Because house music has always been bigger in Europe than in the United States, it’s easy to forget what a thoroughly American genre it really is. With their ineffable swing, street-level grit, and pulsing tribalism, Armand Van Helden’s ’90s-era rave anthems (like “Witch Docktor” and “Flowerz”) virtually branded the Stars and Stripes on the genre forevermore, knotting disco and hip-hop into a single transcendent form. Nearly 20 years into his career, it’s tempting to call the New Yorker a legend, but the man himself won’t have it.

“If I was to look back and figure out how my music has influenced the planet, I think it was me along with like 50 other people—people like Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, and so on,” says Van Helden, reached at his Manhattan studio. “It’s not like I’m Kraftwerk or something. It’s not like I changed the face of dance music. I am definitely not that guy. But I’ve made small waves.”

There’s no false humility to the plainspoken producer, who claims he’s always been something of a parasite on scenes, catching onto and frequently besting whatever happens to be hot. That’s true of 1999’s “You Don’t Know Me”, a canonical filter-disco single which he made after picking up on the signature time-phasing technique of French Touch producers like Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, who really stole it from first-wave Detroit and Chicago artists. Call it plagiarism, call it homage—Van Helden is at it again with this spring’s “Bonkers”, a track for British rapper Dizzee Rascal that sounds a lot like the mid-range frequency bombs Justice has been dropping.

“If you see me near your club, you should probably not let me in, because basically I’m going to steal from your scene,” says the Boston native of his thieving ways. “Other people—their driving passion is to be artsy and really cool and do well within this really small scene with their friends. That’s beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think on a really big level. I think about the songs that transcend time because they captured a wide array of people. Those are the ones that I study and that I try to make.”

Regarding the ubiquitous laptop-electro that Justice and its many imitators are pumping out these days, Van Helden confirms he’s no old-school purist wagging a finger in disapproval. In fact, he figures it’s the best thing to happen to dance music in years.

“There’s definitely been a changing of the guard,” he says. “The seriousness and the strictness of the regular house scene is just so boring, so now you have all these kids that were into indie rock—they found Daft Punk, and now they love dance music. It’s bringing the youth and the energy back into it and it desperately needed it, because I was getting bored. The more commercial house sound—whether it’s progressive or tribal—I think that’s been dead forever. Someone just needed to put it out of its misery.”

Armand Van Helden plays Celebrities on Friday (May 8).