Interviews Archives - Page 7 of 42

Showtek Interview (ADE 2013)

The brothers Sjoerd and Wouter Janssen, better known as Showtek, rocketed to everyone?s attention in 2013.??Making the move from hardstyle to electro by way of a set of ?Crazy Collabs? with Hardwell, Justin Prime, Noisecontrollers, and We Are Loud, they?ve had an impressive run of big club records (?How We Do,? ?Cannonball,? ?Get Loose,? and ?Booyah?) that have topped the club charts and crossed over to the pop world.??They also managed to reenter the DJ Mag list in the top 30.??With new releases coming on their own new label Skink Records (part of Spinnin’) and the vocal version of ?Cannonball? (now called ?Earthquake,? with a topline by the in-demand singer Matthew Koma), it looks like 2014 is going to be just as big.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: What is it like as brothers being on the road together and making music together?
Sjoerd: It?s great to share these moments together as brothers because it makes the experience stronger and the hard parts less hard. We can share and talk about stuff and lift each other up when we are down, so it?s great.
Wouter: It makes it easier, especially with traveling because as a DJ or any kind of artist it can be quite a lonely job. We share the same sense of humor and can talk about the show we played and just watch movies and laugh together. We are not little kids anymore and we can fight without fighting and we can argue about stuff without really disagreeing or having bad days afterwards. It?s an easy connection because we are blood brothers.

RS: Talking about movies, after watching Dexter what is the strangest nightmare you?ve had???What?s your favorite movie?
Sjoerd: It?s funny that you asked this because I had serious nightmares. I would wake up out of breath and feel crazy because I don?t like blood. I gave the show a try and I liked it so much so I said ?fuck the blood, I don?t give a damn about it.? I enjoyed the series but I have seen some weird stuff in my dreams.
Wouter: I haven?t finished the series yet, I?m stuck on season four. Our favorite movie is?We?re the Millers,?we watched it in Hollywood with our friends and literally laughed our balls off, it was so hilarious.
Sjoerd: Great movie.

RS: You guys started with hardstyle and you?ve gone in more of a electric/progressive direction, what caused the change?
Sjoerd: Well there were a few things; we got older and our taste started to change. Besides that, I?ve worked with Marcel Woods behind the scenes as co-producer for 12 years making tech-trance and tech-house stuff. We have also worked with Tiesto for 4 years behind the scenes. We were doing all this electric/progressive stuff but nobody knew about it and we secretly fell in love with it more than our own sound.
Wouter: Like a second love.
Sjoerd: We were making fools of ourselves for not going for that because we loved it so much, especially the track called ?Maximal Crazy? that we did with Tiesto. We produced it with the three of us, and we loved it so much that we wanted to do it as Showtek but the crowd wasn?t ready for it. We changed some stuff in our production and now it?s fully accepted. It took a year and a half. It feels like a new career and I am happiest guy in the world.
Wouter: As an artist you want to have artistic freedom. I don?t know how to explain it all but we began with real rough, ‘no melody’ techno, and then started making hard dance/trance stuff which has become hardstyle over the last few years. I think you grow as a person and you evolve, even fashion evolves and that?s how music goes.??It took us a year to really get everyone convinced and we are doing really well.

RS: Great. You can?t turn on BPM in the US without hearing ?Cannonball.? Did you have any idea that track would become so big?
Wouter: No. The funny thing is we were in the studio and we were already recording the song and suddenly we stopped recording because we had a new idea and thought that it could be even better. Tiesto walked into the studio unannounced and was like ?what song is this????We told him it was a new Showtek song and he asked if he could play it at Electric Zoo. So he played it a year ago at Electric Zoo and that?s where the kickoff started and from there everybody started playing the song. It was something new in the electro scene and it made the name Showtek go around really fast. But we personally think ?Booyah? is an even better song.

RS: ?Booyah? feels like it goes back to your roots with mixing the different styles together.
Wouter: Yeah, we love that. We have a certain love for urban beats and urban grooves even though we are little white boys.
Sjoerd: We are like the Beastie Boys of the electro music scene. We love hip-hop and we love reggae so we put it in an electro track.

RS: ?How We Do? has a million mashups, which is your favorite?
Sjoerd: I heard a new one with Lana Del Rey ?Summertime Sadness,? and that was pretty good, but my favorite is the original mix.

RS: The strangest thing I?ve seen you guys do is the mix with Carly Rae Jepsen, what did you all think of doing that?
Sjoerd: What was your opinion?

