‘Trance has a very dedicated following’ – Interview with Ferry Corsten

Gouryella, which means “Heaven” in the Australian aboriginal language, was once a team consisting of Ferry Corsten & Tiesto, who later left. Arguably one of the greatest Trance projects of all time, Gouryella was reborn almost 2 years ago when Ferry decided it was time to bring the project back to life.

Speaking about bringing Gouryella back, Ferry Corsten clearly stated that “it’s been a really fun development and move from my end to come up with Gouryella again. Since the last release till now I’ve seen messages about if Gouryella is coming back or no”. For 13 years Ferry has been receiving these messages from fans and now that Gouryella is back, how was the reception? “I knew for sure from the beginning that returning Gouryella would result in a good reception but I did not expect the explosion that happened with this one and when Anahera came out. That, for me, was a clear sign of what the Trance community really wanted.”

From 2015 till now and Ferry is doing steady releases of Gouryella, produced the Gouryella Show, Documentary and now Gouryella 2.0, the exclusive show for Transmission Festival.

You might wonder, why Gouryella today consists of Ferry alone without Tiesto? We asked Ferry if there were any plans for Tiesto to join the project again. “No. He was very clear after Tenshi that he didn’t want anything to do with it anymore and seeing the direction he’s going now with his music, respect, that’s his choice, but I don’t want any external factor in Gouryella that’s gonna pollute the sound. If Tiesto gonna come back in, he’s going to bring a commercial EDM mindset into Gouryella and ruin the whole project. For that reason alone, plus the fact he was so clear that he didn’t want to do it anymore, I was okay no, I’m not gonna bring him again. Even if anyone asks if he’s gonna come back, it’s very firm no from my end.”

Speaking of Blueprint, Ferry’s first attempt in a cinematic album, which turned out to be a masterpiece, might see a follow-up. It was “a step into a new direction not knowing how it would turn out”, Ferry stated. “It required so much more work than a normal album where you just put a set of random tracks – everything relates to each other. But the satisfaction that I got after it was so amazing, so yea I would definitely do it again.”

To end this amazing interview, we asked Ferry about his opinion of the current Trance Scene and he mentioned the fact it’s very healthy, not as big as 2001-2002 but it’s very healthy. “There’s a lot of different sort of trance sounds in the genre. Everything has a dedicated following”. Ferry also mentioned the fact that many want Trance to become bigger, however, it might attract people for the wrong reasons and that’s not what Trance should become, in his opinion. “Trance has a very dedicated following. It’s nice to keep it that way.”