Join us as we sit down with a legendary vocalist and an incredibly wise rising star. Where do I even begin with this one? We were fortunate enough to catch a chat with two of the most prominent artists in Trance and Dance music as a whole. Firstly, we sat down with BiXX, experienced Uplifting Trance producer from Alabama who will see the release of his debut artist album this year. And alongside him, we had the pleasure of interviewing none other than Susana, arguably the voice of Trance. Together, they released ‘Believe In Me‘ not long ago. The track is a beautiful piece which explores the themes of being supported and finding someone you can count on. It’s an inspirational masterpiece, and while this was the focal point of our interview at first, you’ll see that soon we began to touch upon more and more themes. I know this comes from far too close, but this convo was truly spectacular. Let’s not waste any more time, if you’re looking for an inspiring chat, here you’ll find everything you need, so please proceed. Here’s our insightful conversation with BiXX and Susana. (Please note, the bolded text represents a question, while the paragraph(s) following it represent BiXX’s and Susana’s answers.) Thank you so much for being here. It means a lot. Well, first question: How’s the reception been on ‘Believe In Me’, so far? Any particular comments that have stuck with you during these weeks? BiXX: Okay. Well, number one, we got the track played on A State Of Trance, which is not so easy for me, but it’s very easy for Susana [laughs], with great visibility. So I probably received five to ten times more comments on this track from just various friends, fans, etc. But one stuck out in particular. When you receive a comment like this, it’s like, my gosh, all the challenges that you go through, this makes it worthwhile. This particular guy was from Denmark. He lost his father, and then he lost a child four months later. And he struggles with anxiety. He listened to this track, and he cried, and this track gave him so much hope. So, you know, when you create an inspirational track, you feel like “I have this knowledge that works for me, and it’s no good if it stays inside me, and I want to share it. How do I share it? How do I get the message across in a powerful way? Work with Susana“. The way the message is so powerful, you really don’t want to keep it inside you. You want to give it to the world, and you hope it’s received, and you hope it impacts people in a positive way. So when you get a message like this, it was a “wow” moment for me. I felt the emotion and the passion. I felt so happy. Susana: I didn’t even know yet about this message, and I feel like as an artist, that’s the biggest— I don’t know, I feel in the context of his story, to say a compliment is a bit weird, but I can’t think of a better word to explain it. “The effect that your music can have on people“. So that means a lot to me, and obviously to Bob as well. Because I feel like music isn’t always appreciated in society. It’s like a commodity, like a consumer thing. But it’s actually impacting people’s lives, and one song can do that. One line in a song can do that, which is why I love this job as well. And talking about the fact that it was played on A State Of Trance, there was a beautiful moment there, because it was also broadcasted on YouTube. And we could see this girl. I made a post trying to find out who she was, but I haven’t found her yet. But she was getting emotional during the song. I’m not sure if it was about the song, or it was something else happening at the time, but it looked like it was the song or the words. So that emotion, and the meaning behind it, I think that’s touching people. And the response has been really, really great. I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. Great. Well, I need to ask this. What’s the story behind ‘Believe In Me’? It’s a very inspirational track. We’d love to know how both of you connect to the lyrics and the melody. Susana: I think Bob should go first, because… BiXX: My father passed away in October of 2023. It was literally two days before coming home from ADE. That still haunts me a little bit. He was close to 93. So, a wonderful life. So then I brought back a thought I’d been having for a long time: “What will I say at the eulogy?“. And then, as my dad got older, it sort of became an opportunity. So, as I started writing the eulogy about my life, my father, one thing just kept coming to me: He believed in me. He believed in me. A simple idea that people could latch on to, not only closely related to me but that could perhaps resonate with others when turned into a song. And then, I realized how I structured my whole life about trying to find people around me that I just gravitated towards, that believed in me, as opposed to people that don’t. So, I just felt like this message needed to be communicated to the world, because if you really believe in yourself and you structure your life where you surround yourself with people who also believe in you — not so easy, but it’s very doable —, your life will change so much for the positive. So, that’s where the message idea came from. And then, boy, what better person to partner up with than Susana. Although I really had no idea about her brilliance, her talent for taking a story and creating very short, impactful, powerful words in a song. I had no idea that she could do this, this good. And so, I sent her a couple of topics. Susana: Bob sent me a couple track narratives, because this track was going to be part of his upcoming album and he already had all the