#Dear DJDIARY, #Blasterjaxx Thursday, 4 September, 2014
The Dutch never cease to impress when it comes to house music.
Blasterjaxx’s, Thom Jongkind and Idir Makhlaf, well, they’re just another example of why the Dutch are so darn good.
This is #DJDIARYENTRY/13
The Blasterjaxx story is an interesting one. Back in 2010, Blasterjaxx hit the music industry but guess which current member wasn’t part of the Blasterjaxx label?
Yes, it was Idir.
The duo was made up of Thom and another producer. But due to “the personal chemistry between both producers decreasing” the duo headed for split ville. Da dun dun. It was all mutual though.
Thom saw potential in Blasterjaxx, but believed it could only work as a duo. And by 2012, Blasterjaxx was as we know it today, a pair consisting of Thom and Idir.
The Dutch-duo hit it off immediately and the birth to their unique sound soon followed.
Their Reborn EP produced in 2012 with D-Rashid would put them on the map.
In fact, their two tracks “Reborn” and “Where We Go” were so good that old pro Laidback Luke eagerly sought to sign the tracks to his own label, Mixmash Records. Not a bad day in the office.
And today, they live the DJ lifestyle. Festivals, clubs, travel, minimal sleep, you know the drill.
Constantly being on the go, the boys have worked on production in some odd spots, their number one pick:
“We sometimes finish some last edits or sometimes whole new drops, backstage, just a few minutes before going on stage,” the boys admit.
But when they do have pure studio time, a new track often takes flight like this:
“It mostly begins with the melody or a hook for the break, for us that’s the foundation for the theme of the track,” Blasterjaxx say. “We always produce our drops after we have produced the break.”
Traveling so often for gigs means deadlines can often become a problem.
In fact, time becomes so tight that many producers use the hours they spend on planes, at airports and in cars to work on music.
Just as an example, Blasterjaxx’s last podcast Maximize on Air Episode #013 was recorded on the plane. That sounds like a relaxing flight.
Even the best have trouble with deadlines.
"We have had some trouble with deadlines in the past, nowadays we have trouble with them sometimes,” the boys say. “The only difference is, now we won’t accept a remix if we think we can’t make it in time.”
Blasterjaxx visited Australia for the first time last year. They headlined some clubs but are yet to hit an Australian festival. And when they do, you’ll experience Big Room House, Electro-House and Dutch-House at its finest.
So we hit the boys with what we all want to know - Will we be seeing Blasterjaxx in Australia come end of 2014?
“We hope so! To be honest, we have no clue for gigs that are going to happen after the [European] summer, but we have the strong feeling we will be in ‘Aussie’ soon!” the boys hint.
Sounds good to us.
#DJDIARY Questions
Q: If you boys could sit in on any other producers studio time, who would it be and why?
Blasterjaxx: Ehm well… we would love to do a collab with Reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee, just because we like his music a lot and a collaboration with him would be an interesting project.