Tour news: Guetta hits the decks

David Guetta. Photo / Supplied

He might be in his 40s, a father of two who's been producing, mixing, playing and releasing records for 22 years. But there's no more influential man in how pop music sounds in 2012 than David Guetta, the French king of the superstar DJs, who plays Vector Arena on May 3.

Heading to Auckland after playing the Creamfields Festival in Australia, Guetta's name has been on a slew of global hits over the past two years, his star having soared after writing The Black Eyed Peas song I've Got A Feeling, which is the biggest-selling digital track ever, with more than 5.5 million downloads.

Guetta has since produced records with Rihanna, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Kelis, Usher, Chris Brown, Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj, Taio Cruz, Jennifer Hudson, Ludacris - a list not close to half.

"I invite them into my world and we create together," he says. "I love music that makes you dance but at the same time makes you want to cry, emotional music that still had the drive."

For all his chart domination, Guetta seems remarkably grounded and talks about how fame could disappear any time. He lives in the moment and refuses to let success go to his head.

"I wasn't always famous and if I'd asked artists then they wouldn't have picked up their phones because no one knew who I was.

"It just so happened that my first big production was for The Black Eyed Peas ... and that was a pretty big start.

"Now people pick up the phone," says the Frenchman. Guetta identified early the potential to fuse electro and urban music, to make house music the new hip-hop, a sound rapidly replicated around the world and now dominating the charts.

By earning the slavish respect of pop music's elite, Guetta has revolutionised the idea of the superstar DJ to become the biggest-selling former club jock of all time.

So why him?

"Production has become really important over the years," he offers."You can become famous with your DJ skills but it's limited to a certain level.

"What really made me bigger and start to sell out concerts and stadiums was the fact that people could hear my songs on the radio and started to buy tickets. That was the difference."

Guetta cut his teeth on the Parisian club circuit back in the late '80s. He reminisces about a venue where he played in the basement and monitored the crowd by peering at their feet through a gap.

Another had him spinning records from a separate room.

"It's crazy to think it today but there was no fame or money or even a stage for the DJ then, you just did it for the passion and the love."

Something that separates Guetta from other dance music veterans is his ongoing connection with audiences. He still approaches live shows with the same enthusiasm he showed as a 17- year-old.

"I do this today for the same reasons, to party with the people and share my passion for the music," he says.

"My life is not so much different now, it's just instead of playing to 500 people I play to 20,000 and instead of practising my mixing I produce records with people like Akon and Nicki Minaj."

Tickets for Guetta's Vector May 3 show, which runs from 8pm to 2am and features local DJs Tim Phin, Dick "Magik" Johnson and Rich Carey, are on sale now through Ticketmaster.

- TimeOut / Additional reporting AAP