Boom! Booyah ripping it up for the boys on fire
Interview : Dan Prince
Sjoerd, Wouter welcome back to DMCWORLD! Wow what a year you guys are having – where in the world are you right now?
“Yo Dan what’s up! Yeah, this year is literally F*CKING crazy haha!! We are now in the plane from Helsinki on our way to France where we have another show this weekend. This is the craziest summer we’ve ever had, with 70 shows in July, August and September. Amazing…”
Well let’s be honest here, your latest track ‘Booyah’ is going to be the biggest festival tune of 2013. You wanted to appeal to a wider audience and boy have you done it. Talk us through the tune…
“Yeah well to be honest we were looking for a new more progressive tune for Showtek, more like the Swedish do because we don’t want to stick to one kind of sound. On the other side we had to do it different and with a Showtek touch so, the idea of doing something different than cannonball was there. We met the guys from We Are Loud and they had a friend who did vocals – Sonny Wilson. When we heard the vocal he sounded like he came from Jamaica, but he just lives 45 min away from us! So when we produced the track we wanted another approach. We love to create a certain shock value when it comes to new productions so we changed the reggae tempo into a drum & bass tempo, it’s amazing! The simple one-liners (which we always do) are cool but we needed something bigger and original. We remembered the first time we worked on the song and than we looped that last bit of the vocal (everyone up in the club is down with this rocking) and Wouter dropped that melody on it, we jumped up out of our chairs and freaked out. We definitely had that ‘F*CK YEAH’ moment! We worked so long on this song, at least for 30 full days – so months considering we travel 20 days a month!”
Can you remember the first time you roadtested it and the reaction?
“We played the song at Energy and directly we had tweets about what song it was. We met David Guetta a few weeks ago when we played with him at Pacha in Ibiza. We went into his studio and when we played this song, he literally fell of his chair! He said ‘Oh my god, this song is brilliant, this is a hit!’. And with a French accent, it was so beautiful to hear! There is a big hype around it, especially when Pete Tong and Zane Lowe picked it up!”
Something you said in a recent interview…” we can’t be DJs for the rest of our lives. We would love to have a family as well, so this crazy life will end some day.” People like Carl Cox, Pete Tong, Danny Tenaglia and Junior Vasquez spin and continue to make music well into their twilight years. Surely you are not getting itchy feet already?
“Oh we feel that there is more to come, we would love to go to the next level obviously. But our goal is really simple; keep doing what we are doing right now (we are having fun and we are happy) but just reach a bigger crowd. Our music is bigger than our name at the moment. Our tracks are being played by DJs all over the world but the name Showtek needs to grow. Don’t forget, we didn’t achieve all this success in just a year! So yeah, next level is on it’s way but as we mentioned in an interview with DMCWORLD before, you don’t want to get sucked up in this life too much. We see college DJs flying around the globe, but there’s hardly any decent music coming out and they never have any social time. We know producing music is the foundation of our success. Traveling the world and doing great shows is amazing as well, but having a good social life is as important as the rest, you need to balance out your life. And we think it’s possible as long as you have a plan and you stick to it. We don’t mind being away from home for 4 months, but then the two months after you need to be free to produce music and have quality time. Then you are able only to do the important shows so you don’t disappear of the radar. The fact that you live from a suitcase during the year doesn’t mean that you have to be the suitcase itself. If we have a crazy schedule and we can’t sleep and work out, we would rather not do the shows, we work out 5 days a week so the shows around it should be planned with care, not like having three flight on a day, every day! We know for next year we will fly private jets, just because there is not time to fly regular airline schedules. But who wants to fly private jets? It’s a lot of fun, but it’s crazy! Haha, we love it though, but in the same time you need to keep you’re feet on the ground. When we used to play during the weekends only, we always thought these big DJs were exaggerating by demanding luxurious cars and all that. But this summer we had the sickest schedule ever and now we get it if you travel every day, plane in plane out – and you get picked up by a car cause you need to drive three hours, you want to stretch your legs! So demanding an Audi A6, a Mercedes S class is nothing weird, we totally get it! Just mentioning how fast things are going… and lately it’s going crazy!“
What is the current top 10 you are spinning…
“Top Ten of the moment…
1. Showtek Feat. We are Loud & Sonny Wilson – Booyah
2. David Guetta & Glow In The Dark feat Harisson – Ain’t A Party
3. Empire of the Sun – Alive (Zedd Remix)
4. Afrojack – Jack That Body
5. Cash Cash – Take Me Home (Jordy Dazz Remix)
6. FeenixPawl – Together (Marco V Remix)
7. Rehab & Bassjackers – Raise Those Hands
8. Steve Angello Feat Matisse & Sado- Silver
9. Jack Beats – About To Get Fresh (Brilzz Remix)
10.Deorro – Crank It Up
You are a very unique act. Brothers in rhythm who eat, work and live 24-7 with each other. Let’s reeeeeee-wind to your childhood. What was the one thing as kids growing up that really made you angry about each other?
“Wouter was always “bossy” around Sjoerd, being the assole brother sometimes haha. Till Sjoerd started to practice kickboxing, it stopped pretty quick! Hahah…
What is your tip for the anthem of summer 2013?
“’Booyah’.”
It is always nice to be cruising around in a car in some far flung location when you turn the radio on and one of your records is being played. That’s what happened in Miami recently to you when ‘Get Loose’ was blaring out. Was that a real ‘look-at-each-other-pinch-me-is-this-really-happening-to-us-moment?
