I don’t think EDM is the ‘new pop’
7 March 2016 9:01 PM GMT
Electronic Dance Music is known to glam-up music festivals, discotheques and the current wave is taking over the pop music genre with intelligent mixing of sounds. Nick van de Wall, also known by his stage name Afrojack was here in the country for Sensation-White. In an interview with Millennium Post, he talked about the new sounds and genres that are developing across the world along with the potential EDM genre has. He also revealed his love for Hyderabadi Biryani.
Who inspires you the most?
I get my inspiration from all around the world. For the last five years, I’ve been traveling non-stop. Most of the time it starts with a melody inside my head and I immediately work on it on the road. Then I’ll finish it afterward in my studio. I follow my heart and my passions.
How tricky is it to shift between genres within EDM when one sub-genre has its potential exhausted?
Every hype comes and goes but I think the music always stays. Right now the entire music scene around the world is really interesting. You have a lot of new genres and sounds popping up, and this is something I’ve always been interested in. So right now, the music I’m working on is not just about making great songs or making great club tracks; my main focus is to make a sound that is not describable. I want to use instruments where you’re unable to tell what it is. In “Summer Thing!” when the beat drops in, I don’t know what to call those sounds, but they sound fun. I don’t think EDM is the ‘new pop’ because it’s not pop. I think its fanbase now includes people that probably used to listen to pop, or still do, but dance music will always have a different sound. If I wanted to be a successful EDM artist, I wouldn’t put 80 per cent of everything back into the show. I would be chilling, demanding 20 hotel rooms, playing for one-and-a-half hours and be miserable. But I don’t want to be an EDM artist - I want to make something that people can be proud of.
Do the emotions and mood reflect the kind of music that will are played during a performance?
Dance music is one of my biggest passions, but definitely not my only, I’ve produced a lot of records for other artists and this is also another hobby of mine. To me the most important thing about music is that it has to sound really fly. I just want the sonic experience to blow me away. When I’m working on a song I’m working more on the melodies and making sure that everything fits together, then I’m not necessarily too worried about the mix sounding insane! I want to make an album that the university kids and the elderly folk are going to enjoy. I don’t want to be remembered as an EDM artist - I want to make something that people can be proud of and take back a special memory.
How excited are you to perform at a new venue like Hyderabad which is just beginning to welcome artistes from around the world?
Hyderabad has grown multifold with every top artist wanting to visit the place. This isn’t my first time in Hyderabad. I love the energy of the fans. Hyderabad is as big as Mumbai, Goa, New Delhi and Bengaluru and it’s only going to get bigger. I love the Biryani there!
Finally, you have to tell me how you came up with your stage name Afrojack.
When I was a kid there was a gigantic afro on my head, so people always called me Afro, Jack is a word synonymous with dance music hailing from house music’s past.
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