Marlon Hoffstadt on Coachella, Sobriety, and DJ Daddy Trance

Transcript

Marlon: I want to produce feel everything music. I don't want to be cool on the dance floor. I want to enjoy myself. I want to have fun. I want to dance. If you want to cry, cry. If you want to laugh, laugh. It's everything.

What is DJ Daddy Trance? It's actually nothing and everything. It doesn't matter. So why don't I write my name on the hashtag, aka DJ Daddy Trance, and have a full line for myself? And that actually worked really well.

Bobby: You've talked openly about mental burnout early on from success in your career, right?

Marlon: I always thought I had to take every booking. I always thought I had to answer to every request, every mail, every message. And it literally drives you insane.

Nerves Before the Ultra Set

Bobby: Marlon Hoffstadt, what's going on?

Marlon: I don't know, man. [laughter] Too much. Too much going on.

Bobby: Yeah, we're just saying you have your Ultra set in three hours. We got you in the chair here. What's the feeling like? What's going through your head?

Marlon: I'm very nervous. I'm very happy to be here, first of all, thanks for having me. And then I'm also very nervous for the set. So, last year I had my debut at EDC Vegas. I played the main stage, after Armin van Buuren and before Tiësto. And I had the weird, annoying idea to only play original songs, no big festival bangers, a lot of unreleased stuff. I don't know why, but it was very tough. It was good, people appreciated it, but it was also tough, obviously, sandwiched between Armin and Tiësto and then playing music that many of the people in front of me don't know. And I really don't know why, but I'm doing this again today.

Bobby: You're doing it again tonight? [laughter]

Marlon: Yeah, I'm doing this again today. I'm playing only originals, my own productions, in front of a lot of people who probably don't know me yet. I'm very excited for it.

Bobby: I think you're going to crush it. We watch your sets on the TV here all the time, actually.

Marlon: Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.

Bobby: We watch your sets on the TV here all the time. You're great, dude, you're really great.

Marlon: Thanks, man.

Bobby: And then, you're playing Coachella in a few weeks, right?

Building the Coachella Set

Marlon: Yeah. That's actually the reason why, we've been really working on this Coachella set for quite a while. I can't really spoil too much yet, but what I can say is we had four different concepts, and ended up almost being done with one, and then we threw the whole concept away and reduced it a lot. We had this big stage thought, okay, the essential of my set is going to be, bring a burning rave to Coachella. That's basically what we want to do, because that's what the whole team, in the end, loves about dance music, our best memories of nights out or parties we went to, where it was raves outside, festival raves. So our idea is to bring a rave to the stage.

Bobby: Depending on when we air this, I could even tell you which stage it is, but Coachella is in like ten days.

Marlon: Yeah, two weeks.

Bobby: We're going to announce the stage. What stage?

Marlon: Sahara.

Bobby: Let's go. Yeah, yeah, let's go.

Marlon: And I think the plan is it's going to be sunset, or quite close to before the sun goes down.

Bobby: Sunset slot, just about.

Marlon: Just about, yeah.

Bobby: Nice. So you were just saying that you haven't really accepted a ton of bookings in the US over the last year or so, right? Why are you deciding to start doing that more now?

Marlon: There's multiple ways to enter a new market, obviously. There's the one way, which I went for many years, I've been DJing fifteen years now, and then there's the way to start touring in small clubs and go all over the country. But given the fact I have a child, and I have my child for one week and then one week off and one week again, shared custody, I'm really not so flexible when it comes to touring, and I make a few exceptions. For example, when I go to Coachella, I'm there for two weeks, you can arrange something. But my schedule is very limited to some weekends, and I thought, okay, I'd rather wait until all the bookings sit right and I have the very good moments, and I can enter with a bang. And that's basically what we did last year, my debut was the EDC main stage, after Armin van Buuren, before Tiësto. Then afterward we had Hard Summer and Lollapalooza, which was super sick. This year we're just continuing with it. I'm playing Ultra now, playing Coachella in two weeks, and a few other things I can't tell yet. But we're going to go to CRSSD and Portola.

