Interview with Vini Vici at ASOT800

What does it mean to you to play the A State of Trance Main Stage and before Armin van Buuren?

That's a very big step in our career and we got prepared two months before with a lot of edits and new tracks just for this event (ASOT). We are so very excited again, that's like the biggest stage in the trance world. The union of trance here (ASOT). Hopefully everyone will have a good time.

As Vini Vici, you have brought Psytrance to a new level. For the first time in A State of Trance, there is a Psytrance Stage, what is like to watch Psytrance grow and evolve?

It's amazing because we feel like we're apart of history in the making. Part of the pioneers who are building the bridge between the Psytrance and the trance and merging all of it under the trance family. We feel really proud and really happy to be apart of this process. To be one of the leading part of this process together with so much great artist like Liquid Soul, Astrix, Ace Ventura, Coming Soon!!!...is really amazing.

In 2016, the Vini Vici remix of The Hilight Tribe -Free Tibet was released and it was a massive success. With support from Armin, MaRLo, Seven Lions, KSHMR + More. Over 19 million views on YouTube and it was also my most played song on Spotify last year. When you released the remix, could you have imagined the success of the track?

Actually we didn't expect it to be that big. I mean, we knew that it was going to do something great but when it got launched everybody loved it, everybody played it, we were extremely happy. I (Matan) remember sitting in the studio making this remix and I told him (Aviram), if it will be half the success of "The Tribe" track that we had before. I would be so happy and like boom! The rest is history, it's amazing! It's probably going to be the biggest (viewed) Psytrance track on YouTube pretty soon.

Were you surprised to see it supported by so many artists and so many diverse genres?

We kind of expected for support from the trance world as both world getting closer, but Yeah definitely. Artists like KSHMR, Carnage, Timmy Trumpet, Seven Lions which are like from another world of the electronic music supporting this track, we were happily surprised. We heard even some really big techno DJs that lowered the BPM to 125 (bpm) and playing it. It's really everywhere.

With the success of Vini Vici, have you received more interest in collaborations?

Of course, we are always interested in collaborations. Especially from people that aren't from our natural zone to see how the fusion will make a refreshing track or sound that will not exist before. You should expect a few more surprises, this year. We are playing a few nice surprises for you (fans) and like he (Aviram) said, we try not combine stuff from our world. We are again trying to be like pioneers and taking everything a step forward and thinking out of the box. I'm sure the open minded people outside will enjoy it for sure.

So surprises, maybe an EP or an Album?

I don't know if we're going to plan an album this year. We just going to do singles and a compilation for Iboga Records during the middle of the year will be launched, I hope so. Basically that's it.

Vini Vici collaborated with Armin van Buuren on "Great Spirit", what was it like to collaborate with Armin as an artist and a trance pioneer?

Well, to be honest we were surprised because people in his (Armin's) position usually can be like egotistical and can have a star attitude. He (Armin) was so down to earth and he was even more open minded than us. He came for us than we came to him because he understands our need to keep it a bit more underground. We were so happy with it because he was so open minded and like everything we asked him, even everything around the release. He was always so thoughtful, really it's heart touching. He's an idol also because of this not only because of his music. With his (Armin) personality, we can say he is the perfect role model of how to be when becoming so famous like a leader of a scene (trance). I can't be a fan of the best musician if I don't like his personality. For me (Matan), it has to be good music and a good person that stand behind their music with a good message. If someone isn't a good person than I cannot admire him or his music. So you're always happy to find out that your idols are also idealistic in a person. To have "Great Spirit" in the end.

Vini Vici Live at A State of Trance Festival