Prominent British DJ and producer now based in Amsterdam who is well-known for his significant contributions to Trance industry, not only for his melodic tunes, but also winner of A State of Trance anthem contest in the past.

Team EDMLI got a chance to meet with Ben in person at A State of Trance in Rotterdam for a quick chat and to know more about him.

 

How is life going so far for Ben Gold? 

It’s always a great privilege and honor to be here. I feel blessed to have been able to play a lot of the A State of Trance events globally and consecutively here in The Netherlands for three years in a row. Although it feels like home, I never take it for granted. I’m a little nervous got a lot of  new music to play, but nothing’s gonna hold me back and really excited to go on stage. 

How is 2025 treating you?

Kind of easing back in on the touring side. The objective since last summer was to create all the music for this year, and I have achieved that. And tonight 12 IDs, 14 tracks in my set in total, one was released last week another released last year. Half Life, which was voted number six in the ASOT tune of the year poll, rest of my set is completely brand new, unreleased. Tomorrow is my first day off, I think of 2025 and I’m very much looking forward to it.

You relocated to Amsterdam from London. How did this change happen?

My then girlfriend, now wife, was headhunted by Nike and their head office is based here in The Netherlands. She was offered the job and asked if we want to move. My record labels, publishers are here, and Amsterdam is the dance music capital of the world, so here we are.

How playing at ASOT is different from any other festival?

I think it’s different, most years I play my sets streamed live and that adds another element, not only about playing to the people online but also to the dance floor. There’s no room for error in any DJ set anyway, but mistakes do happen and we do our best to avoid any mistakes. When you’re on a live stream and you’ve got cameras in your face, it’s definitely not the time to accidentally press the cue button by mistake on a live fader or bring the bass down when it’s dropping and when you’re talking about the biggest trance party on the planet, there comes some kind of pressure and from my point of view, it’s just important to push forward new music and that’s what we do every year. This year is the highest percentage mix of unreleased music that I played in my set, around 87% of my set today is gonna be unreleased. 

Let’s go back in time to ASOT 750 when you won the ASOT anthem. How’s life changed after that? 

Initially it was a whirlwind, all of a sudden I’m playing Ultra in Miami, main stages for ASOT, in Toronto. It wasn’t easy to write the anthem in the first place, I wasn’t really tasked with this at all. I was then tasked with something that was gonna better that record, so creatively I struggled for a bit and once the buzz of the ASOT anthem sort of wore off, we got around to ASOT 800 a new theme of course. I’m still trying to write the next ace of an anthem, not an actual anthem, but another anthem that had the same power and the same global recognition. I wrote two large EP Sound Advice and then my first artist album called Rest of Our Lives, which came out in 2022, it was a real personal project of mine. Being consistent with the music and enjoying being part of this industry, which is forever evolving and changing and throwing obstacles left, right, and center. I love challenges it keeps me on my toes.

According to you which is the greatest ASOT anthem till date?

“Sebastian Brand 450”, I really liked that anthem, also really liked “I Live For That Energy”, I felt that it had something, that melody. But for me my favorite anthem is my anthem, that’s genuinely my answer. But there have been some amazing anthems like W&W Invasion, Ben Hemsley & Lucy & Armin, three of them together have done a really great job and it’s nice to have a vocal as an anthem. 

Any tips for upcoming producers?

It’s quite simple and probably the new producers may have heard this one before, but the best advice is to find your own sounds. Copying is fine to learn, how to put together a record and then to learn the different elements that you need to make a record but don’t release a copy of a record. Most importantly I think is learning your software before you make music because it’s not having a toolbox you need to know what’s in the toolbox before you decide what tool you’re gonna use to do the job.

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