Trance, big room, electro house and even happy hardcore; you name it, W&W have produced it. This duo not only has a wide range of production styles, but they put on some of the most explosive sets you’ll ever witness.
It’s no wonder these guys reign supreme at the helm of mainstages around the world with recent hits like ‘Matrix’ and ‘Ready to Rave’ and throwback tunes such as ‘Invasion’ and ‘Mustang’. They have an endless portfolio of festival bangers that have the crowd under their control. No matter what time of day Ward and Willem are playing, the crowd’s energy is always at its peak.
We had the opportunity to have a few words with the electrifying duo, W&W and we asked him the questions that you want the answers to.
FMF: One thing I really love about you guys is that your productions span across several genres (trance, electro house, big room house and even happy hardcore). How do you decide what direction you want to go in when you get into the studio?
W&W: We always get inspired by a lot of different genres. Before we start a song we don’t really know what kind we want to make. We just made setups and then see in which genre it would fit most. But we also always want to make sure it has our own signature sound
You two obviously work extremely well together, whether it’s in the studio or on the stage. How did you meet each other and how did W&W begin?
We met through a mutual friend, who used to be Willem’s neighbor. First we just became friends who both loved music and DJing and producing. Later, we decided to also make music together, which instantly was a lot better than anything we made solo before. The rest is history.
We’re very happy that you got into this line of work. But if you hadn’t started producing music, what careers would both of you have now?
Willem – Maybe a soccer player.
Ward – Cook.
You recently rebranded your label to become ‘Rave Culture’ and I really love this title. How did you come up with this idea? What is “rave culture” to you?
Our previous label MainStage had a really strong following, like a community, it almost felt like a culture. So we thought the name Rave Culture would fit a lot better. Also, we are going to host stages at festivals, and “MainStage” isn’t really the ideal name haha!!
Over the past couple years, you’ve been performing as and producing tracks under your trance alias, NWYR. What can we expect from NWYR in 2019?
There are two NWYR shows planned right now, ASOT 900 in California and Tomorrowland in Belgium. We have a huge amount of new NWYR music; originals and remixes, so it’s going to be a busy year for NWYR.
I ask this question a lot because every trance producer seems to have a different perspective of the genre and what it means to them. What does trance mean to you?
Trance is the genre that got us both into dance music. We love the emotion and energy from it. With NWYR we try to bring you the kind of trance that made us fall in love with music.
2019 has already been an incredible year for you guys with several new track releases and performances around the globe. Are there any upcoming shows that you’re particularly excited about? Where else can we see you perform in 2019?
The entire summer in general is something we look forward to a lot! A few festivals we’re always looking forward to are Tomorrowland, World Club Dome, Parookaville etc. There are too many to mention really!!
Thank you, Ward! Thank you, Willem! We can’t wait to see you rocking the stages and taking control of the crowds this summer!
*Featured image via W&W*
