Getting Cheeky N’ Tweeky!

Da Tweekaz Talk Remixing Disney, #Tweekay 14 And Nailing Video Clips

When we think of the joyful emotions and enjoyment that hardstyle brings to many lives, an act that can appear on stage and generate a Mexican wave of smiles and music that bring out happiness in even the darkest souls, I think no other than one particular act. This act can get away with turning an S-Club 7 track on its head, make a lullaby in Norwegian danceable and can even successfully nail the art of remixing a Disney track! Face it, nobody would know the lyrics to Frozen inside and out if it weren’t for this act…

Let me introduce one crazy Norwegian duo that has the ability to make even the ‘toughest’ hardstyle critics buckle at the knees with their super-catchy melodies…
Da Tweekaz have been floating steadily around the world of hardstyle since 2007 and began unleashing their masterpieces under Dirty Workz in 2010. These guys are notorious for jumping up behind the decks in matching outfits (glasses inclusive) and showing even the toughest of crowds a fucking awesome time! Witnessing these guys in action is a must as they bring their unique persona to the forefront, not to mention their unbelievably catchy tunes that have the ability to get stuck in your head for days on end!

These guys have developed a light-hearted, yet strong sound that is delectable to the ears and most importantly, to the soul which has earned them spots on line-ups for some of the most exquisite hardstyle parties and a huge global fan-base. At the beginning of 2014, the duo announced an exciting and truly game-changing concept called #Tweekay 14. Not to mention, #Tweekay 14 saw the guys working incredibly hard to release one track every month accompanied by a killer video clip as well!

I was lucky enough to catch up with these two wild Norwegians to chat about their secrets behind remixing Disney, random facts about their everyday lives and their humble climb to the top of the hardstyle world.

**Fun as always – Da Tweekaz at the Hardstyle 2000 countdown**

1. Welcome guys and thanks for chatting with me! First of all, I just have to ask you about your glasses! At festivals and indoor parties isn’t it f*cking dark?!
At festivals it’s kind of nice to have glasses especially when it’s really sunny! The club gigs are the worst with glasses, there’s times where we struggle to find the right buttons! It’s a good thing that most of the buttons are lit up 😛

2. So has that ever ended badly for you guys?
Usually it’s girls boobs that fall over the DJ booth and hit the play or cue buttons! Such a shame… *Laughs* Oops!

3. Ah don’t you hate when that happens! Ha-ha. Anyway moving on, I want to chat a little bit about #Tweekay14. Guys, amazing job! One track and a video clip each month, how are you feeling about it now that you have finished the project?
Wow, it’s been an extremely busy year! We were really struggling to meet the deadlines, not for the tracks but for the video clips because there were so many things going wrong at the time! Luckily everything ended up going really well! The feedback has been so overwhelmingly positive on all of the tracks and we can really see that it has helped us a lot this year in terms of our fan base. We are so happy with the outcome! 🙂

4. Now just coming back to your video-clips. You guys have had some really cool and creative clips, especially for “Little Red Riding Hood,” how did you come up with these ideas?
Well I remember when we showed our distributor the title “Little Red Riding Hood” and he asked “Guys, seriously, how much weed do you smoke?!” *Laughs* Well we never smoke but the idea of “Little Red Riding Hood” is that it is a fairytale. Everybody knows the story of Red Riding Hood and we wanted to do a more grown up and modernised version of that so we thought “Hmm…What if Red Riding Hood kicks the fucking ass out of the wolf?” We wanted to use a modern context or a kind of Sin City atmosphere so we made the wolf a pedophile character… The ideas just happen and we go with it!
Also with the “Intermission” video clip, we made it as a pure pixelated cartoon. We’re both huge fans of old-school video games, so we thought, why not do that in the style of tweekay 14 video clip? For our videos, we worked with “Kontrol Media” who are really creative and did a great job!

5. Great! And to top this all off you’ve just announced that you’re releasing a limited edition CD “The Ultimate Collection” with TOFF Music, can you tell me a little bit more about this?
Yes, together with TOFF Music, we have decided to make only 250 copies of Tweekay 14! This includes all of the tracks from #Tweekay14 as well as all of the tracks that we made in 2014 including bootlegs, remixes and edits! It’s everything packed into one CD as well as a huge Tweekay 14 poster so it’s something very special for our core fans!

6. So you recently announced that you will be doing a show in Los Angeles this month (January) which will be your first time performing in the US. What are your expectations for this gig? What can the USA expect from you guys?
We’ve been working on our US visa for about seven months now and it was such a hard process! When you say that you’re a DJ and wanting to play in the USA they say “Well why can’t an American person do that instead?” You really need to bring something special in order to get the visa… However, as soon as we got the visa we got the Basscon gig confirmed and a few days ago we actually had another gig confirmed the day after in Minnesota so it’s going to be a hectic weekend. We hope to bring our energy packed show to the US and show them our euphoric and fun music and what we stand for!

7. Speaking of your euphoric style, I know that rawstyle is really popular these days, however you guys are staying true to your euphoric sound. What’s your opinion on the scene at the moment and why do you think that you still have such a huge fan base following you at the moment?
Well that’s a good question… There’s a lot of raw artists and there’s a lot of artists who are crossing over to a big-room house vibe. We’ve always wanted to stay true to what we like and what we want to do, combined with our performances on stage. We wouldn’t feel right if we started producing something even more ‘mainstream’ because you will be able to see on stage that we wouldn’t be enjoying ourselves whilst playing it! A lot of our fans like us out of respect because we don’t go with the flow of what’s trending – we stick to what we have always been doing. We just have fun on stage and we have fun doing what we do with our tracks! For example, the Taylor Swift bootleg, I mean, who the fuck puts Taylor Swift in hardstyle?! WE DO!

8. Speaking of bootlegs and “Frozen” in particular, it is no doubt that you guys mastered the art of spicing up a Disney classic to 150BPM – How was the response on this track?
It’s actually really funny when we play Frozen at festivals and events because you see these huge muscular guys singing “Let it go, let it go!” *Marcus singing in deep voice* It is AMAZING to see everybody singing along!

9. Just a bit of a random question, what did you guys eat for breakfast?
Marcus: I actually had one soft boiled egg and oats. I was very healthy today! This is where we get all of our energy from!
Kenth: I wasn’t as healthy as Marcus, I ate choco cereal with milk…

10. Very healthy! Okay, so speaking about dinner now, if you could eat dinner with one person dead or alive, who would it be?
Marcus: Robbin Williams, he’s always been an idol and was a very funny guy. We would talk about anything, he was a very diverse and intelligent guy!
Kenth: I would sit down with the producer of Prodigy. I have been a huge Prodigy fan for all of my life, I would really pick his brain!

11. So what is your opinion on Happy Hardcore?
We love it! A lot of people say that we are very inspired by UK Happy Hardcore and of course, we have always been huge fans of UK Happy Hardcore, which is why we did the remix of Darren Styles & Gammer’s “You & I.” Both of the guys are great and who knows, we might do something with them again! We are huge fans of them, they are huge idols and legends in UK Happy Hardcore scene which is unfortunately not popular at all in The Netherlands or Belgium for that matter.

12. One last question. Da Tweekaz. 2015. What have you got?!
We don’t know yet… *Laughs* No, we are working on a little concept at the moment which is not #Tweekay15 otherwise we would die of a heart attack if we continued it for another year! But we have some stuff coming up and I think that you will all be seeing more of us on social media very soon so keep your eyes out! 😉

Thanks to Da Tweekaz for chatting with me! We cannot wait to see what you have in store for 2015 and we wish you the very best for this coming year! Maybe another Disney bootleg?