Calvin Harris hints he's retiring from festivals

Calvin Harris arrives at the iHeart Radio Music Festival, at The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Harris, who wrote and produced Rihanna’s hit “We Found Love,” is set to perform at the singer’s charity event Sept. 14, 2017. Picture: AP

Calvin Harris arrives at the iHeart Radio Music Festival, at The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Harris, who wrote and produced Rihanna’s hit “We Found Love,” is set to perform at the singer’s charity event Sept. 14, 2017. Picture: AP

Published Feb 10, 2018

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Calvin Harris has admitted he's not a fan of playing festivals and much prefers to play to an intimate crowd so he can have a proper connection with the audience, suggesting he's retiring from the festival circuit.

The 'Feels' hitmaker has admitted he hated playing to large crowds in muddy fields because he had "no connection" to the audience with the only good thing about it being the large paycheque. 

READ: Calvin Harris' hairy plot to win a Grammy

Instead, he plans on focusing on his Las Vegas residency at OMINA, which was recently renewed until 2020.

Calvin - who was named the world's highest-earning DJ for the fifth year in a row in 2017 - spilled: "All that stuff got a little bit too impersonal, standing up there and it's the fireworks and all that stuff, but you've got no connection with anyone.

"And that's why I actually love playing Vegas at the moment because I get to see people's faces and get to see people enjoy their night.

"Those big festival shows which I wasn't getting into personally other than a bit of money and money is, you know, the root of all evil."

The Scottish DJ has revealed he's heading back to his dance roots after releasing star-studded funk LP 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1'.

He told Zane Lowe on Apple Beats 1 radio: "I'm going to release more and also I'm taking it one song at a time.

"The songs are all going to be based on dance music because I love it again...I basically took a year off dance music when I did all the Funk stuff [on last album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1].

"I thought I didn't like it anymore ... I was like wait, wait, wait.

"So actually some of the best producers in the world are EDM producers, even though they got s*** on by everybody, the critics and cool music lovers.

"I'm sorry, but some of the best producers in the world are EDM and some of the best producers are Dutch."

Calvin's latest single, 'Nuh Ready Nuh Ready', features rapper PartyNextDoor who the 34-year-old star says is a "genius".

He said: "I thought he was a genius for a few years. The thing is, I feel now more than ever, if you don't come out acting like a genius then you don't get called a genius.

"And because he's to the outside a very reserved and very like just off limits, you don't know what he is; you don't know what he's like.

"You just see an image and you hear a voice and you hear his writing in it and and it's amazing, but you don't know what it's all about."

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