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Double Dutch - It's Showtek Reported by Dean Zone / Submitted 18-03-09 07:56 With the Hard Dance Awards still fresh in our minds and the release of the HDA 2009 Euphoria triple CD now in full swing we sent our intrepid reporter and hardstyle aficionado Dean Zone off in search of double winners Showtek to find out about all things hard from the brotherly Dutch duo. We don’t let him out that often so he was more than keen to get stuck in and find out about the pair responsible for one of the CD mixes and a whole host besides. Right, lets starting from the beginning. How did your love affair with music, clubbing and production start for you both? Wouter has played piano since he was a little kid, so he’s been into the music for a long time. Sjoerd started working on audio editing programs just as a hobby. Ten years ago we started trying making our own music and in 2001 we had our first Showtek release. Since then it was serious business. We were asked to play in a club that later became our residency. From that point it went uphill with our career and now, our sound has expanded worldwide. Just about everyone I know who likes Hardstyle now were into other forms of Hard Dance music before they fell in love with Hardstyle. What genres did you cross before you found your current sound, and how do you see this changing in the future? We always liked a harder style of music. For us, hardstyle is also a way of hard dance music and we want to keep it as broad as possible. If it’s Prodigy kind of hard or techno hard, we like it all. We started making techno in the beginning, that way the TEK is in the name Showtek. We are now busy with our new album and that’s also not only filled with typical hardstyle. As Showtek, we don’t want to be put in “a box” because for us a harder style of dance music can also be breakbeat based music instead of only catchy melodies. We will never know what the future will bring us, but we hope with our accessible sound we can create more fans all around the world. When choosing the next tune to play at a gig, or where to take a new track when in the studio, which of you has the final say and does being brothers make it any easier or harder? It makes it easier. We work together day in and day out and when we were young we also did everything together. Having the same friends, going to the same gym etc. So being together that much asks for a very strong relationship. That’s only possible if you know each other like no other and that’s how it goes between us. We know each other’s positive and negative sides so we know how to use both our qualities at the same time, both on stage and in the studio. Everything we do is based on the same feelings we have. And if we don’t have that same feeling, we know how to work our way out of it, that’s just because we are brothers. Let’s talk about your Artist album “Today Is Tomorrow”. It was somewhat of a trendsetter being billed as the first ever studio based Hardstyle album. How do you think this has changed the scene, and is this the kind of impact you were looking to have when you started? Yes totally. Our album was really a highlight in our carrier. We really pushed our name to the top with it because the whole scene was enthusiastic about it. Since then we toured all around the globe to expand our Showtek sound. We lifted the scene up to a higher level. Now some other producers have created an album too, so we probably inspired people to make a harder styled studio album too . . . Are there plans for another album anytime soon? Yes, we are very busy with making our new album, which will be finished by the end of the year probably. It will be a different album than the last one, which means that we do more than only ‘hardstyle’ from now. We also made some more experimental tracks, which will be totally different than the rest. The Hard Dance Awards have been very kind to you, letting you take home the track of the year award twice and adding the DJ of the year award this year too. Did this come as a surprise, given that these awards seem to be mainly UK based? Surprised we were haha. Off course we hoped for another award, but winning twice was really the cherry on the cake. For us this was really important, releasing our new album this year and going overseas with our gigs. So for us it came at the right moment! Given that you’ve already reached some giddy heights in your career already, what’s next on your list of things to achieve? We’ve had serious requests from the USA lately. It would be great if we could go there and let them know the Showtek sound. But first the album release and what comes after that. We had our XQ SHOWTEK in Melbourne and Sydney, so it would be great if we could do that too with some other countries. Dutch Master Works, your label, has been going from strength to strength with some awesome releases. Which producers, can we expect to hear lots more from on your label and who are you tipping for the top? Tipping for the top? Hmm... difficult to say. Abbys & Judge are doing great but Dutch Master had some awesome releases last months so both acts are doing very well and they also have a very accessible way of producing tracks. Abbys & Judge have more melody