April 21, 2025 • 34 mins
An absolutely ICONIC episode of America's Dance 30, as we have the ICON Darude on the show for the first time, celebrating 25 years of Darude, 25 years of "Sandstorm", AND his Storm 25 World Tour!
Darude shared w us how it feels to be celebrating his 25-year career, and what fans can expect at shows on his world tour.
We also got to know Darude better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Darude shared w us how it feels to be celebrating his 25-year career, and what fans can expect at shows on his world tour.
We also got to know Darude better w #FinkysFirsts!
Find out about:
- if music was the first thing he wanted to get into growing up
- if 'Darude' was his first choice for an artist project name, and where the name came from
- the first show he did as 'Darude'
- the first dance song that made him fall in love w the genre
- the first moment he realized "Sandstorm" was having a resuregence
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Drude.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Besides the fact that Sandstorm just turned twenty five, besides
the fact that you are on your Storm twenty five
world tour right now. It blows my mind that that
means that we have known each other almost twenty years.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
How is that even possible?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I know, man, And I was gonna say, you know,
you look like you just popped out of the little
eggshell spawned into the scene in all of your ways,
you know, your hosting and your radio stuff. Man, your
voice is legendary.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And you look the exact same as the first day
I met you too, which, by the way, look what
I still have?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Oh wow, cool?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I think I made you sign this the first day
we ever met. Can you guess what you wrote?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I mean it says Villa slash d rude. That's probably
a smiley face. But then I don't know. I mean,
default thing would be thanks for your support, but for
you it might have been something else though.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
So you did right.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you so much for the continued support thinkster Storm.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yes, I love it, Darude. It is such an honor
having you on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Welcome to America's Dance thirty for the first time.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Oh thank you, amen, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Congratulations on celebrating twenty five years of d rude.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Does that even seem real to you?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
No, man, it really does not. It's it's strange to me.
But I mean, at the same time, I do sort
of remember, kind of year by year by year. But
the beginning it was a interesting you know. By the
time we met, I'd been touring maybe like a year,
year and a half or so, and I still did
not know. I had no idea that it would last
(02:09):
another week, another month, another year, let alone twenty plus.
So I'm still on this weird, weird path that I
know kind of I chose, but not actively though, Like
it just chose me, and I took and ran with it,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And you did a good job of that.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Can't wait to talk about this storm twenty five world
tour that you're on, But first let's get to know
de root a little better with Finkey's first, Let's do it.
Like I said, you're celebrating twenty five years, so I'm
sure you've been asked these questions over and over again,
(02:50):
So act like it's the first time.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Nah, none better than you, my friend, So.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Thank you, sir well.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I love finding out the origin story of art is
I know you got into music at a really young age,
but when you were growing up in Finland, was music
the first thing you wanted to get into or was
there something else you wanted to be when you grew up?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I mean, yes, I was into music really really early on,
but I was a late bloomer when it comes to
actual production and making my own music. So I was
already like nineteen twenty years old when I started making
my own music. But before that, I played ice hockey
in a competitive team as a junior for I don't know,
(03:32):
seven eight something years, and I've actually played hockey since,
but you know, meerly kind of stuff. I wasn't that good.
And then there was also in practice quite hard for
me to actually my parents to just keep on supporting me,
driving me, you know, thirty forty miles a day, several
times a week and whatnot. At one point when it
got really sort of serious. And I also was in
(03:55):
like a voluntary fire department back in a day in
our small village, and that was fun. That was like
big circle of friends and the village of nine hundred people.
Circles were really small, so we would play the volleyballs
and soccers and other you know, not so publicly tellible
(04:15):
stuff with quite wide range of you know friends. From
me being fifteen, I might have played with ten year
olds and twenty year olds and it was kind of
like this one big family. And at that time, I
didn't yet know that i'd be a professional musician.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So where did music come into your life?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, you know, so I was into music all the time.
I just didn't know that I would you know, get
a career out of that. And I never studied piano
or any other instrument like that. Always taking my you know,
all my time was taken by you know, some sort
of sports and other hobbies. But I started being the
guy who brought CDs and CIA cassettes and what not
(04:58):
to parties, like when we went to at our friend's
house and I was not a DJ, but I would
put my mixtape on and people would love that. And
then also there's a couple of embarrassing things like you
would know the song George Lamond without.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
You Yes, absolutely, yes, all right.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
So after a breakup, I remember being in a corner
at a party, pretty much singing to its seventy times
in a row and probably crying, because that's an early
memory of a track that I'm very, very attached to.
I started studying at this new school after my military service,
so I was like nineteen twenty actually, and a couple
(05:41):
of guys there were working with this thing called fast
Tracker too, which was a tracker program like rudymentary sequencer
that has a sampler and you could program beats in it.
And they had a Prodigy song that they had broken
into parts and added their own kick drums and other things,
and I was like mind blown. And I know this
(06:02):
is a long story, but immediately what I earlier heard
as piece of music that you would sing and hum to,
like the main melody or the main vocal, all of
a sudden I started hearing a high hat there, kicked
drum there. And the next few years was not fun
for me because every freaking track I heard, I didn't
hear the music, I heard the production, and I tried
(06:25):
to analyze what everything did. And then I bought my
first PC at that time and started making my own
music with the same tracker program, and here I am.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, were you dissecting your own stuff at that point,
because that's annoying.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I mean absolutely, But I mean my stuff was easy
to dissect because it was crastically like, you know, an
autitude piano sound and a bass sound and a kick
and a hat. And then I thought I was a
Robert Miles, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh poor one outs oh.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Man, what exactly man? So yeah, it was fun in
the beginning, and I think, I mean, music making is
still fun for me, but it was purely like this
realization that I can do with myself. And I always
say that electricity. That's what I need to thank for
giving me a chance to make music because I'm not
a great live player, Like I could I find my
(07:18):
keys and whatnot, but I could not jam with a
live band like all of a sudden. That is so crazy,
the Robert Miles thing, that's just an example. But I
literally would listen to say children, I would listen to
Sasha's early stuff. I would listen to Scooter Faithless, whatever,
and I would listen to those shacks and like, hey,
the high hat starts here, the baseline goes like this,
(07:40):
and I at that time I'd literally have like that,
what do you call it like a four paper with.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Like graphic stationary.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, like graph paper, and I'd literally make something that
looks like a digital audio workstation with lines and beats
and bars, and I would draw like the kick is here,
like make those charts for myself, so that I would
know to make my tracks with those same sounds, like
not copy the music, but like to learn what's in
(08:11):
a production like a commercially released record.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Man, that is incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, the drude lore has it that you got your
name from playing Rude Boy a lot?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, yes, sir? Or actually one night I played it
a lot. So I loved Leila Kay like I was
and I still am soccer for like Eurodance and all
that kind of well, and we were blessed by Leila Kay,
the sweetest singer. And Rude Boys was a vinyl that
one of my friends had and we had a pre
(08:43):
party at their place, and I don't know pre partying.
