December 16, 2012

Exclusive Interview with SHOWTEK – Set to bring the house down at SUNBURN 2012 Day-2!

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Few artists enter Beatport’s overall Top 10 in a year; even fewer do so with 3 releases on the spin.

Sell-out globetrotters and Dutch phenomenon’s Showtek are on that list and they are now coming to Goa for Sunburn to round off 2012.

Brothers, Sjoerd and Wouter Janssen push everything they do to the edge because music is their expression – they crash through boundaries in the music world so much further than other Dance pioneers and put EDM on the world map.

Certified engineers to Tiesto’s sound and co-producers to the future Chris Brown smash, ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ they rocket in to 2013 at the top of the international electronic music scene and they’re not even done with this year yet.

Mammoth collabs with Noisecontrollers and Bassjackers are set to drop in the near future, which further push their progressive music to the limit.

Their characteristic productions, world acclaimed albums, award winnings and mind-blowing performances have gained them recognition as ambassadors for the global EDM scene. In 2012 numbers came out that Showtek was ranked #17 in the Top 20 of music export products of The Netherlands. In Billboard Magazine they were rated as one of the top 10 highlights for Electric Daisy Carnival 2011 (world’s biggest EDM event).

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Watching and hearing Showtek is a joy to behold. Showtek’s stunning live-shows, devastating DJ sets, and massive productions, have led to much deserved world domination. Here’s presenting an interview with the brothers who’ve been creating havoc wherever they’ve set foot.

Hey Guys! Welcome to Bangin Beats (thebanginbeats.com). It’s an honour to be interviewing you.

Q) The two of you being brothers obviously share a very close relationship with each other; Tell us how you developed musically. What inspired you to produce music?

SHOWTEK: Well it’s in our genes that’s for sure. We have a lot of musical talents in our family. I (Wouter) started playing piano when he was a little kid, had some lessons but never liked the idea of playing existing music. Sjoerd started to mix tracks on a computer, creating loops and remixes. So as we are brothers we hang out a lot and we decided to make a song together and we noticed we both worked really well together. I was behind the keys and Sjoerd was doing the mix, so that’s how it started.

Q) Starting out with techno; growing on to becoming one of the biggest hardstyle acts, and now finally going on to produce EDM in a broad sense. What made you shift from one genre to another? Do you reckon its a well thought out decision to go ‘mainstream’?

SHOWTEK: What is mainstream these days? If you make good music and the big massive loves it, that is a good thing right? As Showtek we’ve always been diverse and we co-produced a lot of music from other genre’s, even when we were doing hardstyle. We still have a love for a harder music, but we just bring it in a different way. Our performance is very energetic and we still have that Showtek touch on every thing we do. When we were doing hardstyle we also produced house music and these days we are doing more EDM but we are also working on Pop songs now. Narrow-minded doesn’t exist in our dictionary. We just love to produce music. So yeah, we expanded our sound but it’s also part of evolution.

Q) You guys have had a couple of great collaborations this year with two of the biggest artists in the EDM world today. “How We Do” with Hardwell and “Hell Yeah!” with Tiesto. Tell us what it’s like to work with ace producers like them?

SHOWTEK: We’ve known Tijs for a while now, he’s great to work with and he is truly an inspiration for us. Besides that, he’s the person you have a lot of fun with when the music stops. After we co-produced some of his songs we decided to do something together because we had such a good click together, the end result; Hell Yeah! What a track. The song with Hardwell happened really quick too, we talked about doing something together but because of our hectic schedule that never happened. So one day we send him this demo with that melody and he was so enthusiastic he came to the studio the next day and we worked on that song. BAM! There is a way, how we do… Big hit! We recently also reloaded our collaboration with Justin Prime, named; Cannonball! The title says it all !

Q) You also have a superb collaboration with Bassjackers releasing on New Years Eve called, “Hey!” Could you tell us something more about the track and about the process of production?

SHOWTEK: We met the Bassjackers guys @ Miami Music conference last year. We talked about music and partied all night. We had so much fun with the guys we decided to continue that fun together in the Studio. Again that song took only a day to create… Think it was Marlon from Bassjackers who played it for the first time at EDC New York.

Q) In a couple of weeks we’ll see you play live at the biggest music festival in Asia, the Sunburn Festival in Goa in India. What are you looking forward to in terms of the Sunburn experience?

SHOWTEK: Are we really getting sunburned!? It’s our first time, we heard some goods stories about it from our colleague DJ’s and it’s going to be the first time India! So party time and not to forget Curry time, we love the food! We just gonna let it happen, see what India has to offer us haha.

Q) Talking about Sunburn Festival, have you followed any of the past editions of the festival?

SHOWTEK: To be honest, not really. Only heard about if a few times and we think we are lucky enough to play there this year. We will see what it will bring us. It’s always cool to concur a new area and to let it all just happen.

Q) What can the thousands of people who will be attending the festival look forward to experiencing as part of your set? Are there any surprises in store?

SHOWTEK: Of course some new tunes and familiar party crashers! We have a pretty high-energy stage performance so we hope they are ready for it in India!

Q) From your experiences & interactions with people tell us what you feel is the general word around the world about the EDM scene in India?

SHOWTEK: We didn’t even know India had such big festivals, or even a big EDM scene, that’s something we noticed lately. We are so curious! EDM in general had become so massive, all genres are mixed-up and as an artist you can definitely try out anything, which is really good. America just exploded and it looks like Asia is next! So India; Show us what u got when that mother F*cking beat drops!

Q) We heard you launched another project called, “Crazy Collabs”. Could you tell us something more about the project?

SHOWTEK: Yeah, we came from another scene where we played a bit harder and we thought it would be a nice idea to collaborate with other artists from other genres to show the world what we are capable of, that music has no boundaries and also the diversity it brings in music. We had so much fun working with artists like Hardwell, Bassjackers you name. Behind the scene we already co-produced some of Tiesto’s music, so we knew each other. We have a great click in the studio and also a lot of fun outside the studio. We thought it was time to do an official collaboration; Hell Yeah was the first one and from there on we continued.

Q) What in your view are three things that a music producer should give most importance to and why?

SHOWTEK: -That there are no restrictions, music is like art so it can’t be the same all over the time, you need to experiment.

-Always leave your signature in you music; to many people sound the same and we think if you hear a Showtek tune you can hear our touch.

-We always put a lot of effort in the mixing, which in our opinion half of the track.

Q) 2012 has been fabulous for Showtek. Tell us about the road ahead. What does 2013 hold for the two of you? Any more collaborations coming up which we don’t know of as yet?

SHOWTEK: Wow, indeed 2012 was definitely a year we put our self’s on the map in the big world, haha. Besides the success we got with all our productions, we had also had a very interesting year on the road. One of the highlights was our Identity Festival Tour thru North America. We had 17 shows in 7 weeks and we did everything by bus. We rented a tour bus, with everything you dream of included; TV’s, shower, 7 beds, leather seats, like a real rockstar! We loved it!! For 2013, we have more collaborations coming up. On december 31st our track with Bassjackers will be released on Spinnin’ records. And in January we expect to release our collaboration with Noisecontrollers, which will be released on Owsla, also known as Skrillex’s label! We are really working hard to bring us to the next level, so next year we will definitely conquer new area’s! Hopefully a Showtek album, but something we say every year!

Q) EDM in India has seen a great boom in the last few years with a lot of young DJ/Producers bursting on to the scene. Do you have any advice to offer to them?

SHOWTEK: Always stick to your own sound, the rest will follow! And please send you demo’s to us .. haha