The Prophet: “I have so much music, I can easily release a track every month of this year”

By Mark de Rond 04 February 2019

He’s in the scene since day one, has released a huge amount of tracks and is the founding father of Scantraxx. Of course we are talking about Dov Elkabas, better known as The Prophet. Dov is still releasing tracks, and now he is coming with THIS IS ME. Enough reasons for us to have a chat with Dov about his new THIS IS ME concept.

THIS IS ME sounds very personal, and with his music Dov want to pass on that personal and intimate feeling to the fans. “I want to show everyone the story about why I’m producing THIS IS ME and my feelings about it”, The Prophet starts telling us. There was a time, when the label boss of Scantraxx went into the studio with the feeling he had to make music that people were expecting from him at the time. “After being an artists for over 30 years, producing music I like is much more valuable to me and makes me happy. Of course I was always happy about what I produced, but the listeners and the fans were sometimes even more important than my own opinion and feelings.”

“That was the reason to start making music of course. A few years ago I lost it a bit, so I decided to go back to the basics, my personal basics: making music from your heart and feelings. Last year I had the idea of accepting this versatility and that’s how the THIS IS ME concept was born.”

“That is the message I want to pass on to the fans”

The Prophet is only making music that he enjoys for the last few years, instead of listening to all the comments and the expectations of the fans. “In addition to that, I don’t want to limit myself to one (sub-)genre of the scene. Maybe that’s a bit difficult to understand, but in my opinion that is my strength: do whatever I like to produce. That means one track can be a melodic track with a lot of vocals while the next track can be a hardcore track of 200 BPM.”

Believe in his own strengths and unique characteristics, that is very important to The Prophet. “It’s very common, people make choices because the opinion of others. Don’t get me wrong, influences from outside your own living circle are good, but in the end you can transcend the rest by following your own feelings and believing in them. That is the message I want to pass on to my fans.”

Back to the THIS IS ME series. The releases in the series are definitely not only old tracks, which will be mixed by Dov. In contrary, the series will hardly contain old tracks. “‘Dropkick Murphies’ and a 2019 version of ‘Recession’ are the only old tracks that will pass. ‘Listen To Your Heart’ was a trip that I wanted to make, because the message of the track fits in perfect with the thought behind THIS IS ME. All the other tracks in the series will be new ones.”

“At the moment I have so much music, I can easily release a track every month of this year”

THIS IS ME is anything but a solo project for the label boss of Scantraxx. He likes to be in the studio with other artists. “Of course there will be some solo tracks, but I didn’t produce the series all by myself. Besides the collab with Sub Sonik, there are more tracks upcoming with D-Block & S-te-Fan, KELTEK, Devin Wild, Dutch Movement, vocalist Alex Holmes and pianist Mona Rose and maybe there will be more“, he tells us excited.

“Back in November 2018, I started to release one track every month. At the moment I have so much music, I can easily release a track every month of this year, so the fun is far from over!” The planning and further implementation of THIS IS ME isn’t fully established yet. The Prophet wants to focus on the upcoming releases of this year first. “We are working on some custom merchandise items and THIS IS ME showcases, but more about that will be announced soon.”

The concept is all about the way Dov experiences his music. But what are the typical characteristics of a The Prophet sound? “The most typical The Prophet sound in my tracks aren’t the common things.” The unpredictable is therefore an element that often comes back into Dov’s music. “Especially weird voices appeal to me personally, just like weird drops or tracks where the listener will think: ‘What is this?'”

“I love to decide for myself which way I go”

“I think, the most important characteristics of mine are stubborn, open minded and be creative. Years ago I started with a certain passion and love to keep looking for something new. Of course it depends on who you ask about The Prophet. One will link me to Thunderdome while the other one will link me to Scantraxx and releases like ‘Recession’ or ‘One Moment’.” The free interpretation of his music is very important to Dov. He loves to decide what kind of tracks he makes all by himself. “Sometimes that leads to questions in the crowd, but for me it’s a sign that I’m trying stuff that isn’t the obvious”, so he explains.

As mentioned earlier, Dov is in the scene for about 30 years now. Not only the world and style of The Prophet have changed but the whole scene is developing constantly. “If I look back to the beginning of the scene, the unkown and the unpredictable are things I sometimes miss nowadays. We started from the bottom, there wasn’t a thing and everything was possible. A mix of various genres ended up in something new. Besides that the events weren’t as professional as they are now. The organizations wouldn’t get away with stuff like that now, even though those events were sometimes the must pure events.”

But according to Dov, not everything was better back in the days. The internet and the improved production software are positive developments for the scene, he explained. “Due to social media, the threshold for starting producers has become much lower. That offers great possibilities for the new and upcoming talents. Due to the internet, the world has also become much smaller. That’s why hardstyle has a great future in front of it in countries as Mexico, Chili, China and Japan”, tells one of the longest running hardstyle DJ’s enthusiastic.

Through this year we will definitely hear some more of Dov. The next release of The Prophet in the THIS IS ME series will be on the 20th of February. Until that day, it will be a waiting game for more news about the showcases, tracks and merchandise of The Prophet.