track titles and the themes of the songs. And there were a few still open, which you sent to me, and then when I read this one, I knew right away, “this is the one I’m going to go with“. And also because my parents have always supported me and believed in me and I have a really good relationship with them, I could personally relate to what Bob was saying about his father. If you look at the lyrics, the words are actually simple and there’s quite a bit of space for them, but it just came, and this doesn’t happen to me with all the songs that I work on, some are really hard work to find the right message and the words and to fit them to the melody. But with this, the demo was so beautiful, it just flowed very easily. I think it helped that I had such a clear idea of the story and some of the words that Bob used to describe his relationship with his father. [To BiXX] I think you wrote something like, “My father shaped me into who I am today“, and that’s literally in the lyrics, “Thanks to you I am who I am today“. So it was a very enjoyable process and I think that was a combination of me being able to relate personally to Bob’s story, the fact that I had a clear story to work with, and that the demo was so beautiful. Incredible story. Thank you so much, because it was a very insightful story. Now, specifically to BiXX, we’d love to know what got you into making music. Had you been thinking about this for a while? Was it something that just popped out of the blue? Walk us through it, please. BiXX: I guess we’ve all heard the term “Midlife Crisis”. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s something that’s a little frustrating and worrisome, because it forces you to get inside yourself and figure out who you are. So, I had always wanted to be a DJ as a child. In fact, I did a little DJing back in college, you know? I was always carrying my big stack of Funk records at a mostly white campus where they played boring white music. And I just loved Dance music. Then I sort of evolved from there to Eurodance. Loved that. So, I always loved music, but I also was in the business world and went down that path. And I got consumed, raising a family, all the wonderful things of life. I built a nice company. I love the relationships with people. I love bringing the best out of people and seeing what they’re good at and trying to develop that and try to help build this vision and then get everybody on board. And so, all these things that I enjoy doing, when I sold my business and left the company, I gave myself two years to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I just started thinking back on the fact that I’ve always loved music. I somehow ran into a guy skiing who had a business in Hong Kong, and he actually sold his business and he went to Ibiza to become a DJ and played the clubs of Ibiza for a couple of summers. So he encouraged me. First I went to Atlanta to go to a DJ school, but it was Funk and Hip-Hop, which is not really what I wanted to learn how to play. So I realized I had to go to Amsterdam. So I took lessons at the DJ School of Amsterdam in 2016, and they said, “You need to come back to ADE, Amsterdam Dance Event“. Coming from business, I’m a networker and I love to network and meet people. And so, when I went to ADE I met a couple of really good music producers. So, I used my skills. What was I really good at? Team building. I could’ve probably built my career on my own, I’m pretty good on my own, but I’m great with a team. And I like to be great. So, I built a team, whether it was production, whether it was just a couple guys that would give me mentoring and confidence because the music industry is tough. So, anyway, and why Trance? Back in I think it was 2005, Susana did a track with Armin van Buuren called ‘Shivers’ and, that’s a gift that keeps on giving. And I just was captivated by her voice. I was captivated by the melody and then, “Who’s this Armin van Buuren guy?“. And I just dove into the whole journey of Trance. I just loved Trance music, and still do. Back in business I used to be a very creative guy. And so, if you don’t replace that creativity, you get depressed. And music just happened to fill a void that I was missing at a certain time in my life. And then I just went all in. Susana: I think that’s very admirable and inspirational that you didn’t let any limiting thoughts in the way like, “Oh, I’m already getting too old“, or travelling all the way to Amsterdam to go to a DJ school. “It’s probably 20-year-olds teaching there”. So, I think that in itself is already an inspiration for other people out there who also, regardless of their age, have always had a passion for something, but never went for it for whatever reason, or maybe felt a little bit intimidated to pursue it. And yeah, you’re gonna make mistakes and you’re gonna feel silly and awkward more than a few times, probably. But it’s part of the process and it’s how you grow, right? It’s very cliche, but it’s true. And I’m glad you did and that we got to work together. You guys are crushing this interview right now! Loving it. So, Susana, now your turn. After a quick look at Beatport, I can see you have close to a thousand records released, which is something extraordinary to keep as your discography. Now, out of all of those songs, which I insist are a lot, any particular ones that are closer to your heart, that you hold more dearly than others? One that you have a particular story to it? And if you were so kind, if you found one, could you please share the story behind it? Susana: Oh, wow. This is always such a challenging