19 Aug 2015 
Posted by Cassi Catsaros
This Summer, the Dutch festival season has had a bright and fresh international addition to many lineups; two crazy Canadians who together, go by the name Crisis Era. Hailing from Vancouver, the guys jumped on a long-haul flight in June and have been spreading their charm on crowds in The Netherlands ever since. Not only notorious for tearing it up at their shows, but Crisis Era have also been spotted in the studio working with pioneers and gaining a plethora of positive support from WE R legend Brennan Heart. We decided to catch up with the guys to chat about some crazy drunk shenanigans, the development of their sound and some of their upcoming music!
1. Hey guys, thanks for the interview! First of all, how are you going today?
Hungry.
2. Let’s get down to business, since the end of June you’ve been on your very first tour which took you throughout NL, how has it all been so far?
It has been next gen, we’ve had a lot of great times with friends, fans and colleagues and we are already planning things for next years return!
3. Can you tell me some funny stories from your tour?
Alicante. That is all.
4. What has been your favourite event over here?
Our favourite event has to be Dance Valley! Mostly because of the the free food… Seriously, the food at the backstage lounge was epic…
5. Netherlands stands for pancakes, prostitutes and weed – have these been a regular occurrence for you?
We sure love pancakes 😀
6. Speaking more about Dutch food, what traditional foods have you tried?
We basically live on potato salad… Oh and Frikandel!
7. Have you learned any naughty Dutch words?
First phrase for us was “neuken in de keuken.”
8. Anyway, let’s get down to the music – you guys announced collabs with Brennan Heart and Omegatypez, can you tell us about the other four?
At this moment we can’t tell you about all of them but we sure have been spending a lot of time in the studio with Code Black and Wasted Penguinz 😉 *hint hint*
**Crisis Era, Outbreak, Code Black & Brennan Heart @ HDE Live 2014**
9. And what about solo tracks? Whose studio have you been working in?
Although our collabs are taking most of our time, we’ve got a new solo banger ready to be previewed soon. It was played at Decibel 2015 for the first time and we have real high hopes for it! Apart from that, we also we have a few remixes to do. Basically there is not enough coffee in the world… In terms of studio space we have set up a temporary place for ourselves in Tilburg.
10. You guys are known for being quite the jokers on social media, why is it important to let your true personality shine to your fans?
We feel that it’s really important for our fans to know exactly who we are in real life. We don’t want to bullshit people, we would rather be able to connect with them on more of a personal level. We consider our fans to be our friends in a really strange but cool way. *laughs* Besides, music is a way of expressing yourself and if you are fake online then you best believe your music will reflect that.
11. What are some other ways you like to connect with your fans?
For one, we have made an effort to meet up with many of our European fans at the festivals we’ve been to while we are here. We’ve shared beers, conversations and have given away a bunch of free merchandise! Besides that, we often have interactive contests and giveaways on our social media and try to respond to as many comments and questions as we can!
12. Hailing from Canada, hardstyle is growing in popularity there. Can you tell me a little bit more about the scene there?
Canada is a huge country, basically the same size as Europe! This can make it harder to develop a music scene, however we do have a few major cities that are supporting hardstyle in a big way. The fan base is extremely dedicated and the countless A-list DJ’s who get flown over to play there really notice it!
13. How is the Canadian scene different from the Dutch scene?
There are two main differences that we notice. The first is that in general, the Canadian crowd shows just a little more excitement on the dance floor. This is mainly because for many people hardstyle is a very new thing and everyone can relate to the excitement of discovering something new! The second is for underground music genres such as hardstyle, the events still have a 90’s “rave” feeling. A typical Dutch fan would be blown away by the amount of crazy costumes not to mention exposed skin at a North American party :D.
14. Can you tell me a little bit more about your friendship with the Psyko Punkz?
Where to begin.. We first started developing a friendship with these guys in our hometown. They would fly over for shows where we would also be playing, and naturally we would all party *laughs*. As it is with all friends, we immediately clicked from the beginning; it’s actually really funny how much we have in common.
15. Music-wise you guys have a pretty broad range of tracks, are you hoping to keep your music versatile or settle down to a certain ‘sound?’
We aren’t locked into any style or sound and we don’t want to be. To us, one of the best feelings is playing new music live and getting a great response, that is why we strive to make party music. Eventually we think our sound will settle down to it’s own certain style without having to have borders of “raw” or “euphoric” or whatever. When you hear our new tracks, we think you will be able to understand what we mean ;).
16. Where is the strangest place you’ve ever woken up after a night out?
Matt: I’ve only really blacked out once, which was 4 years ago. Long story short, it was a good friends birthday party on a beach, 20+ (kind of lost count after 15) shots of Bacardi 151 later I woke up in a de-tox clinic with no phone, $200 cash in my pocket, blood down one side of my shirt and mud down the other. They said the cops brought me in around 2 am… last thing I remembered was taking a piss around 9pm. I still have handcuff marks on my wrist hahaha.
Silas: Your place ^^
17. What’s your favourite drinking game?
Flip a coin… “Heads” you drink, “Tails” you drink. It’s a fun game.
18. If you only had 24 hours to live, how would you spend it?
By now if you’re still reading, you would probably think the answer would be crazy AF like highjacking a supply plane and driving a stolen Ferrari out of it, then wingsuiting out of the window towards destination unknown while screaming “YOLO!!”
However, as much fun as that would be, it is not the case… Both of us would be spending time with our families.
At the core of all important things lies your family, it is the way it has always been, before all the artificial games society put in front of us for distraction. All the things we think are important now would crumble if you only had 24 hours to live, and what will be left are the people who are close to you. We would not be ready to leave the world without giving them proper closure, it is not fair to them. But let’s hope that day doesn’t come for a while, we still have a lot of music to make for you all!
19. Finally, what did you guys eat for breakfast?
Were not usually awake when its breakfast time (haha).
Thanks for chatting with me guys! We wish you all the fun times in the world in the remainder of your European tour and hope to catch you guys back here soon!
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