At the age of 14, Afrojack (Nick Van Der Wall) started playing local clubs and bars while making extra income designing websites for fellow musicians. Now one of the most well-known DJ's in the world (and a regular in the DJ Mag Top 100), he's going to take matters into his own hands and build more than just websites.
Billboard reported this week that Afrojack decided to leave his manager, Hugo Langras, over “ethical and moral disagreements” at the beginning of September. Langras, from Dutch management company Montana ECI, stated that he denies “any moral or ethical disagreements,” citing “a business dispute” as their major conflict.
Afrojack has already moved towards a completely independent management agency, however. He wants to create his own firm and develop artists who can grow under his name.
“I already set up my own back office, so there's a group of great people around me that are helping out with social media, financial and legal stuff,” Afrojack told Billboard. “I'm really focused right now to create what I feel is necessary from a company standing by an artist and artist needs.”
Langras, meanwhile, claims that he is aware of this.
“I have no idea why they still use my name on the website,” he says. “I'm not supposed to say that, but, there you go. You can see for yourself.”
Langras released a statement confirming the activity. He also said:
“He is an amazing talent and a true visionary and I am certain he will be very successful. I am confident we will find a way to separate as friends.”
While their laywers settle the dispute, Afrojack seems very focused on the new agency already.
“You can't go to school to be an artist. Everything you learn, you learn as you go up,” Afrojack said.
“It's really good to be able to give the experience that I have to other artists, and where there are questions to actually given them answers. Because when I started and I had questions, there were never answers…
If you go on my social media, you see all the stuff I do. Getting into fancy hotels, the private jets, being like I'm so lucky that I get to play for tens of thousands of fans every night around the world. I know from my own experience how difficult it is to get in there and no one wants to share. Everyone's always scared about their own careers and worried about, ‘am I gonna make my millions next year?' I'm not worried about that shit. I just want to make it as fun as possible and give people the life that I've been given.”
Afrojack did not elaborate on the “moral and ethical” disagreement, however. We'll have to see how that unfolds.
Read the full story here.
Photo: Rukes
