Afrojack has little introduction needed at this point. In recent years Afrojack has been placed on the Forbes ‘30 Under 30’, while also being named one of the 50 Most Important People in EDM by Rolling Stone, his achievements are nothing short of breathtaking. Nowadays he is still focused on his music and continues to give everything he’s got, pushing music in bold new directions and at the same time, he is putting a lot of effort into his label Wall Recordings by giving up and coming artists a platform. With his new single being released, we had the pleasure of speaking with Afrojack.
Hey Afrojack, thanks for speaking with us! You just dropped your new single alongside Dubvision and Lucas & Steve, how happy are you with the finished product?
I’m very happy. I’m very happy. It’s not a song that I would regularly do, but it’s fun to do this with them, they’re great producers, of course, and then they have a very distinct sound so for me it’s a lot of fun to be on this song with them together.
It’s not the first time you’ve worked with Dubvision but it is the first you’ve worked with Lucas & Steve. How do you feel they added to the single compared to your previous collaborations with Dubvision?
I think Lucas and Steve really provide the life aspect, they have a very, very certain vision about their music. When we started to ask them to work on the song, they added like 100 stems. It was insane, guitars, backing vocals, millions, millions of things which not usually the way I work, I always believed like it should be as simple as possible but those guys are like more and more and more and more and more. So it was very interesting to hear so many things. And I do think a lot of the stuff that they did really added to the song.
You recently played this song live for the first time at UNTOLD. How was it to be =back in front of a live crowd?
It was amazing, it was unreal. It made me realize I’m really a DJ in my blood. Like I love producing, I love DJing but DJing is like in my blood, it’s like driving a car. I have to do it and hard and fast.
What did you miss the most about being on stage?
The people. Being with the people and being able to take them on a journey and in one point you can sort of gauge their expectation and bring a song that they did not expect that they like, being able to do this, like oh I’m about to play turn up the speakers now, they’re not gonna see it coming, they’re gonna love it. It’s like you have a conversation with someone and then then comes the punch line and they laugh and I did my job, I’m happy.
We last spoke in May just before your performance at the Eurovision song contest. How do you feel that performance went?
Honestly, I thought it went amazing and it was amazing to do and to participate in, to make the show. Now when I look back at it, It’s so big but at the same time for me as an artist, it wasn’t a huge priority for my career, like my priority for my career is DJing in front of people. So it was amazing to do this TV show and to make it, and it was fun, and I learned a lot and it was very cool. But like, yeah, it’s not like, now I can do this every day of my life. No, it’s like, go back to DJing, that’s what I do. So, it was amazing, it was fun. I’m happy to people liked it I saw a lot of very good comments on YouTube, and I’m very proud of that. It’s a fun vacation, but DJing is my day job, DJing is my life.
Back in May, you also said you were saving a lot of special tunes for the return of festivals, is ‘Anywhere With You’ the beginning of those?
I care very much for Dubvision and Lucas & Steve that this song becomes an international hit because it could really bump their situation but it’s more their sound than my sound, you know. So for me, it’s like, it’s a great song, I hope it works but what I’m excited about is preparing my set for EDC next month, and my set for Ultra Music Festival 2022 because that’s where the DJing aspect comes. This is my highest priority, it’s not the singles, it’s not the streams, it’s not the promotion, it’s not the TV, it’s really the dancefloor, that’s where my head is at right now.
Speaking of dancefloors, you recently launched the Never Sleeps project with Chico Rose. Tell me a little about why this project has begun.
I really wanted to make a project that was based for the dancefloor, so all the music does not care about, if it’s relevant, if the artist is relevant if the genre is relevant, the relevance is not necessarily, credibility does not matter, it’s just about the music. You go to the floor, and like the song or you don’t like the song, and I really noticed there was a need for that because everyone became so online success dependent so people started focusing on their likes on Instagram, so let’s just do music. And that’s what we tried to do with the Never Sleeps label.
You recently brought back to life your Kapuchon alias also. How did it feel to bring this old sound of yours back after so many years?
It’s amazing. Initially, Kapuchon was in the genres of house, tech house, techno, anything I felt like basically. but the great thing was that Kapuchon showed Afrojack fans, or just people in general, that I have a lot of affiliation, a lot of passion for this type of music. And then when I did the DJMag set a few weeks ago I played like 80%, 90% house music, and no one in the comments was saying why is Afrojack playing house music, it made sense. And for me, it is very important because I love this type of music and I don’t want people to get surprised if I’m playing this type of music, right like where’s the festival music, it’s a stream, relax and enjoy.
How important do you feel it is to branch out and try different styles as an artist?
Do what you feel. There will always be managers and labels pressuring you to add a certain level of success, which could force you to make weird sounds or weird step-outs. And I tried it, but I learned very well to always try, but also be honest with yourself if something is not your thing.
Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us!
Thank you!
Check out the official music video for ‘Anywhere With You’ below.
