Dutch duo The Him have made some serious noise with their debut original track ‘Feels Like Home' several month ago, and now it's time for the follow up. In my opinion, the track that follows the first original, especially one that has been extremely successful, is the most important. Released on Monday, the track is called ‘Don't Leave Without Me' and features the beautiful vocals from Gia Koka. The track is of the deep house variety but features a trap/future bass influenced drop, along with several hints of nu disco. It's a very catchy tack with a super infectious beat that is perfectly designed for the summer.
“We wanted to make a track that still had the same sort of vibe that people know us for, but then also make it completely different from anything we’ve done so far. We had a lot of discussion about what it should be because we didn’t want to let our fans down, and in the end we’re so excited about the result and really hope everyone will love it as much as we do”.
-The Him
Scrolling through the comments on Soundcloud there is nothing but positive feedback on the track, and I must agree 100% with everyone. The Him knocked this track out of the park, and did exactly what you have to do on the follow up of the huge hit ‘Feels Like Home'. There is no doubt in my mind that ‘Don't Leave Without Me' will be supported by the World's best DJ's and a favorite with fans alike. Check out the track below along with a short interview I conducted with the duo. Enjoy!
With the success of ‘Feels like home', Do you guys feel any added pressure?
“When we released ‘Feels Like Home’ we had no idea it was gonna be such a big success. We were so happy with the response but then of course soon started to think how we would follow it up. We definitely felt the added pressure of more attention and people wondering what we were gonna do next, but like always we just hit the studio and try to focus on making music that we love”.
Talk a little bit about ‘Don't Leave Without Me' and how this track came together.
“The track’s verses stemmed from this old 80’s percussion loop, which then helped give the entire song its vibe. We also love to tweak vocal samples and make crazy leads out of those, so we experimented a bit and came up with the lead line. We made a complete flip on the drop and combined the worlds of trap/futurebass with deep house. It’s basically a mix of the music styles we are listening to ourselves at this moment”.
The vocals from Gia Koka fit perfectly. How did the vocals come together on this one? Who came up with the lyrics on the track?
“Gia is so freaking awesome, her voice is amazing! And thankfully, through this group of super talented Dutch songwriters we know, we got connected with her. At the time we asked them if they had any vocals that we could work on and they sent us ‘Don’t Leave Without Me’. Of course we went crazy, and told them we had to have it. A couple of days later they sent us the a capella and we immediately started making a new production around it. We rerecorded the vocals with Gia in our studio last month and are pretty happy with the end result”.
When you guys start working on another track, where do you get your inspiration from? Is it other artists? Places?
“Most of the time we love getting vocals/a cappella and creating the track around that. We like to get inspired by the lyrics and match the vibe to what’s being sung. And of course we get very inspired by the music we hear from artists that we know and hear on the radio. Though with Steven constantly searching/listening/reading anything and everything music related on the internet, we also try to seek out lesser known artists to get inspired by”.
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