22 Oct 2015 
Posted by Cassi Catsaros
Parenting, Jumpstyle & The ‘Legendary’ Highstreet – Mark With A K tells all.
When we think of Tek, our minds drift no further than one particular pioneering producer. Classified as the ‘Belgian God of hard dance,’ Mark With A K has worked his way up from being one of the original pioneers of the legendary club Highstreet, to playing at exquisite events such as Defqon.1, Reverze, Intents Festival, Decibel, Tomorrowland and many, many more. Always striving to put an intricate story behind his productions, MWAK has been recognised as a truly talented, open minded and down-to-Earth artist with undying passion for the hard dance scene. With well over a decade of experience in producing and performing, our favourite Belgian agreed to have a chat with us to educate our readers about Tek, talk about his personal life and about his heartwarming release “See Me Now.”
1. Hi Mark! Thanks for chatting with me today, first of all, how are you going?
I’m very good thanks! I’ve received loads of great comments on my new track which I’m extremely happy about. My bookings are also going great, so that’s something I’m also incredibly happy about.
2. I’d love to talk about your most recent track and video-clip “See Me Now,” it has such a deep story-line and seems like quite a personal track. Would you mind telling me a little more about it?
The track tells a personal story about me growing up and it’s something that I’ve been carrying over my head for many years now. When I was younger, my Dad never approved of anything I did and never showed me any appreciation; normally when you grow out of your teenage years this changes and you make amends, but my Dad unfortunately passed away when I was 17 so we never had the chance to set it straight. This is also the main reason why I’m quite critical of myself in everything I do and it sometimes feels as though I’m an underdog.
3. Did it bring up a lot of emotions when producing the track and doing the video-clip?
I was very scared of my dad because he was extremely strict and in the video-clip you see the actor who is playing my Dad holding an old school report of mine, I looked at it and saw his signature and it scared me, it felt as though he was there. When they shot the scenes with the child actor and the Dad it brought back a lot of emotions, I totally recognised myself standing there beside the table – it felt so realistic.
When I played the track for the first time at The Qontinent it was so hard, I even began to cry a little, it’s something that means a lot to me.
*Check out the video-clip for “See Me Now.”*
4. You just mentioned that you’re quite critical of yourself, do you feel as though it has its pros and cons with your music?
I think it’s mainly good because I keep on working on my tracks until they’re perfect. Of course, the downside is that it takes a lot of time and sometimes it can be a little frustrating if you get stuck in the middle of a track and want to get it perfect. Another thing I’m extremely critical about is songwriting – there’s been times where I have instrumentals laying around for over 6 months and there have been several amazing vocalists who have written something but it just doesn’t quite fit.
5. Another one of your biggest hits is undoubtedly “Music Is My Alibi” – what’s the story behind it?
The track is mainly about those who look down on hard dance music and think that those who listen to it all take drugs and are stupid. We do crazy things because of the music – not because of the ‘drugs’ or because we’re ‘stupid.’ We should be accepted for loving hard dance music!
6. For our readers who are unfamiliar with Tek/Jump can you describe the music a little further?
Hardstyle has that distorted kick and you also have the pitched kicks whereas Jump/Tek has the rounder kick with very little distortion – that’s the biggest difference. Within Tek you have that ‘bleepy’ sound as compared to Jump which has more of a melodic sound.
7. “Jumpstyle” used to be huge before hardstyle really came up, can you talk about the good old times?
Ah… The good old days! For 13 years I was a resident DJ in Highstreet, which is a night club in Belgium; I used to play all kinds of music from house to top 40. At a certain stage around 2005-2006 when Jumpstyle was getting pretty big, we decided to make the switch and within a matter of weeks the club was packed week in week out! At this stage I was already producing a little bit of Jump, however I never realised that there was a scene where I could play it all night. Those days were crazy, everyone loved the music and the whole ‘jumpstyle dance’ was pretty big, but unfortunately it faded away after its huge popularity.
