One on One With Afrojack About Sticking to The Script, Skrillex, & A New Album

Afrojack has a lot on his plate when it comes to his career from holding down a residency in Las Vegas, working with David Guetta and Nicki Minaj on his new single “Hey Mama”, and traveling the world for sold out performances. He was listed as number 7 on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ’s of 2011, his 2010 entry into the poll at number 19 was the highest new entry of that year’s list, and he is currently ranked at number 9 on the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ’s of 2012. This guy is an EDM powerhouse and only continues to amaze by preparing to release his follow up to ‘Forget The World‘ early next year, and has released the first single from his new material, “SummerThing“! In an interview with Rolling Stone, he discusses his new album, sticking to his guns, and his connection with Skrillex.

Afrojack talks about how his new single “SummerThing!” was the song to get his new album started and explains in detail its creation.”I was going for a fun summer song. I’ve been working on a lot of different styles of music, but I think this is the one that was closest to myself and great for a first single. After you’re done with your first album, you have to start a new cycle, and this is the single to get to another album, basically.”

Afrojack – SummerThing! ft. Mike Taylor

He also explains his role on “Hey Mama” while working with David Guetta and Nicki Minaj.“I did all the mixing and the pre-masterings but also all the beats, all the crazy sounds you hear. Especially during Nicki’s verse, when she starts rapping. All those weird sounds, that’s what I do. But I think my biggest contribution was the beats, making it street.”

Afrojack explains how his efforts and approaches have been influenced by working on his debut album, ‘Forget The World’. “The first album, it was really difficult for me to have so many people and labels involved. It was a lot of pressure. Now, instead of what I did with the last album, accepting the pressure, I’m just choosing to ignore it and do whatever I feel is right. The main lesson I learned from my last album was trust your own instinct and follow your balls.”

Afrojack talks about one of his biggest influences in the current sounds that he’s interested in and mentions that he had a hand in getting Skrillex booked for the closing set at Ultra Music Festival. “The Skrillex sound, but more the hip-hop side of it.I really love the song that Skrillex did with Diplo, the Jack Ü song ‘Where Are Ü Now.’ It’s so weird, but still it’s a cool song. It’s indescribable. Skrillex is one of the few artists in the world where every time I hear his shit I’m like, ‘What is this?’ I saw his set at Ultra, and it was super amped. I’m good friends with Adam Russakoff, the guy that basically books all the DJs and runs all the legal stuff for Ultra, and he asked me who should close Ultra on the main stage on Sunday. I was like, ‘Dude, get Skrillex!’ You have all these EDM DJs, a lot of them play the same stuff, but every time I saw Skrillex he always came with new shit.”

Connect With Afrojack:

Website: http://afrojack.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/djafrojack
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/afrojack