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Catching up with Andrew Rayel: Electronic dance music superstar (Includes interview and first-hand account)

“I am good, and it’s absolutely a pleasure to be here again. I cannot wait to play tonight at Marquee,” Rayel said, about his inaugural performance at Marquee New York. “I’ve played Marquee Las Vegas a lot, and I know the crowd there, so I am very happy that I can play in New York in particular. I’ve seen the pictures and the venue, so I can’t wait to perform my set there.”

Rayel added, “I am going to play a lot of new songs, for sure. I am going to play songs that people already know, and I am going to try and combine all of these things together.”

At Marquee Las Vegas, the venue threw Rayel a surprise birthday party there. “It was absolutely amazing. People were going crazy. There were so many fans over there, so I hope I’ll get some fans tonight at Marquee New York as well,” he said.

Rayel considers Armada Music to be like his family. “They have been helping me for years already. Armin van Buuren has been playing my tracks and supporting me for years,” Rayel said. “Armada is basically everything for me now. It’s because of them that I am here.”

Regarding his future plans, Rayel said, “I just released my debut album, and a few months ago, we did the deluxe version of the album. This year, I will be focusing more on singles. I have two new collaborations coming out, one with Alexander Popov and one with Mark Sixma. I will be doing separate singles for this year.”

The hardest part of Rayel’s job is combining all the elements together. “Traveling, producing new music on the road and staying healthy at the same time is pretty hard, but I am doing my best and so far, it is working out for me,” Rayel said.

He is in the running for this year’s DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs poll list. Three years ago, Rayel debuted at No. 77 on that list, and moved up to No. 28 two years ago, and last year reached No. 24. “I am excited, but I try not to think too much about it. Even if I wasn’t on it, I will be absolutely happy as long as people support my music. I am doing music because I love it,” he said.

On the future of electronic dance music, Rayel said, “It is going to evolve and grow. I already see that people want to go back to more melodic songs. In a few years, it is going a lot more interesting and melodic, and more people will know about it. They will go there not just for the party, but more for the music.”

While Rayel has yet to perform in Greece, he hopes to be able to play there soon. In addition, Rayel listed trance vocalist Emma Hewitt as his dream female collaboration choice.

For aspiring DJs, Rayel noted that they need to create something unique and different. “There are a lot of DJs these days, so to create electronic music, it is pretty easy. To get out there, you need to create something absolutely different,” he said.

Most impressive about Rayel is that he is a musician first, producer second and DJ third. Each day, he is motivated by the music and by his fans. “The fans support me all the time, and they motivate me to go on and create new music for them,” Rayel said.

A Moldovan native, Rayel celebrated the 27th episode of his radio show “Find Your Harmony.” “It is doing really, really well. Every episode reaches more and more listeners. I just try to make it more unique and combine more tracks together, and I am really happy every week, I get more new music and I can premiere my music on my podcast,” he said.

For more information on DJ and producer Andrew Rayel, check out his official website.

Markos Papadatos
Written By

Markos Papadatos is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Music News. Papadatos is a Greek-American journalist and educator that has authored over 22,000 original articles over the past 18 years. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, entertainment, lifestyle, magic, and sports. He is a 16-time "Best of Long Island" winner, where for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), he was honored as the "Best Long Island Personality" in Arts & Entertainment, an honor that has gone to Billy Joel six times.

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