The interview ended up being a group set-up with representatives from other EDM portals as well. We were all poured champagne and the discussion was ready to be kicked off.
We were excited to speak to the duo and learn about their experience in India, what makes them who they are and what they had planned ahead.
TBB: This isn’t your first time here, how was Boston the last time you were here?
Showtek: We were actually in Mansfield for ID last year but we got to Boston yesterday as we had some business to do here and we were free after, so we ate oysters here (Umbria), we ate all night, went back to the hotel and slept. They are really good! you should try them sometime.
TBB: How was your US tour besides Mansfield last year?
Showtek: Yeah we had like 19-20 shows in a row, we traveled almost 10,000 miles.
TBB: And that was all in a bus? How was that?
Showtek: Nasty!! (laughing), no we are kidding, after a while it gets crazy. You have your food, your clothes everything in there. We had 2 managers, and some more support. But it was nice seeing the scenery you know. Normally we are flying around and only seeing the airports and this was so comfy as there was no check in, no security checks (Wouter). Only shit thing about the beds would be you know you would be sleeping and the bus is driving down the highway and its crazy on our way to New York I fell out of the bed (Sjoerd). We wouldn’t mind doing one bus tour a year.
TBB: You played in India in December, you have played in Europe and in the States. How was it being in such a new market?
Showtek: It was amazing you know, we were in Goa and the place itself seems very forward thinking. It didn’t really feel like India India, like some parts are worse than others. We aren’t big fans of the way people were driving there, its crazy (Wouter). The worst thing was when we arrive, they had this little bus and they said to us oh give us your luggage, and they put it on top with no ropes!! He would stop every 10 minutes to make sure it was still there (laughing), my whole four weeks are in there (Sjoerd). But that’s a side experience, the hotel was amazing. You know many people are poor and its weird because you get off at the airport which is nice and then while going to the hotel we saw so many people who were handicapped and poor on the road, and it made me (Sjoerd) realize that some people have nothing like they make 400 euro a year and then we get to this 4 star resort and the contrast is too big.It was amazing to play there because they were 50,000 people there and they all seem to know our music. But being there really gave me (Sjoerd) a different view on life you know, like when my act isn’t right i complain about that but like when you’re there you think why am I complaining? But that is the personal side, work wise, the party was crazy, if you’ve seen the video you will see.
TBB: You seem very personal in your shows, do you prefer bigger venues or smaller ones?
Showtek: (Wouter) It depends know, the intimacy is much more when you are in a smaller venue or clubs, but the good thing about big venues or like 30,000 people party is that it goes completely crazy, it’s very overwhelming but I don’t know if i prefer one, they are both really nice.
(Sjoerd) I know this is bad to say, but a festival is a bit easier, because you only play one hour sets, you play your biggest hits and everyone is like “yeeaaaah” you know but when you play for smaller crowd you really have to feel with them, sometimes you play a bangin set or sometimes they want a more vocal set, when you have an intimate crowd, you have to work harder. But then the feedback is great because you can touch people’s hands and jump with them. But when you are in a festival you are 20 metres away from the crowd and you feel like big superstars but yeah thats it. If you do a good smaller show its better than a festival show.
TBB: Alright, lets talk a little bit about Crazy Collabs – Cannonball (Justin Prime), Hell Yeah (Tiesto), How We Do (Hardwell) and Hey! (Bassjackers) were huge hits of 2012 and played at so many festivals, we still hear them in sets all the time. Will we see more of that in 2013?
Showtek: (Wouter) We started this Crazy Collab thing because we came from a harder dance thing which is like huge in the Netherlands, its like bigger than every other genre. We really like doing it but felt like the passion was little bit disappearing and felt like we needed a new challenge in our career. We wanted a new challenge and didn’t want to be doing the same tricks.We have worked with Tiesto behind the scene for many years which nobody knew about. Lots of planning went into this. We decided to do some collabs with big names that we had known for a long time. So we looked and went into some electro and progressive besides just the hard sound. How We Do was pretty much done but we waited. It’s the thing that brings you to the next step. We wanted to do something different and great. Like in a year we want to do something different. Our new song is also very different and people may find hard to believe it is ours.
(Wouter) I think Cannonball has done the best
TBB: Do you think this is where EDM is heading? Where producers are moving away from their comfort zones and creating new sounds?
Showtek: (Wouter) You need to do new stuff, otherwise people will move on to the next person. (Sjoerd) It’s a fast business you know, I don’t mean to use the word business negatively but it you have to be 1 step ahead or 3 steps ahead. We have a new track coming that we played on our friends wedding which is going to get on OWSLA. You know we know a lot of good names as friends and we’ve got great feedback.
TBB: You guys have some commandments, can you tell us about them?
Showtek: (Wouter) Its the same story, when we made the move to new genres, we didn’t want to answer too many questions about what we were thinking and why we are moving away from our original sound, it is kind of a ‘f*ck you list’ *laughing. No I’m just kidding, but if you do a certain style for 10 years people are going to put you in a box. We just wanted to put a list saying this is what we’re doing and thats it.
TBB: You dropped a remix of Carly Rae Jepsen on March 14th, how did you pick that song?
Showtek: Actually we picked it because of the writers who is Max Martin and Lucas Hilbert are very dear friends and are very nice. Max Martin is a huge producer/songwriter who has produced for big names like N’SYNC, Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. If you look him up you’ll realize he is one of the biggest producers out their. Like recently had three track in the upper ranks of billboard. And Lucas, we have worked with before on many different things. So they asked us to do like a club mix and its such a weird combination and its commercial and commercial shouldn’t mean bad. I like the song and we should mix music we like and if people like them ask us to remix for them we would never say no! And Carly liked it herself as well so it was important.We just wanted to try but it worked out.
TBB: How do you feel about Hardstyle really coming up now? Artists like Headhunters and other were on the DJ MAG list, how do you feel about not being there?
Showtek: We knew it was about to happen you know, that’s the thing with all respect for everybody in the scene, they should do what they love to do. Hardstyle is really big in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe and they got a lot of votes, but market is not growing. It’s like trance, it has a huge following and the fans who love their DJ’s will always support. We kind of took a step back and we knew people who like may not vote so really it is a list. We have a great year ahead so we can’t complain. In the end its an opinion, I may not think somebody is good but that’s my opinion (Wouter), but if so many people voted they all deserve to be on the lists. We knew it was going to happen but the tracks we did in the end make us happy we weren’t sure but we want to be real, we want to do this for real. In 5 years we want to have tried different stuff. We believe in our sound and style, this was before the tracks came out and when they did we knew we made the right decision, so many big names are playing our tracks so we are happy with what we are doing (Sjoerd).
Pamela from We Own the Night (NYC): All the boys covered the music, I want to ask you about your style, you have on fabulous sneaker whenever I see you. Any plans on merchandising or designing in the future?
Showtek: (Sjoerd) We we are talking to some people right now to figure some stuff out you know. I’m kind of a shoe addict and I think its important to look good on stage. But I like big shoes, big watches and I’m not that brand conscious but I like what I like if i think its cool. I love Diesel!
TBB: Well thank you for sitting with us and enjoy your St Paddy’s crowd out there we look forward to the show!
Showtek: Thank you we hope we gave you good answers and you enjoy the show and party hard tonight!!
Interview taken and edited by: Kabir Uppal
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