Mike Williams is an artist who has made an impact in a few years in the dance scene, renowned for festival appearances including Ultra, Tomorrowland, Parookaville and Mysteryland, he has since collaborated with acts such as R3HAB and Felix Jaehn. We decided it was high time to catch up with the Belgium based producer, around the release of new single with Justin Mylo, ‘Face Up To The Sun (feat. Sara Sangfelt)’, as well as lockdown life and his career to date.
Welcome to DMCWORLD, Mike Williams, how are you?
Thank you! I’m super good! Feeling healthy and happy!
Tell us more about your new single with Justin Mylo, ‘Face Up To The Sun’, how did the track come about?
It was a fun process! Emilio (Justin Mylo) and I know each other for a while now, we’re good friends, and we thought it was time to come up with a second collab after Groovy George. He send me the initial idea and I though it had a huge potential.
Its not the first time you’ve written music together, you both released ‘Groovy George’. Tell us more about your writing process together?
Yes! It’s different every time. Sometimes we hang out in the studio and produce together but with ‘Face Up To The Sun’ we decided to do a lot separate. Also because of the current COVID situation. So we send each other the project file back and forth!
Tell us your approach on writing your own music, how do you normally approach each track?
It depends. Most of the time I come up with an instrumental and if I need a vocal my publisher will pitch it out to others. But sometimes I receive a really cool vocal from a songwriter/singer and I pick it up from there to start on the production.
How have you found being in lockdown creatively? Have you learned anything handy musically?
It’s a disaster in terms of creativity. There’s not a lot of inspiration you can get from sitting at home. But I guess we have to find other things, like social media or listening to radio or livestreams. I also learned that it’s important not to go to the studio because ‘you have to’. Just go when you feel inspired.
There’s a strong scene of dance music producers in the Netherlands, has being surrounded with artists locally helped you grow as an artist?
For sure! There are a lot of really nice dutch guys in this industry who all help each other. That’s what I like about this industry. And if you make good music they will probably support you.
Around playing shows, where have been your favourite countries and venues to play?
There’re so many great places. Personally I love Tokyo and Tapei. People are super nice there and there’s so much to do. Also Las Vegas is cool, totally different but super nice, especially Hakkasan Club and Wet Republic.
What more can we expect in the next few months?
A lot of new music! I’m trying to release a new track every 6/8 weeks. And hopefully we can start doing some shows again. For now only some livestreams.
Around advice for a new artist starting out, what most important tips would you let them know?
Just send you music to as many big artists as possible! And make sure people start playing it!
Lastly what are the big 5 tunes you can share with our readers for this weekend…
Mesto – Looking Back
Shermanology – The Sound
Armin Van Buuren – Need You Now
Ytram – Fire
Mike Williams & Justin Mylo – Face Up To The Sun
Mike WIlliams ‘Face Up To The Sun’ with Justin Mylo is out on Universal now