I might have had a beer too many. And then
I was happy and played the track like seven times
in the row and mind you not, no, it does
a DJ just like lifted the needle on to the
beginning and listened to it and my body started calling
me Rude Boy after that, and so later on it
(09:04):
became the Rude and then Rude separately, and I used
that as my nickname on like IRC chat. And then
also when I started making music and putting it onto
like MP three dot com, that was a new thing
back then. And so then when Sandstorm, my first track
was about to be released, and there was a graphic
(09:26):
artist called samplehandin and who made the cover for it,
and he put dot and route together with one font,
and thus my real artist name was born.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That is insane.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, I was going to ask you if there were
any other names you were first considering when you were
trying to decide on an artist project, but you really
didn't have a choice.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
No, I didn't, not really, Like I think my first
couple of tracks online on MP three dot com might
have been under rude Boy, but I mean that's kind
of like referring to different kind of music, so it
would have been confusing anyways. And so the Route it
became gotcha.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Of course, you have performed all over the world. You're
on your Storm twenty five world tour right now, But
do you remember the first time performing as Drude Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, I do. I played with my then producer Jay
sixteen at one of his gigs I would want to say,
like September or October ninety nine, just joined him in
for Sandstorm. But then my real first gig was fifth
of December ninety nine in a place called Tampere, Finland,
(10:40):
at a club called Night Train. And yeah, for it's
forever burned in my memory.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And how did it go?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
It went really well. The place was quite packed, actually,
which was weird to me because there was really no
reason for it. Sandstorm had been out DJ promo for
just a few weeks at the time, and a little
brag moment here, it actually stayed on Finished Dance chart
top one position for seventeen weeks.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, But so there was demand and I scrambled with
my producer to create a set long enough that we
could actually call like a live show, live set about
forty five minutes of music Sandstorm, a couple of other
tracks feel the beat was in demo version at that point,
and then a couple of my sort of tracker tracks
(11:34):
enhanced a little bit, mixing wise and whatnot. And yeah,
I did a little tour three or four cities then
that December ninety nine and then basically continued on.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Until now, which is insane.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I actually have not had outside of COVID. There's two
longer breaks, actually three. So in two thousand and two
and three, before my second album we started working on that,
I took like three or four month break. I was
physically really really done, and I didn't even realize it
because my brain was having fun still. I was excited
(12:08):
doing every promo thing and every gig and whatnot. But
when I finally stopped, I could not work or go
in the studio for like three or four months, and
I was so so so burned out because it was
all fun. So I wasn't mentally like anxious or anything.
It was so strange though, because I thought, literally coming
off that tour, that that last gig, and on a
(12:29):
Sunday that hey tomorrow, yes I'm free, Like I've got
several weeks that I could just go to the studio,
and my body in the morning was like yeah, f no.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, you were probably living on adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yes. And it was like that literally for several months,
three or four months. But so then the other that
was a break, and then the other two breaks were
when my kids were born fifteen years ago and seven
years ago I was like around the time, you know,
two three months, three months, maybe four months, not really,
but otherwise I've been doing fifty two eighty gigs a
(13:04):
year since ninety nine really or two thousand.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, as a fan of Darud, let me say thank
you for keeping it up as long as you have.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That's incredible, thank you.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
But I mean, it's just I love doing it. And
then also once I realized that there was like a
career in it or whatever stretch a bit. It's also
you must know this too. You you talk to everybody
all the time, but like there's this balance of I
call it balance of horror. You have to kind of
stay active so that promoters see you being active. And
(13:37):
there's like certain number of gigs whatever that is, maybe
twenty maybe fifty a year something like that, And that's
the fifty has been a good number for me in
a sense that when I do it nicely planned, it
doesn't feel like I'm gone all the time. My kids
still recognize me, wife's still happy and whatnot. And then
it shows that there's poll there's jaw you know, a
(13:59):
promoter want to want to book me and stuff. But
we uh, we have to sort of do something like
that or hit records every release, which I haven't been
able to do. If you if you followed my.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Career, I mean you have.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I have a couple of couple of first big ones
and then it's been like downhill from there.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
It's tough. It's hard.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, no, But the funny thing is, I'm completely fine
how it has been. And but it is like my
first huge peak was so huge that it's it's literally
been downhill from there if you think of it as
you know, release level success. But at the same time,
like I've been able to release five albums and be
(14:47):
sort of pretty regularly booked and living off of this.
So I consider this a great window.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Absolutely, it's a great win.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, we are celebrating twenty five years before the Storm.
We're soelebrating twenty five years of Sandstorm. Sandstorm is one
of those songs that of course got a lot of
people into dance music and loving dance music. But do
you remember the first dance song that made you fall
in love with the genre?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh? Okay, that's a good one. That's a really good one.
And I don't know if I remember that answer might
change every time you ask it, because there's different things.
But I just told somebody the other day actually like
a an email interview around eighty two, so I would
have been like seven eight years old. My cousin played
(15:34):
me Jean Miseel Jarre's Oxygen album, and especially I think
it's Oxygen for that piece on that is just like
I think that got me hooked into like electronic sounds,
and you would directly maybe say that that's electronic dance music,
but it's definitely precursor for trance and those kind of
(15:56):
sounds that we still use today, Like there's synth, these
things that would has white noise and flangers and phasers
and all that kind of like ambiyonce stuff that you
use as air candy today as well, and beautiful melodies
and stuff like that. So that would be but I
think I think similarly to my stuff, there would have
(16:19):
been like Sash and Faithless for instance, Scooter the German
act or band Scooter. But I was listening to like
eighties hair metal and loved it. I was listening to punk.
