We recently sat down with one of the greatest contributors to Trance out there.
Some people’s legacy is frankly unbelievable. Such is the case of Paul Webster, DJ and producer from Ireland whose music has become an integral part of the history of our beloved Trance. Having released on labels such as Armada, In Trance We Trust, and FSOE, among many others and in the span of 20 years, he’s no stranger to the big leagues.
And so we sat down with Paul for one of our favourite interviews to date. We talked about everything from ‘Holding The Light‘ to his ‘Rest Of Our Lives‘ and ‘Saltwater‘ remixes, how he shared an unforgettable Ibiza lineup with Tiësto and Avicii, and balancing a full-time job, and being a father of three, with a deep love for music production. Do keep reading chaps, this one’s good.
So without further to do, here’s our conversation with the one and only Paul Webster.
The Interview
(Please note, the bolded text represents a question, while the paragraph(s) following it represent Paul’s answers.)
Thanks so much for coming Paul. We’re genuinely honoured to have you. First off, how’s life been lately?
It’s been crazy. It’s been rather busy, especially with the music, which is always a good complaint to have. I’ve got a full-time job too; music is just a hobby. I’m married with three kids, and I manage my son’s football team. Life is hectic, but I really wouldn’t have it any other way.
I saw you were at Luminosity not long ago, so I wanted to ask you about it. How was the experience?
Do you know what, I’ve been playing Luminosity since 2008. I played their first birthday party in November of that year in Holland. Back then, it was a relatively small event, but it just seems to get bigger and better every year. It’s still got that intimate vibe with incredibly passionate fans, and it’s always one of my favourite shows to play.
Especially over the last two years, it’s been pretty crazy. I’ll put that down to both the festival being so good and the success of my remix of Ben Gold’s ‘Rest of Our Lives’, which I think has really put me back into people’s minds. Since that track, the attention has seemed to be on me a little bit, which is cool.
This year Luminosity was amazing. I played on the Sunset Beach stage, but there were a lot of technical issues at the start of my set. The CDJ broke, and during the mixer changeover—I play off a 900 Nexus—the sound engineer had set it up so that one deck was on one mixer and the other was on a different one. It took another engineer from a different stage to come over and fix it, so there were a couple of instances where the sound just cut off. It was a DJ’s worst nightmare, to be honest. But we got through it, and it was one of my favourite ones so far. I’m looking forward to hopefully being back again next summer and for Luminosity’s ADE show this October.
And I reckon people understood as well, because the crowd is just part of this movement. They’re not going to boo you off the stage if something happens.
No, they’re not going to boo. But after I mixed in my first track, the sound cut off. I think there was a two-minute gap of no music, and in my head, I’m just sweating, thinking, “Oh, god, what’s going to happen? Are people going to leave?”. The stage manager was trying to clap and dance to keep people there, and people stayed. Another funny thing happened: Sander van Doorn was playing after me, and he accidentally pressed cue on the wrong deck, which cut the sound again! It just summed up my whole 60-minute set. But, look, stuff happens. You just get on with it. I still had an amazing time, and the crowd’s reactions were crazy. It is what it is, and I couldn’t criticise Luminosity. These things happen, and unfortunately, after many years, it happened to me.
Now, going back to your music, I’ve seen you’ve had a few great remixes recently. You just remixed ‘Saltwater’, isn’t that right?
Yeah, ‘Saltwater’. I’ve been on a bit of a roll with remixes. I’ve just been having fun making them to fit in with my own sets. I’ve got so many tracks coming over the next year or two, but it can take a while. I’ve done an official ‘Saltwater’ remix that came out on Armada, and I’ve remixed Armin’s track ‘Angels’, which is coming out on a remix album. I’ve remixed ‘Burned With Desire’, ‘As The Rush Comes’, and a big Bryan Kearney track called ‘Take This’. I’ve also just remixed ‘May The Road Rise’ by John O’Callaghan and Paul Skelton. These are all for 2026, and I’ve got some originals and collaborations with Richard Durand coming too. Things are really good at the moment, so I can’t complain.
