Dash Berlin, a Dutch trance music project, enchanted music aficionados at the Vh1 Supersonic fest. Founder DJ Jeffrey Sutorius chatted with Shrabasti Mallik
For Jeffrey Sutorius, founder member of EDM band Dash Berlin, the perfect moment of his life was when his sister took him first to a club. “For any party goer, it’s common to meet and greet new people on floor while grooving to the beats. I was a 14-year-old boy then and my eyes were fixated only on the DJ. After convincing the DJ to let me sit with him in his cabinet, I watched in awe how he wowed the crowd all night,” he recalled.
Sutorius was fan of electronic music since his high school days when he worked in a record store. His first inspiration was his own father who played drums for a jazz band. “I was a collector of vinyl trance music. I was inspired by pioneering figures such as Sven Vath, Oliver lieb and Sander Kleinenberg. Soon I began to mix and produce my own music,” he said.
In 2007, Sutorius formed Dash Berlin with Eelke Kalberg and Sebastiaan Molijn. “The idea was to create Dutch trance music,” said the musician, who performed at the the Vh1 Supersonic music festival.
Not every success story has a picture perfect beginning. “Without the band, I think I would have been jobless. Before Dash Berlin started, I lost my job and at that time I had my friends backing me up. Although we had a great time, I was unsure of where life was going to take me, till Armada Music (a record company) picked up our song Till the Sky Falls Down, which ultimately became a huge hit. That too, after we sent the recording to the company on the insistence of my neighbourhood friend. We followed his advice and that’s how things started rolling for us,” he recalled.
The thought of the band name struck during the Berlin love Parade in Germany where Jeffrey was performing under different aliases. “I witnessed one of the most crowded love Parade. There were over one million people walking down the streets, following huge trucks with DJ booths which played electronic music. When I saw that whole spectacle going by, I could not stop myself from climbing up a lightning pole and I sketching pictures like a panoramic view because it was something I had never seen before. I knew from that moment on I wanted to make something with the name Berlin in it,” said Sutorius, also known as Ca$h Berlin.
There have been umpteen number of times that the friendship of the members have been tried and tested. He said, “We have our differences but at the end we have the same goal. We enjoy what we do because music is the only thing that we are good at.” They may have their occasional tantrums about slowing down the tempo or increasing it or introducing a new melody but they always seem to be able to listen to each other. He added, “I think that’s what make Dash Berlin unique also in terms of looking at the future. Neither do we want to stand still and do the same thing we did with The New Daylight (their first album) nor do we want to take the same type of approach like we did with Music is life. We want to move forward and I believe that’s also one of the things dance music stands for. It is really fast, it is really ongoing but that’s also what keeps you really sharp as a producer. As a DJ, you want to stay on top — that’s a drive you need to have to keep going. If you’re standing still you’re looking backward — it’s not going to happen, it’s not going to work.”
Amidst all the latest developments happening in the EDM music scenario, Sutorius feels at ease. According to him as long as a musician enjoys what he does, it is easy to keep up. He explained, “When you are in the field, you tend to adapt to the change happening around you and then you don’t feel lost or backed out.” When asked about what he prefers listening to when he is not busy turning the tables, he said, “I like a lot of EDM stuff but I also like to listen and to look beyond the boundaries of dance music.”
Sutorius is ambitious yet grounded and firmly believes in chasing his dreams. “You can dream of stuff but I think there is a right time to take certain steps in your life. So when you know you want to reach a goal you should keep in mind that some things need time. Now, especially with the Internet, everything seems to go so fast and one needs to give things some time to breathe. Give life some time and I’m certain that if you really want to reach something, you will reach there at the right time. All you need to do is be really patient and never lose hope,” Sutorius signed off.