based tracks and Dutch Master is busier with the industrial based music, which works perfectly for the UK too, so we’ll see what happens. FTS has gone on to become possibly the biggest Hardstyle tune of recent years and is considered by many to be one of the genres definitive anthems, with over 300,000 listens on your MySpace page alone. When you made it, did you ever think it would be as big a hit as it is? Now it has more than 3million views on YouTube in total. This is massive! We just wanted to make a track for the crowd, the fans. The MC we used a friend of us and we couldn’t get a better vocal than his. You can hear the track is produced in a very passionate way, when people hear this track they feel one with our music. And that’s what makes the track a hit. But no, we did not expect it would be this massive. Puta Madre is one of my favourite tracks. What on earth gave you the inspiration to write a tune with a vocal in it that talks about f*cking someone’s mother? Yeah, different time, different music. Don’t forget “PUTA MADRE” means f*cking great in Spanish so in Spain it has nothing to do with shagging someone’s mum. But of course the lyrics tell you enough. We always had the quality of making gimmicks, like green stuff too. We don’t think it’s a perfectly produced track. But in that time that’s just what we needed to lift up our name. We know it’s not very nice language but everybody loves it. We can’t help it. Our mum’s a teacher and even kids in her class talk about it, so you can understand how she felt sometimes. As you’re the biggest current Hardstyle act there is, I put the feelers out to fellow UK fans and gave them a chance to put their questions to you. Here is a selection of the best questions from some of your UK based fans: Do you have any advice for new DJ’s learning and mixing Hardstyle, but want to sound different to the current stuff? Unfortunately being a DJ comes with producing and so playing your own tracks. Our advice is try to produce your own music, so you can bring your sound to the people. To become a top DJ in this world we live in today it’s very important to create a special sound and what’s better than representing your own sound? What’s your craziest ever clubbing related experience? Parklife & Arches UK. That crowd were really amazing. We never ever experienced something like that. If you talk about girls, then definitely Poland . . . hahaha! Some people in the UK say that Hardstyle is growing from strength to strength, where as others are saying that it is just a phase and that it’s not going to go anywhere. What do you think of the UK Hardstyle scene and where do you think it will be in 5 years time? Difficult to say. We think hardstyle will be popular but not the real hard “hard” style, because in our opinion the UK crowd doesn’t really like the flat hardstyle. UK crowds like melodies but also a very swing based groove. As Showtek we are lucky that we have a more broad and accessible sound. For us we see a good future in the UK. Over here in London we have been slated by other Hardstyle fans due to the fact that our scene has taken the darker approach towards expression, such as; wearing special effects makeup and prosthetics etc. Coming from Holland where Hardstyle events such as Q-base and Defqon1 are held often and are socially accepted, do you see this as freedom of expression or giving Hardstyle a bad name? In every scene there are different kinds of people. Not all hard rockers have longer hair. If that’s the way people want to express themselves, then let them. There’s no dress code in hardstyle and especially we don’t want to pigeon hole it. The more variety, the better. In France, everybody wears more of a hard rock kind of clothes, so . . . PS. How big are your willies? [And yes, she’s serious! – Ed] There’s only one way to find that out! Showtek, thanks for your time. For more information on the Hard Dance Awards 2009 Euphoria triple CD click here A full review of the CD can be found here Photos courtesy of Ministry of Sound. Not to be reproduced without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Dean Zone: Do You See Dead People? Dutch DJ/Producer The Sixth Sense gives an EXCLUSIVE interview ahead of his UK debut! Are Chris & Matt Kidding? Awards, Midget Waiters and Bin Raiding with Nick the Kid Steve Allen Goes Beyond Badgers, Monkeys, Mr. Bean and the UK's favourite Interracial back to back act? The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Jennie B on 18th Mar 2009 10:32.10 I have to admit that I have never even heard of these until they won best dj of the year???? From: Dean Zone on 18th Mar 2009 13:33.35 That's the power of the international market. They dont need London votes! From: Ed Real on 18th Mar 2009 17:55.30 Check out the sounds of the biggest hard dance producer/ DJ's on the planet here; http://www.trackitdown.net/artist/111878/showtek.html From: Nicky D on 20th Mar 2009 16:06.58 They are amazing, saw them last year. Nice interview From: ~deleted12332 on 20th Mar 2009 22:36.37 Excellent stuff and top lads From: ~deleted12332 on 20th Mar 2009 22:37.02 You can also check our interview them on the HF Hard Dance Awards podcast in the music section

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