Best Of 2021: Oliver Heldens And Roger Sanchez On Teaming Up For ‘Another Chance’ Twenty Years Later

This year marked the twentieth anniversary of Roger Sanchez’ “Another Chance,” universally lauded as one of the best dance tracks of the early part of the twenty-first century.

To commemorate the occasion, Dutch DJ Oliver Heldens, who says he grew up on the song, remixed it earlier this year. He did so with the full blessing and support of Sanchez, who is both a fan and friend of Heldens.

I spoke to the pair of elite DJs together about how they came together for the remix, their mutual admiration society and much more.

Steve Baltin: How does it feel to be back playing again? I just was checking out the video you guys did at Creamfields. Did it take a minute to adjust to being back in front of 100,000 people?

Oliver Heldens: Yeah, it felt really good to play shows again. And I did a whole run of shows in the U.S., which was really fun. And the energy was fantastic at shows. That was something that I really missed, and to interact with the crowds. Personally, I adjusted to it pretty quickly. It felt pretty natural to be there again and to do those shows.

Roger Sanchez: I’ve been playing out in Miami because Miami was one of the first places that opened up, pretty much since the beginning of the year. So, I’ve been kind of slowly ramping up the events. But being back out in Europe and really seeing full-on festivals really going off again, it’s fantastic. And as I said, with Miami, there have been some events, and I’ve played in Texas and a couple of other places across the States, where it’s been opening up during the tail end, I would guess, of the pandemic. But what I will say is that, it’s not the same as festivals. Festivals being back are a real good indication that we’re kind of turning a corner and everybody’s so appreciative. That’s the biggest thing that I think I’ve seen across the board. The appreciation of the audience for being able to be back together and sharing the music again.

Baltin: For both of you guys, are you also finding as well that you’re appreciating it more because you actually did get to step away from it for a minute, and you actually, for once in your life, got to miss it?

Sanchez: Not for me personally. I feel like I’ve been going on what I call the hamster wheel for such a long time of the non-stop gigging, back to back. And it’s kind of like the running joke I’ve had with friends of mine. I was like, “I just wish I had a couple of months that I can settle down and not have to tour and make some music,” and I’m like, “Here, bam! Have 18 of them.” [Laughter] And it was like, “Oh, f**k, crap, I didn’t realize that was gonna be the case.” That being said, not to take anything away from the difficult time that we’ve had, but I really feel that I have not only had a more of an appreciation of playing out, but I actually have more of an appreciation of not playing and having a bit more head space. And I don’t know if you felt that as well, but having a bit more space to live and have something outside of the road, it’s actually a positive thing.

Heldens: Yeah, I also totally agree with everything that Roger said. Myself, I’m in the game less long than Roger, of course, but for me the first few years, yeah, it was like a big roller coaster. So, yeah it was ’18, I really need to step down a bit on shows, but I still end up doing 100 or 110 shows a year, which was a lot less than before, but still it’s a lot and it’s all over the place. So yeah, I also definitely appreciated the time off and for me, luckily, it was easy to adjust to that. I didn’t have a major dip in creativity. I actually had a lot of creativity and had more time also to finish things. So I just tried to make the best of it. Yeah, and as Roger said now that shows are back, you appreciate it even more than before.

Baltin: You did your version of  “Another Chance” during the pandemic? Was that something that you thought about during the pandemic and got around doing, or was it something that came more recently just for the twentieth anniversary?

Heldens: So just for me personally, it actually has been something that I wanted to do for a long time. Actually, I’m not sure if you remember, but…

Sanchez: I do.

Heldens: Years ago I was just sending Roger a message, like, “Hey, are you actually ever gonna remix ‘Another Chance’?”

