Oli Sorenson has for the past 10 years worked as VJ Anyone. His sound reactive animations have been an essential part of nighttime gatherings of all kinds, in the UK and internationally. He has played alongside the likes of Riccardo Villalobos, Darren Emerson, Timo Maas, Meat Katie and more recently Sander Kleinenberg, for which he produced bespoke visuals for all the DVD tracks on Sander's current live show. Countless brands have commissioned VJ Anyone to perform at their events, including Nokia, Ray Ban, Intel, Bacardi and many more. In 2005 he started The AV Social, now one of the most recognised events in London for showcasing VJs and AV acts.

DVJ Vision: For how long have you been VJing and how did you get started?
OLI: I've been VJing since ‘96, when I was studying art and media at university in Montreal. Being a student I had a lot of free time and enjoyed clubbing a lot. I picked up the aesthetics of club culture in my art work and sure enough a few people I knew, that were into clubbing as well, suggested I play this into their club. That was Sona in Montreal, a club owned by Tiga at the time. Then I got in touch with some guys already into vjing, who suggested I supply them with loops. In exchange they got me into the club for free. They liked it so much, they asked me if I wanted to come and play live once in a while. I really got into it, and got along with the guys, so I joined their collective (Synergie). When I really was an official part of their group it was already 97. By that time we were doing all the big raves in town and we were residents at Sona.
DVJ Vision: How did your move to the UK affect your VJ career?
OLI: Like I said, I climbed up real quick in the Montreal club scene and reached some kind of plateau. I was curious to try something different and wanted to travel. I tried San Francisco for a month, but in the end London won me over, because in Europe I found it much easier to travel to other countries or Eastern countries or back to America. And also I was really into the Brit side of the music industry.
DVJ Vision: Congratulations for placing in the TOP 10 of DJ Mags annual VJ poll for the 4th year in a row. This time you entered the competition not as VJ Anyone, but as Ne1co. Tell me more about Ne1co.
OLI: Thanks. Because I was awarded a position on this list, I got a lot busier real fast. I already had several assistants, but Bopa my main one, was so much an integral part of my work that it made sense to now have her as my partner. And I also met Visualnaut who I got along with real well so it came naturally for me to expand and share my commissions with people I trusted. I think it’s a real sign of success to be able to delegate.
DVJ Vision: Is Ne1co more about content creation or live performance?
OLI: Both and more. We also produce our own events, the AV Social, so we approach the same thing via three angles. 1. We're performers 2. We produce the content with which we perform 3. We host events in which we perform and show our productions. What’s more, we perform in other events, we sell our content and try to use others, we invite other artists at our events, etc. Its really much more about an exchange, a social networking thing, staying in control of the variables in your work, but also not always wanting to pull all the strings, but being aware you can if you want !?
DVJ Vision: How has the introduction of DVD-turntables changed VJing for you?
OLI: With DVJ’s I can much more easily do visuals at the same time as music. Some DJs are doing visual DJing now, but I say I'm more of an audioVJ. Also, I still can’t beat match with vinyl, but with the DVJs giving me the BPM, I've got a fighting chance.
DVJ Vision: In your mind, is a VJ playing audio still a VJ? How about a DJ playing video?
OLI: I think the technology is now allowing the DJ and VJ to meet half way. In the process, we'll both be transformed, hopefully beyond recognition.
DVJ Vision: Speaking of which, you’ve been touring with Sander Kleinenberg. How did that come about?
OLI: He called me out of the blue, probably saw me in the top VJ list, got my number from my website and voila! I really had a good run touring with him, but now I've produced enough content for him to tour on his own. Before that I was doing many DVDs, but until every track had a visual attached to it, I was filling the gaps with live Vjing. I learned how to have a working process and a team that could produce on average 10 tracks a week, and now he can tour on his own.
DVJ Vision:  Does he still send you audio files every week to create visuals to?