I was a skateboarder as a kid, as i'm now
as well again, and you know, punk was very prevalent there,
you know, from us sort of commercially successful. Once there
(16:42):
would have been like therapy and bad religion and offspring
and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I didn't know of you.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Oh yeah, no, and I love that stuff, dude. Actually,
so here's the thing that you could check out my label.
This album has a track called tell Me, and then
it has track called My Game. And especially in My Game,
I did that track actually first with a synthesizer sound
and a bass sound and a very simple drum beat.
(17:09):
Then I sent it to my friend who is a
rock musician has a studio, and I told him to
make the simplest straightforward punk song ever out of those elements,
which he did, sent me the multi track, which I
then sampled as I would have sampled like a rock
song and made a dance song out of it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That is insane.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, And also he sang on it. And then a
song tell Me. It sounds very electronic but underneath influences
ahar bon Jovi and Twisted Sister, and he sang sort
of rocky metal vocal on that as well.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Totally aside, I never knew of you. Well.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Finally, in Thinkey's first you know, Sandstorm is kind of
like my cat.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It has nine lives.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
It has incredible resurgences over the years, you know, memorably
probably about six or seven years ago when every DJ
started dropping remixes at like every festival. Meanwhile, the original
is still being played at every sporting event. I mean,
I was just at a baseball game over the weekend
(18:16):
and they dropped it. Do you remember the first time
that you realized that Sandstorm was having a resurgence?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yes and no, in a sense that you know, it's
been in my life all the time, and I've been
playing it all the time. And what's been a constant
from early on is the uh sports arena play, so
all of that like NBA, NHL, NFL and then like
Olympics and whatnot. Every time that kind of stuff is
(18:46):
on weekly. Still I get messages like the arena and
that's been sort of a constant, even if I say
it myself. So some of the resurgence stuff I would
have kind of not dismissed, but like brushed off as
that that same kind of thing. But then I think
(19:07):
the biggest thing that happened was maybe now ten years ago.
Soon the yeah, like the gamer meme stuff that you
know that started started what song meme and that was
something that a gamer called the art one was always
winning playing I think League of Legends, and he was
(19:29):
listening to Sandstorm, and then everybody who went they would
ask like, what song is this? And it became so
the question was so frequent and people got irritated who
were like regulars, and then they started saying it's the
root Sandstorm to any what song question, and so that
soon spread to my YouTube and then to my Facebook then,
(19:51):
and I did not understand. I was like, look, the
name is on the description, Like why are you asking
the song name? And then somebody called me in and
first I was just weirded out by that. I didn't
understand it, and I'm not a gamer, so I wasn't
like that in touch with it. But that was the
biggest thing since then. I actually so I've been twitch
(20:11):
streaming since twenty fifteen, and while I'm not a gamer,
but I have a very strong connection to gamer community
that way. And I actually played the first two Twitch
cons fifteen and sixteen or sixteen and seventeen, I think
it was, and I sort of got to understand the
thing a bit. But then there's been because of that
initial thing there's been sort of different tangents off of
(20:34):
that in a gamer world as well, and that I
think partially has fed in the I don't know mainstream
relevancy as well, because there's been several like all the
which is a grocery store in various countries in Australia
and in Europe, whatever. And I did like Wendy's thing
(20:55):
last year in the US March Madness thing, and I
think it's just that that weird cross relevance across I
don't know knowledge of the song that gives it some
sort of cultural or financial value, and I'm all for
it as long as we can control what it's assigned
(21:19):
to associated with.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I almost texted you last night because literally I was
watching a baseball game and you could hear it in
the background, so I was almost guilty of that. You
are on this incredible Storm twenty five world tour right now.
(21:44):
It kicked off in Australia last month, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, and you are going to be on the North
American leg of it soon and then you're going to
be hitting Europe and the UK.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
How has the tour been going for you?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Dude? It's been awesome, and obviously I would say that
I wouldn't say like it sucked, but please say that,
but honestly, well, maybe if you can just edit that
out and use it all the contexts, it would be great.
Wouldn't be the first time, but maybe first time with.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You, though I would never do that to you.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
What was so great is like, literally, I don't know
how much time you have, But over a year ago,
I first rendered a mock up off my set what
I would like it to be, with the original versions
of my track sort of sorted BPM wise how I
would like them now, and I sort of planned this
(22:43):
progression kind of like a DJ set would be. And
then I started thinking of what tracks in that DJ
set I would actually play like other people's music. And
then I started replacing those tracks with my own remixes
in the style of those tracks that I was thinking
as a reference. And I've in the last actually four
(23:05):
months or so, I remixed about twenty of my tracks
for this tour. And then I got a couple from
some of my friends, like Ilan Bluestone helped me out
a little bit. My buddy Corey Goldsmith helped me out.
My buddy Luke Bond helped me out a little bit
with some production and it's been incredible to see the visuals.
(23:29):
We asked some lovely people, Jack and Lewis to create
the design and my mix is the sort of arc
of the whole set to come together the first time
in Sydney, and I actually met the guy who designed
the visuals and sort of also stage production designed there
(23:51):
the first time and then to see it actually come
together of those bits that we've done, and it's been
highly is flying for for me, sort of maybe from
ego point, but like kind of like deciding to do
the set like this and then planning and kind of adjusting,
(24:11):
but then making those remixes and now it's coming together.
It's been great. And even if I say it myself, man,
the crowd reaction has been so good. I've been in
tears pretty much every set here and there.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
That is so incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And I was going to say, you know, I got
a chance to see you in Amsterdam. I think it
was at the Enhanced party that you were playing, and
it was the first time that I had actually seen
you drop Sandstorm in like two decades, because you know,
it just doesn't happen. I haven't seen you live in
(24:42):
so long, but it was so euphoric. Everybody was just
going nuts in the place. What can drud fans expect
at your shows?
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Well, I always say that, you know, yeah, I have
to have some sort of talent I guess creating music
and performing music. But I I think when you see
me live, when you see me do a live show,
or my DJIL said at least fifty percent, that is
you seeing me happy, You seeing me playing exactly what
(25:13):
I want to play at least as much as you
want to dance for enjoying what comes out of the speakers.