RS: It was unique, but it didn?t make sense to me.
Sjoerd: Our great friend wrote the song and it was more of a fun favor, not a Showtek thing, and then we decided to make a remix of it.
Wouter: He produced the song and wrote it and he went to the label and said ?we could use a dance mix of it and I know the perfect guys who are hot at the moment, Showtek.? They had heard ?Cannonball? on the radio a few times and wanted to give it a try. We have a very diverse taste in music; we love Beyonc?, Rihanna, and Carly Rae Jepsen. We really love the American stuff, so it was an honor for us as producers to do that and it became an official remix.
Sjoerd: ??Carly even said how much she loved it a couple times. We don?t really want to do stuff that people expect from us, we like to have shock value sometimes.

RS: What would you like to say to all of your fans out there?
Sjoerd: Without them we would be shit and?nothing. We really appreciate that we are following our hearts and expressing our musical emotions in a way that we think is great and people are actually admiring.

Interview conducted during Amsterdam Dance Event 2013.

Annie Mac Interview (2014)

Annie Mac is the brilliant and much loved Queen of dance music on Radio One.??BBC listeners from around the world loyally listen to her Friday night set to launch their weekends with the hottest new dance music.??Her AMP ? Annie Mac Presents ? recently made its debut in the US with Annie Mac Presents 2013, a wonderfully-curated set of the finest tracks, including big tunes by Breach, Duke Dumont, and Mike Mago along with tracks to watch from GotSome, Gorgon City, and Koreless.??I enjoyed a quick chat with Annie and discovered that her vibrant personality comes through in conversation just as clearly as her dynamic music selection.

RS: What are y?all calling this ’90s house flashback trend that seems to be big over there in the UK?
Annie Mac: We aren?t really calling it anything; I suppose it?s just a house music resurgence. It doesn?t really have a name.

RS: I have heard it called Nu-house but I was wondering if you presenters had a name for it.
Annie Mac: No, I wouldn?t call it Nu-house because like you said, it?s not really new, but it has definitely taken over and been a big thing in the UK this year.

RS: Your AMP compilation with Duke Dumont, Breach and Disclosure, definitely reveals that. These are all big pop records; did you expect this movement to become so big that it would cross over that way?
Annie Mac: I didn?t and it was such a pleasant surprise. It is just remarkable to see these essentially underground artists like Duke Dumont have a # 1 hit. It makes me so happy and proud to live in the UK and the fact that music like that can become popular and really mainstream. It is really classy and really good music. The same goes for the Disclosure album, it has sold so well and they are one of the biggest acts in electronic and pop music in the UK this year. They are all just making really, really good music.

RS: It is pretty shocking and brilliant actually. Is there a certain record or track that you can point to that started this resurgence?
Annie Mac: There are names that I could give you that were very popular from the beginning, for instance Hot Natured and Jamie Jones and his crew. They are always going to be around in the underground music and made a couple of key records that really penetrated. Hot Natured has a track that came out at the end of last year called ?Forward Motion? which featured Ali Love.??As Hot Natured grew and got bigger a lot more music came out of that. Disclosure has their own sound, which is more rooted in garage music. Their record ?Latch? was the #2 record, which was a house music record that went pop. It is hard to pin it down to just one record, though, because it is a combination of a lot of different artists? records.

RS: You just said that Disclosure was what kind of garage record?
Annie Mac: I said their music is much more rooted in garage music, whereas Hot Natured is much more house music. Disclosure is also house, but there are a lot garage influences in terms of their production. There has been a whole generation of producers like Disclosure, Bondax, and Karmas that have come up and that look at ’90s garage artists like M. J. Cole, Wookie, and those UK producers?as their inspirations.??As much as they love the Detroit techno and Chicago house etc., a lot of their influences are also from the UK- which is very interesting.

RS: I have noticed lately that the commercial guys are sampling ?90s Europop records and the dirty dutch electro guys are bringing back the old school rave techno, do you think that everyone just wants to live in the ?90s again?
Annie Mac: Well let?s be honest, the ’90s were great. I think it is just a trend and what is popular, everything comes and goes. Just like with fashion, camouflage is back and garage was big 10 years ago, I guess it?s time for it to come back around again. I suppose the young people are growing up and are looking at older music for reference points and producing music that is influenced by that. God knows what?s next.

RS: What do you see coming next?
Annie Mac: God knows. I wish I could tell you but I just don?t know.

