Why All The Splits? – Duo Dynamics Explained

This week, the hardstyle scene has been shaken by not one, but two splits! Yep, it’s been all about splits! After being together since 2009 and seeing the release of two stellar albums together, talented duo Phuture Noize announced on Tuesday that they will no longer continue the act together and earlier today, recently formed duo Pherato announced their split. With Pherato only being players in the scene for less than one year, it’s a little unfortunate to see a duo end so soon after they signed to a label.

When Phuture Noize announced their split, new front-man Marco was bombarded with comments such as “Nooooooo. This is so sad” or “Oh here we go again,” as if he had just announced that he moved to producing house. Little does the public realise that in two weeks everyone will already be used to it. Take Noisecontrollers as a prime example, weeks after Bas took on the act solo, it was as if he was meant to be the leading man all along; the productions had not changed a bit and 99% of the time when a duo splits up this is the case. Another prime example is Toneshifterz, it’s hard to imagine them as a duo mainly because these splits happen for the best for both parties.

Splitting up and moving separate ways is a part of life and this concept doesn’t fall short in the music industry either. Usually these splits occur in favour of both parties and although it takes both candidates to find their feet again in their solo ventures, in the long run these things do occur for the greater good. For example, if Atmozfears was still (three or two) people I doubt they’d reach the Qlimax stage and other headlining positions in such a short amount of time and have such a impressive discography like front-man Tim holds today.

Don’t get me wrong, duos can be very beneficial in many ways, for example, if a producer has a job or school-work to do and simply doesn’t have time for social media marketing, administrative tasks or even being on stage, they may combine forces with someone who has a similar vision on music, has the same career prospects and has the time to do these tasks.  Saying this, it’s not wise to just team up with some guy you met on a forum or a random bedroom producer you came across in the campsite of Defqon.1 – duo’s must be done right.

Some successful duos to look at:

Da Tweekaz
Norwegian duo Da Tweekaz are one of the most successful duo’s in my eyes. With both guys having immense production skills and a similar musical vision to each other, these two crazy Scandinavians are seriously a musical match made in heaven. With two of them, productions are on point and also their presence to the public eye is very strong. In other words, if there was only one Tweeka it just wouldn’t be the same…

Frequencerz
In the scene since 2009, Frequencerz combine the very best of both worlds when it comes to producing and DJing. These guys have been making huge waves in the scene, when you watch them on stage you can feel the great atmosphere between them. Again, this is a duo that I couldn’t imagine splitting – they have their priorities in order.

D-Block & S-te-Fan
This duo are one of the most perfect fits that the hardstyle scene has ever seen and I could never imagine DBSTF as one person. They’ve grown so successfully together and not to mention, their image is on point! For young duo’s – you should look at DBSTF and how they work when figuring out your future.

Warface
Working with an open approach to their duo dynamics, producer Remco and Youri have made their collaboration work quite well. Usually these kinds of duo’s get a lot of backlash from the public but as the guys have been honest from the beginning, they’ve been able to grow very successfully in the scene.

Tips for upcoming ‘duos’

For all the aspiring producers or DJ’s out there – before you close this page, here’s some things that you should definitely take in before teaming up with somebody in your musical career. We’ve composed a few tips and things to think about before you go ‘tying’ that professional knot with a prospective partner in crime.

Know each other:
How well do you really know your prospective partner? Do they just want to team up in a duo to come along for the ride and get to be a part of the scene or do they have a burning desire to create the most incredible music that man-kind has heard. Before jumping into any arrangements you should always know your partner, from their annoying flaws to their best qualities – you should know every detail about them. This will prevent any personal conflicts from happening later down the track.

Compatibility:
You know those people who just… fit? Well, the most successful duo’s in the music industry are those guys who have great chemistry in the studio, on stage and also in real life. Your ideas and visions should also be correspondent to one another and you should literally fill in spots that the other is unable to.

Are you committed?
A duo is pretty much a business deal and both parties are expected to put in an equal amount of effort to the act. Both people in the duo should always sit down and talk about their vision, where they see themselves in a few years time and schedule an equal amount of work between themselves. Knowing that someone else isn’t going to flake on you after a few years is a great peace of mind to have and being able to count on someone to pull their weight is a reliance that all successful duo’s should have. You should never jump into a duo with somebody for the sake of it or because you don’t know how to get started on your own – this can seriously backfire on you later when the other person stops putting in the hours.

Follow these simple tips so that you don’t end up like these bananas.

Banana split… Literally…