OLI: Yep, keeps me busy and out of trouble.
DVJ Vision: What applications do you usually create your visuals in and what does your live set-up look like?
OLI: I use a wide variety of soft and hardware, from Aftereffects, Flash, Final Cut to the CG8 and VJ softs like Resolume and Modul8. It also depends on what I have to do for a specific performance. When providing visuals for a DJ, I use a lot of clips on 2 laptops and an Edirol V4 in between. For solo AV performances, which I'm trying to focus on more and more, I try to only use 2 DVJs and a combination of sound and vision mixers. At the moment there are many solutions out there, like the new SVM from Pioneer, so I try to stay flexible.
DVJ Vision: You and Sander were the first artists to tour with the SVM-1000. How did it change the way you perform together?
OLI: Completely. The performance aspect of our collaboration took a massive step up. He could control the visuals in its final output, as opposed to before, where I still had to filter out some glitches that are now just inexistent. He can use visuals now without stepping away from a working process that is very much DJ-like.
DVJ Vision: Would you say that it is the SVM that enables Sander to tour without a VJ?
OLI: Definitely. Within the same unit, a maximum of control is possible, for music at the same time as moving images. The quality of the output is also unprecedented, it’s quite a high end product, and it shows when you put it in the hands of someone like Sander. Having said that, I find it also empowers me, because I can act as a producer in the studio and be more confident of what is possible for Sander to do on his own. And I can go back to producing my own performances as well, multitask!
DVJ VISION: How much of an impact do you think the SVM-1000 will have on the DJ and VJ industry as a whole?
OLI: It’s a first legitimate attempt to integrate both the visual and musical parts of an emerging scene, a truly visionary product. But like any prototypical product, a lot depends on how every one can follow through, from the financial perspective and practical side as well. The SVM1000 is a bit too expensive and bulky to be consumed by bedroom AV artist, so a lot is relying on how fast Pioneer will be able to produce an SVM400.
DVJ VISION: You have many accomplishments, from working with the biggest DJ’s in the world to working with huge corporations. Is there one thing that stands out as the highlight of your career?
OLI: One thing that gave me staying power, the confidence to stay and carry on doing this for so long, relies on very short but incredibly moving moments. In ‘98, I was doing visuals in Montreal’s Olympic stadium for New Year's Eve, and performed alongside Ritchie Hawtin, who went completely berserk, only doing noise and glitches of varying intensity for 2 hours. I just followed him with live visuals, I guess I was just in good form that night. At the end of it, he turned around and looked at me, and gave me a thumbs up. That was it, I knew I was going to do this for a very long time...
DVJ Vision: Nice! What’s next for you? Anything you would like to add?
OLI: Right now 'm focusing on a solo DVJ performance. I'd like to do just that in the near future... next time I'll be doing it is at the next AV Social on April 4th, we've booked Tate Britain Museum to do a night there, 4,000 capacity. So, fingers crossed it should be a good step up for all of Ne1co...
DVJ Vision: And you are still performing as VJ Anyone? I think you mentioned you were thinking of retiring that name.
OLI: Actually this is my last piece as VJ Anyone. This solo performance is called Subject 0 and for many reasons I decided to change my name to just Oli Sorenson, an iconic version of my real name. One reason is, I don’t think I'm just a VJ now, another is because I've reached such a level of recognition in my field, I'm no anyone either. VJ Anyone is becoming more and more of a contradiction with what I do. I guess I now want to be the artist formerly known as Anyone.
DVJ Vision: We've been selling your DVD's on dvjvision.com and your business partner VJ Bopa is working on a clip for Club Visuals Vol.3. Do you plan on doing any more DVD's?
Oli: I'm planning to host some AV Singles to download on one of those MP3 sites, but that’s still in negotiation, so I cant say too much about it for now...
DVJ Vision: Oli, thanks a lot for the interview.

For more info go to:
http://www.anyone.org.uk
http://www.ne1co.info

This interview was conducted in March 2008