Bobby: Whatever the highest level of things to do in America is, you're doing that right now.

Marlon: Exactly. And then I think when this is all done, I'm actually going to go down, because my idea is, I'm playing to crowds where some know me, they come to see me play since I haven't played here yet, but a lot of them don't know me, and I just want to bring my sounds, showcase my sounds, make new fans, and then go to the intimate venues and show them what everything is really about. Because there's a difference between playing the Ultra main stage and doing Knockdown Center in New York, an intimate vibe of proper rave energy.

Crowd Energy, Europe vs the US

Bobby: Would you say there's a difference in energy and vibe between European shows and US shows with your style of music?

Marlon: Yes and no. There's definitely a difference crowd-wise, but not in energy. My debut at EDC, I was up there and people were down there and I couldn't really see anyone, it was like little ants over there. But then playing Knockdown, it was really, really intense. The crowd was giving me so much energy, it was such a ravey vibe, and it really surprised me how sick it was. Compared to some other shows in Europe, it was way more energetic. It's just different. I think people are less pretending to be super cool, they're just out there enjoying the music. Sometimes in Europe you can go to places that have a really good scene, but then people are so cool, they don't really show if they like the music or not.

Bobby: See, I think Miami can get like that.

Marlon: I hope not.

Bobby: No, no, no, not Ultra. Not Ultra, that's a different kind of crowd and festival. But Miami music venues can get like that here.

Marlon: Okay, now I'm even more stressed than before.

Bobby: No, no, no, no, no. Ultra always has energy, a hundred thousand people are coming to the city for Ultra, so it's not just Miami people at Ultra. But on a normal weekend in Miami, at a venue like Factory Town, it can be a little zombie-ish. People are a little more zombie-ish there.

Marlon: That's literally the worst. Especially for these shows I play a lot of my own originals, but I'm also a DJ, I have like 20,000 songs on my USB stick, so in case something goes wrong, or the crowd isn't feeling it, I can adapt. I'm not there to force them to have a bad time if they don't like the music. So I can adapt to situations and improvise, but there's nothing worse than playing to a dead crowd that isn't feeling it.

Bobby: One of the issues here are the set times. If you were to headline a show here, it starts at like 5 a.m., the headliners come on at like 4 a.m. So it's just that time of night, people are trying to stay up by doing things, and they're a little more zombied out.

Marlon: Yeah, I already have the dead rhythm, and I'm like, give me daytime slots, evening slots, please don't book me in the middle or the end of the night. [laughter]

Bobby: Yeah, dude, it's crazy. It's really crazy.

From Berlin Raves to Producing

Bobby: So when did you start getting into producing music?

Marlon: When I was seventeen. I started to go out, I started to take drugs, I started to go out. I was in Berlin, I had a lot of opportunities to go raving. At some point I noticed, okay, I really like what's going on here, besides more the community, the vibe of a party. And then I was thinking, okay, I want to do the same thing these guys are doing up there that I'm listening to. And I noticed, okay, I'm never going to get a booking if I don't start producing, especially in Berlin, there's so many DJs, it's crazy. That was around 2012, when I had my first bookings, maybe 2011 even. Then I started having a residency in a club in Berlin, it doesn't even exist anymore, and I just played out the songs I produced and tried them out. People enjoyed it, and that was the moment I realized, okay, I want to do this forever.

Bobby: Wow, that's amazing. And who would you say were your musical influences?

Marlon: The first touch point, literally, was Paul Kalkbrenner, with the Berlin Calling movie. There was still this old club called Bar 25 in Berlin that got closed down, and I saw this daytime rave thing going on, and I just wanted to be part of it, and the music was so energetic. I hadn't really heard something like that before, and that was the biggest influence in the beginning.

