Aztech – Interview At The Hardstyle 2000 Countdown.

WE R Label Showcase

From the 28th of December until the 4th of January, Revulsion FM has done the honourable task of putting on the biggest countdown show consisting of the top 2000 hardstyle tracks of all time! This week isn’t only about the countdown however, there’s a lot to keep your eye on such as interviews, guest mixes and who could forget about the label showcases!

On Tuesday evening, we had the pleasure of inviting newcomers on WE R, Aztech into the studio. After their guest-mix, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Laurens and Sander (Aztech) to chat about their signing to WE R, their take on euphoric hardstyle and also some of their plans for 2015!

1. Welcome guys! Thanks for the set! First up, can you give me a little background story of Aztech, how you met and began producing music together?
Um.. We met at a birthday party about 2-3 years ago where we both had to do a DJ set. I was playing a hardstyle set (Sander)  and Laurens was playing a house set. We became friends and we visited a lot of parties together, we really liked the music so we decided to join forces! We began making tracks together and sending them around to artists and labels. The first track that we made was “Your Control” and after that, “The Tribe”.

2. You played quite a good mix between melodic and raw, is that balance something that you guys are aiming to achieve in your productions too?
We think it’s important to make something that people also like. Nowadays, the raw music is very popular, but if you mix up the sounds it can work very well. For example, Atmozfears does that a lot and we really like that, it works really well. If you produce only melodic tracks, it’s nice, however it may not work as well within DJ sets. We like a bit of both!

3. You guys only really kicked off in 2013 and were signed to WE R this year, how has the journey been so far?
It all happened so quick. We made “The Tribe” and “Your Control” and sent it to Brennan Heart via Twitter. He noticed that “The Tribe” was featuring Nikkita, who is a renowned vocalist – if she wasn’t featured in our track then we don’t think that he would have listened to it. A few weeks after that, Brennan Heart invited us to his house and after that it really kicked off, he was very happy with our tracks and invited us to WE R. In the next few months, expect to hear a lot of new tracks from us! We’ve been able to finish off four new tracks and we’re really excited about it 🙂

4. Release-wise, you’ve also had quite a good year and you just spoke about a few releases for the beginning of 2015, what are you hoping for within the whole year?
You can always aim for as many tracks as you can, but in the end the only thing that matters is that they are high quality. It takes a lot of time and we put a lot of effort into tracks, we just want the release to be awesome. Quality over quantity!

5. What is your dream collab?
With Noisecontrollers! He’s the best – it’s not a difficult one to choose. We listen to a lot of his music and aspire to produce our tracks on that level.

6. So far, which track of yours is your favourite?
The Tribe is definitely our favourite! We’re very happy about the result of the 2014 mix.

7. What did you guys eat for breakfast today?
Laurens: I don’t remember!

Sander: I think I ate a sandwich with cheese… I can’t really remember!

8. How are you guys finding life within the WE R family? Do you get lots of support from the other artists?
The guys are very busy and we don’t contact them that often. When we do speak to them however, they’re extremely supportive towards us. We do need to still prove ourselves and once we do that, the support from them will become more. Hopefully one day they need our support *Laughs*

9. Just coming back to your music. You guys do produce quite euphoric sounding tracks. At the moment, rawstyle is huge within the scene, do you feel that this market restricts you from creating very euphoric sounding tracks?
We think that raw is something that people on social media make a big deal about. There are still great euphoric parties such as Freaqshow and other Q-Dance parties with raw artists performing at the end. There’s a lot of social media control, people who comment on many posts tend to be fans of raw.

10. Finally, what are some of your new years resolutions?
Sander: Work-out more! *Laughs*
Other than that, we want to make some great tracks, have cool releases and more bookings!

Thanks to Aztech for the guest-mix and for the chat! I hope to be hearing more of these guys in the future! Also, a big thanks to WE R for their label showcase!

Stay tuned to Alive At Night for more interviews and updates from the Hardstyle 2000 countdown!