GRAMMY-nominated DJ and producer Armin van Buuren is staying busy. Not only did he recently premiere a few songs at Ultra fest in Miami and bring his radio show, "A State Of Trance," to more than 100 FM stations across the world every Thursday, he's also expanded his Armada Music label to New York City.

Before taking the stage at Ultra Miami in late March, the electronic music juggernaut spoke to the Recording Academy about why Armada Music, which he founded in 2003 with Maykel Piron and David Lewis and has offices in Amsterdam and London, made the move to the Big Apple. 

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"We believe that there is a lot of potential growth for dance music in the U.S.," he said. "Not to say that the American labels aren't already great, but we really want to, especially for the American acts that we sign, we wanna give them the feeling that we have actual presence in the U.S. ... we feel there is business opportunity here."

The van Buuren says the offices in NYC will also work in A&R. "It all happens in New York or L.A. nowadays; All the great writing teams are there, so we have to be present there," he said. 

He did his own songwriting on a song he premiered at the fest called "Phone Down," which he wrote with Fernando Garibay. The song about modern communication, he said, is relatable to many people.

"Your phone has become your only connection to your lover and we all stare at our phone so much, your smartphone is the center of your life and we wanted to write a song about that."

The DJ, who was joined by David Lee Roth of Van Halen during his Ultra set, also announced that he will bring his A State of Trance festival to Oakland, Calif. on June 29 to 25,000 people. "It's gonna be the biggest presence a State of Trance has ever had in North America," he said. 

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