Valentino Khan Tells Us About His Inspirations and How He Met Skrillex in an iEDM Exclusive Interview

Straight out of L.A. with every style of music your groove desires is producer and DJ, Valentino Khan. With his club anthems, boundless production, and place in the OWSLA family, the man is simply unstoppable. 

Without any regard to the ideas of genres or conforming, Valentino Khan continues to make his way across the maps for global conquest. I had the chance to catch him on one of his stops at Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary for a few words. 

iEDM: Here we are! How does it feel to be at Sziget Festival?

Valentino Khan: It feels awesome, man! Last time I was here I played the A38 Ship. Which is this crazy party, you walk on to the ship off the docks and it's packed full of these crazy, amazing Hungarian fans. It just feels really good to be back here. 

iEDM: You are all over the board when it comes to the genres you play, what is your favorite?

Valentino Khan: I don't have one. I think just being able to do everything makes it really fun and exciting for me. It keeps things fresh. I think if it was the same thing over and over, for me personally, I would kind of get bored really quickly.. that's just the way my mind works I think. 

It is really cool to play for the different types of crowds and know their tastes musically, but at the same time turn them on to some really cool stuff that they might have never heard before. I love doing it. It's fun to be able to know your crowd, but at the same time open people's minds. 

iEDM: You've been on the OWSLA crew since 2014, what have you guys been up to since then?

Valentino Khan: It's just been so dope to be apart of that because it's a really versatile record label, and it really fits my sound. They're really cool people. 

It all started when I made a song called "The Dip" and Skrillex put it in his radio mix on PVC Radio 1. Then I met him at EDC Vegas, super early in the morning after a long night, and I introduced myself and he said "Oh man I really like your records!" I said "Thanks and thank you for playing my song in your mix." Then he took me on tour, and one thing led to another and we started talking about making music together. That's what happened.

iEDM: What inspires you to make music?

Valentino Khan: I'm just influenced by the community as a whole. I'm inspired when I hear new, cool music, because it motivates me to make new, cool music. So it's not one sound in particular, I would say it's more of a collective thing.

iEDM: What does this last leg of 2017 have in store for you?

Valentino Khan: This whole summer, I've been in Europe. My European run is finally ending soon after a long time. Then I'm just going to be doing a couple festivals and my own tour dates in the fall, as well as finishing up a lot of cool new music. 

iEDM: Do you have anything else you'd like to say to your fans?

Valentino Khan: I'm finishing all this brand new music, I just can't wait to share it with everybody. The new single "Pump" is out now on Mad Decent, and we're working on a music video for it. I'm just really stoked for the whole process of this. 

Thank you Valentino Khan and the Sziget Press Team for setting this interview up! Read up on more Artist Interviews HERE on iEDM.