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Top 100 DJs / 77. Rank 1

2009
77
Rank 1
Moved Down

77. Rank 1

Style: Trance
Best known for: 'L.E.D There Be Airwave!'
Gig of 2009: Rank 1 live in Vilnuis, Lithuania.
Tune of 2009: Nic Chigall 'This Moment' (High Contrast)
Breakthrough DJ/Producer of 2009: Jonas Stenburg
The track that changed your life: Ramierz 'Hablando (Acordeon Mix)'
What makes a good DJ great: Someone that plays what the people want. It's your job to entertain people.
Most underrated DJ: Marco V should be in the Top 10.
Biggest challenge this year: To stay alive.
Top tech toy: My portable DVD player.

Dutch trance jock Piet Bervoets (pictured) flies solo as Rank 1 when DJing, but for live gigs he's joined by studio partner Benno De Goeji, who he's been working with for ten years. Piet hits the road for DJ duties, while studio wizard Benno stays behind working on productions for the pair, as well as putting his magic touches to Armin Van Buuren's albums.

Of their live shows, Piet says: "We practice a lot for this. I do the arrangements while Benno is playing live. It's nice, it's a challenge to do it live, it's a challenge to do everything good when you do it live."

However, DJing is a different ball game altogether as Piet elaborates: "You have to look at the reaction of the crowd and play what the people want and not just what you want yourself."

Rank 1 have an easy-going, relaxed take on life.

"We don't really make plans; we just wait and see how things go. Maybe I'm wrong but I think a lot of DJs and producers are saying, 'I wanna do this then and I wanna do that then,'" a chilled-out Piet says. "Our system working perfectly for us, no stress. Sometimes there is a year with no Rank 1 releases at all. This year there were two, maybe there will be three, we don't know yet."

Words: Helene Stokes

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