And then, later on, you enter a scene and you don't know anything about the music, and then I found out, okay, actually there's Chicago, there's Detroit, there's techno, there's house. There are the originators, music that's literally, I don't know, twenty years old and is so banging still, because it's the original, and people tried to imitate it, they tried so many times, but never really reached the original. And then you understand, okay, it's coming from Black culture, because people growing up in Berlin said, yeah, Berlin is the techno capital, techno comes from Germany, but that's not true. We had Tresor, they made this bridge between Detroit and Berlin, they brought all these techno legends over, and then we had the Love Parade and everything. But learning about the history, and understanding where it actually comes from, opens up a whole bunch of new genres, Miami bass, hard house, hip house, classic house, whatever it is. That really opened my eyes, and now I have millions of influences.

Bobby: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You've been to the Love Parade before?

Marlon: The Love Parade? I'm not that old. [laughter] No, they're doing a new one. Haven't they been doing a new one the last few years?

Bobby: One, but the guys running it are a bit problematic, in my opinion.

Marlon: So we don't consider the new Love Parade the real Love Parade. I mean, I don't care. I think, in the end, as a new generation, or at least a younger generation, for people who want to experience it again, maybe it's the perfect place, and they go there and can relive their youth or whatever. And some other people are curious, they can also make this experience that maybe their parents made, because my mom literally went to the Love Parade, and it's a different generation. But for me it's not my vibe, whatever. I don't want to say anything.

Bobby: No, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you. It's like, what is it, a hundred thousand people in the streets, just partying.

Marlon: We have similar happenings in Berlin, where a similar vibe starts to occur, street parties, ten thousand people in the streets. But it's just the Love Parade itself, what's made out of it these days. I think some things from the past that are legendary just shouldn't be touched, you know? It's not going to get any better.

Bobby: No, no, yeah, no, absolutely.

Studying PR and the Breakout of DJ Daddy Trance

Bobby: So is it true that you studied journalism and PR, and you were working with an agency before becoming an artist? Or was that during the time you were becoming an artist?

Marlon: I had a first career from when I was really young until about 2015. Then I started my studies. I finished my bachelor's, and during my studies I started my own music PR agency. I did PR for a Berlin club, or two Berlin clubs. I did DJ promo, radio promo, that kind of stuff, sending out DJ promos. And I threw my own parties. At some point my music kicked off again, and I decided to give it another chance.

Bobby: Wow. What would you say was your breakout track?

Marlon: I released an album called Planet Love. It was my first DJ Daddy Trance sounding album, and I released it, and I think two weeks later COVID started. So I was like, okay, [...], I literally spent all my cash, I was really broke by that time, and I'd spent it all on pressing vinyl. I was like, okay, I'm never going to get that money back, that's it, now I'm going to get a job. And then, out of nowhere, people started to like this music, and all the, I mean 500 records, not that much, but it was all I had, it sold out on Bandcamp. Then I made this Day and Night edit, and it started flying, and all of a sudden things moved very fast. Then I made It's That Time, and Call Me, and I Got You, and those songs started flying, and the growth was so fast I was just really trying to stay ahead of it.

Bobby: Wow. And you mentioned a DJ Daddy Trance sounding album. So what is that, what is DJ Daddy Trance?

Marlon: Okay, so that's actually, it's nothing and everything, it doesn't matter. Basically, I started finding my own sound. There's this genre, there's this genre, and there's trance music, and I really, I don't know what it was, but I started, I want to produce feel everything music. I don't want to be cool on the dance floor, I want to enjoy myself, I want to have fun, I want banging, I want to dance, I don't know, if you want to cry, cry, if you want to laugh, laugh, it's everything.

I think trance has this energy and these vibes to it. And when I noticed that, I started producing my own version of trance music, what I was capable of, basically. Then I became a father, and my friends started calling me trance daddy, trance papa, and then it became daddy trance. And I was like, okay, I'm starting to get all these bookings now, and on these big festival billings I'm just a tiny name with an M, alphabetical order, I don't have that much attention. So why don't I write my name as, [...], DJ Daddy Trance, and have a full line for myself. And that actually worked really well. [laughter]

Bobby: Nice. I studied marketing as well, you know. [laughter]

Marlon: Damn, dude, you're playing chess out here. It was a natural thing, but in the end, sound-wise there's no difference, it's just, you know, Sven Väth, the German techno DJ, he's called Papa Sven, because he's the German papa of techno. It was just the same thing, more of an add-on to my own branding. And by that time I wasn't really the youngest DJ anymore, I always used to be the youngest everywhere when I still did deep house stuff, but by then you already had a new generation of DJs, so I was kind of the daddy, it fitted. I'm not that old either, but...