question, I think, for any artist. And a thousand, I think that’s probably a lot of different releases and re-releases and everything. I should look up how many individual songs those are. I have no idea, actually. Quite a few as well, because I’ve been doing this for 20 years now. Also speaking about 20 years ago, I remember the song that made me fall in love with Trance music. That was ‘Nothing At All’ with Rex Mundi. I don’t know if you know this track. It was released maybe a year or two after ‘Shivers’, it’s a Progressive track. And it did really well back in the day. I actually got to go to Taiwan to record a music video for it, which was a beautiful experience. And I remember working on that track. I heard the instrumental and I just felt like, “Wow, this was made for me or something“. I believe it was Markus Schulz who actually told Rex, “You should work on this one with Susana. I think she would fit the track perfectly“. So he kind of sensed that already. So that’s still a special one for me because of that. Also, obviously, ‘Shivers’, Bob mentioned it already. I often say it’s like the gift that keeps on giving, because I had no clue about Dance music when I recorded ‘Shivers’. I did not write ‘Shivers’. I came to the studio, I recorded the vocals that were written by a songwriter. I had heard of Armin before, but I didn’t really know what he looked like. And at that time, his star was rising, but he wasn’t at the height of his career where he is now. And so that was just a whole eye-opening experience. I basically took the job because I was like, “Oh, it will be nice to get some studio experience, right?“. I think that’s a funny story because that track is literally the one that opened a lot of doors for me. I got to tour with Armin. When I toured with Armin, I got to meet other artists in Electronic music. And I found that so inspiring. That’s when I started to connect literally with the crowd, Trance crowd, Trance community. And yeah, I just felt like this whole new world was opening up to me. At the time, Armin did shows of, like, nine hours. He was playing for nine hours nonstop. So imagine the amount of tracks I was hearing when we did those shows, I was really listening to tons of music that was new to me. So that really was a defining moment for me and made me determined to pursue this career. Also ‘RAMelia’, of course. RAM and I had never worked before, but we knew each other. I had seen him perform and we would speak backstage at events. I got to know his wife as well, Amelia. And then she all of a sudden passed away. I think it was his manager calling me like, “Hey”, I knew what had happened, “RAM wants to do a tribute for Amelia. He’s playing this event in the Netherlands in a few weeks and he would like to play a track in her memory“, which was a huge honour for me. But I also, as you can imagine, kind of felt the pressure. I wanted to do a really good job at it. I wanted to write a song that would do her justice as a person, but that would not just be like a sad, sad song, right? I wanted it to have a shimmer of light or hope. And I still feel like maybe she was there with me, channelling the words. I don’t know, it was a special thing, I cried through the whole thing when I was writing. And that song still holds a special place in my heart, obviously. I could go on mentioning tracks. I don’t think I have one favourite. It just depends on the mood also and maybe what’s happening in my own life at a certain moment. But ‘Believe In Me’ is definitely a favorite of the past couple of years, also because of the process. It was just really enjoyable to work with Bob. And I think it’s turned out to be a really meaningful song that’s close to my heart as well. BiXX: By the way, we have an acoustic version of the track that I worked on with Paul Skelton. He’s just a brilliant composer, and an incredibly talented piano player. And that’ll be on the album only. It is beautiful. You take a Dance track sometimes and you can put it into a more orchestral, a symphonic sort of beautiful sound. It’s half the speed. It’s stunning. And it even brings the message across much, much stronger. Absolutely. Well, I’m a huge fan of Above & Beyond and they say they always start their songs like this, their vocal tracks. They start as an acoustic idea and then they build up the Dance thing. They kind of adapt the acoustic part and they say the message comes through much stronger than if it was just born as a four on the floor track. BiXX: That’s good to know, because labels have their sound and then you have your sound, and labels try to get you boxed in to their ideal sound. Even my mentor, RAM, sometimes says, “Bob, you need to change this, you need to change that, don’t make your breakdown so long“. And I get it. If you’re playing live, you can only have a couple of tracks that really captivate with a long breakdown. But I do so many tracks that I start with the breakdown first. You know, it’s just that’s to me the heart and soul of the track. And it’s good to hear that the world’s best, that’s how they design their tracks. Susana: You got to go to the beat of your own drum, in a sense. I’ve been in this scene for 20 years and I feel like all the time there’s this talk of “Trance is changing, it’s not the same, it’s not cool anymore“. And this is the first time in 20 years that I’m actually sometimes fearing that there might be truth to it, that Trance is losing ground at the moment, the emotional Trance, especially when it comes to filling up venues. I know in the Netherlands, especially the Trance crowd is getting a little bit