Bassjackers aka Marlon Flohr and Ralph van Hilst had not foreseen what was coming when they started out with their collaboration. Marlon was already Dj-ing for a while and Ralph experimented a lot with making different kinds of dance music. Marlon was mainly playing house music at the time and then the idea came to push Ralphs productions in that direction so that Marlon could play the tracks in his sets. The first track they were both satisfied with was “Beat Cut”.“Beat Cut” got picked up by Fedde le Grand and kickstarted their career.

What followed was a solid stream of tracks and remixes which were supported by all the top jocks and scored big on the international dance charts. The success in the studio was also taken to the clubs and with a packed schedule of 250 gigs a year Bassjackers were definitely established in the dance scene. Their BIG break came in 2011, their dancefloor bomb “Mush Mush” got picked up by Tiesto and got released on Tiesto’s imprint “Musical Freedom”. It dominated the Beatport top 10 for over 2 months and grew to be one of the biggest club/festival tracks of 2011. It’s that track that every DJ can play to destroy the dance floor, and so they did.

This has certainly further established by their recent releases including the stellar, “Hey!” in collaboration with Showtek and the upcoming, “Grid” featuring young and talented Dyro. Read ahead for an exciting Q&A with Bassjackers as we give you a peak into their minds, their beginnings, their sound and a lot more. Get ready, set, go!

Hey Marlon & Ralph! Welcome to “The Bangin Beats”. It’s a pleasure to be interviewing you!

Q) To kick off, tell us how Bassjackers came about? How did you guys decide to hit the studio and work together?

Marlon: We know each other from high school. Ralph was always messing around with sounds on his computer and I started DJ’ing in 2006. Eager to play big crowds, we decided to join forces and started working on tracks together.

Q) Your first track was “Beat Cut” which got picked up by an ace like Fedde Le Grand which has today led to a whirlwind artillery of live show’s, remixes, outstanding productions and big collaborations. When you first started out did the two of you see it coming? How does it feel to be recognized and supported by crowd’s and fellow DJ/Producer’s in such a manner?

Ralph: We didn’t see this coming, and it’s been a dream come true of course. It’s really awesome to see people liking your music and being moved by it. Whenever we test something new and the crowd reacts good to it….goose bumps every time!

Q) We understand that your duo consists of a DJ (Marlon) and a producer (Ralph), could you walk us through your live show set up? Is it only Marlon who plays your live sets and represents both of you live?

Marlon: That’s correct!! While I am touring Ralph is always working on new tracks. We are always in touch about everything and during a tour new tracks and concepts are road tested. When I am back from touring I join Ralph in the studio so I can give feedback and then we wrap up the tracks he worked on together.

Q) The dance music scene in the Netherlands is probably the best in the world today. I can’t help but ask you guys, is there a secret potion brew which makes you dutch produce such exceptional music? Jokes aside, What do you reckon is the reason such talent has been coming out of the Netherlands of late?

Marlon: Our dance scene is really evolved. It’s been around for a while now and as a kid we grew up with dance music. Maybe also because it rains a lot; kids lock themselves up behind the computer and start producing

Q) You guys have a really heavy-hitting style about your music. What would you describe as the Bassjackers trademark sound? 

Ralph: It’s energetic and contains looooooads of bass

Q) Your collaboration with Showtek, “Hey!” is getting tons of appreciation and has even made it to the Beatport Top 10! When we interviewed them they told us that it was Marlon who played it for the first time at EDC New York. How was the response when you played the track the first time? 

Marlon: The track was just finished and I was really eager to test it. We had an early timeslot at EDC NY, but in no time there were already over 20.000 people. I saved it for the last track and the crowd went nuts!!

Q) Venturing into the Bassjackers studio, could you give us a run through of the setup and equipment you use?

Ralph: We have a pair of dynaudio bm12 monitors, a laptop, midi keyboard and a mic. That’s it! And of course our studio has been worked so it has good acoustics, that’s really important!

Q) Your track “Mush Mush” which was released on Tiesto’s imprint “Musical Freedom” is still a big crowd favorite apart from being a personal favorite of course. Could we say that it was possibly the biggest release of your career? 

Ralph: Definitely! That’s the track that brought about our international breakthrough. It was one of the most played tracks of the festival season in 2011 and everybody in the scene played it!

Q) There’s also an amazing collaboration of yours coming up with an extremely talented young producer like Dyro called “Grid”. Any news on when we could expect a release? Any more collaborations and releases which we’re going to get to hear from the Bassjackers stable soon which you would like to talk about?

Ralph: There is a lot coming up in the next few months. We have a collab with Ferry Corsten, which is really awesome. We’re especially excited about this since he is a hero of ours, so it’s an honour being able to work with him! Also a collab with Kenneth G and a Bassjackers original are in the pipeline, and of course we’re very excited about ‘Grid’, our collab with Dyro. We did a cool teaser for it and the release is set for February 18 on Beatport.

Q) Last year we saw you bring down the house in India. Could we expect another tour soon?

Marlon: Nothing concrete yet, but we always try to tour as many places as possible every year so let’s hope so!!

Q) Finally, a message to your umpteen number of fans here in India?

Marlon & Ralph: You guys know how to party!! Thanks for supporting us and hope to see u soon!!

 

Thank you for the interview! We hope to hear more and more incredible music coming from you guys! 

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