Sam Feldt Talks Life Goals In iEDM Exclusive Interview

Miami Music Week is always a week that no one forgets to put on their calendar. With talent from around the globe, this annual event floods Miami with only the best shows to catch. Amongst these, you will find a lot of European artists that are excited to give their viewers an entertaining show.

This year Sam Feldt decided to stop by again while on his Sunrise tour. In 2017, his pool party sold out and 2018 brought nothing less. iEDM enjoyed catching up with Sam while he was in town for all of the fun. Selling out for the second year in a row, Sam was excited to party in Miami again.

"It's very hard to sell out during Miami Music Week since there are so many parties happening. Ultra is today. So, I am very happy and honored that a lot of people chose to come here instead of somewhere else," he said.

Last year, he brought a horn section, and this year he still performed his two-hour extended set but with a live guitarist this time. Joining him was also KARRA, who is featured in his newest single "Down for Anything." They shot content for it during the party.

Sam rose to fame quickly after putting in years of hard work before uploading his first song in 2013. Within' a year, Sam was signed to Spinnin' Records and by 2015 he hit 4 million SoundCloud plays in a month on his single "Show Me Love." His debut album From Sunrise to Sunset was released just last year.

"It's a very sudden change of lifestyle that you have to adapt to. A lot of traveling, not seeing your friends and family that often. It can be very hard, especially at the beginning. It's also very cool because it has allowed me to pursue my dream as a professional career and travel to many places, which is unique and rare for someone to be able to do," Sam told iEDM.

It wasn't always so easy for Sam though. Starting to play around with music production at the early age of just 11 years old, it took an extensive amount of time before launching "Sam Feldt." We found that he has been trying to become a DJ since he was 11 years old.

He informed us that it took him at least 10 years to even get noticed by anyone, getting rejected, no replies, and begging to play at clubs.

"You have to really go through the whole process in order to get to a certain level where you can say, okay I'm actually a good DJ and producer. There are no real shortcuts, I think. A lot of people don't see that because they don't see it past my first Sam Feldt gig around 4 years ago," he explained.

Sam's first show, before launching Sam Feldt, was a non-alcoholic event for teens in a small city called Boxtel that is south in the Netherlands. He was 12 years old, which is also when he invested in his first DJ set. From that moment on he knew that's what he wanted to do and never stopped perusing it.

He told us that for a long time he tried to make music that he thought everyone would like.

"I tried to make a song for Hardwell and the next new Beatport number one hit. When I let go of that and just made what I wanted to make is when it really started happening for me. So my advice would be to just stick to what you like listening to and make that. If you like it everybody will buy into liking it too. Then you find your own style instead of copying others," he said.

After climbing his way to the top, Sam continues to stay focused on new projects, expanding himself even more. Feeling restricted by platforms like Facebook and Instagram he designed Fangage, a software that enables artists to message and connect with their fans one-on-one. Fans can subscribe to a certain portal website that enables them to download exclusive content for free in exchange for their data. The artists are able to build up an interface with their own data and reaches fans directly.

"For instance, if it wasn't sold out today, I could just go to Fangage, type in city Miami, find all the people that subscribed from Miami. Then send them a text message and email to their phones directly, instead of having to go to Facebook to sponsor the post, and hoping that they will read it. I can actually make sure that they read it right away," Sam said.

Before he decided to pursue DJing fulltime, he was a web designer, designed his own logo, and very much involved with his own artworks. Not only has he delved into communications and software, he's also teamed up with Orlebar Brown for the second year in a row to create exclusive short designs. They are a high-end fashion brand from London, and last year Sam's collection was their best selling collection ever.

He was wearing one of his designs as we interviewed and said, "As you can see here right now, it's like the setup we have today at the pool party with flamingos in the pool. It's very much the pool party vibe, exactly what's happening here today in Miami. You can get this design anywhere next summer."

After releasing "Down for Anything" and his remix album After the Sunsets, Sam still has a lot of different things planned for the near future. He told us he was unable to release names, but that he and some artists that played the Heartfeldt pool party have some awesome collaboration work being released in April.

With "Show Me Love" blowing up and playing main stage for some of the biggest productions in the world, Sam doesn't have too many things left on his bucket list. However, he still likes to also focus on the bigger picture and his long-term goals. He announced his new year's resolution getting vocal about his worries for the world, and made the commitment to start doing something through dance music to help the environment. This month he contributed to forest building, planting new trees, and it will become the Heartfeldt Forest. He also plans to get involved with projects in Africa to reduce CO2 emissions. Eventually, he wants to move all of this to a Heartfeldt Foundation where he can actually create an organization for a better world and environment. "It's the more long-term spiritual goal for me," he said.