After a massive year bringing future rave to the masses in 2021, Danish DJ and producer MORTEN closed it off in fine fashion as he made his debut at MDLBeast in Saudi Arabia. We had the pleasure of speaking with him before he performed at the festival, closing out the mainstage after a killer performance from his close friend David Guetta beforehand.
Hey MORTEN, thanks for taking the time to speak with me, how are you doing?
I’m good. I’m great. I’m excited to be here.
Your first time here in Saudi Arabia, and it’s such a big festival, what are your first impressions of MDLBeast?
It’s been really, really great. So many people out here and almost no traffic. We just saw the stage where I’m playing and it’s beautiful. The hotel is great and everyone has been really welcoming! . Everyone’s been really nice to us. So the first impression is great.|
I’ve been here for the past two days and the atmosphere is on another level. Can you feel that sort of vibe around the festival or does it have to be when you step on stage?
No, you can often feel the energy in the air around a festival. You can feel that the people are excited. Like kind of a new day and then this feels very good.
Your set times have moved around a little bit but you’ve now been added to the closing of the mainstage after David Guetta. Do you have anything special planned?
Yeah, so we’re gonna premiere a track or two tonight that are brand new and aren’t released yet. I have tons of new edits and things I’ve been playing around with and I’m really happy and excited to bring Future Rave to Saudi.
2020 was a tough year for everybody but 2021 sort of got us back to normal, how did it feel to be finally back in the groove of things?
Well, it’s a little bit of a trick question because the whole world is closing down right now. We just got our New Year’s cancellation as well. I got cancelled last week in France and the week before that in Australia,so almost everything is closing down now.We were so excited and happy we could start planning everything again, but now we are back to cancellations again unfortunately. So it’s definitely with ups and downs, happy and then frustrated again haha. But the most important thing is that people are safe, and we always follow the guidelines and try to navigate everything as good as possible.
it’s quite hard to plan for the future but do you have any plans coming up in the new year?
I was supposed to play in Canada for New Year’s but we had to change those plans too, we have some exciting things coming up in the US, also in Miami where I currently live. The European festival season is also looking good for the summer. And let’s see, , I would love to play EDC Las Vegas. That would be really cool!
Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me. Do you have any new music coming up?
Very soon! I have a record coming up with David Guetta called ‘Permanence’, set to be released Friday the 7th of January already! This is the track I premiered in my set at MDL Beast as well! 2022 is looking really really good and we have a lot of exciting stuff coming up – so stay tuned for more!