older. Maybe they just don’t really go to events anymore. I can’t really explain it. At the same time I know there is a core of hardcore Trance fans who will always continue to love and support these emotional songs. I believe everything goes in cycles, so we’re just in a different phase of music now. But I do hope that there will still be a place for emotional songs in the future. So let me understand your point. You think that Trance is coming back as a wave, but you think it’s not coming back with the proper emotion that it used to have? Susana: Not really. I feel like it’s not what’s the trend right now. If you look at the lineup of the ASOT the past weekend, they used to be all about Trance and now there is a specific area, Area 2, that was more about the Trance as we know it. But I also find it hard to put labels on things because I do believe music should be fluid and it’s good if there’s crossovers and we influence each other. But of course, they have a lot of Melodic Techno now… That’s my impression and what I hear from people, that’s the type of music that people get excited about now. And that’s probably also why Bob got the advice not to make his breakdowns too long. But we’ll see how it will all develop. And I know for a big part of my fan base, this is what they love and what they’ll continue to support and listen to. BiXX: I think there’s a struggle from an artist’s standpoint of authenticity versus commerce. Do you create to sell tracks? Do you create to get more gigs? Do you create what speaks to your heart as a piece of you, as a piece of art that you’re giving to the world? And that’s one part of it. It’s how authentic you want to stay and then risk not getting gigs or not selling records. The other part to me is that I believe that many humans will need emotional triggers in music, in order to fully experience music. I think you have to innovate in anything you do, you grow or you die. And innovation comes from a lot of things. But technology is one. And as you know, AI makes it easier to create new sounds and separate vocals from tracks and create speaking parts. And there are so many things that AI can do in music. So if you’re using that as a tool in your toolbox to create newer sounding tracks, you’ve got to keep innovating because people just get bored of the same. I think one of the things with Trance is structure. People get lazy. It’s like intro, breakdown, climb, drop. And it’s just all the same. It’s like a cookie cutter, template-driven industry. I don’t know if that gives Trance a bad name. There definitely is room to keep innovating in Trance, though. Also, humans are always going to be human. You have some people that go to events because they’re angry or they’re frustrated and they get their outlet through the hard stuff. And then there’s other people that need emotional triggers to feel their feelings. You know, they actually have a hard life, they’ve had to shut down and they need emotional triggers through music to open up and to feel happiness. So I don’t think human emotions are going to change much. So I do feel like there’s always going to be space for emotional, uplifting Trance. But it’s just up to the producer to innovate and make it interesting. And if you get too much the same, people get tired of it. So there’s hope. I hope there’s hope as well. Now, about you, Bob, can we talk about the album for a bit? Let’s get to know the name, some tracks, kind of a rough sketching of what it means for you and what’s going to convey for the story of BiXX. BiXX: Yes. I think it’s important in the music scene to have, you know, good people around you and especially the people that are very encouraging. There’s times when we get down because of a series of rejections or a series of things that happen. I guess people get in so much into their own journey that they don’t take the time to understand the importance of other people around them. That’s where this began. I was talking to a friend of mine about two and a half years ago who I worked with for social media, Jimmy. And I was just telling a few stories about my past and my life. And I kept saying to him that I try to be that voice of reason, that calm person that can advise people when they’re having a very stressful time or struggles and to give good advice just based on past experiences. Because, you know, it seemed like just a short time ago, I would call somebody older, more experienced than me and ask them for advice. And all of a sudden, life happens. And now I’m that older guy that’s giving advice to the younger people. So he said, why don’t you do an album and call it Voice of Reason? You keep talking about being that voice of reason. And then I called RAM, one of my mentors, advisors. “What do you think about me doing albums?