What a year it’s been for Armin van Buuren. From the opening of his radio studio in Amsterdam and the massive celebrations of ASOT 800 to the massive ‘Best Of Armin Only’ show at the Amsterdam ArenA, to debuting his collaborative concept with Hardwell – Two Is One at this year’s AMF, the year of 2017 saw Armin van Buuren become even more of a staple than ever before.
This past weekend at the Enchanted Valley Carnival, we caught up with Armin and asked him about the ‘Two Is One’ concept with Hardwell, and how it came about.
Akshay – How did the entire collaborative concept with Hardwell i.e. Two is One, – How did that come about?
Armin van Buuren – Well, I did the ‘Best Of Armin Only’ show at the Amsterdam ArenA earlier this year, my own show, and they were asking me to play again in the arena again for Amsterdam Music Festival. But I said look, if I have to play, I have to do something special, not just a one hour set. And then Hardwell came to see my show. I met him backstage and then we thought, we should do a B2B, you know cause we have very different styles. And I think it’s important to show the world that the Dutch DJs really unite. I have a lot of respect for Hardwell, even though his sounds aren’t 100% my sounds, and my sounds aren’t 100% his sounds. I think we want to show the world that even though we are different, we try to find unity in our sounds. And in the set that we played, we showed that my sound and his sound can combine.
Akshay – You definitely did honestly and even your track “Two Is One” with him, right, it shows both styles and it is something similar to “Off The Hook”, like you have something, which is the Armin sound, and you have something that is the Hardwell sound. It was pretty impressive!
Armin van Buuren – Exactly and that’s what we want to show the world that even though we have different views, uh political views, religious views, it is all about finding the common grounds that makes it possible and that was the message with Two Is One.
Akshay – When do you tend to release the Two Is One ID track?
Armin van Buuren – We haven’t planned it yet.
Akshay – Please release it soon! We heard the intro at the AMF and honestly, we were blown away!
Armin van Buuren – *laughs* Thank you!