Plus I know what comes next, so I'm giggling to
myself sometimes whatever. And then I'm there like I do,
I with the front row and I'm not big on
like speeches with the mic, but I address the crowd
(25:35):
here and there, and I think you see and feel
me pretty much that my happiest you know when it
comes to the work stuff. So it's a very sort
of this unity kind of vibe. And that's what I
what I'm kind of searching.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, that makes my heart so happy to hear that.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And you know, You've always been somebody at your shows
that has been connected with your fans. I remember a
show god knows how long ago where the power actually
went out and you actually you actually got out with
the crowd and started mingling with everybody.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I mean, you've always been like that at your shows.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Oh John Santaro still doesn't you know? Let that go.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I can't believe you remember John's name, of course.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Okay, so let me like, you know, comedians have callbacks
or whatever that's you know, So here's a callback for
you man. On this new tour or a new set.
There is a track called Burning that I produced together
with Luke Bond, my good friend. I basically sent him
(26:45):
the stems of the original that I recreated for the
tour and asked him, like chance two point zero references
to old school, but exactly my melodic and whatever parts.
He made such an amazing job. I didn't like change anything.
I just touched up something at it a little bit
of listen to that, but I'm now playing it and
(27:06):
that's a highlight of my set. But you know what,
the original Burning was the track that was going to
a build up at the Amphitheater, and exactly on the
freaking one of the drop, the power went out that
was burning.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I cannot believe you remember that.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
It's hard to forget the height of the stage from
the Amphitheater. You remember how it was absolutely everything went
out except my stage monitors and my microphone works. I
think like background, like a backup generator kicked in, and
so we turned the one of the monitors so that
I could actually tell the crowd like, I don't know
what is going on, but I'm sorry. And then I,
(27:45):
you know, with my thick finished accent, especially back then,
I tried to tell a joke which was not probably
a very good idea, and you know, the power never
came back. And John still once like one hundred and
twenty grand for me because that doesn't excite me. You
know what happened though, like the whole ebor went dark
because they have like a huge, huge transformer building that
(28:09):
blue for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, we like to say it was your equipment that
you brought in of course, of course, Oh my god,
you know that is so incredible. And I'm still friends
with John, so I'll pass on your well wishes to him. Yeah,
please move well, it's so incredible. Congratulations on this tour
that you got going on right now.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I wanted to compliment you on one thing. This is
a thing that I don't lose sleepover, but it's an
interesting thing. I specifically want the verbiage of this tour
be celebration of me and or my career. That's what
I want to celebrate, and a lot of people make
it a little shortcut it's Sandstorm twenty five, which it
(28:52):
obviously is as well, and I understand the significance that
to me and this tour, but it's so great that
you actually that's what you said, celebrating my career, not
just Sandstorm, because it's very important to me not to
produce that twenty five years to just one song.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
First of all, I'm good at paying attention to copy
points that are given to me. Second of all, you know,
people can check out Storm twenty five dot world for all.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
The upcoming shows that you're on.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And every time I mentioned it, I was looking at
your face and I was a little worried that I
was saying something wrong because it looked like you weren't
reacting to me saying Storm twenty five.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I'm like, oh man, am I screwing this up?
Speaker 3 (29:37):
No, that's just me and my finishness.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yes, definitely. Well you got to get over there.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Or twenty five years off getting more and more jaded
every day.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
That is a fact.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah. But you know what, I really appreciate you, man.
You have always been good to me. And I love
doing interviews where it's a chat. It's not like, you know,
bullet points, and that's what it's always with you, So
not bullet points, but the chat. Well, and so I
appreciate that. Man.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
I always appreciate chatting with you. I mean, you're such
a good dude. You know something. Speaking of past chats,
you chatted with me on one of my previous podcasts
during the pandemic during Lockdown, and I just wanted you
to share this story with our ad thirty fam who
might not know it because it's so incredible. Can you
share what was going on in Finland during Lockdown with Sandstorm?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Oh dude, so crazy thing. And I'll first of all
say I can't take any credit of this other than
yes it was it is my song. But so somebody
started this group in Facebook which was first like one
hundred people they did. It's called Balcony Sandstorm because people
(30:50):
couldn't technically shouldn't mingle. So people were like, well, let's
have a party anyways, Let's go out to our balconies
or back decks or whatever, and let's play Sandstorm on
Friday at six pm. And people started doing that, so
the Facebook thing got like quite wild. There was a
(31:13):
couple of thousand, then ten thousand, twenty thousand people in
that group. But a couple of radio stations in Finland
like jumped in and especially our biggest national radio station,
yl ule X. They played Sandstorm at six on a
(31:33):
dot every Friday for like eight or ten weeks, and
people went nuts. They started dressing up as ravers, you know, families,
as like teletubbies and you name it, man like, from
the mildest and nicest dress up of kids to the
raunchiest Vegas style Halloween anything and everything between and do
(32:00):
the videos were incredible and it was so crazy and
I was so but I didn't start it. But what
I did do is that because I already was streaming
on Fridays, so I started my stream with Sandstorm as well,
and so technically I was doing the same thing. And
so people could choose whether they come to my stream
(32:20):
and listen to that on their balcony or if they
wanted to listen to the radio and whatnot. But then
people started doing like car meetings. They went to like
hundreds of people at a town square with their cars
and they would listen to the same radio station and
blast sandstorm windows open. I mean, it went crazy. And
(32:40):
the coolest thing that I then got to do is
there's a women's hospital and I was asked to cheer
the staff and especially the midwives and like delivery doctors
and nurses because husbands couldn't get in with their wives
or partners couldn't get into all their wives, and it
(33:04):
was really really straining for everybody in that sense that,
you know. So I went and played from the balcony
of that hospital, and anybody who could come outside from
the staff was actually down there out in the courtyard
and I basically played the same thing for them, and
it was quite meaningful, very cool.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
That is so incredible just thinking back to that time.
It's so insane that we all went through that, but
just hearing moments like that is just so incredible, bringing
everybody together.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah yeah, And it's like I still say, like it
could have kind of been for instance, in here in Finland,
it could have been a couple of different artists with
like uplifting songs. So I'm just happy that this person
initially chose Minn and I got to be the cheer
upper of good bunch of the beginning of the COVID time.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
That's so incredible.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Well, make sure to check out Storm twenty five dot
world for all the Drude tour dates. There's your comy points, Drude,
it is always so awesome seeing you in catching up
with you. Thank you so much for your time with
us on America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Of course, man, and I think I am coming your
way at some point this tour, so we better better,
you know, at least slap a high five. But maybe
you'll come and watch me play Sandstorm live again.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Absolutely mark it down America's Dance.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Thirty, counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Am America's Dance thirty.