That’s incredible. Now, one of your tracks, and I’d be daring enough to say it’s one of your highlights of the year, if not the highlight, is ‘Holding The Light’. It’s quite a track; it takes you on a journey and has everything you love about trance.
Yeah, it’s got a long story behind it. It was originally a bootleg remix I made on the way back from a gig in 2018. I was listening to Bo Bruce’s album Before I Sleep and came across the track ‘Holding The Light’. I was just blown away and thought, “Wow, I want to do something for my own set.”
So I did a remix, and I sent it to Armin van Buuren and Ruben de Ronde, and they got back to me straight away saying, “Wow, this is amazing! Is this available to release?” I said I actually didn’t know if I could get it released. I reached out to Bo, but she was in the process of changing labels, and the person in charge was very hard to track down. It was a very difficult deal to do, so unfortunately, it was meant to come out on Armada back in 2018 or ’19, but it never saw the light of day. But it still blew up. It was so big at Luminosity and other festivals. I gave a couple of DJs copies, like Paul Denton, Bryan Kearney, and Will Atkinson, and they all played it. I always remember someone telling me that sometimes the tracks that don’t come out can be your biggest ones. I just put it to bed and forgot about it, and to be honest, I even got sick of playing it because I had played it so much.
Then, my remix for Ben Gold came out in 2023. I reached out to Bo and said, “Look, I’d love to do a new single as a follow-up vocal track after this remix for Ben. Would you be interested?” She said, “What about if I re-record ‘Holding The Light’? I’ll own the master, and that will allow us to release it.” She re-recorded the vocal, we got into the studio, and we made a new version. We altered the breakdown and added some new elements to make it bigger and fresher. The result has been incredible. It was meant to come out last year, but these things take a lot of time with labels. It came out on Armada on the weekend of A State of Trance. Armada called it their Tune of the Week, as did the team behind the FSOE show. It went to number one on Beatport for a week or two and has been one of the top-selling trance singles on the label so far this year.
I’ve got a really good chance of winning Tune of the Year in A State of Trance, which would be unbelievable. I came second with ‘Rest of Our Lives’ in 2023, so I would love to win it this year. Reactions in my sets are still crazy; it’s my biggest track. Bo’s just incredible. To be able to collaborate with her and release a single has been huge. It’s got over a million streams on Spotify. It’ll be very hard to top a track of that magnitude, but yeah, it’s special. My kids know the words to it, and it’s just amazing when you’re playing it and the crowd are singing it back. It’s proper class.
You mentioned Bo’s voice. To me, she’s one of the most iconic voices in trance. She has this very present voice that just kind of engulfs you, and she’s got a power and a pseudo-yodelling character that reminds me of the vocalist from The Cranberries, Dolores.
Yeah, she’s amazing. Vocalists are hard to work with sometimes, but she’s well worth the hard work because she’s just incredible. She doesn’t release many tracks, maybe one every year or two, so I feel quite lucky to have been able to collaborate with her. It makes me really proud to see it do so well.
I would love to win Tune of the Year. I never set out to make the track to win it, but after seeing the reactions and speaking to people in the industry, they do say it’s not just a vocal track, it’s an anthem. It takes you on a journey and has a story to it, and it really connects with people. The poll opens in a few weeks, and I hope people can get behind the track. It’d be amazing if we could even get a top-five spot.
I would say so; it’s got everything to at least get a top spot.
The only thing that might go against it is that it came out in February, so I just need to keep it in people’s minds. I’ve done a new intro version, and there’s a possibility of an acoustic version dropping sometime soon. It’s been great to collaborate with Bo. I’m having a lot of fun, and I’ve got loads of tracks in the pipeline.
Right, let’s go a few steps back and talk about your origins. How did you get into electronic music, or in particular, how did you come to trance?