“, “Oh, that’s a terrible idea“. And so when he said that, I decided I was going to do an album. Ram and I are good friends so we can speak freely with each other. He is also a great mentor to me. So his comment about it being a bad idea was because his goals and where he is in his career are different than mine. My purpose is more about teaching and inspiring. Once I explained that to Ram, he was interested in learning more. His perspective was way different than mine. So mine was, how do I leave something in life for people, whoever, kids, grandkids, just something to look back on when I’m retired. Although I don’t think retirement’s ever an option for me. You always want to keep challenging and innovating and living life to the fullest. Anyway, I was going to do an album. And I wanted to approach it like writing a book, from a standpoint. And so I wrote all of this like a book, like each track is a chapter. Each track has an inspirational message. So I just started outlining a list of messages. But I just started writing a whole bunch of that list of potential titles and concepts, I’ll just rattle a few. So, one came from my wife telling me, “If you could only follow your own advice, you’d be way better“. I give good advice and always follow it. So one of the concepts I always tell people is, “Your self-doubt is creating your own glass ceiling“. So I have a really nice vocal track on the album called ‘Glass Ceiling’. Another came from the fact that one of my big frustrations about the music industry is that people lack a sense of urgency, so I have a track called ‘Sense Of Urgency’. And another track that sort of happened by accident, it’s called ‘Karma Is Coming For You’. It’s got some very powerful words and sentences, messages about, you know, “You think no one’s watching, but Karma is watching“, and the importance of doing the right thing. Otherwise, Karma is going to come back and get you. Other tracks I’ll mention right now: my mother used to ask me why I dated all the pretty girls when I was younger, and she said external beauty fades and internal beauty never dies. So I’ve got a track called ‘Beauty Within’. I’ve got a vocal track that’s coming out next month. It’s basically about not giving up, and it dates back to the ADE incident I mentioned earlier. I got back from ADE in 2023. My father had just passed away, I got very sick, my colon got infected and I had surgery. And that knocked me down for a couple of months. And at the same time I got involved with a couple people, who were just not who I thought they were. And that was very disappointing. So I had all these things happen, to the point I was convinced music was doing me harm and I was determined to leave it aside. So I resorted to my inner circle, and they convinced me not to quit, not to give up. So I named one of the tracks ‘To Find Myself’. And then there’s a track called ‘Your Time Will Come’ that’s coming out next month. It’s about not giving up. And the last one I’m going to mention is a track called ‘Appreciation’. One of the greatest gifts we have is the power to give and show appreciation. You could say it’s a bit of a mentoring album in a way, right? There’s 17 tracks on the album. And then the three acoustic versions that will be on the album make it more dynamic. It’s not all just banging Trance. There’s incredible artistic beauty through the talents of Paul Skelton on this as well. Wow. Something to look forward to. I find it interesting that you talk about Paul Skelton because I didn’t know he had kind of an orchestral face. I’ve always heard him only Trance and just Trance. And yeah, he does great music, but I didn’t know he had a more important role whenever it comes to the breaks or the non-beat stuff. BiXX: Yeah, I don’t want to give away Paul’s secrets, but he works with several producers in the Trance scene. There’s technical producers that are really good with sound design and the technical aspects of tracks, but they’re not born composers. So if a technical person works with a composer like Paul Skelton, it really enhances the melodic beauty and breaks the monotony, again, adding beauty. Now, Susana, a question for you, if you’re ready. Susana: Yep. Back to the lyrics. Well, we talked about this a little bit before, but your tracks are often super emotional, super powerful. Is that intentional on your end? Does it just happen naturally? Where does the inspiration for this poetry come from? Susana: Wow, I think it’s a big compliment to hear it described as poetry. It’s a good question. Is it intentional? I think first of all, we’re talking about my sound. There’s a songwriter I’ve worked with a lot, Raz Nitzan. He was one of the songwriters on ‘Shivers’, for example. And I worked with him very closely for the first eight years of my career. And we’re still really good friends and still work together on occasion. It’s always really fun studio sessions. And he likes to call this “The Susana Moment”, a moment in the track where you reach the chorus and the powerful vocal comes out, which probably at the beginning was not intentional. But then it became something that you enjoy doing and that you notice is resonating with people and, if we’re talking about branding, I would say it has become part of my brand. But when I write, I just don’t really think about those things. I just go where the music takes me. Sometimes I do think, “Okay, I can probably go higher here” or “this hook needs to be more powerful“. So to answer your question, it’s probably part of who I am and a bit of intention as well. Because I’ve noticed that it creates beautiful, powerful moments in a song, and that it works. I do also enjoy writing meaningful songs where there is a story. I did a session with another songwriter, two years ago, and that’s when I realized not all songwriters are writing in that way. We talked a little bit about her life and what she was going through, and I got to write about that. And then at the end of the session, she was like, “Wow, I’ve never really approached songwriting like this, where I tell a story or something personal and emotional“. She just had a different way of writing, maybe more thematic. She’s really successful, so it’s working for her. It’s just a different approach to songwriting. But especially for Trance, I do think that my method works well. And it resonates also with my audience, my fan base. I feel like in that, we found each