Showtek: Analogue Players Interview

Posted by Ool on Nov 8, 2009 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

Although overshadowed by the recent Partyflock interview they did, here is the Showtek questionnaire I did for the latest Core issue. As you may have noticed, what with the shiny new layout, we’re making an effort to kick this site back to life; stay tuned for more new material!

Showtek: still saving the day

It is the year 2001. Hardstyle is starting to develop as a separate genre from hardhouse, hardtrance and hardcore, with former artists from all those genres pushing it most. At only 19 and 17 years old, Sjoerd and Wouter Janssen become some of the first completely new faces in the scene, delivering the smash hit Save the Day. The Showtek brand is born, and 8 years later it is going stronger than ever.

In those eight years between their first release and current time, Showtek accomplish things most colleagues could only dream of. After only five releases at Tr@nsenti@l and Q-Dance/ID&T, they start their own label: Dutch Master Works (DMW). Now in control of their own release scheme, their fame expands exponentially – not in the least due to their solo projects, Walt and Duro, and the Wouter + Zany project, Southstylers. The move also provides the opportunity to release an artist album, a first in the land of hardstyle. Today is Tomorrow sells out in mere days at most record shops – their strategy is a success.

After such massively popular releases as Seid Ihr Bereid, Puta Madre and FTS, the Dutch brothers have also gained a huge following abroad. Unsatisfied with the opportunities to please their fans worldwide, they decide to take the plunge and leave the almighty Platinum Agency. Together with none other than trance legend Marcel Woods, they kickstart the new 2-Dutch bookings office. “2-Dutch is a ‘platform’ for us. We never made it a secret that we want the focus to be on ourselves,  and to quote someone we respect very much but sadly do not meet anymore: “everyone is responsible for their own career”. We were the first ones to take this literally and merge music, merchandise, management and bookings all together. The point is to control everything, and that works for us. Leaving everything to others doesn’t get you to the top.” So if 2-Dutch is mainly a Showtek platform, is there an opportunity for other artists to join it as well? “In the future, who knows! It probably will happen, we’re always open-minded towards new artists and producers.”

Daring as it may be, the move again illustrates the brother’s strategic masterminds. During a lost moment on a plane, they calculate that just this July, they’ve spent 90 hours flying, catching up with bookings all over the globe. In the meantime, work is in progress on a second album, scheduled for release this fall. And combining production with being permanently on tour is not easy. “It can be very heavy at times, especially these days. Our summer schedule is totally madness. It’s hardly normal to spend only 5 nights out of 3 or 4 weeks at home. Combining everything is a hard job and time management and focus are very important to us. At times, we spend 80 to 90 hours per week on our job!”

With this rockstar-like amount of international gigs, certainly there must be some rockstar-like escapades going on behind the scenes. “Haha, yeah, there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in that Los Angeles video (www.showtek.nl, follow link to YouTube channel) – especially the women there were bizarre. Still, the USA aren’t the only country that goes nuts to our music. Some of our other favourites include the UK, Australia, Spain and Canada. On the other hand, except for the people going crazy, there’s not that much don’t-tell-my-mum stuff going on; lapdances and stripteases aren’t a weekly occurrence and drugs are simply not our thing. Besides that, they are out of the question at this level.”

With their crazed schedule and wild gigs, the guys certainly don’t have time for a family life, one might conclude. Much to the occasional observer’s surprise, however: “No, we actually value our social life a lot. We both have girlfriends and live together with them. Still, we really do live for the music. Our women often have a hard time at home… Take yesterday, for example, if we’re working on the album and we’re in a kind of flow, we’re not gonna stop. We ended up working till half pas three at night. Not really your average Monday night. And the next morning, we were already blasting the studio at half past 10 again. It’s all part of the game if you really want the sky to be the limit.”

Though they may seem unstoppable, Showtek’s success has also worked against them for years. Primarily in the Netherlands, certain people tend to criticize them for being too ‘commercial’ and ‘easy’, looking down upon tracks like FTS. The brothers, of course, think differently. “We don’t look upon it like that. Compare 10 negative comments on a forum to over 4 million hits on Youtube. Numbers don’t lie, and neither do dancefloors. Abroad, we can’t even get away with not playing FTS. People literally scream for it, and why? Our world has become so much bigger than it was two years ago. In the Netherlands, you can see your favourite artist every weekend, at every street corner. For us, it’s different now: with the places we visit being further and further apart, it’s like a mini-concert every time. Even in the Netherlands, people really come to see us, so they want to hear our ‘hits’, which happen to include FTS. If you’re going to see Madonna, you want to hear Like a Virgin just as well.”

Likewise, “What do you think made Tiësto so big? He had hits that were such high quality that they became radio/tv-worthy – not because he wanted them to be on there, but because they were just superb. They were accessible yet refreshing. And if we too can cross borders like that, why not? You can’t blame us if a track is received extremely well on the digital net!”

The guys’ stubborn attitude towards criticism clearly shows in their label’s repertoire. All music released on DMW is characterized by its distinctiveness and its lacking the ‘rules’ of modern nustyle. “You always have to keep doing what you like most”, is their simple comment on the matter. So what do they think about the current nustyle trend? “The worst thing is, it isn’t popular everywhere. In Denmark, dancefloors stop when overly nustyle records are played. In Melbourne, they don’t want to hear it either. Besides, it sounds so much the same that it’s hard to recognize a producer’s own style. We never really did hop on the nustyle bandwagon; not that it’s not important to keep evolving, but we always try to incorporate our own touch. Levi’s and G-Star trousers are also completely different, yet they follow the same yearly trends… To us, it’s the same in music, we do our thing out of love for music and because it feels right, not because it makes us look cool or because it’s trendy.”

So that is exactly what they want to do with the aforementioned new album, Analogue Players in a Digital World. The title is quite a familiar phrase, but why did the brothers choose it? “The world of music in which we live is a ‘digital world’. In that world, we are the ‘analogue’ players. Everything we do is digital, but we as human beings remain analogue. Especially with today’s technology, everything is so different. Everything used to be analogue: guitars, drums, all recorded by analogue means. These days, everything has been digitalized: kick & bass, melodies. We are the ‘players’ controlling all these buttons now.

Rounding up, there is of course a question that has been on every true fan’s mind for years. Why is Sjoerd bald when Wouter is not? The answer is simple. “Sjoerd has grandpa’s genes, Wouter doesn’t… Haha.”

And after this upfront question, Sjoerd & Wouter only have one more thing to say: “Buy the fucking album! Stay tuned on www.showtek.nl … Oh yeah… We love you crazy freaks over there! Cheers!”