Showtek are a Dutch hard dance act from Eindhoven, consisting of two brothers, Wouter (Walt) & Sjoerd (Duro). They both began the musical career at an early age and soon had the taste to produce music and in 2000 they formed Showtek. It didn’t take long for them to make an impact on the Dutch scene and in 2001 they released their 1st track “Save the Day” which was a big hit with lots of top dj’s and fans alike. From here things just got bigger and better.

Since then they have played all over Europe at virtually every major dance festival, in Australia and even North America. They had solo events in both Holland (6,000 people) and Australia (over 10,000 people) in 2007 and more recently they became the 1st hard dance act ever to sell out a solo event in LA (4,000 people).

They also have their own record label “Dutch Master Works” in which they release all their self produced material. Both Duro & Walt have had many solo productions with some of the biggest names in Hardstyle. Walt is also part of Southstylers with DJ Zany.

If that wasn’t enough they have the honours of being the 1st major Hardstyle act to do an Essential Mix on Radio 1, and have scooped 3 awards at the annual Hard Dance Awards, picking up “Best Track” in both 2008 & 2009 and best dj’s in 2009.

I caught up with the guys ahead of their forthcoming gig for Tidy on August Bank Holiday weekend at Tidy’s new night “Tidy Midlands” @ Air in Birmingham.

Hi guys. First up I would just like to congratulate you both on your recent success of picking up 2 Hard Dance Awards. How does it make you feel to know that your music is being recognised more and more all over the world?

It’s the best you can get as being producers. We work very hard in the studio, from Monday to Friday. And winning awards like this, keeps us motivated? The cool thing is that a lot of people know us from producing, so when we also won the “Best DJ” award it couldn’t be better. Winning those two most important awards really means something for us. Thanks of course for the people who’ve voted for us?

You have grown in popularity in the UK over the last year or so. What makes it special for you to come back here time and time again, and how does it compare to the party scene back home?

These days we go more often to the UK. But don’t forget it such a huge territory with a huge amount of clubs all over the place. UK crowds are part of the bests crowds in the world and the scene is definitely leading over there. Holland is where we are from, where it all started and the parties are huge so that will always feel like home, but we have to say when you play abroad it is different. When you don’t play on every corner on the street, you feel you’re special when you come over..

You are booked to play a debut set for Tidy and it will also be your first set in the Midlands, so quite an exclusive. Are you looking forward to it, and can you give the clubbers an insight in what can they expect to hear?

We are looking forward to it, we’ve never been there so. We will play some new tracks from our upcoming album. So lot’s of x-clusive stuff coming up!

Having played all over the world how does the crowd and overall feel for the music differ than in Holland? Comparing it to say Australia & North America?

Like we said earlier, when we come over like to Australia, we’re welcomed as pop stars. Last Friday we played in club Home (Sublime) Australia Sydney, there was a 150 m line in front of the club! WOW! And when we started the place went totally nuts. Because they are not able to see us every week, so when we show up they want to see us. They want to hear new music, older hits and specially a signature from us. This feel really special for both us as an artists and also for the fans. They just want to be a part of the whole thing. And when that’s once or twice a year ... you just want to be there.

I hear you are in the process of producing another album and you have just mixed the Goodgreef Xtra Hard Compilation too? What can we expect in terms of diversity and sound compared to We Live for the Music?

Well to start, “we live for the music” was a regular mix cd for the Xclusive Concerts we had in Amsterdam, Sydney & Melbourne. The first album “Today is Tomorrow” was back in 2007. So there is a big difference between those two things. A mix cd contain also music of other dj’s or producers, an album is something that’s produced by just us! So a new album means new showtek music! We are still busy with it, but we can already tell we have some smashing tracks finished. We have a huge diversity of music on it, some harder, some more trancy ... But all showtek style! Curious.. ? Keep updated on our website www.showtek.nl or checkout www.analogueplayersinadigitalworld.com

You have both released many solo projects in the past. Are there any plans for anymore, or maybe even some collaborations?

On the moment we are just focusing on Showtek. We are so extremely busy these days (check our summer schedule ahah) so there is also not much time. But maybe when the rush and pressure stops.. When ever that is .. haha..

Are their any artists who you would like to collaborate with in the future?

Frans Bauer, do you know him? HAHAH.. we don’t know!?

What are your views on the future of Hardstyle, and what have you planned for Dutch Master Works?

What the future is of hard style, who knows? Music always Evolutes, so does Showtek. We’ll see.. Our label DMW is not only a label, but it will also be a platform for more artists.

You have played many festivals over the years. Which is your personal favourite and do any hold special memories?

Dance Valley (Amsterdam, NL) , Colours fest (Glasgow, Scotland), Escape into the Park (Wales, UK) Defqon 1 , Qlimax.

An older track of yours “Raver” ended up in the Hollywood Blockbuster Movie “Bruno”, how did this come about?

Very funny! We mean. the scene it is in. His management contacts our management to make the deal. How he came up with our music, we still don’t know. But our music crosses almost every boarder in the world, so maybe he heard it from a friend of his, or maybe he is just a huge showtek fan?

What’s the deal with Warchild, how and why did you join?

We travel all around the world, doing what we like the most. You know, we feel like we are very privileged. And how many kids in the world aren’t that blessed? They have nothing or end up in something so bad as WAR. So warchild came up with the idea to do the event : “Dance for Warchild” with one the best Dutch dj’s, like Marcel Woods, Marco V and Showtek. We always said we want to do something good back for the world, this was and always will be a good opportunity.

One question that had been on a lot of people’s minds is why did you decided to leave Platinum Agency?

We started working with them a few years ago and that was really good for both sides. (it was Q Bookings back then) This year they started a new agency named platinum , an agency for all harder styles DJ’s. And we were willing to join them therefore we asked for some more focus on our career as that agency was set up for more then 60 DJ’s. But it ended up we can’t come together on this, and we weren’t that keen or happy to leave. But we did and we worked hard to go above & beyond, and unbelievable but true, these days we are going worldwide and we hired a personal manager to look after everything we do. Since we’ve left and started our own agency, our bookings are doubled and we can now play on stages were we would never have played otherwise. But no hard feelings, we just want to control our own carrier instead of being controlled. And we think this is in every artists interest to control your own career.

Finally, do you have any tips for up and coming producers who want to get involved in the scene?
Mail your stuff to us! And do your own thing!!

Thanks for the time guys, hope the gigs go well and all the best for the future.

www.showtek.nl
www.warchild.org
www.tidy.com
Interview by Matt Forrester

You can catch Showtek headlining Tidy Midlands Massive launch party @Air, Birmingham on Bank Hoiday Sunday - Aug 30th '09

For full line up, info & facebook event go to:
facebook.com