EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Vini Vici & Ran-D Talk Summer Festivals, New Drops, And All Aboard It’s The Ship 2023

CONTENT: Michelle Ng

It’s The Ship combines the best of an epic music festival and the luxurious all-inclusive cruise experience, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find another festival that goes as shit-faced and raucous ‘round here. And their return this month after a two-year hiatus shows no signs of slowing down as we start to welcome festivals back to Singapore.

What sets It’s The Ship apart from other music festivals is the 48 hours of non-stop EDM and partying, with food, music and even activities all within walking distance of your cabin. Nap times to recharge were simple, and the anticipation of bumping into our favourite DJs on the ship was enough to keep us excited. We spotted artists rock-climbing, bowling, and doing a meet-and-greet session with fans, and even worked out together on a HIIT session!

We spoke to headliners Vini Vici and Ran-D to hear about their first-ever It’s The Ship experience and how they are kicking off the summer festival season!

Luxe Society Asia: We’re a few month away from the summer Festival season, so what are your plans for this year?

Vini Vici: Wow, it’s going to be crazy. Actually, what’s not on? My plan is like, basically all the festivals. We start next weekend with ASOT. And then yeah, Tomorrowland and EDC and Parookaville, and Airbeat One. The three jewels of the crown – Miami Tomorrowland, and EDC. Miami is always opening the festival season so you doing so much preparation from the beginning of the year till March with a lot of new material and new stuff. And it’s the place when you test your summer set. Tonight you will hear a lot of the stuff I was preparing for Ultra!

Ran-D: The festival season is really busy in Holland and Europe. So there’s some really big ones coming out like Defqon 1. I’m launching a new show at REBiRTH Festival. It’s going to be called Illuminate and is connected to a new album that I’m doing. It’s gonna be a crazy visual show with a mask and yeah the whole theme is about lighting and illumination. And I’m doing another act called Gunz For Hire, which is a little bit more raw side of hardstyle and we’re also launching a new project for that called Batters On The Block. So a lot to do in the summer, then the album will come out end of August or September. I’m going to play some new stuff today, and you’ll be one of the very first to hear the tracks!

Luxe Society Asia: So when did you decide that DJ-ing is going be the career for you?

Vini Vici: I started when I was 16, collecting music and then searching for my opportunity to play. I started from playing to a few of my friends in the room. And I remember, I was like 19 or 20 and I played enough shows and even did few gigs outside of Israel. I was like walking down the street and like telling to myself, “yeah, this is what I want to do to the rest of my life”. And I think in that moment, I sent a message to the universe. Really, I really feel that like I sent it out there and that week was like a jump in my career because suddenly, a lot of requests started to come out of nowhere. It really levelled up and since then we are on this beautiful journey.

Luxe Society Asia: And now you play at so many like festivals all the time! How do you balance this tour you’re your own personal life?

Vini Vici: Yeah, it’s definitely hard and when you love what you do, is easy to become a workaholic, you know? But I’m constantly speaking to myself in my inner voice. I always try to learn from everything and from everyone’s experience. And I learnt that I need to balance everything. Even if it’s mean that one weekend in a month, I will stop everything just to stay at home and play Lego with my kids, I will do it no matter which offers come. If I’m playing in Jamaica, and a few days after I’m supposed to play in EDC Vegas which is very near, I will go all the way to Israel to be with my kids for 24 hours. I will do it so that I can be there for them and enjoy the experience with them. It’s hard work, but I do everything to balance it all.

Luxe Society Asia: Are there any other genres that you’re thinking of exploring lately?

Vini Vici: Well, like we do a little ghost producing for other stars but for our for us, ourselves no. We love the psytrance world; we come from Israel, which is a psytrance country and its really in our DNA. So I don’t see myself going to another genre. It can be sub- genre inside the psytrance world, but no, no further than that. A festival in the desert is not something that you can get everywhere, so if you are already in Israel, eat some good hummus and shawarma and go to a desert rave.

Luxe Society Asia: Where does your musical influences and inspirations for the lyrics come from?

Ran-D: Everything, I’ll listen to everything and I’ve always been, yeah, a person who will listen to everything all my life. I’ve been a big fan of Queen and Metallica when I was younger. When I was playing Qlimax, I wanted to make a remix that everybody would immediately know. Zombie was always one of my favourites when I was younger and I wanted to do a bootleg remix. I never thought I’d could officially release the track so I was so happy when I could.

For the lyrics, it’s inspired from my life! The things I experience, and sometimes I want to make a track that just empowers people, a good feeling like Hurricane. My favourite song is definitely Living For The Moment – its about my youth and about what I experienced personally and for me that track is really special. It’s my breakthrough track in hardstyle.

Luxe Society Asia: What did you enjoy most about being here on It’s The Ship 2023?

Vini Vici: Well, not playing the arcade (with fans) for sure! I’m not that good at playing video games. Laughs. Of course the gigs. This is what I’m here for, and what I love to do. It is very unique to be here! Before every set, I’m excited because I know that every set is important. You never know who is in the crowd listening. So I always give not my hundred percent, but my hundred and ten percent. This is actually something I learnt from a video of Laidback Luke who is also playing here tonight. Always, give your 110%. So, thank you for this lesson, Mr. Laidback Luke!

Ran-D: The surprising thing is that I received hundreds of pictures and people saying they look forward to my set! I was talking to people because you’re obviously just walking around the ship and talking to people. I asked what do you expect from my set, do you think I can play a little bit harder at the end like some Gunz For Hire tracks. Normally I would play a little bit easier, because maybe not everybody knows hardstyle but they probably know Zombie and Hurricane. I’m gonna play some bootleg and some hardstyle at the end – just mix it up and see what happens! Just go with the flow, look at the crowd and see how they respond. I think that’s what a DJ does, and that’s the cool thing about it.

Follow It’s The Ship on their socials to stay updated on future sailings!