Sanchez: And because of that, that was actually one of the interesting things of how it came about. I remembered speaking to Oliver a long time ago about ‘Another Chance.’ The good thing is that I’ve had a lot of support from a lot of people across the board who would hit me up, “Hey, I wanna do a remix of ‘Another Chance.'” And I’ve been thinking about and giving it space to breathe about how to re-approach it, and it just happened to really come up on the twentieth anniversary, talking to Sony and Ministry of Sound about who would be the right person to approach it. The first thing I wanted to do is make sure that whoever would approach it wouldn’t do what I did, would approach it differently, but also understands how to respect the initial integrity or the initial concept and the integrity of the original track. That’s kind of the way I remixed records over the years. I want to keep the spark of the original artist in there, but then put my own approach of it. So as Oliver was developing the remix, he was sending over some kind of rough drafts, and I’m like, “Yup, that’s it. You’ve got it, nailed it right on the edges, just finish it, go with the way you going, I love what you’re doing because it’s different from what I’ve done, but still there’s that current that’s still in there. And I appreciate that you really approached it with love and that’s been the most important thing for me.” Whoever approached the remix has done it out of love.

Heldens: Thank you.

Baltin: Oliver, do you remember when you first heard the song?

Heldens: Not exactly, I was five or six when it came out.

Sanchez: Geez, I feel old [laughter].

Heldens: So I grew up in that Euro dance, Euro trance, and then became more disco house era. So myself, when I was really young, I was more into Euro dance or Euro trance stuff, and then that became more like hard style or junk style, whatever. But when I was 12, so this is around 2007-2008, that’s when I really got into house music and electro club, more like club house sounds. So there was also a time that I started to listen to many DJ sets or like radio shows, like your radio show you released yourself. So in all those DJ sets, just because I got into house music, I would also rediscover the classics and the older hits. So in that period was when I rediscovered “Another Chance” because it was definitely something that I heard growing up, similar to a track like Modjo “Lady (Hear Me Tonight).” For me, “Lady” and “Another Chance” they’re like some of my all-time favorite records. But yeah, it was more something that I would rediscover when I really got into house music as a teenager.

Baltin: For both of you how did the song change with the new versions because Roger, you hear Oliver’s interpretation and Oliver, you discover the nuances of the song delving into it?

Sanchez: What’s interesting for me is, I’ve heard various different interpretations over the years. Kaskade did it many years ago. A ton of people have sent me remixes or reedits of “Another Chance” over the years. I appreciate everybody’s approach. The difference was with how Oliver approached it, because it was something that we said, “Okay, this is how we want to proceed, we’re gonna rerelease the original, remaster it now, then come with a remix. Let’s do something that’s not just covering the same ground.” When I heard the remix in its various kind of production stages, what I really appreciated was the energy that he was bringing to the feeling that I was able to achieve when I first created the track. I sampled the vocal from TOTO, from a ballad (“I Won’t HoldYou Back”) and re-positioned it and reconstructed in such a way that it has the energy but didn’t lose the kind of emotion of the track. And what I appreciate about Oliver is that he did basically a similar approach. He kept the initial emotion of the track, but he added a completely different energy to it, which really, really works, especially on like main stage, big scale events, and I think that’s exactly where I wanted it to go.

Baltin: And Oliver for you, as you got into the song were there things that you heard differently or things that you appreciated differently?

Heldens: Yeah, it was definitely a challenge cause the original is really good and I love the original. I’ve listened to the original many, many times. So when I approached it, I really had this mindset that for the drop parts there should be a lot of difference. The original was very house,  melodic. Let me think about it cause I remember I was on a family trip, like my step-dad turned 50, so then we went to the east of the Netherlands in like more area, with a lot of green and forest stuff. So yeah, we just went on a family trip. So during the day we would do family things, and then we had like dinner with the whole family, and then after dinner, we would like played some games, but then they would all go to sleep and I would go to my laptop ’cause I had just like had all the parts from the track. The first thing I tried was that the new melody, the arpeggio melody in the drop.

Sanchez: I really liked that.

Heldens: Thanks. And it just really worked straightaway, so I just developed that first version. Yeah, I guess it was already like seventy percent done after that first night. So I approached it this time more kind of current progressive house approach, I guess a little bit more electronic, and with all those synths, those arpeggio synths, but I still wanted to keep the core progressions from the original in the overall spirit or vibe of the original.