In an exclusive conversation with EDMHouseNetwork, Ben Nicky reflects on his genre-defying set at Transmission Bangkok, his evolution as an artist, and the emotional core of his music. Known for seamlessly blending trance, psytrance, and hard dance, Ben Nicky shares insights into his unique approach, the inspiration behind his Emotional Havoc set, and his unwavering commitment to creating unforgettable moments for fans worldwide. Whether it’s a packed festival arena or a local club, Ben Nicky’s rollercoaster sets continue to redefine the live music experience.
It’s so good to have you here on behalf of Bangkok fans and EDM House Network and love how you brought your Emotional Havoc set to Transmission. How do you feel about that?
It was great. I’ve been to Bangkok DJing many times and I’ve played for Transmission many times but it’s like tonight wasn’t full trance but also not hard. I wanted to play to the crowd here because you’ve got a lot of trance and edm fans so I didn’t want to go too underground. It was kind of like a normal Ben Nicky set where there are lots of genres in one but still on the edge of trance and keeping to my Emotional Havoc set. But it wasn’t 100 percent Emotional Havoc because if you watch ASOT or my UK sets they’re a lot more trance. I play to the crowd and they went mad. I play for the crowd, that’s my job so I want to make people happy. I kinda go with how the reactions are and it worked.
Speaking of Emotional Havoc, what inspired you to create this set which is vastly different from your Misfits set?
My original brand back in 2015 was called Headfuck and it was about taking emotional music and giving it a crazy hard drop and mixing genres like uplifting trance with dirty techno drops. If I’m honest, Misfits is the same. Emotional Havoc is just a nicer word than Headfuck, and a more brandable and PG word. Nothing has changed, it’s just the mixing up of a couple of genres.
Some of your sets resonate with fans not because of the commercial music but because it invokes emotions. How does that make you feel when you see fans resonating?
I’ve been doing this for a long time. People don’t say this a lot. We’ve been on aeroplanes our whole life so sometimes you’re jetlagged and you’re just doing it very often, playing similar tunes so when you see people react that’s what really makes you realize why it’s so important and why it’s so worth doing. Sometimes when you’re tired and you see someone sing along and connecting with someone in the crowd makes it so much more worth it. The crowds are always so reactive during my sets, so it makes it so much more worthwhile and I would never change that, I love it.
You blend elements of trance, psytrance, hard dance like you did tonight at Transmission Bangkok, so how do you approach fusing all these together?~
To be honest I have a certain formula in my sets and I don’t tell anyone how I do it. It’s not that I wrangle all the tunes together and it kind of comes out. I hyperfocus on my sets so I spend a lot of time on intro and outro moments and I never put it online, but I do make edits in a certain way that flow in a certain key and it resonates with emotions. I have this kind of intuitive way of making my music and I never ever give away how I do it because you might hear I’ll go from a very hard track then back to slow and it’s quite hard to do that because you have to give it a lot of reverb and sometimes you have to cut and make edits from one bmp to another. Normally djs do that, they start at a slow bpm and as the set goes on it gets harder and harder but for me it’s a bit of a rollercoaster. So my brand is very much a journey but something I’m very protective of because I’m the only DJ doing it like a rollercoaster.
Next, I would like to know what you think about Asia in terms of its crowd seeing as you’ve performed across the content multiple times?
The Asian market is very different. Some DJs are only big in certain markets but I feel I’m really privileged to be able to play big shows around the whole world and have a big fan base. But when it comes to Asia, you really have to understand the Asian market. For example, in Indonesia, it’s all table clubs so you don’t really have a dance floor so everyone sits and watches you DJ. My friends who are new to it don’t really understand it, they think they’re terrible because no one danced, but it’s normal. You have to understand that Asia is very different. Take Jakarta for example, which has an amazing scene right now. Kuala Lumpur too, which is probably one of the top cities in terms of fan engagement and how they’re on another level. Marquee Singapore is one of my favourite clubs in the world. Asia is good but you have to understand the market and the needs. I consider myself very lucky to be able to play here and get the reactions that I do.
Looking ahead, what’s next for Emotional Havoc, Misfits and your whole journey?
I don’t know right now, but we’re taking Misfits to another level so we’re now doing major arenas. Creamfields UK for example this year had one of the biggest arenas and I was able to host my Misfits brand there. We’re now hosting a lot of festival arenas via Misfits and I think we’ll start doing a lot more of those. Everything else will definitely be bigger.
Do you have any final messages for your fans and thoughts about Transmission tonight?
I’ve been doing this a long time and I really appreciate everyone. My music isn’t about having commercial hits in the charts but when it comes to DJing, I will never let people down. If you go to a festival and know a Ben Nicky set, you know it will never let you down and I guess that’s why I’m sitting here right now.
Thank you so much for your time today and your set.
