Sam Feldt made an amazing appearance at Bang Bang San Diego on January 31st. We had the opportunity to catch up with him to hear more about his career and US tour just in time to set the mood for Valentine's Day with his new single "Show Me Love", which is out February 16th. So hold tight love birds it will be soon be yours!

What drew you to tropical house?

Well, I think the whole tropical house name started maybe a year ago. I started doing the mix for one and a half years now. I don’t know, I call it melodic deep house. Well, I met Thomas Jack, and he was talking about the tropical house genre, and he was starting it up, building a mixtape, and I was like okay, cool, it’s a good name.

Really? So you knew Thomas Jack?

Yeah, yeah he had a show is Oslo and we talked a bit on Facebook before already and I texted him “Hey dude, come over, let’s hang and go out,” so we went out. In Amsterdam, where I live, so we just took over the next flight. We had a great amount of fun and he showed me what he was doing and his tropical house brand and I was like, yeah, that’s a good name.

So before Thomas Jack you weren't thinking about tropical house?

Well, not “tropical house”, I didn't know the name back then. He was the one that actually came up with the name. Of course I was thinking about the name, but yeah, like I told you, I was calling it “melodic deep house” or “summer house.” I didn't know the name “tropical house” before Tom made it up actually.

Any favorite place to perform?

Well, it’s hard you know because now I’ve been in the US for two days now (yesterday we were in LA and the day before we did San Francisco). The day before I was still in Holland. I’ve never been to the US in my life. I am really surprised by the American crowd. The people that are coming to the shows, I think they really are coming for the music, they really like the music, and you don’t really have that in Holland. Like people go out to clubs to go out, and like to drink, to get fucked up. Here, I think they appreciate the music a bit more, so yeah, I really like the American crowd so far. I think it’s the best crowd I’ve ever experienced.

That’s interesting, because that hasn't always been the case.

Yeah, I think it’s a bit the other way around now. Especially in this genre because I feel when you look at my Facebook stats, you see like maybe 40% of all my fans are coming from the States and Canada. So it’s really good to be out here.

Does that surprise you? To know that you have such a big following?

To be honest, of course I knew, because I could see it online and I could see where they were coming from. But I didn’t really know. I knew there were fans but I never experienced it. I never experienced that there were actually people able to sing along to my stuff, to my music. Especially the show yesterday, it was really sold out in LA, it was awesome. At the El Rey Theater. They knew every song, they all sang along, and the whole place was packed. They were jumping!

Any collaborations we can look forward to?

Um, well, the thing is right now I’m focusing on the solo track. I've got a couple of collaborations coming out but—we have a couple of collaborations. But for now, I just want to get my own sound out there and then find people to work together with. The first one that’s coming out is “Show Me Love” on the 16th of February—after Valentine’s day—and there will be a big Valentine’s marketing campaign running behind it. So it’s going to be awesome.

What venue in the US would you most like to play?

I’ve heard a lot of great stuff about Electric Forest. I’m actually getting tweets from maybe twenty people already like, “get this guy over here.” So yeah, I was Googling it. Of course I’d like to play at the big festivals, like Ultra and stuff, but I think I prefer a bit smaller. There’s a bit more intimacy that way and you can really connect with the fans more. But I really like the club shows as well! It’s been great so far. Absolutely.

Do not forget to pick up "Show Me Love" on February 16th and we hope you all are showing the love this Valentine's night! XOXO