If he needed reassurance about his career pick, Armand Van Helden got a glimpse of the benefits of being a superstar DJ when he played a recent show in Montenegro with stone idol Lenny Kravitz.
�(Kravitz) plausibly gets paid way more than me,� Van Helden aforementioned from his home in New York City, �but he had five term of enlistment buses total of equipment. And I walk up there with my headphones and some CDs! I didn�t formulate this game, but it�s been going away on for a long time. I show up alone and I play. The phenomenon of how a DJ became a band is a whodunit to me, but I�m not complaintive. It�s working well for me.�
Van Helden, who headlines a holiday weekend electronic music bang on Saturday at Marina Bay Beach Club in Quincy, was born in Boston just moved all over the world growing up because his dad was in the U.S. Air Force. He returned to Boston to advert Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown and spent much of his early 20s in the Hub, helping to shape the city�s vibrant electronic music scene.
�There�s something magical around that whole time for me,� Van Helden said, reminiscing about his early DJ days in Boston clubs. �It felt like all the small sparkles were in the air.�
Working with friends from the subway system rave scene, Van Helden helped launch the fabled house parties at The Loft, a notorious, now-defunct downtown party spot that kept the speakers bumping until dawn. He promoted other parties at clubs in Saugus and Cambridge, but as his reputation began to soar, he decided to move to Manhattan, where he became one of the world�s premier house DJs and producers.
�Boston is a with child city if you don�t mind a limited measure of options,� Van Helden aforesaid. �But I want outright options in my life, so you have to move to a New York or a Los Angeles. And that�s the main reasonableness I had to move. But I love Boston.�
These days Van Helden is still a regular in the epicurean clubs on the Spanish island of Ibiza and frequently does mini-tours of Europe, where he plays before thousands at festivals and super-clubs. He�s seen trends in the dance scene come and go but believes the genre is as strong as ever, something he attributes partly to club-goers existence tired of hip-hop.
�Rap�s been pretty dead,� he said, �so a lot of people are looking for something to do. People ar floating o'er to the dance music scene.�
Van Helden expects to see old friends from his Loft days at his Quincy show this weekend, which also testament feature red-hot Boston production outfit Hot Pink Delorean. After geezerhood of heavy touring to make a name for himself, he�s happy he�s at the point where he tooshie pick and choose his gigs - and he�s choosing to make the time for a hometown show.
�I�ve worked pretty backbreaking the yesteryear 10 to 15 age in this music game,� he said. �I�m at the level now where I�m pacing things. The antecedence now is to iciness.�
- dwedge@bostonherald.com
Armand Van Helden, with Junior Sanchez, Hot Pink Delorean and Hearthrob, at Marina Bay Beach Club, Quincy, Saturday. Tickets: $20; 617-689-0600.
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