Hailing from Amsterdam, The Him is a duo who is creating all kinds of buzz with their hit singles and remixes. Their sound is a crossover between indie, deep house, nu disco and pop. It's full of fresh, experimental sounds bound to make you move and wanting more. They released a huge track through Spinnin Records/Polydor back in August called ‘Drive You Home' which was a collaboration with Sam Feldt, and received very positive feedback. Also, they dropped official remixes for the likes of The Chainsmokers, Robin Schulz, Maroon 5, Adrian Lux, Solomon Grey, and Dotan which has also garnered global attention on various charts including two top 10s on Beatport. Just a few days ago they released their third original track called, ‘Feels Like Home' which has already been supported by the likes of Tiesto, Don Diablo, The Chainsmokers, Shaun Frank and more.
With just under 55,000 followers on SoundCloud and millions of plays, The Him have been supported and played by the some of the World’s biggest DJs including Tiësto, Martin Garrix, Oliver Heldens, and many more. With an ever growing fan base, The Him is a group you need know and keep an eye out for. I had a chance to ask the duo about their latest release ‘Feels Like Home', their inspiration, goals, how they came up with their name and many other questions. You can check out the full interview below.
You just released your third original ‘Feels like home'. How would you describe the track? What was the process like?
“The track for us is a combination of all the sounds we love at the moment. It’s got tropical influences, new vocalism sounds, and an indie vocal with a deep house foundation. So far we’re mostly known for our piano sound and, although we really love the piano, we wanted to do something different for this song. It started with the beautiful vocals of Son Mieux, which instantly gave the track a really good vibe. The idea for the lead sound was actually made in another track we were working on but we decided it fit much better in this one. We also wanted to try to make a cleaner drop this time because in the club a more sparse arrangement can sometimes hit that much harder.”
How did you guys both get into electronic music, remixing and producing?
Jeroen: “I was brought up with music from an early age, playing piano and violin. Then when I was getting out of high-school I was going to more nightclubs where they played a lot of techno and minimal. I loved the sound and so I started getting into DJing and making beats myself. One thing led to another and I got into bootlegging and doing some producing here and there.”
Steven: “At the age of 16 I began DJing in the Amsterdam club scene. When I hit 18 I decided that I wanted to know everything about music, so I bought a keyboard and pc and some old-school Headphones, and started producing. Because I was a big fan of Tiësto, I started with Trance, and then later switched to Techno and the last couple of years I’ve been making Deep House. Variation is good for the mind.”
Is there a story behind the name ‘The Him'? How did this come about?
“We were working on something in our studio in Amsterdam and weren’t really getting anywhere with the project. Sometimes when we’re stuck in the creative process we go out for a walk to get our minds off things. On one of those walks we got to talking about how cool it would be to have a studio in the middle of nowhere. We have this big nature area in Holland called ‘de hei’ (looking it up on Wikipedia translates this to ‘heath’/’heathland’). So we started joking about having a studio there. We didn’t have a name for our new project yet and somehow ‘hei’ stuck. We were looking for a name that would be simple, strong, and easy to pronounce. So then Steven said ‘The Him’ which is the English translation of ‘hij’ which also sounds like ‘hei’. We both loved it and so stuck with it…”
What else are you guys currently working on?
“We’ve got more original material coming up and are also busy with collabs. Maybe a really cool new remix too, but that's not confirmed yet.”
What are your goals for 2016?
“We’re working on and going to put out more original tracks in 2016 for sure, which we’re super excited to share with everybody (just like with ‘Feels Like Home’). Also more DJing so we can spread the word on what we’re doing, meet more of our fans and test out some of the new music we’ve been working on.”
Who or what inspires you?
“We get most inspired by listening and analyzing other music. That can be anything. From finding out the chords or how a melody works, to being totally mesmerized by how a certain sound or drum fill was made. There is always something new to be found when you listen to a piece of music.”
The Him on Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter
