Come May, when the summer sun will be shining high and bright, so will the warm and effervescent music from Dutch native and Worldwide superstar Nick Van de Wall. Better known to his fans and loyalists as Afrojack, Nick will be releasing his brand new debut album ‘Forget the World‘, but not before he gives his fans a sneak-peak of the album through various social media platforms! Earlier last week, Afrojack sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss the issues of superstardom, the message behind his album and his strategy for sharing album artwork through Social app Snapchat!
In an age, where reaching out to your fans can help bridge cultural and social gaps, Afrojack has chosen his various social media benches to build a relationship with his loyalists around the world. And he will continue that trend with his upcoming album, as he adds yet another unique feat to his re-portiere. Besides promoting the album artwork on Snapchat, he’s also promised 10 second previews from his album, as he builds up to the days of his performance at the Ultra Music Festival at Miami. Speaking about the venture, here’s what Nick had to say.
Basically, I think this is what artists used to have when they got fan mail; now I get it over Snapchat. I have so many people tell me, “I love your music,” or “I love this song.” They send me videos, like some guy and his friends going crazy over a song. It’s cool to see every now and then.
It’s a way to basically send [information] to everyone around the world, for a certain period of time, so it’s not going to be straight leaked online. It’s something that goes directly to fans; directly from me to them..Also the cool thing about the Snapchat thing: it’s a temporary glimpse, it’s nothing that stays with you, it’s something you can control. That message of freedom is really fucking important to me.
The album features a plethora of collaborations with artists such as Wiz Khalifa (“Too Wild“), Wrabel(“Ten Feet Tall“), Spree Wilson (“The Spark“) and Sting (“Catch Tomorrow“), among many more. It seems, that through his album , Afrojack is pushing his limits in an attempt to diversify his sound style. Here’s what he had to say about the album.
The message that I’m sending out is basically a reminder to everyone in the world that it shouldn’t be that way..I think that freedom is really important for people to remember and you can create it yourself. You’re going to be way happier doing what you actually love and finding other people that love the same thing then doing something that other people love so you’re just cooler and you have cool friends.
With this album, I wanted it to be real and completely honest and musical. I didn’t want to make it a festival banger. I made club tracks, dance hits, and dance floor smashers and stuff like that — it’s like doing the same tricks a couple of times over again, in different ways, but its still always a dance floor trick. Basically on this album I wanted to do me. “Where’s the big build up?” and yada yada — of course I’m going to remix it and perform at festivals, and I’m also a party guy so you have some party tracks here and here. But the basic essence of this album is showing the musical side of me. It’s music in its more honest form — no tricks, just lay the songs out there.
With all the massive anthems and festival bangers that Afrojack has curated over the years, his status as a global superstar is undisputed and unparalleled. With all the love and adoration that comes with being a dance music icon, comes also the heavy criticism and an intrusion of his privacy. He shared some details on that as well.
..The whole generation is on Facebook and Twitter. They live a digital life. But the digital life takes so much of their time that [it] basically becomes their real life. It must be so hard to constantly be pressured by people around you, and the world around you, for even liking something, you know?
So, like, nothing is private anymore. In a world where governments are focused on privacy, people are constantly giving up their privacy and choosing to get other privacy without realizing it and constantly live in a world that’s created out of peer pressure, you know what I mean? So it’s hard to stay completely yourself, especially if you’re just living a normal life.
With the album in touching distance and the ongoing promotions also creating waves of excitement over social media, its safe to say, that the season promises to be a memorable one for the Dutch music sensation as he fulfills his long-awaited quest of an album release. Click here to read more from his interview!
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