RS: I kind of saw this in my own view that the Dutch sound, hard electro and the dubstep was getting so aggressive that people wanted to actually go out and have a good time with music again. That to me is what garage and house is all about, do you see that also?
Annie Mac: I do. House music was originally about unity and about having fun and what it stood for was culturally important. Back in the ?80s, it was a beautiful thing and it was also just about dancing. I think in the last few years the scene has become massive and the really aggressive noisy sound has become really big, and that does not promote dancing. It promotes moshing and jumping up and down, and a slightly aggressive behavior on the dance floor. It makes me happy to see people dancing again because that is what it?s all about.

RS: Speaking of dance records that you can?t dance to, what do you think about these big room stadium house records which have two-minute-long breaks and no beat?
Annie Mac: That is just the way that people make those records, and they try to create drama within the song. They try to create tension and anticipation, which I get with the buildup and the breakdown, but two minutes may be slightly excessive.??But to each their own.

RS: ??As the queen of dance music, have you been presented with a crown to wear as you rule over your loyal subjects?
Annie Mac: Absolutely not. I find the word queen slightly offensive because it makes me sound old; I would much prefer to be called the princess of dance music.

RS: There is a lot of talk about the death of?terrestrial radio, at least here in the States, why do you think the BBC has survived and prospered so well?
Annie Mac: I think that we are pretty great at innovations and we have a thing over here called the iPlayer which is basically radio on demand. It is about moving with the times and about appreciating the people who want to listen to the radio whenever and however they like. Radio 1 really promotes being able to listen to the radio on your mobile and laptop whenever you like. We have been doing that for a while and we have a really big department of people whose sole job is to do that. We just launched a thing called BBC?s Playlister this week. It?s a really exciting service where you can bank any track or any piece of music from the BBC and save it to a playlist and share it on YouTube or Spotify. I think that it is a fun thing that people will love and will really encourage people to use the BBC.

RS: Talking about having a team around you, you are one of the busiest people that I can imagine. How do you balance and keep everything in check with your radio duties, DJ gigs, and finding music?
Annie Mac: It is kind of chaotic; semi-organized chaos! My week is divided up and I have 2-3 days that I use to listen and watch music, go through my show, and do my mixes since I premix some of the stuff on my show. The rest of the time I have meetings, play mom, and I do my gigs on the weekends. It kind of works out okay and it?s not too bad. I have quite a bit of structure now, having a baby has really helped with that because I have to be more organized.

RS: Are your radio sets prerecorded?
Annie Mac: No, my radio show is totally live every week but I mix some of the tracks together in advance. I don?t ever mix live on air because I want to talk whenever I like and I am not very good at mixing and talking. A lot of the times I just come in and do things very spontaneously and change things around, it?s always very off the cuff.

RS: How much control do you have in your song selection; do you choose every record or do the BBC people have music meetings with you?
Annie Mac: ?The joy of the BBC is that I have full control and full say in what happens. They really give trust to the station presenters and employ us as experts in our fields. How it works is I send my producer a full grid with all of the music that I want to play and he lets me know what music he needs and then puts it in the system so it is ready for me to play. He is very helpful and is the voice between me and the industry.

RS: Were you nervous playing for Channel 4 on New Year?s Eve?
Annie Mac: Yes. Terrified. But the first time that I did it I wasn?t nervous. I didn?t really know what I was getting myself into. I walked in to this big warehouse on the east of London and Grandmaster Flash was there, which was intimidating. I went up to the greenroom and watched my Twitter and Facebook and everybody in the world was watching and at that point I got really nervous. I had a strong vodka drink, got on, and really enjoyed myself. I was lucky enough to have Jessie Ware come and sing a song on my set and the end there was a big finale. That was one of the highlights of my career, but when they asked me to come back and play for New Year?s Eve I knew how big of a deal it was and was very nervous. I played at?midnight?and felt a lot of pressure because there were hundreds of thousands of people with their televisions on and it was the biggest gig I ever played and probably will be for the rest of my career. I tried to look like I was calm but it was really hard because I was absolutely terrified.

RS: ??The most important question is what was the first song that you played for 2013?
Annie Mac: It was “Strings Of Life,” the Danny Krivit edit, which is an absolute house music classic and it felt like the right thing to play.

RS: Brilliant. How do you filter through the inordinate amounts of music you get each week?
Annie Mac: I have to be quite mercenary about it and start by having a folder of stuff that I think I may like, whether it be from the labels that I like or sent from an artist that I like, and I always listen to them first. When it comes to promos I just roll through and try to listen to as many as I can, I can pretty much tell in the first 30 seconds if it is the right record or not, so there is not a lot of time wasted.

