DJ Ron Slomowicz: Where does the name Darude come from?
Darude: My friends started to call me 'Rudeboy' after I played Leila K's track Rudeboys several times in a row at a house party. I guess I was a little tipsy and I liked the track... Anyway, I started using it myself a little later but wanted to drop the 'boy' so it became 'the rude' -> 'da rude' and eventually 'darude' all written together.

DJ Ron: Did you start as a DJ or a producer?


Darude: Producer.

DJ Ron: How did you start making music?
Darude: I've been listening to music very actively for a long time, since I was around ten years old. Of course I didn't know and understand too much about music stuff back then but thinking back I think I had a special interest in music, not just regular listening 'because everyone else did it too'. I got into making music pretty shortly after I started to study telecommunication in 1995-96. A couple of new friends of mine showed what they were doing with only a computer and freeware or shareware programs and almost immediately I got hooked, started to wonder if I could make my own music too. Soon I bought my first pc (the studies of course being the main reason, later to be the main excuse... ;) and installed some proggies and BOOM! I couldn't get away from the computer anymore.. I realized that tracker or sequencer programs made it possible for me to make banging music (might've been not that banging for the first year or two :) even though I'm not a brilliant live keyboard or guitar player.

DJ Ron: What about dance music inspires you?
Darude: There's no other message (at least to me) than just having fun, feeling good, letting go of the worries, just let the music take you to places. I enjoy the loud and powerful sounds which you not only hear but feel in your body.

DJ Ron: You are considered to be one of the first internet successes.. how did you first discover that your music was being played outside Finland?
Darude: A long before I first got signed by 16 Inch Records in Finland I had my older stuff on mp3.com and I got tons of feedback and downloads from all over the world. In a way that's not comparable with the 'real world' signed music but anyway that was my first channel to publish my music and make it available to everyone.

DJ Ron: Where did you get the inspiration for that oscillating sound in "Sandstorm?"
Darude: You tell me... What I usually do is just going thru samples and sounds in my synthesizers and adding effects and delays etc and when I come up with a good sound and a melody with it I just start building other stuff around it.

DJ Ron: What is your favorite piece of gear?
Darude: Korg Triton, Virus C and JP8080 and of course my 17" PowerBook

DJ Ron: What software do you use in the studio?
Darude: Logic6, EXS24mk2 sampler (+ many other plugins), ReCycle

DJ Ron: Do you find it difficult to remix a song with full vocals a la Gizelle "Fallin" rather than building a track around a sample like the Barcode Bros track?
Darude: Not really, or not more difficult than around a sample, it's just a different approach I think. With a full vocal track you've got a lot of stuff that you can base your rmx on, and you can always drop some lyrics if you feel like that. With vox you could follow the chords of the original track religiously or create a whole new composition around the original vocal melody or a part of it.