Veritable electronic veteran, Don Diablo is set to take the decks of Echostage on February 17th to christen the crowd with a high octane blend of the house and future house tones upon which Diablo has built his career. Those interested in attending Don Diablo’s Echostage performance can purchase tickets here, prior to learning ten lesser known facts about the landmark DJ.
1. Don Diablo is heralded as one of the “founding fathers” of Future House.
2. Diablo was one of the first ambassadors for Dance4Life.
The international youth initiative seeks to duly raise awareness and promote the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Diablo traveled to South Africa to support several Dance4Life projects in Johannesburg and Capetown. The trip was later chronicles in a documentary shot by MTV.
3. Diablo won “Best Dressed Man 2007.”
The title was awarded to Diablo by Esquire magazine.
4. Diablo likes to drink milk during his sets.
5. Diablo always plays with four decks when he DJs.
6. Diablo began to produce music at the age of just fifteen. The Dutch DJ has since released more than 70 singles since.
7. Diablo initially wanted to become a film director.
While Diablo didn’t make it to Hollywood as the next Steven Spielberg, the electronic visionary still gets to live out his former dream via music video production. “I always executive produce my music videos and come up with the concepts for them myself,” Diablo noted in a past interview with YourEDM. “In some cases I also produce the video, do the styling, and/or dirct and edit it myself. The ‘Anytime’ video for instance was a very personal project, I literally made that video by myself, collecting and editing footage while I was on the road.”
8. Don Diablo chose his stage name early in his career.
“As a kid I thought it [Don Diablo] sounded cool, and it’s a powerful name on flyers,” the producer states. “My last name Schipper doesn’t work for many reasons, so it was also a bit of a marketing decision. I wanted something easy. Eventually, the name just grew with me. [But] Don Diablo is a character, a façade. Like Batman, I wanted to create this iconic super hero.
9. Diablo collaborated with Warner Brothers in a temporary partnership that allowed the DJ to legally use exclusive Batman footage in conjunction with his “Black Mask” release.
10. Don Diablo’s song “The Artist Inside” is written about his father.
“I wanted to write a letter to my father to thank him for everything. Which is something you never really do. ‘The Artist Inside’ is about my father; he was the best father in the world. For the funeral I wanted to use my inner feelings and turn it into a song and a music video. As a kid I was always filming everything and for this video I used some of this footage that seemed insignificant at the time, but now holds a very special emotion. The video is my father’s life flashing by in front of your eyes, my hero, a strong man with humour who is on his way to the end of his life. It’s the circle of life in a way and it felt like I had to make this video, because now all these images of my father’s life became like a puzzle that finally came together.”