JEFF-FILER
PHOTO BY MICHAEL MAURER MAXIMILLIAN TORTORIELLO
Tell us about your newest track, Get Loose.
Wouter: We made the track with Noisecontrollers who happen to be hardstyle guys, and we’ve known each other for five years working together in the genre. We always told each other we should do something weird, so we went to the studio together and we have a great chemistry as artists.
Sjoerd: We wanted to create some shock value, but we also wanted to make a track that DJs of all genres could play, so anyone from hardstyle to even R&B fans could enjoy it.
Wouter: That’s the main thing as well, in the hardstyle scene everyone wants to hear the music fast but we discovered that even if you do the BPM differently you could still create the same vibe and energy. With all respect to the hardstyle scene [which we love], we wanted to also be able to reach a bigger crowd. First, Noisia passed our track to Skrillex and then Tiesto gave it to Skrillex. When we went to Noisia’s wedding we bumped into Skrillex and he started telling us how much he loved the track and wanted to release it. Once he said that, we knew it was good.
With the latest news of
Will.i.am basically using Arty and Mat Zo’s track without permission, I wanted to bring up your sampling incident with Flosstradamus back in October, are you guys cool with them and the trap scene now?
Wouter: I love the trap scene. Producers work really hard to make creative music. Let’s say that someone takes a Volvo and puts a Mercedes logo on it, people will say ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ The issue was that they didn’t initially credit us and that was like a slap in the face. If the guys asked us if they could’ve remixed it, we of course would have let them. We love their sound and they are very talented guys. It wasn’t about trap music; it was just the issue of permission that upset us. Afterwards they did credit us though, but it was the second time after we warned them about using our Recalled to Life record they said they’d never do it again and then they did it again...
Sjoerd: But no hard feelings, it’s all good. We love trap and have tons of respect for the scene so don’t worry.
Tell us about the Crazy Collab cartoon series on your YouTube page.
Wouter: The names are very literal if you know what we look. Just look at our hair, (points at Sjord) baldy (points at self) Cresty. We didn’t want to tell people we were doing something new in the studio so we decided to make a cartoon to show people what we were doing.
Sjoerd: If you tell your fans that have followed you for the last 10 years ‘okay we’re going to change from now on’ they won’t believe you. But if you actually show them with videos and audio, you convince them.
Speaking of YouTube, there was a viral video from Ultra this year…
Wouter: Toothpaste man! He definitely gave it a little boost and we thanked him on Twitter… but then he told us he should get some money (laughs). We were like
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www.djmag.ca
‘okay that’s taking it a little too far.’ Sjoerd: Next thing you know Colgate will want some money too. Is there anything you guys want to tell your fans?
Sjoerd: We have a few new tracks coming up, one is a bit of a surprise but the other is really a big summer track and it’s going to be huge and we already know it. We have some labels asking for it
Wouter: The preview will be on our Facebook. It’s still the Showtek sound, but it’s different because we didn’t want to do the same style of track again so we did something with a reggae twist to it. It’s a club song and it’s also a song you can drive to in the car. The track definitely has a Major Lazer type touch.
While in some cases, overconfidence can be the downfall of some artists; it’s hard to disagree with the fact that Showtek certainly knows what they’re doing. Whether it be hardstyle, moombahton or electro house, it’s clear that the brothers have mastered the art of BPM.
It’s no secret that the Netherlands is home to some of the world’s most popular DJs, and Showtek gives us further reason to believe that there must be something in the water. As we continue to hear their tracks on main stages around the world, it is be- coming more than evident that Sjoerd & Wouter Janssen were born for dance music.
WORDS BY: JAKE POSNER
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