other. Well, we in Trance, we are a very soft-hearted fan base. Susana: What is in a way intentional is, especially when I work on uplifting tracks or with producers or DJs who tour a lot and play big festivals, I think about, “If they play this at Dreamstate, or in A State Of Trance, what would make the crowds go teary-eyed“, you know? So I do think about that and how to create a moment like that. Making the lyrics sometimes personal, sometimes universal, but something that people can relate to. I think a line like, “Because you Believe In Me, no matter what“, anyone can relate to that in some way to their own life. So it’s part intentional and part of who you are as a person, and what your sound is as an artist. And I think that that goes for probably most artists, that their creativity is an extension of who they are. Or some say it’s not really an extension of you, but you’re the vessel, that ideas are already there somewhere, but you are then the one who’s grabbing the idea, and when it is ready to be shared with the world, then you are the vessel in a way, that that’s what artists do, which I think is also a nice way to look at it, even if I don’t know if it’s true, it feels like that sometimes. BiXX: You have a way… What’s that moment when you surrender yourself to the track? And you seem to be able to find that moment quite easily in many of your tracks, where it’s so beautiful, you just surrender yourself, you’re just in the moment. Susana: Yeah, that’s probably usually when you go into the chorus, right? BiXX: Yeah. Susana: When I find that melody in a song or that moment, it always feels a little bit like an accomplishment, like I’ve found it. And with some songs or instrumentals that I work with, it’s easier to be found, than others. Now, I’ve got three more questions. These are kind of more abstract questions. So it’s excellent for the themes we’ve been talking about lately. First off, have you had an “Oh my God” moment, either while producing, performing, whatever, in which you’re doing something and then you suddenly stop and become aware of where you are, what you’ve achieved, etc? Susana: I’ve had a few moments like that, thankfully. Even last weekend, when I performed at A State Of Trance. I did one song that’s coming out next month. And this performance was only a few minutes, so it passes by like this, right? [Snaps fingers] I also do performances where I have more songs or I’m out there half an hour. But a lot of times, even half an hour just flies by. So I try to always be in the moment consciously and enjoy it and take it in. Because before I know it, it’s over. And what a shame it would be if I was just all in my head about it and not enjoying it. But I think the one moment that really stands out for me was in 2019. I got to perform with Armin at Tomorrowland during ADE with an orchestra. So the energy of the orchestra was already supporting me in a big way. And I remember, I had to wait under the stage and then step on something and it would go up and I would appear on the stage. And I was waiting downstairs and I heard the crowd, and I was just, kind of talking to the universe out there like, “Help me to shine my light and have a positive impact on the people out there“. And then I went on stage and sang ‘Shivers’ with the orchestra. I had already sung this version during that summer at Tomorrowland. And I had made my own ending to it. It was my more “Susana” ending, another one of those moments we just talked about. I added that finishing touch to it. And I remember singing it there at ADE with Armin. And when I sang the last note of that line I experienced that very moment you just described, “Oh my God, this is probably my best note ever“. I could feel it. And I felt that the crowd could feel it too. Afterwards, when Armin saw me in the dressing room, he told me “You’re a star!“. I haven’t experienced that feeling when singing ever since. So yeah, I don’t know what it was, but that was definitely an Oh my God moment for me. It was almost like an out-of-body experience. Like, “Was that me?“. I have a recording of it, thankfully. So I know it actually happened. BiXX: I’ll mention two, where one’s really fast. So the fast one is, I was actually working with Mark Sherry last April in the studio, and Mark’s car was messed up. And he had a rental car and they had to bring him a new rental car. So he said, “Bob, I got to go out of the studio for about 10 minutes to deal with this“. And then I looked at my phone and I got this message that Susana had sent me the first vocal attempt at ‘Believe In Me’. And from the very first word, “I hear your voice“, all of a sudden the tears started flowing. And it was an Oh my God moment for me because it was a perfect summary of everything I had in mind for the track. And then the longer one, back in 2019 I was looking to become a better artist. Obviously I’m not the young guy, so my philosophy was “How do I accelerate my learning curve“. I figured I’d fly around Europe and spend time in the studio with different producers and have melody writing sessions and tuitions and help build tracks. One day I’m at this producer’s. Basically he had a melody. We’re at a melody writing session. I said, “Well, do you have any old melodies that are sitting in your melody graveyard?” So I’m clicking through all these melodies. And all of a sudden I find something similar to what we ended up doing in a track called ‘Yes I Can’. It was perfect. And previous to that, I had heard Davey Asprey’s ‘Fallout’. I watched Armin play it at A State Of Trance and everybody was jumping up and down. I