Leon Bolier

Published Date

Hey Leon, welcome back to TranceSound.net! How have you been?
Leon Bolier: Hey there, thanks! I have been fine. Been busy doing what I love to do!

We just all heard your track "2099" played at Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance episode 450. How did that make you feel?
Leon Bolier: : It's always nice to see great support on one of your tracks, and Armin's support always feels special. Besides, ASOT450 is a nice way to reach many listeners as well! So yep, glad about that!

When it comes to the actual track title, "2099" how did you and Marcus 'The Swedish Beatball' Schossow decide on the track name?
Leon Bolier: Well, we wanted to go for kind of a futuristic name, and 2099 was just that. Came up pretty quick, and it was actually Marcus' idea to give it that title, and I agreed right away.

When You are working with someone such as a Marcus Schossow, how much input do You usually have when it comes to a Leon solid track ?
Leon Bolier: Last summer I visited Marcus at his home in Slovakia after I played a festival there, and hung out afterwards. Producing a track together was a quite natural thing to happen, since we both agree on many levels music wise. Even tho everyone of course can hear the differences between our productions, we respect and like each other's work a lot. The result of working together in the studio hence definitely is a result of equal input in the production process - playing around and pretty much agreeing on everything the other one puts into the track, such a good feeling.

I understand you are working on some new productions as we speak. Can you tell us a little about what we can expect in the near future?
Leon Bolier: Basically everything I produce at the moment is aimed for the upcoming artist album, after producing more deeper and more chilled out material for that, now I am working on the more uptempo stuff for the album.. melodic Trance, Techno monsters and more. At the moment I am in the middle of producing a couple of vocal tracks and a collaboration with John O'Callaghan.

Your brand new forthcoming solo album, due to happen in August as far as I know, is there anything You would love to spread the word before anyone knows from other magazines/websites?
Leon Bolier: So far I am really happy with the result (would be a bummer if I wasn't of course), and I think the biggest improvement compared to the previous album "Pictures" is that the production quality was taken to another level. Besides that, I think on this album there are some more melodic trance bombs compared to "Picture" (where some of the more uptempo Trance tracks were taken from the back catalogue as well). Since many people have been asking for a follow up for "Poseidon/Back in the Days" there's a track like that on it as well - lighter production, very melodic but for the first time in ages I speed it up to 138 BPM. Next to that there's a couple of very warm tracks with a more summer-ish touch to them, and my next single to be taken from the album can be described as a follow up in the line of "Summernight Confessions", "Ocean Drive Boulevard", "Lunar Diamond". On top of that, the deeper tracks have been influenced by a broader range of music, resulting in oldskool Progressive (early '00s Sasha/John Digweed sound), Trentemöller inspired stuff, Detroit Techno inspired stuff and so on. Still, main focus is melodic dance music.

Reflecting back to those early days, did You ever think that You would have the immense impact that You've had on EDM, particularly Dutch the one?
Leon Bolier: You never can look into the future, and when I started out I already was happy with receiving the first vinyl with my own music pressed onto it! It is great to see that all along the way I have been able to create a great following and I still feel grateful for being able to put out music for those people, and being able to play in front of them. That's why I always try to connect to them music wise by giving away sneak previews and putting stuff online, especially on my Youtube channel. The sometimes massive amount of response makes me realize that the music I put out has an impact on other people's lives, and it makes me happy.

The release of your single "Shimamoto" seemed to go over really well with the fans. Some of our readers would like to know if you really spent time in Japan and what inspired you to create this production?
Leon Bolier: I have spent time in Japan, yep. Had a great time there! Tho "Shimamoto" wasn't written based on this experience - I produced this track after reading "South of the Border, West of the Sun", a book by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. "Shimamoto" is one of the main characters in the book, a mysterious woman, always wearing blue clothes, that's why I made my sister draw the artwork for the track in the way it is now.

Streamlined Part III. You definitely got an impressive line-up in there. Is there a predefined playlist/tracklist for this special event?

Leon Bolier: Nope, I book DJ's I respect and would love to have on the line up on my party, and it's up to them to play their sound and showcase what they have to offer to the crowd. That's why I book them, not because I want to tell them what to play of course.

Many of your fans in the United States would like to know if there are any plans to tour in the USA soon.
Leon Bolier: It's all about the working permit, and at the moment we are working on getting that. As soon as that happens I hope to be touring the USA as soon as possible, can't wait.

Is there anything else you would like to share with your fans and the readers of TranceSound.net?
Leon Bolier: Referring to the answer I gave to question #7 I want to thank you for all, and I hope to see you around the globe some time! Thanks for the interview and for reading, peace!

Interview made by Juliet Star aka metalfrog (TranceSound.net - Journaliste)