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Whether you went out last weekend to check out an uber-geeky beat magician or a depressingly awesome indie rock band, we all know there’s always some serious musical talents rocking around the Dam. You might not recognize them all yet, but don’t worry, you will soon. In this series of interviews we talk to remarkable artists about their music and their inspirations.
Chances are big that if you’re into house, in the broadest sense of the genre, you’ve danced on Detroit Swindle’s music before. I know I have many times and I will recommend it to anyone who asks. When I had a little chat and some fresh mint tea with too much honey with Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets I discovered that apart from having an impressive taste in music, they are really fun as well.
Let’s start off with a cliché question. Do you have New Year’s resolutions?
Lars: “Well, let me show you my app that helps me stop smoking!”
Is it going well?
L: “I’ve always been good at quitting, and beginning again. This time I’m really going to stick with it for a while.”
Maarten: “I never have New Year’s resolutions. I do look back at the year but I don’t smoke, don’t drink too much or do too much drugs. I don’t really have excesses that I feel I need to stop with. Maybe I should slap Lars more often though.”
L: “I’m doing it for the both of us, probably.”
Maarten, you just became a dad for the second time. Congrats! Does this influence your career?
M: “It influences everything, from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. You don’t just live for yourself anymore. And then I have my third child, Lars, who wants a lot of things as well of course.”
L: “Hold up, I’m your second wife!”
M: “I have to plan a lot more. When I’m on tour it’s easier to keep partying late. When I do that at home it’ll be a hell the next day, so that doesn’t help anybody. Luckily I have Lars who can tell me what it’s like to go out.”
Lars do you party longer than Maarten when you have a gig?
L: “Maarten sometimes drags me along with him in his seriousness, which might be a good thing. If nobody stops me I’ll just keep going. Maarten is my consciousness.”
You started a mix series recently. Why?
M: “It was mostly Lars his idea. It used to be done a lot but lately it seems artists think it’s too much trouble. We’re busy looking for new music every day so it’s a nice way to show people what we like and we get to make our fans happy every month.”
L: “Some artists like to be really elitist about their music. In the end it’s not about us, only a small part of those mixes consists out of our own music. It’s about giving attention to the cool stuff others are making.”
2015 is going to be a year filled with cool stuff for you guys. You’re expanding your label, Heist. Tell me more.
M: “We’re starting a side project with a different name (that we can’t tell you yet) where we’ll be releasing disco edits. It’s going to be vinyl only.”
L: “When you’re playing around with disco tunes a lot of fun things get created. Heist is for original work only so that’s why we’re creating its bastard son, a sub-label, for these disco edits. The first release will be in March. We’ll only press 500 copies and there will be no repress. So it’s going to be a fun gimmick.”
You’re party, The Great Escape, is going international. Why club Mint Club in Leeds?
M: “We’re having a lot of fun in Amsterdam and felt the need to put our own style and programming out there internationally as well. We’ve played at Mint Club many times before and we like the people there so it was a logical step. We’re looking at some other countries as well.”
But first the edition in Studio 80 next week. You invited Damiano von Erckert and Glenn Astro to play. Tell me about them, why do you like their sound?
M: “We play the broader sound of house, and Glenn does the same thing. He can easily play hip hop for an hour. The house he plays is just filthy and amazing.”
L: “He’s quite unique.”
M: “Damiano has a cleaner sound and has a good sense for sampling. He plays classic house uplifted to 2015.”
L: “We invited Fouk to play in the second room. These two boys from Nijmegen don’t play in Amsterdam a lot and we wanted to invite them for a long time now. They have a release on Heist coming up in April as well.”
You’re going on tour to Australia and Asia as well. Are you exited?
M: “Yeah! We went on tour last year as well. This year we’re going to Tokyo for the first time which is a wet dream.”
L: “It’s so far away from everything. Financially it’s not handy but it broadens everything we do. The flight is 25 hours long, a real killer. We’ll just take a lot of sleeping pills.”
M: “The scene in Brisbane for example is a lot smaller but there are a lot of music lovers. There’s a pretty cool scene in Australia, ánd it’s summer there. We’ll be spending a lot of time on the beach.”
And finally, can you give me an example of a track that you loved when you first started and still play today?
L: “I played this track from Steve Rachmad back in the days when I still played techno, when I was about 18 years old. I gave the biggest part of my record collection away which I still regret. I came across this record again and I’ve been playing it a lot again.”
M: “I bought this record when it came out. It’s not necessarily his most famous release, like Deep Burnt, but this one jumped out for me. Damn, that contrariness of the hi hat which makes you feel the record is lagging behind just gives me goosebumps. There are so many layers and textures to this track.”
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