said, “I want a track like that“. That’s going to make the audience go crazy, and it’s going to be great to play live. So anyway, once we found the melody, I sort of wrote up a narrative on kind of how I wanted the track to go. So we sat down and developed the track and then I played it for my wife. My wife says, “Oh, well, you need a chorus“. We had a choir. “You need a choir melody in this section and you need a choir melody in that section“. And she’s a little bit of a singer. So she actually hummed the melody, she participated. And then I just knew it was a good track. I didn’t know how people were going to react. Fast forward some months, I attended Trancemission in October of that year. Darren Porter played the track live on his set. And you could just see the change in the crowd. And I’m like, “Oh, my gosh“. This is that moment. This track that was born from that moment of Armin playing Davey Asprey’s ‘Fallout’ live at ASOT. It’s happening right now. And then the aftermath: somebody cut the track and posted it on YouTube. And it got like 500,000 views in the first couple of weeks. And everybody was going, “Who is this guy? Who did this track?“. That was like my moment. Maybe I had released three tracks before that. Incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. I’m still smiling from ear to ear. Second to last, if you could go back in time, say 10, 20 years, any amount of years you’d find interesting, and meet your past self, what would you tell your younger self? Were you worried about something that wasn’t really necessary? BiXX: Okay, so the “worry” part, I’ll address it two ways. I call F.E.A.R, False Expectations Appearing Real. And I’m a worrier. My mom was a worrier. And I had someone call me Mr. Worry, “He’s worried about not having something to worry about“, you know? So I tend to worry. And this false expectations appearing real acronym, most things you worry about never really happen. Then, in terms of going back in time and telling my younger self… So I can look back at myself in stages, when you’re going through your 20s, it’s experimenting, your 30s, and often your 40s, you’re in the grind, you’re trying to achieve, you’re working really hard. And I see this with younger people these days: you slow down, and take the time to smell the roses, take the time to appreciate the process, and the journey, and the people that you work with that you enjoy working with. That’s what I’d tell my younger self. Because I look back now, and in my company I had these great customers, or I had these great employees, and all I was really focusing on was the bottom line profit of the company, I was so worried about the profit of the company, I was so worried about the cash flow, the this, the that. And I did enjoy all those relationships, but I just wish I would have slowed down a little bit, which I do now, because that’s, that’s the great thing about having a second chance to reinvent yourself or another chance. And you can do it. I didn’t tell people that I appreciated them back then, I might have told them, you need to tell people that you appreciate them, you tell people that do a good job. “Well, they’re expected to do a good job, you know?”, and I just didn’t get it, because I was just so driven. That’s what I’d say: slow down, and smell the roses. Enjoy the now, enjoy the process, enjoy the people, acknowledge people, and show them appreciation. Susana: What would I tell my younger self? There’s a lot I could tell her. But I always say that I’m a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser. So I would probably tell her, you are just right the way you are. And you are a good person. And don’t worry too much about what other people might think or about disappointing people. You are allowed to go for your dream, right? And I probably, if I look back, I feel like I sometimes could have been a little bit more selfish, in a way. And have done my own thing more or sooner, probably. I can kind of relate to what Bob’s saying, the overthinking part, right? It’s always a good thing to enjoy, to celebrate your achievements. I heard this quote a few years ago that really stuck with me. I don’t know who said it originally, but it was something along the lines of, “Once you reach your dream, it’s no longer your dream“. And I mean, it’s so often that when we achieve a goal, we forget about it so quickly, and we’re already thinking about the next thing. It’s so easy to look at what’s not there yet. While if you look at it from another way, so many people would like to be where you are now. So don’t take it for granted. So yeah, I would tell her, believe in yourself. Believe in yourself and in your own vision. And don’t worry too much about getting it perfect, making mistakes, disappointing people, people having an opinion. Because it’s your life, it’s your career, it’s your dream. Fight for it, go for it. BiXX: And let me add something about being selfish, because we all associate it with something negative, right? But I’ve come to see it more like what they say in the plane, like when the oxygen masks drop, put it on yourself first before helping others. And I feel the same way about if you have a dream. And I still believe in being kind to people. It’s not about that. But I think as an artist, you become an artist because you have something to share with the world. And if you don’t put your dream first, if you’re not at least a little bit selfish in that way, then people are going to have to miss out on what you have to offer them. It happens in the small things as well. I have a guy I work with on social media, and we had a certain way of doing videos. And then Susana asked, “Can I approve the videos before they go out?