Finnish dancefloor master feels the beat of success

By GRAHAM REID

If there's one thing you can say about dance music, it's a global democracy where one groove, regardless of origin, can be universally accepted. Imagine what a tough call it would be for a Finnish pop band to make it.

Yet Darude - who plays the Sandstorm dance party at the St James tomorrow night - appeared on Britain's Top of the Pops when his Sandstorm single went to number three, has played at major clubs and dance parties around Europe and he comes to us fresh from parties in Australia.

And in one of those not-so-coincidental circumstances, his debut album Before the Storm featuring his singles Sandstorm and Feel the Beat, has just been released here.

A Finnish pop band should be so lucky. But dance has a global reach and Darude - known by his passport as Ville Virtanen - knows why.

"One of the key things to my success, and in dance in general, is that usually the samples are in English. For this music it's not the vocals that matter, it's just the beat and some of the hooks. That's why dance is easier to make it in globally. It's basically aimed at the dancefloor and doesn't have any language restrictions.

"I think the audiences are pretty much the same everywhere," says this impeccably polite dance-master from a Holiday Inn in Sydney. "But I was pleased to notice people in Australia really know how to party. The truth is I have two 'hit-kind' of tracks and sometimes if you play for an hour, people only want to hear the big ones. .

"But here they seemed to appreciate everything. One of the gigs was an hour-and-a-half, and all the time it was hands in the air so that was very good for me."

Darude has a clear-eyed perspective on just where he sits in the dance market. He has enjoyed rapid success with Sandstorm which was picked up by influential British DJs, but knows he needs to follow it up to ensure long-term success.

And he is open to the suggestion that British DJs, always desperate for the next new thing, found an exoticism and cutting-edge quality in being the first to discover this track from Finland.

"One single is not enough. There are so many hits around now you'll be forgotten in a year. And sure, I think the few big British DJs had a really great influence and they started playing my tracks and everybody follows them.

"They were key people doing it for me. Coming from Finland people find it exciting because it's new and fresh - that's what was said about Sandstorm and of course they want to be first. Maybe that was one reason they played it."

Maybe that, or the fact it is a breakneck slice of trance-meets-hard house. The single has breached the lower regions of the charts here and Darude is curious to see what kind of audience he pulls. He changes his set depending on who is out front.

"Usually for youngsters they need a wake-up call so they know what you are talking about musically. Older clubbers are usually more prepared to go along with it, so for them I usually have one known one at the middle and the other at end."

Darude is booked until the end of year ("But I just look at next week otherwise I'd freak out") although he will be back in the studio again when some gaps appear in his schedule.

"I carry a sequencer and laptop and try to put things down so I'll have something to work with when I get back in the studio." And depending on what it sounds like he may release it, as do many DJs, under another nom de disque.

"I don't only make this trance and hard house, I like slower beats like groovy house and maybe drum'n'bass, too. So maybe I will release it using another name. I'd like to make it big in another area."

If he does he would seem to be cool enough to handle it. It was barely a year from obscurity to Top of the Pops and touring the world.

"It's been fast but also easy because I have people working for me and with me and I just have to go places where someone has made the schedule. I don't find this particularly hard.

"Mainly this is fun and the positive things are so much bigger than the negative. It's work, but there are not many people who would consider this hard."