Drude.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Besides the fact that Sandstorm just turned twenty five, besides
the fact that you are on your Storm twenty five
world tour right now. It blows my mind that that
means that we have known each other almost twenty years.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
How is that even possible?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I know, man, And I was gonna say, you know,
you look like you just popped out of the little
eggshell spawned into the scene in all of your ways,
you know, your hosting and your radio stuff. Man, your
voice is legendary.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And you look the exact same as the first day
I met you too, which, by the way, look what
I still have?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Oh wow, cool?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I think I made you sign this the first day
we ever met. Can you guess what you wrote?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I mean it says Villa slash d rude. That's probably
a smiley face. But then I don't know. I mean,
default thing would be thanks for your support, but for
you it might have been something else though.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
So you did right.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you so much for the continued support thinkster Storm.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yes, I love it, Darude. It is such an honor
having you on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Welcome to America's Dance thirty for the first time.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Oh thank you, amen, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Congratulations on celebrating twenty five years of d rude.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Does that even seem real to you?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
No, man, it really does not. It's it's strange to me.
But I mean, at the same time, I do sort
of remember, kind of year by year by year. But
the beginning it was a interesting you know. By the
time we met, I'd been touring maybe like a year,
year and a half or so, and I still did
not know. I had no idea that it would last
(02:09):
another week, another month, another year, let alone twenty plus.
So I'm still on this weird, weird path that I
know kind of I chose, but not actively though, Like
it just chose me, and I took and ran with it,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And you did a good job of that.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Can't wait to talk about this storm twenty five world
tour that you're on, But first let's get to know
de root a little better with Finkey's first, Let's do it.
Like I said, you're celebrating twenty five years, so I'm
sure you've been asked these questions over and over again,
(02:50):
So act like it's the first time.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Nah, none better than you, my friend, So.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Thank you, sir well.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I love finding out the origin story of art is
I know you got into music at a really young age,
but when you were growing up in Finland, was music
the first thing you wanted to get into or was
there something else you wanted to be when you grew up?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I mean, yes, I was into music really really early on,
but I was a late bloomer when it comes to
actual production and making my own music. So I was
already like nineteen twenty years old when I started making
my own music. But before that, I played ice hockey
in a competitive team as a junior for I don't know,
(03:32):
seven eight something years, and I've actually played hockey since,
but you know, meerly kind of stuff. I wasn't that good.
And then there was also in practice quite hard for
me to actually my parents to just keep on supporting me,
driving me, you know, thirty forty miles a day, several
times a week and whatnot. At one point when it
got really sort of serious. And I also was in
(03:55):
like a voluntary fire department back in a day in
our small village, and that was fun. That was like
big circle of friends and the village of nine hundred people.
Circles were really small, so we would play the volleyballs
and soccers and other you know, not so publicly tellible
(04:15):
stuff with quite wide range of you know friends. From
me being fifteen, I might have played with ten year
olds and twenty year olds and it was kind of
like this one big family. And at that time, I
didn't yet know that i'd be a professional musician.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So where did music come into your life?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, you know, so I was into music all the time.
I just didn't know that I would you know, get
a career out of that. And I never studied piano
or any other instrument like that. Always taking my you know,
all my time was taken by you know, some sort
of sports and other hobbies. But I started being the
guy who brought CDs and CIA cassettes and what not
(04:58):
to parties, like when we went to at our friend's
house and I was not a DJ, but I would
put my mixtape on and people would love that. And
then also there's a couple of embarrassing things like you
would know the song George Lamond without.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
You Yes, absolutely, yes, all right.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
So after a breakup, I remember being in a corner
at a party, pretty much singing to its seventy times
in a row and probably crying, because that's an early
memory of a track that I'm very, very attached to.
I started studying at this new school after my military service,
so I was like nineteen twenty actually, and a couple
(05:41):
of guys there were working with this thing called fast
Tracker too, which was a tracker program like rudymentary sequencer
that has a sampler and you could program beats in it.
And they had a Prodigy song that they had broken
into parts and added their own kick drums and other things,
and I was like mind blown. And I know this
(06:02):
is a long story, but immediately what I earlier heard
as piece of music that you would sing and hum to,
like the main melody or the main vocal, all of
a sudden I started hearing a high hat there, kicked
drum there. And the next few years was not fun
for me because every freaking track I heard, I didn't
hear the music, I heard the production, and I tried
(06:25):
to analyze what everything did. And then I bought my
first PC at that time and started making my own
music with the same tracker program, and here I am.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, were you dissecting your own stuff at that point,
because that's annoying.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I mean absolutely, But I mean my stuff was easy
to dissect because it was crastically like, you know, an
autitude piano sound and a bass sound and a kick
and a hat. And then I thought I was a
Robert Miles, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh poor one outs oh.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Man, what exactly man? So yeah, it was fun in
the beginning, and I think, I mean, music making is
still fun for me, but it was purely like this
realization that I can do with myself. And I always
say that electricity. That's what I need to thank for
giving me a chance to make music because I'm not
a great live player, Like I could I find my
(07:18):
keys and whatnot, but I could not jam with a
live band like all of a sudden. That is so crazy,
the Robert Miles thing, that's just an example. But I
literally would listen to say children, I would listen to
Sasha's early stuff. I would listen to Scooter Faithless, whatever,
and I would listen to those shacks and like, hey,
the high hat starts here, the baseline goes like this,
(07:40):
and I at that time I'd literally have like that,
what do you call it like a four paper with.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Like graphic stationary.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, like graph paper, and I'd literally make something that
looks like a digital audio workstation with lines and beats
and bars, and I would draw like the kick is here,
like make those charts for myself, so that I would
know to make my tracks with those same sounds, like
not copy the music, but like to learn what's in
(08:11):
a production like a commercially released record.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Man, that is incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, the drude lore has it that you got your
name from playing Rude Boy a lot?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, yes, sir? Or actually one night I played it
a lot. So I loved Leila Kay like I was
and I still am soccer for like Eurodance and all
that kind of well, and we were blessed by Leila Kay,
the sweetest singer. And Rude Boys was a vinyl that
one of my friends had and we had a pre
(08:43):
party at their place, and I don't know pre partying.