“. She wanted to be involved. And I’m telling you, she’s very specific in particular, but she had so much knowledge that we did not have. She made us way better than we were. And we will be better in the future for this experience. She’s so connected in that social media world that’s definitely changing with short attention spans and things like that. So sometimes if you are selfish to get your own points across because you want to be better, then you make the team around you better. Susana: That’s the point. I could have thought, “Oh, I don’t want to sound like a control freak or something“. But it was genuinely also because I could help us get the best out of the promotion efforts. And I must really give it to Bob. All the effort that he has put in, all the content ideas he came up with, other artists can definitely learn from that. So I think we all brought our strengths to the table. Now, last question, which is, part of the same question that we were just discussing, but this is instead of advising yourself, advising someone else, if you could give our audience one piece of advice about anything, what would it be? Susana: Well, maybe it’s not so much an advice, but more of a plea to people to just be more gentle with each other and believe in the other person’s good intentions. I feel like with everything that’s going on in the world, the debates are getting more harsh and you know what it’s like on social media, right? People can say the meanest things to each other and assume all these horrible things about people just based on something that they’ve written. Let’s try and give each other more grace. At the end of the day, we’re all human beings and we want to live meaningful lives and make sure that our loved ones are taken care of. We may not always have the same ideas about how we’re going to get there. But in that sense, I think the theme of ‘Believe In Me’ can also be translated to believing in each other and being more gentle. BiXX: I’ll follow up with what Susana said first and then I’ll give you my other advice is. I like to do the following: if I have any kind of conflict or misunderstanding, after maybe about two to three messages, emails, and I sense it’s getting a little bit frustrating or going down potentially the wrong path of being misunderstood, I will always request a phone call. I would prefer Zoom or to see a person’s face to see them as a human, to see their body language, to see their feelings and then discuss it, as opposed to these dumb wars dropping bombs, you know? And now my own advice: it’s so important to surround yourself with good people. Who do you surround yourself with? I think that mediocre people don’t like high achievers and high achievers don’t necessarily like mediocrity. It’s because the standards aren’t the same. So if you aspire to go in a certain direction or a new career, or if you want to climb the ladder, try to surround yourself with people that are already there, where you want to go. If you surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, that are more experienced than you, that will fill your gaps to your weaknesses. You can invite them to lunch, connect at a party, you follow up, not all of them work out, but build it, build a team around you. Susana: I can add to that because last year, I worked with a business coach and she would always say, “Be brave enough to be the smallest one at the table“, because especially if you’ve been doing something for a while and you build a name for yourself, there can be a little of an ego thing like, “Oh, I am already someone in music“, or whatever your career is. And you might notice that you’re starting to reach a plateau. And in order to reach the next level, you will have to become okay with being the smallest one on the table again and being that beginner, maybe also having that beginner mindset and making mistakes. Maybe even approaching people or surrounding yourself with people that intimidate you a little bit. So I can relate to what Bob’s saying. And I thought I would add what she used to tell me because it really helped me as well. BiXX: You know, just one more follow-up on that. That’s a great point, Susana. When you go from, I was 25, 30 years in my business and I got to that point where you, achieve a certain status and there’s a little bit of a know-it-all mentality, maybe the ego gets in the way, but then you shift focus and climb into this music industry, and you’re all of a sudden a student again and you’re just that smallest person at the table. It opens up your mind for lots of creativity, because you don’t have the heaviness of being this know-it-all person. And then you learn from other people and your mind becomes more of a listener and more of a student. Susana: Student of life. We are all students of life, right? Nice questions! BiXX: Yeah, great questions. -End of interview- I can’t really put into words what I feel after this interview. I’m so thankful for having the opportunity to speak with these two geniuses, and having the opportunity to soak up a bit of their wisdom. I hope this chat also inspired you and gives you a fresh perspective in life, I know it did the trick for me. Thank you so so much to Bob and Susana for the lovely chat — of which you read only a fragment, since we actually spoke for over 90 minutes. Amazing. Here’s to a year full of exciting music from these two pros![INTERVIEW] BiXX And Susana Talk ‘Believe In Me’, Persevering, Career, And More
The Interview
Final Words
