The other night at Sutra in Costa Mesa, California I had the opportunity to talk to some of the Dutch Powerhouse DJs, Sunnery James and Ryan Marciano. Sunnery James and Ryan Marciano are known for their funky house and tribal sounds with their high-energy sets. These best friends took their electric energy worldwide.
Stevo: Hey guys, Have you been to Newport or Orange County before?
SJ & RM: 3 times, but only played here once, last time we only hung out here. But yeah we really love the energy here, it's really easy going.
Stevo: And you're from Netherlands?
SJ & RM: Yes Amsterdam
Stevo: How does it feel to come out here?
SJ & RM: Good we love the United States. First time we came out here was New York City about 6 years ago. Just hung out with some friends and then start playing here two to three years ago. We love the energy, the positivity and the open minded people.
Stevo: How's the scene different here in your opinion?
SJ & RM:The United States is a big country. In Europe we play 30 different concerts in a month, but it's a lot of the same people because of the small town. When we play in Orange County, people come from San Diego, LA and Orange County. It's always a lot of new faces here in the US since it's such a big country.
Stevo: So I know a little bit about how you got started together, but would you share with everyone how you got started?
SJ & RM: Yea I needed an internship and it was the last day I could get something before the school would kick me out and Sunner was working in a sports store and he hired me. We didn't know each other and ever since day 1 we had the same sense of humor and same taste in music. We never tried to be big djs but we just tried to play big parties, and then a buddy of mine gave us 50 euros to come and play a party just to help him out since he was a promoter. Then it seemed the Amsterdam party blew up and we were the main DJs around. So that's the short story.
Stevo: Are you collaborating with any other artists?
SJ & RM: Actually we're working on a lot of new stuff and we have about 15 new releases soon. We also have some collabs with Steve Angello and a few local DJs from Holland.
Stevo: Wasn't it Axwell or Steve Angello who compared you to Dutch Swedish House Mafia?
SJ & RM: Yea we were really happy to hear him say that about us.
Stevo: How's it feel being supported by Axwell and all of these big DJs?
SJ & RM: Well for awhile it was just one big party in Holland and we were doing it big with chuckie and a few other guys. We need to thank Steve Angello for picking us up. Steve Angello was the guy who picked us up internationally, so we want to thank him for that.
Stevo: We just saw you upload a new track on Spinnin' Records. It seems more Progressive House. Are you heading in a new direction?
SJ & RM: No no no no. Let me get this straight. When we produce we always think of our sets. When we play with Steve Angello, we need to make songs our own and a bit like different styles. We just needed a happy upbeat track. Our roots will remain the same.
Stevo: Seems like everyone is going trap, would you go that route?
SJ & RM:No, well you can't ever say never but probably not.
Stevo: When you're not doing music, what are you doing?
SJ & RM: We play some soccer, running, cooking and just chill out. Also we watch a lot of movies and Breaking Bad.
Stevo: Do you currently live in Netherlands?
SJ & RM: For the next months we are, but most of the time we live in New York.
Stevo: I saw you were at Sensation Taiwan how was that?
SJ & RM: It was my best Sensation yet. The funny thing about Asia and Taiwan is there really isn't any security. They don't have to worry about fighting or anything. Everyone is positive and it's really cool. Some guy asked if he could go on stage and security was like yeah sure. They tried to change up the sound a bit in Taiwan, which was fun for us.
Stevo: What's one of your favorite places to play at?
SJ & RM: South America and Brazil are always fun. Every time I play at Europe I love it and have fun. And there's some beautiful people there.
Stevo: Have you ever done a podcast or thinking about doing one?
SJ & RM: Well we're working on one and in about 2 months well start. We'll play some tech house and progressive but well make it very interesting for the listeners. We hear a lot of the same sounds on these podcasts and we really want to mix things up with ours. We really like Steve Aoki‘s podcast.
Stevo: Would you ever want to collaborate with Steve woke since you mentioned him?
SJ & RM: Yes we'd love to work with him, he's very open minded and would be a lot of fun to work with.
Thank you Sunnery James and Ryan Marciano! We encourage everyone to go and see this duo live as they tore it up!
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