Interview with Terry Golden

Few artists embody the spirit of modern electronic music quite like Terry Golden. A Danish DJ and producer known for his signature fusion of progressive, melodic, and mainstage sounds, Golden has carved out a distinct place in the global dance scene.

We recently spoke to him at Amsterdam Dance Music, where he opened up about his philosophy on music production, what ADE means to him, and what advice he would give to upcoming producers.

How are you finding ADE so far?

"Yeah, it's good. Like always. It's my sixth or seventh time here."

And you've got two shows this week?

"Yeah, yesterday it was with Interplay and tomorrow with Storm Music Group."

Just to talk a bit about your music, and your background for people who aren't familiar with your music. We'd say your sound merges melodic house, trance, and those festival, driven sounds and energy. How would you describe the Terry Golden signature in your own words?

"That's a tricky one, I say. No, you're right. I mean, it's a merge of different genres. But the main sound I would say is melodic techno, but sometimes we go in the area of big room festival, I would say, and sometimes we go more progressive. So I use a lot of melodies and a lot of vocals, so that's definitely more progressive house than melodic technology. So it's like, yeah, that's the kind of pick-pockety or whatever I like. So, I think that's becoming my signature. I mean, you can definitely hear a high energy. Most of my tracks are really high energy and I'm always in this band of 125 to 128 PBM. So it doesn't go really hard, but still the sound of the synths are really. And you're right, there is some trance in between."

What would you say influences what you're going to make?

"I mean, I started as a trance DJ, so definitely, I have my growing up, I mean, all the reason I started DJing was Tiësto's big stadium show in 2007, I think it was. He had this big tour going around. He had this round, cool stage. And was his time of Adagio For Strings, the classic. And then I started listening to Armin van Buuren's show."

Yeah, it's quite interesting to see how Tiësto and Armin have really influenced a lot of artists.

"They are kind of the goats of electronic music, together with a few others."

As you already mentioned, you played at Interplay Records label event already and you're going to play the Storm Music Group event tomorrow. What does ADE mean to you personally and what are you bringing to your set that you might have not already done before?

"Always when I play at ADE, most of my set is brand new music. So I'm kind of saving up for ADE in production wise and some of the stuff which hasn't been released, or maybe, you know, even pitched to any labels. I' always try it out here at because ADE is more open for any potential new stuff. It's also a great place to showcase because you never know who's in the audience, right? And I think ADE is not so much about finding new fans. It's more like finding new connections and, you know, potentially business partners and stuff like in the future."

So, I guess you've kind of already touched on this. How do you prepare your set for an ADE audience? Like you mentioned, it's really diverse and it includes industry insiders, global travellers and hardcore club fans. How do you sort of prepare your set for that?

"I mean, normally I would prepare based on the venue and stuff like that. What's this typical sound, that venue has had any specific direction. Is it more hard or more soft? But here, I kind of don't care. It's my time. So I have this chance to showcase my music in the way I would like it to be. So it's total freedom, I would say. I really don't think about the venue or who is in the audience. I actually don't care. If they are there, if they don't like it, they can just leave. I mean not to be arrogant or anything like that. It's just what ADE's all about, to showcase your music."

Whilst you've been here, have you discovered any new artists or labels or sounds, that you think might influence your next move?

"I haven't really met with a lot of artists yet. At the Interplay event, I met some guys that I didn't know before. My schedule is full of meetings. I'm here basically to find agents and promoters and talent buyers, for pumping in shows for 2026. That's my main focus. But obviously, I think for later today and tomorrow, I will meet more people. Hopefully, a good collaboration there."

You kind of already touched on 2026, but where do you see your sound going in the next 12 to 18 months and are there any other new directions that you're excited to explore?

"I don't think my sound would go anywhere else, at least now. I do think that I would do some more deeper progressive stuff. Not my main focus, but I really enjoy that sound as well. It's kind of like some of the big room which I went away from is coming to the underground. Somehow. That's kind of the trend and I'm already there. So I'm thinking I'm in a good spot now.

We talked about how electronic music is always evolving. What current trends are exciting you, and which ones do you think are a little bit over hyped and are at risk of being diluted?

"In the fear of angering many people... I think the time for making remixes of old 90s and 80s and we have done that a lot for the last couple of years. I think it's time for making brand new music again. So I'm hoping that that would be sort of a trend. I do see that, like I said, the big room, progressive guys like Martin Garrix, Armin van Buuren and all those guys playing really big stuff on the main stage. Seems like some of the new stuff is coming more to the underground. Even Martin Garrix, just posted on his socials yesterday, going back to the roots. So I kind of like that. His content from Red Rocks is super cool and I enjoyed that. It seems like we are over that. Now we are just like hyping small social media rabbits. It's more like coming back to the original sounds. Even Tiësto is going back to trance. So it's good times."

You talked about how a lot of music now is sampling the older stuff. Why do you think that is, what do you think is driving that?

"Social media, definitely. I mean, it's a quick win. So you don't have to invent a new track. You take like a track which has been a super hit and probably still is, and then you just take the lyrics, the vocal, and a little bit of the melody and put a big drop on it. And here you go. I mean, it's not hard to make that. So it's not really creative, in my point of view. But obviously the commercial part of the music industry loves this because it gains a lot of streams and clubs maybe like it because it resonate well with the clubgoers. I do feel that real clubbers are ready for something new. Yeah. I hope so."

For any emerging producers or DJs who look up to you, what's one piece of a advice you'd give to them, that you wish someone might have given you early in your career?

"I think the best advice you can get is keep on going, no matter what. You're going to be rejected a lot, ghosted a lot. Having failure a lot, probably do mistakes, even in your live shows. Don't worry about it. Everybody does that. I think most of the newcomers, they don't believe that even the big stars today also get rejected. They even have to pitch to labels and many times they get no. It's not good enough. I just heard Medusa yesterday at a mixer, and they told me that the pressure is on because now they make all these big puppets. And now they spend like three years of making more underground, DJ club-friendly sound. But the labels are pushing to give them a new hit. And it's not something we can just do, it's not something you can invent, it's very natural. So I think the pressure's on everybody, so just keep on going. Best advice. Everybody gets failures. Like Medusa said, at their 3.0 show, they haven't even played a live show yet with no electronic failures. Always something wrong there. And that's the problem with social media. They only see the perfect part, they don't see behind stuff, and then everybody's saying, oh, this is easy."