Joris Voorn on a world tour in Moscow

I like both — it's completely different energy. At a many-thousand-strong event you can't descend into any musical depths, but it has its own pluses — it's astonishing to watch such a multitude of people throw their hands up at once in some particularly bright moments. A great example of collective energy from thousands of people flowing in the right direction is the Wire festival in Japan. In a small club you can send your listeners on a musical journey — that's always more interesting from an artistic point of view. Playing for a discerning and attentive audience is a certain challenge, no easy task, but you also get more satisfaction from it. Besides, it's very important that in small clubs you have visual contact with the people you're playing for.

Alas, it usually goes exactly by that scheme — I barely get to see anything beyond the club and the hotel where I'm staying. But if a chance comes up, I always try to see as much as possible — I really hope to see Moscow; I'm flying in to you a day before the show. My favourite cities are Paris, New York and Tokyo — every time I try to linger there as long as possible.

Detroit is actually a very interesting city, but also a very sad one. When you walk around downtown, you realise how hard life is in these parts. The city centre is desolate — not a single sign of life. It was precisely the desire to somehow bring life back to the city that drove the people who composed that futuristic music we now call Detroit techno. I performed at DEMF in 2004 and 2008, and it was delightful — the audience there is very grateful, and all around you feel the musical history.

Right now almost all my time is taken up with work — I spend the weekends travelling, and on weekdays I write music and handle the affairs of my labels. I like to spend the evenings out in the city, going to restaurants with friends or, on the contrary, cooking something myself and inviting guests. I'd like to give my friends far more time, but that's damned hard. On the road I read a lot — books, newspapers... You've got to keep up with what's going on around you somehow!

Yes, other artists' music often serves as a source of inspiration — techno hardly ever, but other genres give a mass of fresh ideas. There's the effect where appetite comes with eating — ideas appear when I come into the studio and start tinkering with plug-ins, synthesizers and drum machines, and lately, increasingly, with guitars too. Nothing inspires like the experiment itself.

At present about 95% of my music is created on software synthesizers. I still have the old Rolands lying around, but these days they gather dust more than they make sounds. I use NI Battery 3, Omnisphere, Ableton Live and all the plug-ins from Universal Audio. I also sometimes record live percussion myself using an AKG 414 microphone. And the difference between software and hardware is that on a 'real' synthesizer you have buttons and knobs that give more scope for controlling it in real time. Software synthesizers are still more static — they're much harder to control.

Yes, everyone you mention puts out excellent music, but these days I probably no longer fit into that trend. Those guys stay sacredly faithful to the sound they chose 10 or 15 years ago, whereas I do change. My music is largely melodic, but oriented primarily toward the dancefloor. Listen, for example, to my remix of Robert Babicz's track 'Dark Flower' or the fresh record 'Dusty House EP'. For me the time has come to move away from classic Detroit techno toward other genres — there's an incredible number of interesting shades of sound out there now! I've already tried out new directions on the mix for 'Balance' and I'll go on experimenting.

I have a mass of friends among electronic musicians. Many of them live in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and I see them most often, but in general they're scattered all over the world. We're constantly in touch, sharing new music with each other over the internet, sometimes playing together, which is always very pleasant. But studio collaborations I've had almost none — I always work alone.

It's been a year since I switched completely to digital and I absolutely love it! I can launch four tracks, samples or vocal parts at once simultaneously — that leaves far more room for creativity than two vinyl turntables or CD decks. All the tracks are marked up in advance, there's no desynchronisation, which lets me concentrate directly on the mixing and the choice of tracks.

The 'Balance' mix is, after all, primarily meant to be listened to at home, on an iPod or in the car — it's not a club record. My club sets do have some similar elements, but what I'll play in Moscow is one hundred per cent oriented toward the dancefloor — nobody will need armchairs. Since I play from 'digital', I have the possibility of mixing the tracks in the same manner as on the disc, though somewhat simpler — after all, I do it all in real time. I'm looking forward to the show at Shanti — see you there!