Tell us a bit more about how you started in dance music.
I’ve been passionate about music ever since I got the cassette tape of MJ’s album “BAD” as a little kid. During my teen years I started to get into DJ’ing, mainly with the neighbors as my audience. They often came knocking at my door advising me to find a club or studio to play my music. They must have really believed in me I guess. I acted on this advice and worked as a DJ all throughout my college years. During those years I also started to produce my own music but like all beginning producers I didn’t really know what I was doing. Therefore, after I graduated, I decided to get some proper education on how to produce housemusic. The more I feel I’m actually putting into it myself, the more I love what I do. Over the years I got more and more passionate about the specific kind of house music I produce and play nowadays.
How would you describe your style of house music/tech?
I always find it very difficult to answer this question because I love to combine different styles as well in my productions as in my sets. You can well find me on the beach playing a deephouse set and having the time of my life. But what I love to do most of all is to play a long set in which I could take the crowd into the deep with some “Dusky” or “Disclosure” vibes to later make them groove their asses off on some “K!nk” or “Filthy Rich” beats. Many people could advise to focus on just one style. I see it as a challenge to show them wrong. I want to give the crowd what they need to make them party like crazy on proper House which can come in many forms. For me personally “Funk” stands for doing it completely my way with no rules or restrictions and I’m simply “Full On” to do just that!
What is coming up gig/tour wise for you?
Every year on the 5th of May, here in the Netherlands, we celebrate our freedom. Throughout the whole country many big festivals are organized and I will be performing on one of the biggest of them all. It’s not only the biggest but its also the one festival who reaches out for a very dynamic audience with a wide interest for music. I think such audiences are the most exciting to play for. If you get some hardrockers to pass by the stage who never go to house events, you get the opportunity to let them enjoy something new which I think is pretty awesome to do. I’ll be playing there together with an artists I really respect, “Local Hero On Sax”. We’ve been performing together for years and somehow our sounds really come together well on stage which makes playing a DJ set feel like doing a live jam session or something.
Share a studio trick with our audience.
Not so much a trick, but something I really recommend to any groovey house producer is to consider buying the Maschine Studio by NI. I used to work with the MK2 but got the Studio version immediately when it was released after seeing a demonstration of it during the Amsterdam Dance Event. The workflow you get into is absolutely something completely different. You simply put the Maschine Studio in front of you, put everything else aside, and you’re making music. Sometimes I don’t even notice my computer screen going into sleep mode. It truly feels like your making electronic music, using an actual instrument. I use Maschine as a plugin in Ableton Live 9, in which I do the actual arranging of the track.
The best thing about coming from Holland is?
EDM in a huge thing in our culture. The world can see our king and queen dance on stage with Armin van Buuren. Everyone knows that a lot of the big names are in fact themselves Dutch and that gets the expectations high. I think being Dutch definitely has its advantages. “If you’re Dutch you must be good” is what people say in the scene. I see it as a challenge to live up to those expectations and keep surprising the crowd. My personal goal is to get the world to love my kind of house just as much as that they now love the famous Dutch house sound which is of course a lot different.
Who is your favorite female dj/producer and why?
Well that for me is Marcella. An amazing Amsterdam based artist who got my attention years ago. She is a strong personality behind the decks with an honest and pure passion for proper house music. .
What was the best moment for you to experience last year?
I just released my first track ‘Put your hands up’ by my new agency “Airborne Artists Agency”. The feedback on this track so far has been amazing. I was recently signed by Airborne so that’s a highlight for me too. As is building my new studio which I’m spending all my time on at the moment. I can’t wait for it to be finished so I can get to work and make 2014 even better then last year. In the summer of 2013 an EP came out from which two out of three tracks made it into the Techhouse charts as #26 & #27 so the standards are set for 2014!
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
You guys asked me about my favorite female DJ/Producer but I also want to mention my favorite male DJ Jay Lumen. I really respect the way how he puts himself out there as an artist and I have much respect for the way how he keeps delivering high quality techhouse bangers. For me its very inspiring to see him stay as up-close and personal with his audience as he does. I love to read his posts on facebook and see him show his gratitude towards everyone who has something nice to comment. He clearly realizes that you’re only as successful as everybody else in the world allows you to be and I think that’s an important thing to always keep in mind if you ever want to get anywhere in life.