8. Do you feel as though Tek is getting drowned out behind other hard dance genres?
When I play somewhere it’s always packed, but are they coming to see me or hear the genre itself? I’m not sure if people are more into certain artists or a style, maybe I’m wrong, but what I’ve noticed at festivals is that people move around a lot nowadays. Of course you have the fanatics who stay in the same place for the whole day, but I think there’s a lot of people now who want diversity and want to experience different DJ’s throughout the day.
9. Have you ever felt pressured to produce hardstyle to get more worldwide exposure?
I just make whatever I like and produce what I think sounds great; I don’t want to listen to people who pressure into getting more ‘publicity.’ For example, I like raw hardstyle, but it doesn’t mean that I have to go and produce it; I don’t want to be a clone of Warface or any other raw hardstyle producer. I strongly believe that you are who you are and that you should never hide it.
*Jumpstyle… Literally…*
10. What are your general thoughts on the hard dance scene and its music?
I think that it’s gone a little underground again. It was really popular a few years back with the commercial tracks such as “Lose My Mind” by Wildstylez and Brennan Heart, but now with the popularity of raw hardstyle it’s gone back to the underground. However, saying that, the festivals here are always packed, which is a really great – it means that we can preserve hard dance music for a long time. In terms of raw hardstyle, I really understand the movement because the music was just turning into 2 minutes worth of emotional breaks and 30 seconds of hard kicks. Hardstyle is made for dancing, so I understand producers who make a very emotional break but it has to keep on moving and euphoric hardstyle wasn’t really doing that anymore. I’m not dissing anyone or anything but I recognise that this isn’t what people want.
11. I recently saw on your Facebook page that you’re expecting your second child! Congratulations! How is it managing full-time music and also being a parent?
My wife is very understanding and gives me a lot of free time to produce, she also takes our daughter to school each morning, allowing me to sleep in after long nights! My studio is in the living room at home, so sometimes I’m making music whilst they’re watching TV. I mainly produce during the day whilst my daughter and wife are out, but they don’t seem to mind if I’m producing when they’re home.
12. Where do you hope to see Tek going within the next 1-5 years?
I have no idea, that’s the most difficult question you’ve asked me! Growth is always good, but I’m just going to keep doing what I love doing and see where it goes.
13. Who are some promising talents in jump/tek to keep an eye out on?
These days, having talent isn’t good enough anymore; you have to be a producer, be decent looking, be a good performer and DJ – it’s the whole package. Imagine if you have all of that, you still need another artist or organisation to believe in you and boost you. Nowadays for me, I really support Akyra, Remento and Lowriderz (even though they’ve moved away from jump/tek they’re very good producers and great guys).
14. Something a lot of people notice with Tek is that the kick is rather ‘hollow.’ How do you ensure that the kick has more substance?
I work very hard on my new kickdrum and I’m still evolving it, it’s extremely hard work. I still want to keep it jumpy and don’t want it to be a hardstyle kick. The funny thing is that back in the day there was one kickdrum going around and all of the producers were using it, it was a great kickdrum but people got bored. Nowadays, people focus a lot on working hard and creating their own sound, I think that’s a great thing and its evolving nicely.
*”Take me, as I am…”*
15. What has been your biggest achievement so far?
Professionally, that I’m able to live off what I love to do; that my hobby became my profession. It’s really amazing.
16. Which of your four albums was your favourite and why?
I love them all, I can’t pick! They all stand for a certain period of my life so it’s impossible to choose.
17. Can you tell me about some more upcoming productions?
Sure! I’m working on a remix for Bassanova, who is a house artist and is also remixing “See Me Now.” I’m also working on a new track with Chris Willis and I have two tracks that are 90% done. There’s a lot more coming up!
18. Finally, what did you eat for breakfast today?
I had bread with honey, I’m addicted to honey!
A huge thanks to Mark for chatting with us! We wish you the very best with the remainder of 2015 and can’t wait to hear your new tracks! For those who weren’t too familiar with Jump/Tek, we hope that you’ve learned something about the genre and are open to listening to it more often!
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