“Well, it was funny because it means you are doing well. But in some way, we are so Dutch. Dutch people are really down to earth, sometimes too down to earth. Because when you drive a fancy car in Holland you are already exaggerating, but if you do the same in Germany they see you as successful. Anyways….we were like…’hey this is cool!! But that was it!!”
Loved the personal photo spread you did for Vibe Magazine showing everyone a fly on the wall insight on your touring schedule. Where has been the most incredible place you have visited on your DJ travels so far…?
“Well India was pretty shocking! You arrive in the middle of nowhere, everybody is poor around you yet you are worried about whether your egg is not well boiled in the morning! It was good to see because it makes you realize that you are on the good side of the medallion in this sometimes fucked up world! The crazy thing was that after India, Sjoerd flew to the Maldives and Wouter to Thailand to take a short break which is the total opposite! We think Ibiza is still a magical place and we will buy a house there sooner or later. Not to forget the Whitsunday Islands in Australia – they are mind blowing as well!! Yeah yeah, that’s the good side of traveling around the globe. Sometimes we take an extra day to enjoy the benefits of being an artist!”
Let’s talk about some of your recent stand out gigs. The Gate in Tel Aviv, a city and a country that is really producing some amazing producers right now. What was that experience like, some of the highlights…?
“To be honest we were pretty sceptical about going there. There’s a lot of shit going around Israel, no matter if you agree or disagree what’s happening there, we came with one goal; play music for people who love it. We expected a more dramatic situation but it was so western! We loved it and the food was amazing as well, yes we are foodies! So that was a highlight! And the way they party is pretty extreme, they really go wild!! It took a while to enter and leave the country though…haha!!”
Salzberg and the Electric Love Festival – off the hook right?
“Wow that was amazing. But so surprising! Because in Austria people don’t really go wild in the clubs. They like to take a look at you, shoot some photos and dance a little, pretty much conservative. But when we started to play at Electric Love Festival, the bomb exploded! It was off the hook!! It was definitely in the top 5 best parties of 2013!1 People were singing along, sitting on each other shoulders, doing the HEY HOO thing all the time…just amazing! Nothing like the club scene there…”
I was on the dancefloor at Pacha last week witnessing a very special set at David Guetta’s F*** Me I’m Famous night. You mentioned you played your music to David earlier, what was that like entertaining the millionaire yacht owners? Did they buy you a drink?
“Pacha is a cool club! The Guetta nights are different, it’s more fancy and people really spend crazy money. Not every night is like that! Guetta invited us to perform with him for a certain amount of nights and we love it. It’s also more of a happening, people don’t come for the music only. One night we were drinking champagne like water, omg!! You can make it as crazy as you want. And of course not to forget the girls…the girls are… BRRRRRRRRRR!!!”
DMCWORLD interviewed Run DMC this week as A-Trak has just remixed My-Adidas. You are both huge hip hop fans, so…it’s your dream birthday and you can invite 5 hip hop megastars around for dinner. Who do you invite?
“Snoop Dogg, Dre, Timberland, Kanye and the King of Kings…JAY Z! Because it’s Jay Z! We went to his concert, we were VIP and we saw his show from a few metres away, it was bananas! Back stage we passed Kanye and Jay but we were too star struck, we were like little kids, too shy to ask for an autograph!! Haha…”
What is coming out next from you guys release wise?
“First we are gonna see what ‘Booyah’ is gonna do for us…and we are already planning October for some studio sessions. We have some ideas already but we are not gonna tell you just yet Dan.”
Have your fan base from the hardstyle scene mellowed a little recently or are they still pissed with you?
“Haha, well come on! If you are still pissed, crying or whatever…you are standing still in time. Everybody knows we hit a new direction and most of our fans accepted it and some even love it even more. We have never regretted what we did in the past, it made us who we are right now. But it’s like your first love, you love it and you do it, you practice but no one really sticks with the first love cause there is something better on its way. lol! We hated sushi a few years ago, now we cannot stop eating it. It’s evolution!! We would be faking it so hard if we wouldn’t have changed our music, this is the real us now. And people who scream we do it for the money, you are a pussy, whatever…just stupid and very narrow-minded. And luckily most of our fans and new fans are loving it and if you don’t, well we don’t mind. You cannot make the whole world love you, same as you cannot be friends with everybody! And why can’t fans love a new or upcoming artist? People are allowed to change their tastes or fall in love with a new band – but the other way around is not possible? Well we made it happen…we had a plan! And we are so fucking happy now…that’s the most important thing! BOOYAH!!!!”
Who are some of the producers from around the world you are giving high fives to right now?
“The new song of Jason Darullo – ‘Get Dirty’ is amazing!! That drop is so good!! Thumbs up!!”
And finally, two kids living the life and making amazing music. What is the best perk of your job?
“The fact you can do what you love is just a blessing. We know we couldn’t make it to the NBA probably, there was just no money for it. And not to brag but we can play ball really well. We even kicked ass on LA’s Muscle Beach…played against some street guys. They were like…’what the hell are they white kids gonna do in here’.. haha! Yeah.. NBA That was our dream! When we discovered electronic music we fell in love with something new! So we have no idea what we would have done if this would never have happened, it’s a privilege to follow your passion and make your work out of it…”
http://www.showtek.nl
http://www.youtube.com/showteknl
http://www.twitter.com/showtekmusic
http://www.2-dutch.nl
http://www.myspace.com/showtekmusic
https://plus.google.com/+showtek
http://www.beatport.com/release/booyah/1140096