I got into the music many years ago, back in 1997 or ’98, listening to Judge Jules. He was my idol growing up. I listened to him religiously every week on BBC Radio 1. I’m from Ireland, but the way the sound travelled across the ocean, I was able to pick it up where I lived. The tracks he played took a long time to come out on vinyl back then, and I would buy them as soon as they came out on white label. I got really into the music from Judge Jules, and obviously from going to events when I was 14 or 15. I probably shouldn’t have been going, but I was getting into them. We had big arena shows in Dublin like Gatecrasher and God’s Kitchen. The likes of Ferry Corsten, Marco V, and others were all there.
It really opened my eyes up to this amazing music that I’ve gone on to love ever since. It’s just been an incredible journey. Jules was my idol, and fast forward a couple of years, he was booking me to play his iconic club night, Judgement Sunday, in Ibiza. I played the main room, and my career just shot off. I was releasing tracks on Armada, and Tiësto really got behind me. I know I’ve skipped on a lot here, but back then, in 2010, Tiësto really got behind what I was making. He led to me remixing a track off his album, and I remixed his track ‘Feel It In My Bones’, which was one of the biggest vocal tracks on Kaleidoscope. I also supported him at his Club Life event in Ibiza. I’m pretty sure Avicii was the opening act, and I was the closing act. It was a special night.
Back then, Tiësto was playing four or five of my tracks in every set, so he and Judge Jules really propelled me. I’ve just been having fun for a number of years. I still love it to this day. I love hearing those special tracks, making music, and being out in the crowd listening to my favourite DJs. I was a clubber before I was a DJ, so that’s where my love for the music comes from.
So you’ve been in the industry for a fair few years. Why have you stuck with this genre in particular? Why haven’t you drifted to other kinds of music that are more popular and marketable?
I just stuck to my roots. I do it for the love; it’s not for money. That’s the music I love, and I’ll always stay true to it. Whether it’s a little bit faster or tougher, I’ll always be a trance DJ and producer, and I’ll always have those elements in my tracks. My sound has evolved a bit, but then I can go straight back to a track like ‘Rest of Our Lives’, which has euphoric melodies and big vocals. I never changed to house. I like all styles of music; I listen to house and techno, but trance is number one in my heart, and I can’t ever see myself changing.
What’s your approach to making music? When you sit in the studio and decide to start something from scratch, what’s the first thing you do?
Look, it’s been a journey, I’ll detail you the last handful of years for context. We came out of the COVID lockdown and I was playing Luminosity again. I had the parts for a big Gareth Emery track from 2012, ‘Concrete Angel’ with Christina Novelli, and I made a bootleg remix for that festival. It was a fresh, new sound—more banging but still sticking to the trance elements. Ben Gold reached out to me and said he loved the remix. He had just released his album, Rest of Our Lives, and we spoke about me remixing the title track. I knew it was going to be a big one. I started by building around the vocal, and it just blew up.
Before ‘Rest of Our Lives’, I probably wouldn’t have gotten those opportunities because people maybe didn’t trust me with those big tracks to remix. All the songs I told you about earlier, what’s probably Bryan Kearney’s biggest track, ‘Take This’, ‘Angels’ for Armin van Buuren, ‘May The Road Rise’ by John O’Callaghan and Paul Skelton, which I’ve just delivered.
Before that, I would say I kind of lost a little bit of faith and felt a bit lost in the scene. I was starting to feel a bit fed up, not in a bad way, but it’s tough when you get rejected after not being rejected for so long. It can be quite disheartening.
I’m in a good place now, though. I’ve got a nice new, fresh sound. I’m loving vocal tracks at the moment. In my opinion, they get the biggest reactions on the dance floor because when people know that big hook and big vocal, it makes them go absolutely bananas. I can see it from playing at shows like Dreamstate and Luminosity. I’m hoping to get into the studio with one or two vocalists to make some new Paul Webster originals.
