Afrojack's Global Remix Battle Is The Hogwarts For DJs

Hey, what's up, guys? We're hanging out with Afrojack. How's it going? What's up? I can't believe we're in your studio right now. This is so cool.

Oh yeah, it's it's nice. I like it here.

Your friends just call you Nick, right? I mean this. You don't call you Afrojack, right? I mean.

No. You can call me Nick. My name my name's Nick.

Right. So. Well, how'd you come up with the name Afrojack?

Well, my hair grows out, it becomes an afro. Yeah. So it's like like it used to like be very big. So people used to call me Afro. Yeah. And Jack's just something in house music. The secret of house music.

I love it. Now you started playing piano at what the age of five?

Yeah, but I sucked, though. Like I knew how to play a. Like. Then I didn't learn how to start actually playing the piano until I was like 23 or something.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Is that how Now I can like I can play it pretty decent. Pretty well.

Is that how you fell in love with music was starting with the piano or?

So my mom used to have a gym or like a dance school. So I'm like grown up in dance music and like people doing aerobics and street dance, hip hop, ballet. Yeah. Everything. So like it always surrounded me where like when the hip hop groups or the dancers had to perform, they had all these cool edits of the music and they're like really inspired me. And then when I was 11, I downloaded a music making program so I could edit music. And I was like so excited about putting that beat with that song and then using the other beat for another song, like basically remixing stuff.

So that's kind of how you learned to do it.

Yeah, but by accident, it was just for fun. Like I started producing when I was 11 and I didn't like really start thinking about, oh, yo, I want to do something with this until like 15.

Now when you play these big shows like Tomorrowland and Ultra, do you ever get nervous? That's so many people to perform in front of.

I don't really get nervous anymore, but it's like when when I do like the the performances for just my fans, it's like it's fun like they're my fans. So like we're about to have our own little party. Yeah. But we're playing a big stage, like you have no idea who's out there. Like you have like other DJs fans, you have like the live musicians fans. So it's not just your own fans there. Yeah. So everything you prepare, like you're not gonna be 100% certain everything's going to be spot on. So you're not really nervous.

Maybe you get up one day, like Afrojack. Get up. Yeah. And everyone's looking at you like Not anymore, man. Like you're so last year.

No way. It could happen. No way. They didn't but like, you know, you never know what happens when you go on the stage.

Sure. What would you say to the young aspiring DJs that want to be as successful as you someday?

Uh, work, work very, very hard and like uh, cancel everything else. Yeah. But it's not just about DJs. It's like with everything if you want to be really successful, you have to only do that. Yeah. Like all the way and prioritize it heavily.

I want to bring up your global remix battle too. You're searching for some new talent. Yes. So this is cool. How does this work?

Um, you go to afrojack. com, you sign up like if if you want to be a producer or a DJ. Yeah. And you you download the parts of one of my records, you remix it, and then you upload it, and then you fill in the description of like, who are you, where are you from, why are you doing this, like what's your dream? And we'll start going through the music. Yeah. But most importantly, we're also going to go through the words, because we really believe that like talent is not necessarily in the skill, but it's also in the mentality behind it. Like we're actually looking for people that we can sign and we can give the same opportunities we gave other DJs and producers before.

That's so exciting. I bet so many people are going to be applying for this and I'm so proud.

I hope so. It's it's like it's like a scholarship for dreams, basically. Yeah.

That's amazing. The school with Afrojack. You'll be the teacher, right? Right.

I'm actually working on something that I I can't say yet, but it's like it's like Hogwarts.

Hogwarts. Yes. Hogwarts with Afrojack. This is amazing. Okay, what are the clubs like there versus here? Like in Europe, it's probably so much cooler.

Very tiny.

They're tiny?

Yeah. Like 200 up to 1200 people. And then Yeah, you have like one, two big ones, like two, 3,000 people. But of course, like most of the clubs here didn't get where they started until like the EDM boom happened where there was also a lot of mass appeal.

But before we end the segment, I have to ask you, whenever I go to these festivals, I feel like I'm so awkward. What's like the appropriate way to dance? There's no there's no appropriate way.

just jump up and down.

Like when you're a DJ, do you look at people and you're like, nope, that is not the way to dance. People just getting all crazy.

Exactly, this is exactly this is the reason like, uh, why why people go to music festivals? Because there is no dress code. There is no certain way to dance. Like no disrespect to all the plur people, but like if you're like you don't have to be plur. Peace love unity respect. You don't have to have candy. You don't have to have a nice dress. You can also go in your. Like the only thing that it's about is freedom of expression and being who you are.