dance. Nothing more, nothing less and I still feel privileged that I am able to do this every weekend after so many years.

Too many cool things, which I want to write about in a book, but unfortunately there are not enough days in a week! Playing for Maxima, my dj debut in Japan, Fast Forward Parade, 12 hour beach sets at Karavaan, Pacha Buenos Aires etc etc, the list is super long . However on a very personal note, the very first time my parents came to hear me play in a full Ahoy in Rotterdam, nothings beats that feeling!!!!

The lamest thing is playing in a bar in the early 90's where I was a replacement for a friend of mine.  After a 2 hours’ drive I was playing in a bar with bald guys with beers and moustaches, nobody danced. The manager came up and said he wanted to play a few records, the ultimate dj humiliation!  Then he started to play Dutch folklore/schlager songs and for the first time that night there was a reaction from the crowd. Turned out it was a bar where they only played Dutch music and they wanted to try this new thing called house....... Lame is a huge understatement!

I am doing a release for Extravaganza Records in Italy, a new cool label with artists like Glimpse, Sis, Tim Green, Luna City Express. And I just got a mail to remix Eddie Amador, so that might be nice. Moreover I am working on a new HEY! release as well. So many things in the pipeline. :) With our HEY! events we are also doing a 10 week beach residency at the Karavaan in Scheveningen which I am really looking forward to!

I come from an era where weekly club nights were normal for most  djs. On your weekly residency you could create a special vibe for that night with the location, the visitors and the music. That vibe I try to bring to my HEY! nights. I want the HEY! visitors to feel the family vibe and I want them to be open minded to the other visitors, to the music and the guest djs. Over the years we had dj's and live acts ranging from Paul Kalkbrenner to dj Sneak, from Gabriel Ananda to Ricardo Villalobos, I musically respect all the djs who I invited and I never wanted to limit  HEY!  to one specific sound or genre. Most important for me is that I am dancing and enjoying the night as well, if so then the  mission is accomplished. :)

For Paradigm we made a sweet line up with the Romanian smoothness of Livio & Roby but also creating space for new hero Subb-an and to finish things we invited legend Michael Mayer. It is a perfect example of having more than one musical taste. However they all have one thing in common, they are high quality artists.

Together with my agent Niels and Paradigm we tried to come up with the prefect festival day. With HEY! I always want to keep a variety of musical styles on a festival day to make the whole day interesting and I think we did a nice job. Regarding a favourite, as my mother said (she had 9!!!!!! children), you never say who is your favourite child , you love them all equally. ;) However saying that, I have major respect for Michael Mayer. He made some classic music and he is like me an old skool dj. In addition he is very influential with his Kompakt, so having him for one of our HEY! events makes me proud.

If you do not want to miss out A Paradigm Pentecost but your tickets as soon as possible! Follow Michel de Hey at Soundcloud or Facebook to get updated about his music, sets and gigs!