I’ve got another track called ‘Live Forever’ with Yasmin Jaye. It was meant to come out this year, but it’s probably a good thing it hasn’t, as that will give ‘Holding The Light’ a freeway to go for Tune of the Year. ‘Live Forever’ will come out in February 2026. My remix for Bryan will also come out sometime next year. I’m just enjoying myself. When you don’t take things so seriously, you can really allow yourself to enjoy it more. I pick and choose some of the good opportunities I get. It’s not a case of me wanting to play somewhere and it automatically happening. So I’ve got some good shows in the diary for next year.
Sounds well, like exciting times. It seems like the flame is reigniting for you.
Yeah, that’s probably the best way to describe it. The flame has definitely reignited. And, you know, things are good. I can’t complain. I feel very privileged to be able to play in front of so many people. I played in London the other week, and a guy cried during my set because I played my remix of ‘Take This’. He told me after my set that it was only the second time he’d ever cried to a track, he’s one of those tougher guys, so to crack him was something special. It’s just amazing how these tracks can really touch people so deeply.
So, you mentioned at the start of the interview that you’re not only a producer but also a father, of three if there was any doubt, and a bunch of other things. How do you find the balance?
I don’t! I just find myself absolutely bonkers and under pressure to get so much stuff done daily. I work on very little sleep, but I’ve got a very supportive wife who can step in and take the flak. We’ve been together since I was 16, and I’m 40 now. She’s so supportive, and without her, I definitely wouldn’t be able to achieve what I have. Life is busy, but if it wasn’t, I’d definitely be bored.
That’s why I could never do this full-time. The demands of playing at a certain level and preparing edits for sets would be too much week to week. I’ve just come off five gigs in six weeks, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve been quite tired recently. But I’ve got a little breather now, and I’m going on a family holiday soon to recuperate and recover.
I’ve already got a lot of my groundwork done for 2026. I’ve only released two tracks this year, but in my eyes, once the Tune of the Year poll opens, it’s kind of pointless releasing any big tracks because they can get forgotten about. My remix for Armin is an exception to that rule: since it’s part of his remix album, I have no control over when that comes out.
I’m constantly trying to keep my name out there. People can see my tracks in my own sets, but also in the sets of some of the biggest names in the game. Bryan Kearney, for instance, has been playing ‘Holding The Light’ and my remix of ‘Take This’ in nearly all his sets. It’s good that people are seeing my name constantly pop up. As my wife sometimes says, “You don’t have to do this, you love doing this, so you should feel privileged to be able to do it.”
Now, this might be a bit of a tough question, but if you had to pick your favourite track or tracks from your discography, which ones would they be and why?
It’s a simple answer. ‘Holding The Light’ and ‘Rest of Our Lives’. I could never get sick of listening to my own remix of ‘Rest of Our Lives’, and I think that’s a good sign. They would definitely be the two tracks over the last ten years. There’s one other that probably stands out a little bit: my bootleg remix of Coldplay’s ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ in 2014. It blew up that summer, and it was a memorable one. But the two recent tracks are tied for my two biggest and two of my favourite tracks. Hopefully, there’ll be more in the years to come.
And now expanding the universe to choose your favourite trance track of all time? Any artist, no limitations.
There are so many; it’s hard to narrow down. I could probably pick five off the top of my head. I’ll hold my hands up and say that ‘Burned With Desire’ by Armin van Buuren is one of my all-time favourites. It’s a track I caught on to a little bit late. Then there’s ‘Out of the Blue’ by System F, as I’m a massive Ferry Corsten fan. ‘Suburban Train’ by Tiësto is right up there too. Those three would probably be my favourites of all time.
Thank you for mentioning ‘Suburban Train’. I think people forget how good that track is.