RS: What is a record that you ?missed? the first time, through, that you kick yourself about?
Annie Mac: There is a really good one; it would be ?Jack? by Breach, which is a really big record over here. He came on to do this thing called Specials of the Week which is a feature where someone brings in a brand new track and we play it for the first time in the world. He sent me a two-track release which was ?Jack? on one side and on the other side it was a track called ?Let?s Get Hot.? He told me that they would play whatever track we wanted to play and I chose ?Let?s Get Hot.? He asked me if I was sure that I didn?t want to play the ?Jack? track and I said yes. Next thing you know ?Jack? was # 7 on the charts. He came on the show again and we talked and laughed about it.

RS: His new track is really good also. Is there anything that you would like to say to all of your fans out there?
Annie Mac: Thank you so much for your support. I haven?t been to America this year and I miss not going. Last year we were asked to play a stage at Ultra in Miami but I was very pregnant and decided that it probably wasn?t the best thing to do. Next year I am coming for you and can?t wait!

RS: Is your little boy responding to house music yet?
Annie Mac: He is responding to all sorts of music. My boyfriend works for a producer and a DJ so he always has music on. We were laughing today actually because he was playing a Jay-Z album track really loud in the kitchen and my child just slept very soundly in the other room. He is so used to music now that he is just not really bothered by it.

Annie Mac Interview conducted October 2013.

Danny Howard Interview (2014)

If you don?t know who Danny Howard is, you soon will.??The DJ/producer won a BBC Radio One DJ contest and grew from there into a weekly radio program.??His productions and remixes are on playlists around the world and have led to a weekly show on Sirius XM where he brings the best of the UK to American airwaves.??His recent Pacha NYC debut with Paul Oakenfold was a massive success.??Check out his new mixed compilation BBC Radio 1?s Dance Anthems for a taste of what?s on his well-curated playlists.

RS: Was this your first time playing at Pacha in the States?
Danny Howard: Yes, it was my first time playing at Pacha and my first time in New York.

RS: Oh wow, have you been to the US before?
Danny Howard: Yes, I played in Miami for the Winter Music Conference and have played in Vegas as well. It is a great opportunity for me to play in New York and I am really looking forward to it.

RS: How did you get on BBC Radio?
Danny Howard: I was in a competition that they were running a couple years ago and I ended up winning. There were other DJs in the UK that entered but I managed to win and play for Radio 1 in Ibiza which got me noticed by them. I sent them a lot of demos and eventually they offered me a show which was absolutely incredible.

RS: I see that you are part of the Matt Waterhouse posse, how did you meet up with him?
Danny Howard: He is a good guy. He used to send me a lot of tracks for his show and we started talking and from there decided to try something and it worked. We have a good relationship and he gives me a lot of remix work and things like that.

RS: I am imagining that your schedule during the week is pretty crazy between doing the radio show, finding music, and production, how do you keep it all balanced?
Danny Howard: I just have to make sure that I prioritize. I am known amongst my friends as one of the most organized people ever. I just make sure that I get the important stuff done first. I always make sure that the BBC Show preparation is ready to go and also make sure that I am always looking out for new music and new artists. It is so important to be ahead of the game for the BBC showcase and play new music that they need to hear. I work on my productions as well, and make sure that I am always caught up on that and putting out new stuff all the time. I feel that if I get those ingredients in first, then the DJ shows and anything else that comes with it sort of follows. I just have to make sure to get the important stuff done first and the rest will come.

RS: Sounds good. You worked with the Futuristic Polar Bears for the ?Thundergod? track that is out right now. How do you collaborate when you work with others?
Danny Howard: For this one we did it together in the studio. With the technology these days and people being all over the world it is actually easy to collaborate. You can do it online and send it back and forth. Futuristic Polar Bears are good friends of my so for ?Thundergod? we went into the studio together and created the track.

RS: Very cool. The video looks like it is going to be insane, where did they film that?
Danny Howard: I don?t know yet, I don?t think it is official actually.

RS: When you are in the studio working on a Danny Howard remix are you working by yourself or do you work with an engineer?
Danny Howard: Both, actually. It really depends on what I am trying to achieve. To get the final sound and final mixdown, I think a lot of producers out there work with other people in the studio together.

RS: Right now there are a lot of stories brewing about the big guys not actually doing their own work. When it is a Danny Howard remix, how much of it is your solo work and how much of it is the work of other people?
Danny Howard: The initial idea is all my work and then I work with different people to get the final product finished. It just depends on what the project is and what?I am trying to achieve.

