Dutch electro extraordinaires W&W (real names: Willem van Hanegem & Ward van der Harst) sat down with edmsauce after their set at Electric Zoo, and we finally got to ask them the questions that fans have been wanting to know.
We feel very lucky to be Dutch DJs. In the Netherlands it's a very accepted scene, DJs are in commercials, on the radio, ever since we were kids. But it's never been celebrity like – it's very down to earth. Everyone helps the younger producers, there's not so much negativity toward each other. We've had amazing roles models, like Armin (van Buuren) and Ferry Corsten. And we hope we can give back as well, act as mentors to younger DJs one day.
We're still waiting for that moment! (laughs) We go home, we do our own laundry. We walk down the street, no one knows who we are. At festivals or shows its different, but really, we still don't feel any different or live much differently. In terms of memories though, the moment when we decided to make music full time and leave school, that was very important turning point.
We love playing festivals because the atmosphere is fantastic but also we get to see a lot of our friends [other DJs]. That big room, festival anthem sound is probably going to stay popular. I [Willem] wish other DJs would be a bit more different, but in some sense you have to play what the people want to hear and what will get the crowd excited. We have our own label [Mainstage Music] and we are always looking for unique producers. Some guys they can make amazing copies – basically, the same sort of tracks as everyone else – and we know those tracks will sell. But we'd rather have someone new, something crazy. We have a huge amount of respect for DJs who do that. Porter Robinson‘s new album. He could just be producing the bangers, he's good at that, the crowd loves them. When you do this with a new album people will find it a bit weird or too different, and you don't really know how people will react when you first put it out there.
When we're our tour we're together a lot; we're best friends and we ‘share a career' so we're very dependent on each other. To be honest we rarely have differences of opinion in the studio though. We're really very in sync most of the time. Sometimes he [Ward] is quite grumpy, he gets grumpy when we're on tour.
Here are some of our favorites from W&W, along with their live set from Electric Zoo 2014!
