Why The DJ Is In His Prime At 50

Sven Väth has enjoyed remarkable staying power in the dance music scene, DJing for more than 30 years.

“I am still a dancer – still an explorer with passion for music as my motor,” DJ/producer Väth announces poetically. “I would like to think my longevity and continuing excitement comes simply from this. I am not frightened of new talents and new crowds – I embrace them.”

The Frankfurt native began his music career in the ‘80s, experiencing early crossover success with the cheesy Electrica Salsa (YouTube it!), then pioneered German trance – a genre he’d eventually spurn for techno. Meanwhile, Väth emerged as an entrepreneur, launching Frankfurt’s Omen nightclub as well as the Eye Q label. In the mid-’90s, following financial setbacks, Väth began building his Cocoon “platform”, encompassing an event arm, booking agency and another label. He opened a Cocoon club and restaurant complex. 

 “I am still a dancer – still an explorer with passion for music as my motor,”

At one stage the notorious party animal, into Eastern philosophies, went on a health kick, but today he’s about balance, not a sedentary lifestyle. “Some time ago it was necessary, the ‘health interlude’. Now I do not need it in the same way, but I love it and I know it is good for me. My schedule only got busier and I want to always deliver my best – Crazy music, not crazy me.” Last year Väth moved to London after yet more “big changes”. “We closed the club in Frankfurt and I got divorced,” he explains.

While Väth is creatively restless, some things remain the same. He is committed to DJing wax, valuing the considered selection of records. “As long as there is vinyl, I will play 12” – no digital at all,” he affirms. Väth is currently promoting The Sound Of The 15th Season mix-compilation, commemorating last summer in Ibiza. But these days, despite releasing albums in the past like 1992’s seminal Accident In Paradise, he’s little involved in studio production. “Right now I feel like playing out there – I love to do it more than ever. I have surprised myself.”

Since the EDM revolution, younger DJs have become more media- (and image-) conscious. No one (bar deadmau5) is ‘controversial’. Does Väth believe that contemporary dance is less transgressive? No, he responds, because his mode of techno is countercultural. “EDM is not what we are doing – and I really do not care what is going on there. That is as controversial as I can be bothered to get now. There was a time when I wanted to shout about it, but you have to let people make their own minds up.” The German icon has been approached about penning his autobiography. “I have to face the fact [that] I am fifty and it has been a pretty full fifty [years] – and I am proud of almost all of it. Am I brave enough to put it all in? Yes, I am! But we have time. I am not a two autobio sort of guy, so I would prefer to wait. It would be a shame to leave out this next period – I am in my prime. The adventure continues…”