Yeah, I regularly drop it into longer sets. I played it recently in Bratislava at a seven-hour set. It’s an amazing track. Who knows, I might put my own spin on it someday. I’ll also add Tiësto’s remix of ‘Southern Sun’ by Paul Oakenfold. And ‘Carte Blanche’ by Veracocha. We could be here all night because there are so many tracks that bring me back to moments on the dance floor. People probably wouldn’t think of it as one of Tiësto’s classics, but his remix of Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit’… oh my God. If you haven’t heard it, go and search for it. I was in Amnesia in Ibiza and that came on, and it just absolutely blew me away. I could be here all night as a massive trance fan. I’d love to go on one of those shows where they ask “What’s this tune?” I reckon I’d get a high score.
Now, have you ever had a moment in which you sort of abstracted yourself from whatever you were doing—for example, playing or making a track—and realised you were living a lifelong dream of yours? I like to call it the “Oh my God” moment.
Oh, there have been a good few of those. Probably the biggest was when I played at Tiësto’s club night, Club Life, at Privilege in Ibiza back in 2010. As I said, he was a big supporter of my tracks back then, and I was lucky to play at what was once the largest nightclub in the world.
Privilege was known for a legendary club night called Manumission, where they had a swimming pool and the DJ booth was in the middle of it. It was a wild show, even on a TV programme called Ibiza Uncovered. Tiësto’s night there would get between ten and fifteen thousand people every Monday.
I was meant to play from 5:30 to 7:00, but Tiësto was coming off a four-day tour in Russia and was absolutely knackered. At 4:30, he messaged his stage manager and said he needed to get off the decks early. I’ll admit I was bricking it when I got the message that Tiësto wanted me on! I don’t normally get nervous, but I was shaking. As soon as I got on stage, though, it all went away. Tiësto had a machine that shot out perfectly cold Jägermeister, and we did a shot together. That was it; I just took over. I got to play all of his big classics—’Southern Sun’, Binary Finary’s ‘1998’, ’Carte Blanche’—it was a special night. I ended up playing from 4:30 until 7:00, and it was incredible.
Other big moments include playing Cream in Amnesia in 2014, making my debut in that iconic main room where the film Kevin & Perry Go Large was filmed. I played there with Paul Oakenfold, who is an absolute legend and one of the founders of Ibiza. I’d remixed ‘Southern Sun’ myself back in the day, so handing the decks over to Oakey in that main room was an incredible moment.
Other big ones were a State of Trance in Jaarbeurs in 2014, an iconic arena that I used to go to as a clubber for Trance Energy. I also got to play at the Sullivan Rooms in New York—an amazing underground, intimate venue—and the Quality Circus in Montreal. I’ve been to Buenos Aires as well. It’s an amazing place, but a bit far from home for me, especially leaving the three kids behind.
I’ve had so many real moments, but the one at Privilege definitely sticks out. Being handpicked by Tiësto to play after him was special. My wife was there with me, and it was just an incredible time.
The one you mentioned about Tiësto, getting to play that extra hour, definitely sounds like the most magical, doesn’t it?
It was. Back then, social media wasn’t a big thing. To get to play a set at what was probably his last proper residency in Ibiza, especially as he was changing his sound, was cool. We were good friends back then, and he played a lot of my tracks. If you check his track lists from 2010, there were times when he played five or six of my tracks in a set, which is pretty cool. It was a bit unlucky that he ended his iconic In Search of Sunrise CD compilation the year before, because if he had continued, there would have been a good chance I’d have been included on one.
He’s doing a trance set at Dreamstate this year, which is unbelievable. I’ve reached out to him, and I’m hoping to get some new tracks into his hands for that set. We’ll see.
We’ll also see how that evolves, because everyone is waiting for Tiësto to go back to trance, and it seems that it’s finally going to be happening.
Yeah, you asked me how I got into the scene, and I mentioned Judge Jules, but another album was Tiësto Live from Amsterdam in 1999. It still sounds so fresh. It had tracks like Push’s ‘Universal Nation’, Agnelli & Nelson’s ‘El Niño’, and so many other good tracks. I’ll probably put it on and have a listen after this interview.