I might have had a beer too many. And then
I was happy and played the track like seven times
in the row and mind you not, no, it does
a DJ just like lifted the needle on to the
beginning and listened to it and my body started calling
me Rude Boy after that, and so later on it
(09:04):
became the Rude and then Rude separately, and I used
that as my nickname on like IRC chat. And then
also when I started making music and putting it onto
like MP three dot com, that was a new thing
back then. And so then when Sandstorm, my first track
was about to be released, and there was a graphic
(09:26):
artist called samplehandin and who made the cover for it,
and he put dot and route together with one font,
and thus my real artist name was born.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That is insane.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, I was going to ask you if there were
any other names you were first considering when you were
trying to decide on an artist project, but you really
didn't have a choice.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
No, I didn't, not really, Like I think my first
couple of tracks online on MP three dot com might
have been under rude Boy, but I mean that's kind
of like referring to different kind of music, so it
would have been confusing anyways. And so the Route it
became gotcha.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Of course, you have performed all over the world. You're
on your Storm twenty five world tour right now, But
do you remember the first time performing as Drude Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, I do. I played with my then producer Jay
sixteen at one of his gigs I would want to say,
like September or October ninety nine, just joined him in
for Sandstorm. But then my real first gig was fifth
of December ninety nine in a place called Tampere, Finland,
(10:40):
at a club called Night Train. And yeah, for it's
forever burned in my memory.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And how did it go?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
It went really well. The place was quite packed, actually,
which was weird to me because there was really no
reason for it. Sandstorm had been out DJ promo for
just a few weeks at the time, and a little
brag moment here, it actually stayed on Finished Dance chart
top one position for seventeen weeks.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, But so there was demand and I scrambled with
my producer to create a set long enough that we
could actually call like a live show, live set about
forty five minutes of music Sandstorm, a couple of other
tracks feel the beat was in demo version at that point,
and then a couple of my sort of tracker tracks
(11:34):
enhanced a little bit, mixing wise and whatnot. And yeah,
I did a little tour three or four cities then
that December ninety nine and then basically continued on.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Until now, which is insane.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I actually have not had outside of COVID. There's two
longer breaks, actually three. So in two thousand and two
and three, before my second album we started working on that,
I took like three or four month break. I was
physically really really done, and I didn't even realize it
because my brain was having fun still. I was excited
(12:08):
doing every promo thing and every gig and whatnot. But
when I finally stopped, I could not work or go
in the studio for like three or four months, and
I was so so so burned out because it was
all fun. So I wasn't mentally like anxious or anything.
It was so strange though, because I thought, literally coming
off that tour, that that last gig, and on a
(12:29):
Sunday that hey tomorrow, yes I'm free, Like I've got
several weeks that I could just go to the studio,
and my body in the morning was like yeah, f no.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, you were probably living on adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yes. And it was like that literally for several months,
three or four months. But so then the other that
was a break, and then the other two breaks were
when my kids were born fifteen years ago and seven
years ago I was like around the time, you know,
two three months, three months, maybe four months, not really,
but otherwise I've been doing fifty two eighty gigs a
(13:04):
year since ninety nine really or two thousand.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, as a fan of Darud, let me say thank
you for keeping it up as long as you have.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
That's incredible, thank you.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
But I mean, it's just I love doing it. And
then also once I realized that there was like a
career in it or whatever stretch a bit. It's also
you must know this too. You you talk to everybody
all the time, but like there's this balance of I
call it balance of horror. You have to kind of
stay active so that promoters see you being active. And
(13:37):
there's like certain number of gigs whatever that is, maybe
twenty maybe fifty a year something like that, And that's
the fifty has been a good number for me in
a sense that when I do it nicely planned, it
doesn't feel like I'm gone all the time. My kids
still recognize me, wife's still happy and whatnot. And then
it shows that there's poll there's jaw you know, a
(13:59):
promoter want to want to book me and stuff. But
we uh, we have to sort of do something like
that or hit records every release, which I haven't been
able to do. If you if you followed my.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Career, I mean you have.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I have a couple of couple of first big ones
and then it's been like downhill from there.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
It's tough. It's hard.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, no, But the funny thing is, I'm completely fine
how it has been. And but it is like my
first huge peak was so huge that it's it's literally
been downhill from there if you think of it as
you know, release level success. But at the same time,
like I've been able to release five albums and be
(14:47):
sort of pretty regularly booked and living off of this.
So I consider this a great window.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Absolutely, it's a great win.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, we are celebrating twenty five years before the Storm.
We're soelebrating twenty five years of Sandstorm. Sandstorm is one
of those songs that of course got a lot of
people into dance music and loving dance music. But do
you remember the first dance song that made you fall
in love with the genre?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Oh? Okay, that's a good one. That's a really good one.
And I don't know if I remember that answer might
change every time you ask it, because there's different things.
But I just told somebody the other day actually like
a an email interview around eighty two, so I would
have been like seven eight years old. My cousin played
(15:34):
me Jean Miseel Jarre's Oxygen album, and especially I think
it's Oxygen for that piece on that is just like
I think that got me hooked into like electronic sounds,
and you would directly maybe say that that's electronic dance music,
but it's definitely precursor for trance and those kind of
(15:56):
sounds that we still use today, Like there's synth, these
things that would has white noise and flangers and phasers
and all that kind of like ambiyonce stuff that you
use as air candy today as well, and beautiful melodies
and stuff like that. So that would be but I
think I think similarly to my stuff, there would have
(16:19):
been like Sash and Faithless for instance, Scooter the German
act or band Scooter. But I was listening to like
eighties hair metal and loved it. I was listening to punk.
I was a skateboarder as a kid, as i'm now
as well again, and you know, punk was very prevalent there,
you know, from us sort of commercially successful. Once there
(16:42):
would have been like therapy and bad religion and offspring
and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I didn't know of you.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Oh yeah, no, and I love that stuff, dude. Actually,
so here's the thing that you could check out my label.
