What a year the trance producer Andrew Rayel had so far. Among his activities, the young Moldovan has released incredible tracks and traveled all over the world to perform at some of the greatest festivals known to trance. He is the definition of a dream come true, who's last 2-3 years have seen him being compared to one of the most imposing figures in trance. “It’s the biggest honor that you can get, hearing some in the scene compare your sound to Armin van Buuren. He's one of the geniuses of the genre.”
One of our staff writers from EDM Sauce had the chance to have a sit-down interview with the humble trance DJ. Andrew spoke about his favorite tracks, festivals, and moments of 2015. We spoke about his interaction with his idol, Armin van Buuren and Rayel even gave us a few hints of what is to come
“I believe music is a universal language that unites people with nothing but love. I intend to make sure that my tracks are all about bringing out emotions and happiness. That’s what drives my music, making the world a better place.” — Andrew Rayel
Andrew Rayel spent his Christmas Eve in New York City where he played to one of his biggest fanbases at Marquee NYC. “I have a big following fan base in NYC, I've played there six or seven times;” he went on to say that he got to start at some of the smaller venues like Cielo, Pacha, LAVO. Among his special memories are Pier 94 and Marquee for Christmas Eve. Andrew said those shows are “real special for me. I built my fan base here and I feel like it's pretty big one. I did a Music Video here in New York as well which probably had a big impact on the fans as well.” The man went on to say how rare it was for him to get to play 3 hour sets.
Since 2015 was such a successful year for the man's album ‘Find Your Harmony’ and his tour dates, we couldn't stifle our curiosity and asked Andrew what his favorite track to work on was. He responded “I actually have two favorite tracks that I’ve been involved in this past year. The first was Daylight with Jonny Rose, it’s a vocal track that has been really well received. And the second being Chased with Mark Sixma, which has a great, pure energy to it. We did a really unique music video for it as well, which was shot in LA. When the video people sent me the first version of the video, I though “this is pretty different and unique compared to what other people doing their videos. After a few times watching it, it really grew on me because of that.”
Andrew had this to say about his recently past year, “2015 was a great [time], I’ve played at many festivals and definitely EDC Las Vegas was my favorite. The size of the Kinetic Field stage was perfect, you could really see and connect with the audience, the energy was crazy. I got to bring my whole crew into the action as well. I’ve never felt so comfortable while playing because I knew everyone was taking care of what they needed to. It was perfectly coordinated.”
After a few more moments, we finally asked Andrew what his most cherished piece of advice from Armin Van Buuren was. He told us “[Armin said] don’t ever read people’s comments on social media, It’s completely toxic to hear everyone else's opinions at all times. And for me, I can't produce the same music all the time, so it really struck me when he stressed the importance of focusing on being happy and obtaining my success. And not worrying about the opinions of others.”
While we wondered out loud as to what is to come from the trance musician, he said “There's an upcoming album that I'm working on right now, which is probably going to be released at the end of 2016. I can definitely announce my first single off the album though. It's called Winterburn and it’s going to be released on January 15th. It's a collaboration with DigitalX and Sylvia Tosun, who's a singer out of NY. There is also a couple beautiful acoustic pieces that may get included on the album.”
Finish the sentence, Andrew Rayel is…. “Andrew Rayel is a very humble guy, that loves music, loves producing music, and love's melodies, harmonies, and will always stay true trance music and will always want to experience new boundaries.”