I know he’s taken a lot of criticism over the years, but he’s only human. He has earned the respect to be able to do what he wants. He’s been so successful that you can’t fault him for that. It’s cool to see him coming back to do a trance set, and hopefully, this will lead to more in the future. I’m very excited to see what he plays.
I saw some videos a couple of months ago from EDC. He was playing bomb after bomb, like ‘Eugina’, proper Lost Language stuff. It’s good that he’s enlightening the youngsters again, you know? EDC is primarily a new crowd, if I can word it that way.
Yeah, it’s a huge thing for Dreamstate to be able to get him to headline their ten-year anniversary. It’s going to be unbelievable. They probably could have sold the event with just Tiësto on his own; that’s how big he is.
You just have to put that little “Trance Set” label under his name and it would’ve been a sold-out.
Exactly! I can just see a promo video with all those tracks and him saying, “What’s up, America? Can’t wait to see you; it’s my first trance set in so many years.” And I think that would be it.
I have two final questions. Second to last, even though you do music just as a part-time thing, it’s still a huge part of your life. What would you and your life look like if you hadn’t been in the music business at all?
It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about. I’m sure I’d still be happy. I’m a big football fan and a passionate Liverpool supporter. I’m a very hands-on dad, and I consider myself a good husband to my wife. So I’m sure I still would have had a good life, but it would have been very weird not having music in it. I’ve lived and breathed dance music since I was 14, and I’m 40 years of age now. That’s 26 years of my life dedicated to this. So, it would be strange to see what my life would have been like without it.
Are your kids into your music, by the way?
Probably not. My daughter is 15 and is more into Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift. My son is into rap music. My youngest daughter is five, and she’d kind of dance to my music, but she’s not really into dance music. My wife is into dance music but also rap at heart. My son gets his rap music from her. Sometimes I’ll hear him listening to songs on TikTok and I think, “Holy shit, what are you listening to, son?” But, look, it is what it is. As long as they’re happy, I’m happy. I’m not going to force them to listen to my music, but if they do like it, it’s a bonus.
And now finally, if you could go back in time—say, five or ten years—and meet your past self, what would you tell that younger Paul? Were you worried about something that wasn’t necessary?
I’m always stressing out; I stress about everything. In my own eyes, I’m a better person than I was ten years ago, so I would tell that person to just relax. “Look, everything is going to be alright. Everything is going to work out for the best.” I would tell him, “Don’t take everything so seriously. What will be, will be. You don’t have so much control over it. Just enjoy life, because you’re only here for a short time.”
“Enjoy life.” It’s such a simple thing to say in words, but it’s so hard to actually put into practice.
That’s it. People take things so seriously. It’s good to be serious; otherwise, it wouldn’t be as professional. But we’re all here for the same thing: we all love music. There’s enough room for everybody, so just get on. I enjoy not being in the whole scene full-time because I don’t have to deal with the backstabbing and the snaky people. I’m just having a bit of fun. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, so be it. I’ll still be able to listen to music and make it. As long as I’m happy, that’s the main thing.
That’s incredible. Well, thank you so much for the interview!
Yeah, it’s been a cool interview. I really appreciate you doing this with me.
Final Words
This was a great piece. There’s something so powerful and so lovely about interviews like this one, where the artist feels free to open up about many different topics. What I ultimately want to bring to your table with them is this laidback, relaxed yet very deep conversation, one that ultimately shows an insight into the mind of the star. And I do feel like we’ve achieved it here.
Thanks Paul for being such a cool lad. What a friendly guy, we instantly hit it off like we’d known each other. Speaks volumes not only about his human quality but also the quality links that music makes for us, for when we started chatting, most of the introduction was already done, thanks to a common affinity for music that makes you feel something.
You can stream Paul’s best tracks over the years by checking the Spotify embed down below. And stay tuned to our page for the latest in Dance music around the world.