D
utch duo Willem van Hanegem and Wardt van der Harst, aka W&W, have evolved from the underdogs of the trance scene to one of the genre’s fastest rising
acts, with enough crossover appeal to see their turbo-charged productions picked up by a huge assortment of DJs. “We’re doing our best!” the pair tell DJ Mag, as they head towards the middle of their most successful year yet. “The sound we have right now, we feel very comfortable with, and we’re hugely lucky that everybody has started picking us up. We get support from Armin, but also from Hardwell, Tiësto and even David Guetta. So it’s getting supported by so many different DJs, and that’s also cool because it’s gonna pull lots of new people into the trancier sound too.” W&W dropped their anthem 'The Code' earlier this year just in time for the Miami Winter Music Conference, a collaboration with countryman Ummet Ozcan, and it’s a great representation of their energetic, genre-bending trance charms. With melodic breakdowns, high-powered build-ups, pulsing electro synth stabs and all the rolling, pulsing energy you’d typically find
about a residency.” They’re also locked in to play Privilege’s opening party on 7th June in the main room, alongside electro-house heavies like Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, an effective vote of confidence they’re packing the skills to entertain a broader crowd. DJ Mag talks to Wardt from W&W about how they’re taking their pummeling, energetic sound to the main stages around the world.
How is 2013 travelling so far for W&W? “2013 has definitely been the best year for us so far. All the tracks we’ve been releasing have been picked up really well by our colleagues, and they’re doing well in the Beatport charts. We’ve definitely been DJing a lot more than we did last year, so everything is progressing really rapidly right now.”
You had a pretty extensive tour of the US earlier this year. Do you see this as an important market for W&W? “Of course, and we’ve been playing in the US a lot. However, while it is a very important market for us, we actually try and focus equally across the whole world where we’re playing, in some of the weirdest and most exciting places that you could imagine. We did an India tour a couple
the booth is great. Everything together just makes it a very good club.”
You’ve also got a heavy presence in Ibiza over the summer, with regular appearances at Armin van Buuren’s A State Of Trance parties at Privilege. It’s safe to say you’ve got a strong connection with this brand by now... “Armin was actually the first guy to ever support us. The first track that W&W did together back in 2007, we just submitted it to his server. We didn’t know him back then, so we just uploaded it and thought we’d try our luck. And the very next week he played it on A State Of Trance, so that was actually what gave us the kick-start to our careers. We’ve been playing at the State Of Trance events now since the 400 parties in 2009, so it’s about four years now, and they’re just getting bigger and bigger, both the radio show and the events are just massive all around the world. Also at Privilege in Ibiza, the events are happening every week, and we’re playing around seven or eight times during the season. It’s great to know we’re going to be a part of it again this year.”
You recently had the chance to jump in the studio with Armin for a collaboration... “Yep, we did that in January, it’s called 'D# Fat',
STORMING THE MAIN STAGE
in a hardstyle anthem, the track had enough crossover appeal to work its way into Hardwell’s Essential Mix last year, and eventually rocketed all the way to the top of the main Beatport charts. W&W looked like they were going places in the trance community as early as 2007, when their very first release earned them a play on Armin van Buuren’s A State Of Trance radio show, though this year they’ve shown every indication they’re taking it much further than that. They’ve locked in a summer residency at the spectacular Marquee Nightclub and Dayclub in Las Vegas, as well as a similar high-profile presence in Ibiza at Armin van Buuren’s weekly A State Of Trance parties at Privilege. “We’re really excited about our residencies over the summer,” gush W&W. “If you get the chance to play a lot in the one club, you can always try different things, and that’s a really good thing
of weeks ago, and we played in Guatemala with Armin. So yeah, we try to spread the music all over the world! Of course America is important, but we try to focus on everything.”
So you’ve got a residency at Marquee locked down for the summer? “Yeah, we’ve got a couple of gigs scheduled there over the summer, and we played there just last week as well on Memorial Weekend. We’re definitely planning on going back there quite a lot.”
What stands out for you most about that club? “I like the whole production. Of course it’s a club, but sometimes it feels almost like a massive hall, because you have the spectacular lasers, and the ceilings are very high; it just appears to be very big. The crowds there are always very nice, and it always just looks great. The soundsystem is good,
which is a little joke in Dutch, the way you write it and the way you say it. People from outside Holland definitely won’t understand [laughs]. We also did a remix for him for the first single off his new album called 'This Is What It Feels Like', so we have a strong connection with him. We tour with him sometimes, and he’s a really good friend of ours. It was great to work with him, because he’s a cool guy and of course such a big inspiration, he’s done so much for trance music and dance music in general, it’s great.”
What was it like when you finally got into the studio with him? “We were a bit nervous, to be honest, because you don’t know what to expect, and it was our first time being in the studio with him, and it’s Armin of course. You realize, okay, now we have to actually come up with something, so there’s pressure. But as soon as we got there, it was just
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