This album has a track called tell Me, and then
it has track called My Game. And especially in My Game,
I did that track actually first with a synthesizer sound
and a bass sound and a very simple drum beat.
(17:09):
Then I sent it to my friend who is a
rock musician has a studio, and I told him to
make the simplest straightforward punk song ever out of those elements,
which he did, sent me the multi track, which I
then sampled as I would have sampled like a rock
song and made a dance song out of it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That is insane.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, And also he sang on it. And then a
song tell Me. It sounds very electronic but underneath influences
ahar bon Jovi and Twisted Sister, and he sang sort
of rocky metal vocal on that as well.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Totally aside, I never knew of you. Well.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Finally, in Thinkey's first you know, Sandstorm is kind of
like my cat.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
It has nine lives.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
It has incredible resurgences over the years, you know, memorably
probably about six or seven years ago when every DJ
started dropping remixes at like every festival. Meanwhile, the original
is still being played at every sporting event. I mean,
I was just at a baseball game over the weekend
(18:16):
and they dropped it. Do you remember the first time
that you realized that Sandstorm was having a resurgence?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yes and no, in a sense that you know, it's
been in my life all the time, and I've been
playing it all the time. And what's been a constant
from early on is the uh sports arena play, so
all of that like NBA, NHL, NFL and then like
Olympics and whatnot. Every time that kind of stuff is
(18:46):
on weekly. Still I get messages like the arena and
that's been sort of a constant, even if I say
it myself. So some of the resurgence stuff I would
have kind of not dismissed, but like brushed off as
that that same kind of thing. But then I think
(19:07):
the biggest thing that happened was maybe now ten years ago.
Soon the yeah, like the gamer meme stuff that you
know that started started what song meme and that was
something that a gamer called the art one was always
winning playing I think League of Legends, and he was
(19:29):
listening to Sandstorm, and then everybody who went they would
ask like, what song is this? And it became so
the question was so frequent and people got irritated who
were like regulars, and then they started saying it's the
root Sandstorm to any what song question, and so that
soon spread to my YouTube and then to my Facebook then,
(19:51):
and I did not understand. I was like, look, the
name is on the description, Like why are you asking
the song name? And then somebody called me in and
first I was just weirded out by that. I didn't
understand it, and I'm not a gamer, so I wasn't
like that in touch with it. But that was the
biggest thing since then. I actually so I've been twitch
(20:11):
streaming since twenty fifteen, and while I'm not a gamer,
but I have a very strong connection to gamer community
that way. And I actually played the first two Twitch
cons fifteen and sixteen or sixteen and seventeen, I think
it was, and I sort of got to understand the
thing a bit. But then there's been because of that
initial thing there's been sort of different tangents off of
(20:34):
that in a gamer world as well, and that I
think partially has fed in the I don't know mainstream
relevancy as well, because there's been several like all the
which is a grocery store in various countries in Australia
and in Europe, whatever. And I did like Wendy's thing
(20:55):
last year in the US March Madness thing, and I
think it's just that that weird cross relevance across I
don't know knowledge of the song that gives it some
sort of cultural or financial value, and I'm all for
it as long as we can control what it's assigned
(21:19):
to associated with.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I almost texted you last night because literally I was
watching a baseball game and you could hear it in
the background, so I was almost guilty of that. You
are on this incredible Storm twenty five world tour right now.
(21:44):
It kicked off in Australia last month, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, and you are going to be on the North
American leg of it soon and then you're going to
be hitting Europe and the UK.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
How has the tour been going for you?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Dude? It's been awesome, and obviously I would say that
I wouldn't say like it sucked, but please say that,
but honestly, well, maybe if you can just edit that
out and use it all the contexts, it would be great.
Wouldn't be the first time, but maybe first time with.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You, though I would never do that to you.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
What was so great is like, literally, I don't know
how much time you have, But over a year ago,
I first rendered a mock up off my set what
I would like it to be, with the original versions
of my track sort of sorted BPM wise how I
would like them now, and I sort of planned this
(22:43):
progression kind of like a DJ set would be. And
then I started thinking of what tracks in that DJ
set I would actually play like other people's music. And
then I started replacing those tracks with my own remixes
in the style of those tracks that I was thinking
as a reference. And I've in the last actually four
(23:05):
months or so, I remixed about twenty of my tracks
for this tour. And then I got a couple from
some of my friends, like Ilan Bluestone helped me out
a little bit. My buddy Corey Goldsmith helped me out.
My buddy Luke Bond helped me out a little bit
with some production and it's been incredible to see the visuals.
(23:29):
We asked some lovely people, Jack and Lewis to create
the design and my mix is the sort of arc
of the whole set to come together the first time
in Sydney, and I actually met the guy who designed
the visuals and sort of also stage production designed there
(23:51):
the first time and then to see it actually come
together of those bits that we've done, and it's been
highly is flying for for me, sort of maybe from
ego point, but like kind of like deciding to do
the set like this and then planning and kind of adjusting,
(24:11):
but then making those remixes and now it's coming together.
It's been great. And even if I say it myself, man,
the crowd reaction has been so good. I've been in
tears pretty much every set here and there.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
That is so incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And I was going to say, you know, I got
a chance to see you in Amsterdam. I think it
was at the Enhanced party that you were playing, and
it was the first time that I had actually seen
you drop Sandstorm in like two decades, because you know,
it just doesn't happen. I haven't seen you live in
(24:42):
so long, but it was so euphoric. Everybody was just
going nuts in the place. What can drud fans expect
at your shows?
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Well, I always say that, you know, yeah, I have
to have some sort of talent I guess creating music
and performing music. But I I think when you see
me live, when you see me do a live show,
or my DJIL said at least fifty percent, that is
you seeing me happy, You seeing me playing exactly what
(25:13):
I want to play at least as much as you
want to dance for enjoying what comes out of the speakers.
Plus I know what comes next, so I'm giggling to
myself sometimes whatever. And then I'm there like I do,
I with the front row and I'm not big on
like speeches with the mic, but I address the crowd
(25:35):
here and there, and I think you see and feel
me pretty much that my happiest you know when it
comes to the work stuff. So it's a very sort
of this unity kind of vibe. And that's what I
what I'm kind of searching.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, that makes my heart so happy to hear that.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And you know, You've always been somebody at your shows
that has been connected with your fans. I remember a
show god knows how long ago where the power actually
went out and you actually you actually got out with
the crowd and started mingling with everybody.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I mean, you've always been like that at your shows.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Oh John Santaro still doesn't you know? Let that go.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I can't believe you remember John's name, of course.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Okay, so let me like, you know, comedians have callbacks
or whatever that's you know, So here's a callback for
you man. On this new tour or a new set.