Bobby: No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for the explanation, makes sense, super cool. So, you mentioned a great track earlier, Fisher reworked it, and his rework was really big as well. What was your first impression when you heard him rework that track?

Marlon: Fisher was actually really late to the party, everyone was already playing it, and by the time the track already had its peak, all of a sudden I got tagged on Instagram, Fisher playing it. I'm like, bro, is that real, did you really play it? And he's like, yeah, man, I love this song so much. And I said, if you ever want to do a remix, let me know. And he's like, no, no, no, I don't want to, it's a perfect song the way it is. A week later he reached out again, he's like, okay, send me the stems, send me the stems. Two days later we had the remix, and he started playing it, and everyone went crazy about it. I was like, I don't know what your plan is, but whatever you want to do with it, let's do it. And then we just released it. We played together, or after each other, and we've met several times now, and he did another remix for me, for Daddy's in the Club, just because it was so natural. With him it's just very easy, we chat, we exchange music, and he jumps on something, or I'm actually owing him a remix as well. It's very natural, he's a very kind, nice guy.

Bobby: That's amazing, that's amazing. Shout out Fisher, by the way. Who are some other artists you like to collaborate with?

Marlon: [laughter] What you got? I need to be careful now. We can record something, and if it happens, then we can use it later on.

Bobby: Deal.

Marlon: So, two weeks ago, my team and I started working with CAA for my bookings. I have a really amazing booker called Maria May, she's been in the industry for a very long time, and she's amazing. She also works with David Guetta. We were also in contact with David's A&R from Warner, Bart. We've literally been talking with them about bringing David and me together for, I don't know, two years now. And it never really happened, because if I would eventually reach his career level, probably my inbox would be exploding, so him not reaching out, I don't take it personally. And then, all of a sudden, two weeks ago, he reached out and was like, yo, I have this song, I heard a song from yours, let's collab on both of them. He sent me his song, I sent him the stems to my song, and we haven't even met yet. But we wrapped up this song, and I'm going to play it today.

Bobby: Oh, let's go.

Marlon: I'm going to play it today, but I can't say, okay, it's David and me, because we don't have a release date.

Bobby: I would love to just say, guys... [laughter]

Marlon: Yeah, but I'm literally freaking [...] out about it. He's kind of larger than life.

Bobby: He is larger than life. Memories, and Sexy [...], and all these songs, I've listened to them so many times.

Marlon: Me too, yeah, it's great.

Bobby: We actually interviewed him yesterday.

Marlon: Oh, really?

Bobby: Yeah, I met him yesterday, what a sweet guy. He's a really good dude, he's funny too. He said, and I'm just quoting him on this, whatever type of music Afrojack is, he's trying to make the exact opposite of that.

Marlon: That's good to hear. [laughter] I'm here, let's do it. You know what, when he said, okay, let's do something, we were writing on WhatsApp, and I wasn't expecting him to send me something in my world. But what he sent me, coming from his side, there was a song from what I'd already worked on, and it's coming out of my world already in the tempo and everything. Then he sent me something at 147 BPM, and I was like, okay, well, that's actually sick, because I'd release on any tempo with him, I don't care. I would do anything just for the sake of working with him, because he's very on point, and he's very skilled, and he's kind of his own A&R also, which is so sick, because I sent him songs and he was like, I love that, I don't love that, and it's just super clear.

Bobby: Clear and honest.

Marlon: It's clear and honest, and he doesn't waste any words, it's just, this is that, and that's sick, that is sick.