RS: When you are working on music, are you working on Logic or Protools?
Danny Howard: I work on Logic for production but for making edits, DJ shows, and bootlegs I use USB and Ableton.

RS: You are one of the few people that I know who does their show live on the radio, is that nervewracking?
Danny Howard: It was, but now it is just more exciting and I enjoy it. Doing it live is always exciting because you are in the moment and with the people that like the tracks and you can get the vibe going and have people connect to what you are playing.

RS: When you DJ out or on the radio do you play on CD or laptop?
Danny Howard: For the radio show I use the computers that are at the BBC, but when I mix I do it on the Pioneer decks. At the club, I don?t use a laptop, I just use USB cards and the decks. I used to use a laptop, which made it easier to do things, but you can?t connect with the crowd as much if you are staring at a laptop screen- plus it doesn?t look very cool.??That?s just my opinion.

RS: You have a new mixed CD that is blowing up overseas right now, how did you choose the tracks for that?
Danny Howard: It is just getting the balance right and making sure that the tracks on there are the biggest dance tracks in the world right now, mixed with some personal preferences. It is all about giving people what they want and also educating them to tunes that I think they should hear.

RS: How close are your live sets in clubs to your radio sets?
Danny Howard: They are a little different, because the radio show is on at?4:00 pm?so I play to a mainly mainstream audience and I have make sure not to alienate them and play too much underground or deep music. When I am in the club, it is always up front and new; there are so many different genres from house, progressive, electro… to the deeper sound of tech and straight-up house. I would say my sets are different, but it?s all me at the end of the day and if it?s good, it?s good.

RS: Talking about the house thing, it seems like a lot of what is coming out of the UK right now is the ?90s house sound. Do you think that is a flash in the pan movement or it is going to continue on?
Danny Howard: I think that it is going to continue on for now; it is from the old garage sound that has been adapted into an updated house-y sound that is quite fresh. It is easy to connect with it and in the club it always goes off. I hope that it continues because I really enjoy it. You are right, the deep sound is very popular at the moment and I don?t think it is going to go anywhere just yet.

RS: One thing that I loved was your Duke Dumont remix of ?100%? where you took that deep house sound and put the sick electro sound on it. What inspired that?
Danny Howard: I was very nervous about doing it and I was afraid that I would get asked this question. The original is so good and it?s almost a record that shouldn?t be touched. I was honored to be asked to do it. I was nervous about it but I just figured it would be another option for someone who might not play the original. I just looked at it that way and some people like it and some people don?t.

RS: How?s the how going on Sirius XM?
Danny Howard: It has been going very well .??Since December. I?ve been doing an hour show every?Saturday at 8pm.??It gives an insight as to what is big in the UK and Europe as far as dance music.

RS: Looking back on what you have remixed over the past year or two, what has been the most challenging remix for you to do?
Danny Howard: Probably the Storm Queen ?Look Right Through? remix.??It was like the Duke Dumont track in the sense that it was such an amazing record in its own right that it didn?t need to be touched.??I took a different approach to this one than I did to the Duke Dumont one. Some people would say that I totally changed the Duke Dumont one, but with Storm Queen I tried to keep it true to the original with the vocal. I didn?t have as much electro in it, so it was a challenge to get people on board with a different style than what they are used to hearing from my remixes.

RS: What do you seeing coming up next after the house sound?
Danny Howard: I think that we are in a world right now where people don?t know what direction it is going to go. If you ask me, I think that it is going to go deeper and more down the tech-house and techno route, I?d like to see it go that way anyways.

RS: If people want to follow you online and learn more about your love of?pigeons, where would be the place to go?
Danny Howard: Twitter.com/DJDannyHoward,?facebook.com/dannyhowarddj,?and also?soundcloud.com/djdannyhoward,?where I put productions, remixes and previews of what?s to come.

RS: What are you in the studio working on right now, remixwise and in terms of original tracks?
Danny Howard: Remixwise I am in the middle of finishing off ?Flute? by New World Sound and Thomas Newson, which is big on Doorn Recordings. I have an original track coming out on Spinnin? Records at the end of February with GLOWINTHEDARK, who are two Dutch guys that I did a gig with in Ibiza. We formed a good relationship and decided to work together and the track is called ?Mug.?

RS: What would you like to say to all of your fans out there?
Danny Howard: Keep checking me out on SoundCloud, we have some big productions coming up this year. Thank you for always supporting me.

Special thanks to Cecilia Doreng-Stearns at Rephlektor for arranging this interview. Live image courtesy of Pacha NYC.

Danny Howard Interview