There is a track called Burning that I produced together
with Luke Bond, my good friend. I basically sent him
(26:45):
the stems of the original that I recreated for the
tour and asked him, like chance two point zero references
to old school, but exactly my melodic and whatever parts.
He made such an amazing job. I didn't like change anything.
I just touched up something at it a little bit
of listen to that, but I'm now playing it and
(27:06):
that's a highlight of my set. But you know what,
the original Burning was the track that was going to
a build up at the Amphitheater, and exactly on the
freaking one of the drop, the power went out that
was burning.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I cannot believe you remember that.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
It's hard to forget the height of the stage from
the Amphitheater. You remember how it was absolutely everything went
out except my stage monitors and my microphone works. I
think like background, like a backup generator kicked in, and
so we turned the one of the monitors so that
I could actually tell the crowd like, I don't know
what is going on, but I'm sorry. And then I,
(27:45):
you know, with my thick finished accent, especially back then,
I tried to tell a joke which was not probably
a very good idea, and you know, the power never
came back. And John still once like one hundred and
twenty grand for me because that doesn't excite me. You
know what happened though, like the whole ebor went dark
because they have like a huge, huge transformer building that
(28:09):
blue for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, we like to say it was your equipment that
you brought in of course, of course, Oh my god,
you know that is so incredible. And I'm still friends
with John, so I'll pass on your well wishes to him. Yeah,
please move well, it's so incredible. Congratulations on this tour
that you got going on right now.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I wanted to compliment you on one thing. This is
a thing that I don't lose sleepover, but it's an
interesting thing. I specifically want the verbiage of this tour
be celebration of me and or my career. That's what
I want to celebrate, and a lot of people make
it a little shortcut it's Sandstorm twenty five, which it
(28:52):
obviously is as well, and I understand the significance that
to me and this tour, but it's so great that
you actually that's what you said, celebrating my career, not
just Sandstorm, because it's very important to me not to
produce that twenty five years to just one song.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
First of all, I'm good at paying attention to copy
points that are given to me. Second of all, you know,
people can check out Storm twenty five dot world for all.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
The upcoming shows that you're on.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And every time I mentioned it, I was looking at
your face and I was a little worried that I
was saying something wrong because it looked like you weren't
reacting to me saying Storm twenty five.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I'm like, oh man, am I screwing this up?
Speaker 3 (29:37):
No, that's just me and my finishness.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yes, definitely. Well you got to get over there.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Or twenty five years off getting more and more jaded
every day.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
That is a fact.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah. But you know what, I really appreciate you, man.
You have always been good to me. And I love
doing interviews where it's a chat. It's not like, you know,
bullet points, and that's what it's always with you, So
not bullet points, but the chat. Well, and so I
appreciate that. Man.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
I always appreciate chatting with you. I mean, you're such
a good dude. You know something. Speaking of past chats,
you chatted with me on one of my previous podcasts
during the pandemic during Lockdown, and I just wanted you
to share this story with our ad thirty fam who
might not know it because it's so incredible. Can you
share what was going on in Finland during Lockdown with Sandstorm?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Oh dude, so crazy thing. And I'll first of all
say I can't take any credit of this other than
yes it was it is my song. But so somebody
started this group in Facebook which was first like one
hundred people they did. It's called Balcony Sandstorm because people
(30:50):
couldn't technically shouldn't mingle. So people were like, well, let's
have a party anyways, Let's go out to our balconies
or back decks or whatever, and let's play Sandstorm on
Friday at six pm. And people started doing that, so
the Facebook thing got like quite wild. There was a
(31:13):
couple of thousand, then ten thousand, twenty thousand people in
that group. But a couple of radio stations in Finland
like jumped in and especially our biggest national radio station,
yl ule X. They played Sandstorm at six on a
(31:33):
dot every Friday for like eight or ten weeks, and
people went nuts. They started dressing up as ravers, you know, families,
as like teletubbies and you name it, man like, from
the mildest and nicest dress up of kids to the
raunchiest Vegas style Halloween anything and everything between and do
(32:00):
the videos were incredible and it was so crazy and
I was so but I didn't start it. But what
I did do is that because I already was streaming
on Fridays, so I started my stream with Sandstorm as well,
and so technically I was doing the same thing. And
so people could choose whether they come to my stream
(32:20):
and listen to that on their balcony or if they
wanted to listen to the radio and whatnot. But then
people started doing like car meetings. They went to like
hundreds of people at a town square with their cars
and they would listen to the same radio station and
blast sandstorm windows open. I mean, it went crazy. And
(32:40):
the coolest thing that I then got to do is
there's a women's hospital and I was asked to cheer
the staff and especially the midwives and like delivery doctors
and nurses because husbands couldn't get in with their wives
or partners couldn't get into all their wives, and it
(33:04):
was really really straining for everybody in that sense that,
you know. So I went and played from the balcony
of that hospital, and anybody who could come outside from
the staff was actually down there out in the courtyard
and I basically played the same thing for them, and
it was quite meaningful, very cool.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
That is so incredible just thinking back to that time.
It's so insane that we all went through that, but
just hearing moments like that is just so incredible, bringing
everybody together.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah yeah, And it's like I still say, like it
could have kind of been for instance, in here in Finland,
it could have been a couple of different artists with
like uplifting songs. So I'm just happy that this person
initially chose Minn and I got to be the cheer
upper of good bunch of the beginning of the COVID time.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
That's so incredible.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Well, make sure to check out Storm twenty five dot
world for all the Drude tour dates. There's your comy points, Drude,
it is always so awesome seeing you in catching up
with you. Thank you so much for your time with
us on America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Of course, man, and I think I am coming your
way at some point this tour, so we better better,
you know, at least slap a high five. But maybe
you'll come and watch me play Sandstorm live again.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Absolutely mark it down America's Dance.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Thirty, counting down the biggest dance songs in the country.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Am America's Dance thirty.
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