Bobby: Yeah, I'd say I'm excited for that.

Marlon: Yeah, but let's, it's okay, we won't release that yet, we won't release that yet.

Burnout, Sobriety, and Learning to Say No

Bobby: So you've talked openly about mental burnout early on from success in your career, right? What's a piece of advice you'd give to younger artists who experience success, on how to avoid that?

Marlon: I don't even know how to avoid it. The problem, I think, is a combination of things. Obviously, you can be very successful and generally be in a good state of mind, not have any problems, the better you feel personally, a heavy career isn't really doing anything bad to you. But the main problem is there's a lot of expectation from the outside, and you tend to be very hard on yourself. I always thought I had to take every booking, I always thought I had to answer to every request, every mail, every message, and it literally drives you insane. Combined with heavy touring schedules, a lack of sleep, drugs, alcohol, whatever it is, a lot of loneliness. Also being on the road all the time, being alone, I'm good on my own, but on the road the contrast is too high. Standing in front of 20,000 people, they scream at you, and then the next moment you're alone in your hotel room, or on a plane. The contrast is just very high.

The best advice I could give is just learn to say no, and don't be too hard on yourself. I've had many ups and downs in my career, some things I'm not proud of, things I'm very proud of. Now I'm over a year sober, I stopped doing drugs many years ago, but with alcohol I'm a year sober now, or over a year, and before I decided to go sober, I really didn't feel too well, I drank way too much, and I didn't behave in a way I like to behave. Before you lose control, just have good friends around you, and don't be too hard on yourself.

Bobby: Nice, I think that's really good advice, I think that's important too.

Marlon: And actually saying no, I said no to so many bookings, saying no, you're not wasting anything, it makes you even more interesting. People want you even more if you say no, because they don't understand why. And if it's not forced, if it's natural, just because it's not good for you, you can't make it fit your schedule, whatever, then it's okay, and people just can't understand why, because people aren't used to getting a no as an answer from you. Saying no is good for you sometimes, and it makes you even more interesting.

Bobby: Yeah, nice, I like that, I like that.

Top Five Tracks for Today

Bobby: So what else are you excited about for 2026?

Marlon: Nothing, I'm just going to... [laughter]

Bobby: Yeah, there's actually loads.

Marlon: Obviously right now the focus is fully on Ultra, Coachella.

Bobby: Yep. That's my brother Bill, by the way, I was telling you about. [laughter]

Marlon: Hi.

Bobby: Hello, how's it going?

Marlon: Good, good. Full focus right now is on Coachella and Ultra, and after that I'm having my debut in South America, which I'm really looking forward to, playing in Chile and Colombia. Then lots of really cool parties in Europe again, and later in the year I'll be back in the US.

Bobby: Perfect.

Marlon: For some shows I couldn't play last year, Portola and CRSSD. Everyone told me I should do it, and now I finally can. That's going to be sick.

Bobby: You have your Ultra set in now, like two and a half hours. [laughter] We literally got five squads locked in, what up, gang. Your Ultra set is in two and a half hours, what are your top five favorite tracks you're going to play in your set today?

Marlon: Okay, so number one is Breathe, I just released it on Friday, it's actually one of my favorite songs I've done in a while. Then it's actually some unreleased ones, because I haven't played them out, it's my first solo set in four months. I took a break after my Australia tour in December, and now I've produced a lot of music, and I can test it out. It's the first time I'm actually playing it to crowds, which is a bit crazy also, I mean, Ultra main stage. But yeah, that's what I'm most excited for, these songs.

Bobby: Okay, all right, I guess it's going to be some of those unreleased clips, man, so we can play it?

Marlon: Boom, yeah, because I want to show the songs.

Bobby: Yeah, all right, cool.

Marlon: I'll send them over.

Bobby: Perfect, dude, can't wait, can't wait. Listen, I want you to go smash your set today, I know you will. Much love, brother, thank you for coming in today.

Marlon: Thanks for having me. Catch you soon, all right? Peace.