Ahead of his performance at the first-ever Don’t Let Daddy Know London, Nicky Romero sat down with EDMHouseNetwork to discuss his evolving sound, his Monocule alias, upcoming collaborations and what makes the UK crowd special.

Dutch DJ and producer Nicky Romero has established himself as one of electronic music’s biggest names, with a signature progressive house sound and releases including ‘Toulouse’, ‘I Could Be the One’ with Avicii and ‘Legacy’ with Krewella. Through his Protocol Recordings label and deeper, melodic releases under his Monocule alias, he continues to explore new directions while staying true to his roots.

Ahead of his set at the first-ever Don’t Let Daddy Know London at Drumsheds, we caught up with Nicky to discuss his evolving sound, the tracks he’s excited to share with fans and what makes the UK crowd special. From an unreleased Armin van Buuren remix getting its first-ever play to a special live performance of ‘Run To You’ with Grace Barton, we also got an insight into what fans could expect from the night and what’s next for Nicky Romero.

Thanks for joining us at the first ever Don’t Let Daddy Know in London. How does it feel to be performing here? 

It feels really good. I played London many, many times before. I played Don’t Let Daddy Know many times before. So I played both a lot, but never as this combination

I heard it’d be good and I know that Drumsheds is a great location, so I’m super excited. 

What can fans expect from you today? 

I always try to play my own records in a unique combination. I will be playing a new remix for Armin van Buuren tonight. That is going to be my first time playing it. I’ve not played it before so I’m super excited to see how that will go down. I’m excited for that one and of course new music. And I have a live artist with me today to do a song on stage together. And she’s never been with me on stage before, so that’s also a new first time. The song is called ‘Run To You’ and it’s Grace Barton joining me live on stage.

You’ve played Don’t Let Daddy Know across the world. But with it being the first London edition, what do you think makes the UK crowd different to the crowds across the world? 

I played in the UK since the very beginning of my career and I think it’s fair to say that the UK has brought me a lot in terms of how people can rave. What I like about the UK is, this is generally speaking, it’s not everywhere, but they usually don’t care so much. Like, “Oh, we have to pay attention to how we look all the time.” It’s about creating the party, it’s about the atmosphere. It’s less about, “Oh, look at me. I have the best outfit of everyone.” They do look great, but they’re just not focusing so much on how people look. They’re just really there for the party, for the rave and for the energy. And that’s something I really love because these days everything is about social media. I get it, it’s amazing to look good. It’s amazing to have great videos. But I think the only moment we really have is now. It’s the power of now, as Eckhart Tolle would write in his books. So, let’s focus on the now. 

You’ve released quite a lot this year. What feels like the track that’s best representing where Nicky Romero is at right now? 

I’m trying to constantly expand and change and adapt. But I really love ‘Run To You’ with Grace. That record has been doing fantastically live. I think this remix for Armin is going to do well. My record with Reinier Zonneveld, ‘Party’, is a bit more up-tempo, but it’s something I really like. Those are the ones I like.

You’ve got quite a diverse range of music that you’re putting out now and one of the things you are very known for is your progressive house sound. How has your relationship with progressive house changed over the years and is there a sound that you wanted to explore a bit more that you haven’t fully committed to yet?

I’m trying to find elements from trance, Eurodance and melodic techno and see how I can make that combination with progressive house.

You’ve been exploring different sides of your sound, including your Monocule alias. What can you express through Monocule that you can’t express as Nicky Romero? 

Monocule is more about a deeper sound, it’s like storytelling. Nicky Romero feels like chapters, and I think Monocule feels like a proper book. I need more time to tell the real story and with Nicky Romero, it feels like little chapters that all are very much peak energy. But this is a proper book with an intro and outro. That’s the difference. 

So you recently revisited ‘Freak’ as Monocule. What makes a track worth revisiting or reworking for you?

Sometimes, when I do a record as Nicky Romero, which in this case was ‘Freak’, I feel like there’s multiple approaches to an idea. And with Monocule, I tried to make it like a longer story. With Nicky Romero, it felt more like a proper club track and with Monocule, it was more about setting the vibe than creating a peak time energy moment in my set.

You’ve got a few IDs going around at the moment. Which one are you most excited about? 

This is so difficult. I’m really excited about the Armin remix. It’s not really an ID, but it’s a new record that I’m exploring live. And there is a new idea with Almero that I am exploring and it’s not even finished but I’m excited for that one too. There’s a couple with Blackcode and with Amel. Those are records that I’m super excited about. But there’s so much, and sometimes I’m not even able to catch all the ideas because I’ll forget one for sure.

Can you tell us much about the ID with Sick Individuals?

It’s not under the name of ‘Dreamer’ or ‘Who We Are’. That was an ID that we had for a while that we just had to get a vocal for but I’ve not been super excited yet about the result. I was just trying it out, but we do have a version of that coming for sure.