Drowning In Your Love – smashing it on the house side via Groove Odyssey Records
Interview by Nicky Trax
Diephuis has been one of our most prolific house producers of late with productions on labels such as King Street Sounds, Quantize Recordings, Foliage Records, Nulu Electronic & UDM Show Records. His current single ‘Drowning In Your Love’ featuring Natasha Watts is being charted by the likes of Kenny Dope and is riding high on the Traxsource House chart. We check in for a chat…
Hey, welcome to DMCWORLD. For people who haven’t checked you out before but are now intrigued by this big buzz on you, what can people expect from your music in terms of style and sound?
I have always listened to and played different styles of music from disco, soul, techno, jazz, latin and afro – I’m open to everything. This is where my journey has taken me but my productions have to be deep and soulful underground house music. I love to combine different worlds together and make it work for me and my dancefloors. One day I might be more into a soulful house vibe and the other day it might be a deep house techy or afro house vibe. It’s all good.
Talk us through the new track…
‘Drowning In Your Love’ which includes a N’Dinga Gaba Remix came out this week on Groove Odyssey. It’s a rough deep house track with some dirty lyrics on top! The bassline is amazing! N’Dinga Gaba’s remix is nice and soulful which has got a lot of support! Also, my remix of Bob’Ezy’s ‘China Town’ came out on Sunclock Records 3 weeks ago and 2 of my tracks on Nulu Electronic are on the Nulu Electronic ADE Compilation!!
How does it feel to have been working in House music for the last 8 years – what are some of your proudest moments/memories?
I have been making House music for at least a decade but professionally around 8 years. I love this type of music and that is what keeps me doing this thing because I’m passionate about it. As a producer I’m really proud that Cajmere aka Green Velvet supported my track ‘Listen To This Drum’ which came out in 2013 on Foliage Recordings. Making music together with Jephte Guillaume in my studio in Rotterdam was also really amazing! Recent projects for Diephuis include ‘Crossing Borders’ Manoo’s Refugee Remix that got lot of attention from Black Coffee, Dixon, &ME, David Morales, Louie Vega, and Djeff to name a few. I was really blessed to hear this project was re-worked by one of my favourite DJs The Kings Of House – David Morales & Louie Vega featuring Anane Vega! Black Coffee included the Manoo Remix on his Mixmag Magazine August 2015 CD mix too which was cool. As a DJ I have been blessed to share a line-up with some of my favourite DJs like Osunlade, Dennis Ferrer and Kerri Chandler a couple of times. I think playing in front of a packed club just before Dennis Ferrer or Kerri Chandler is one of my greatest ever moments!
How do you manage to keep it fresh, new and vital?
I try my best to keep sounding fresh but I am also focused producing timeless music. As a DJ I’m always trying to find jams which are inspiring and new. When I’m DJing I see which songs are working on my dancefloors – and then armed with this knowledge I go back into my studio inspired to make something fresh.
House and dance is so much ingrained in British music, are there any UK artists whose music you feel a real affinity for?
There’s a lot of great UK artists so this is really a hard one! Here are some of the artists I like – Joey Negro, Jimpster, Gilles Peterson, Jamie Jones, Maja Jane Coles, Hot Since 82, Sean McCabe, Greg Wilson, Depeche Mode, Disclosure, Harvey, James Blake, Norman Jay, Mr Scruff, Luke Solomun, Vince Watson, Incognito, Reel People, Bobby & Steve Zoo, Atjazz, Tony Momrelle, Ben Westbeech, Phil Asher, The Brand New Heavies, Grant Nelson and many more…
You grew up near Rotterdam, how much of an influence did the neighborhoods around you have on your path towards music?
One of my neighborhood friends started DJing when he was 15 years old and I got the bug and started too. At this time I just started to go out with my friends and there was one big club called Alcazar which was packed every Saturday with 3000 clubbers. There were different rooms and each room had a different style of music and it was mostly commercial crap music. At that time there was a lot of trance and hardcore or commercial R&B music in The Netherlands but my friends and I were skaters and we listened to Hip-Hop and punk rock related music. I was lucky when aged 16 some friends invited me to go to a club called Escape in Amsterdam on a Chemistry Party. Here they played house music and this opened my eyes. It was inspiring to see older people going crazy to this music. In Rotterdam there was a club called Nighttown which shaped my interest in house orientated music more and more and was where I saw DJs like Ronald Molendijk, Michel de Hey, Miss Monica and Benny Rodrigues spinning. In 2001 I was a regular at the Rotterdam hotspot Now & Wow where I heard a lot of Garage, House and Tech House which was very inspiring. I remember hearing Masters At Work ft. India’s ‘To Be In Love’ for the first time and Crystal Waters’ ‘Gypsy Woman’ during those nights and it was at this time I started buying this type of music on vinyl at shops like Basic Beats, Dancetracks, Rhythm Imports and Rushhour. I visited a lot clubs with my friend Jos Kottmann who shared the same passion for Deep and Soulful House music. Dutch DJs like Cassie6, Kc The Funkaholic, Joost Van Bellen & Roog (Hardsoul) played this type of music. At this time a lot of soulful and house UK and USA DJs were booked to play in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. We started to visit Southport Weekender in 2003, and around 2005 Jos Kottmann was asked to start a club night in a new club called Club Rotterdam. He asked Maarten Laan, Edward Tchai and myself to DJ and we decided to start Diephuis Productions. After a couple of years my friends decided to continue their own business, I decided to keep playing and producing music. And here I am!
So what does the future hold for you?
I will eventually throw my own parties and start my own label. And of course DJing around the globe!
Is there anything we don’t know about you that might surprise us
I love to cook – it’s my second passion!
Drowning (In Your Love)’ by Diephuis & Tommy Diep featuring Natasha Watts with a Remix by N’dinga Gaba is the steamy new release on Groove Odyssey Records out now.
