For His Next Trick, The Magician Will Make Your Ears Sing With Joy

Like every successful magician, Belgian producer and DJ Stephen Fasano doesn't share the secrets behind his tricks. Better known as The Magician (and until 2010, half of disco act Aeroplane), Fasano has grown into one of the most respected tastemakers in the indie-dance world. If he drops one of your tunes in his Magic Tapes mix series, better make sure you have an agent.

He plays equal attention to his aesthetic. Just look at the dude. He rocks a perfectly trimmed beard and full-on tuxedo at every gig—magic wand and all. Somehow he manages to do it all without descending into gimmickry. "Music is 50%, image is 50%," Fasano tells us, crediting his longtime girlfriend for his quirky, eye-catching style.

Fasano's obsession with dance music started young. "It was the late 80s when I was twelve or thirteen. I kept the money I received from my mother for food and instead bought records" by the likes of Donna Summer, Inner City, Chic and Technotronic, he recalls. At the same time, he would record radio shows or (when he was a little older) live sets from clubs, obsessively trying to identify the tracks he was hearing. It would often take him three to six months to figure them out.

Today, Fasano continues that tradition through his popular series. Fans have formed a cult-like obsession with breaking down the tracklist-free mixes. Why don't you release your tracklists? I demand. "A magician doesn't reveal his tricks!" he says with a grin. "I receive 300 tracks per month to be used in the mix. Some [artists] don't want to be credited as they haven't started the promo, while other want to create buzz."

The trickster from Brussels doesn't try to hide the fact that he's a DJ first and a producer second. "It's always been an obsession to search after new music that people have never heard," he says. "I can't repeat myself, I get bored very quickly." Still, it's impossible to deny that his productions like "Sunlight" and "When The Night Is Over," as well as his remix of Lykke Li's "I Follow Rivers" have boosted him to the level that he is today. Fasano is hopeful for the future of EDM, and predicts that big-production festivals will be everywhere in the next five years. He name checks Tchami and Oliver Heldens as his two favorite producers at the moment. "I'm so happy to see [them] making EDM with soul."

Find The Magician on FB // Soundcloud // Twitter

Euro folk—catch The Magician on his upcoming string of European dates:
Nov 21st - LA 3, Valencia, Spain
Nov 22nd - Goya Social Club Madrid, Spain
Nov 28th - Hive Zurich, Switzerland
Nov 29th - Mambo @ WKND Lugano, Switzerland