DRS Interview

Hi all!

I am proud to present you guys yet another interview, this time with DRS! And I can promise, this one is inspriing one. He tells how he overcame various issues in his life and to be honest, he really deserves a medal and to be huge dj!

1. Hi, thanks for the interview! Let's start from the beginning. What are your musical influences and what lead you to the hardcore scene?

Yoww man! I've always liked any harder kind of music genres and I actually started listening hardcore at the age of 10 when a Dutch friend of mine moved into Belgium and told me about it. From that moment on I was addicted to the Hardcore music for sure. 

2. What inspired you to start making hardcore? 

Well, I never had a musical background. I always played soccer and was into boxing. One day I got injured in a fight and couldn’t go on with these hobbies. But besides this, also my dream of joining the army was suddenly gone. From this moment everything in my life turned upside down. My 4-year-old relationship suddenly came to an end, I lost my job and when my little brother was stabbed down this all together put me directly on the wrong pad in life again.

Than one year later at the end of December 2012, I totally collapsed and went into rehab for 2,5 months. This certainly was the darkest moment in life. And from this moment on I knew that I had to do something with my life. My father told me that I couldn’t go to hardcore parties anymore and that I had to search for a decent job, because he was afraid that I would use these drugs again. But this wasn’t possible for me because Hardcore was the only thing that kept me going. This made me start thinking. I had to find a way to make other people happy so I could feel useful again and I silently hoped this would eventually make me feel happy again as well. So I decided that I wanted to be a Hardcore DJ/Producer. 

3. You really had meteoric rise. How much did this change your life and view of the music of did it change it?

This completely changed my life. At first I always was like the black sheep in my family. Also In my daily life people always looked at me as if I was a criminal, racist or some kind of problem child. In the beginning of my career nobody believed in me becoming a DJ/Producer. So I locked myself up in the studio for 3 years, starting to teach myself how to produce music to prove everyone was wrong. During this period I worked as a mailman to finance my studio equipment. This was a hard time for me because all of my friends always where just chilling, they bought nice cars, went on vacations and started to live on their own while all of my time & money went into my music.

A lot of „friends” suddenly disappeared during this time. So it was me against the world, with nothing to lose. This all made me hard as f*ck. And than suddenly there was a moment of light.. I’ll never forget it: Francesco aka F.Noize told me he saw himself in me and he would support me. From this moment on I felt like I was unstoppable. I worked my ass of to get what I have now (which took a lot of energy and caused some medical problems). A few months later Michael aka Angernoizer contacted me. He wanted to have me in his BKJN team. This was my ultimate dream back than to sign at BKJN Bookings. So I signed and I still don't regret this choice.

Nowadays I feel like a lucky guy because I met the love of my life Beau aka Estasia, also I started my own record label “Triple Six Records” and now music is my fulltime job. It’s like I’m living the life I dreamed of back in the days at rehab. That doesn’t mean that I’m chilling my ass of right now.. These days I work harder than ever before. During the week I spend most of my time in the studio producing new music. In the weekends I play at parties in different countries all over the world. Together with my DRS crew (Pieter, Dieter, Gilles, Raymond, Klaas & Leander) and my agency "BKJN" we’re busy to realize our future goals. 

It’s just beautiful to see that I can make a lot of people happy with my music and that I was able to prove my family that I ain’t useless to them. That I’m able to give them the life they deserve is indescribably for me. Also all of those warriors sending me these nice supporting messages, asking for photos/signatures and travel over half the world just to see me play is just crazy. When I think about all of this, it still gives me goose bumps. 

4.  Where do you look for inspiration for a track?

My inspiration for music comes mostly from situations I’ve experienced in my personal life. I always want to bring a certain kind of a message to my warriors through my tracks. Something that could make them stronger in some kind of way. It should be a motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

5. How is the scene in Belgium?

The Hardcore scene in Belgium had some hard times but is growing again and harder than ever before. This thanks to a lot of new upcoming artists, party’s and young gabba’s who spread the virus. It’s nice to see that more and more Belgian people connect with each other because of Hardcore music. This music gives people strength, hope and the feeling that they belong somewhere. And because of this I know for sure that our Belgian scene will be getting bigger as well again. 

6. Uptempo is definitely on rise as well as Frenchcore. What is your view on this? Does it reflect somehow global situation that also music has gotten faster and harder?

According to me uptempo is the harder, faster and rougher kind of hardcore music. I think uptempo made a serious rise in the past 4/5 years because of all the new upcoming DJ’s/Producers who love to make this. New upcoming producers are trying to get seen and they all try it in a different kind of a way. In my opinion allot of music genres are getting harder. For instance when you look at the house music; a lot of House DJ’s are playing Hardstyle tracks in their mixes these days. And you should ask yourself why they are making it harder..? I think it’s all about creating some kind of adrenaline rush in the people.  

7. How did you get in terror?

Well to be honest, I really love terror but in the past recent years I didn’t like the most terror tracks anymore. And as everyone knows I always build up the tempo during my mix. So I needed some new terror tracks to mix in at the end of my sets. That’s why I started to produce them by my self. But I want to make one thing clear: I like terror but my heart still lies with the harder kind of uptempo music. That’s what I really love to do. 

8. What is your studio setup?

I work with:

• Ableton live 9 on a Macbook pro.
• An apollo audio interface 
• KRK Rokit 5 monitors 
• Akai synthesizer 
• DT 990 Pro Studio Headphones
• A Sh*t load of plugins  

9. What goals have you set yourself?

I’ve always wanted to make a track with my all time hero’s: Drokz & Angerfist!  

I also hope to get a chance one day to prove myself at one of the biggest hardcore events like:

• - Masters Of Hardcore
• - Thunderdome
• - Dominator
• - Defqon 1
• - Decibel Outdoor

10. What are your plans for the next year?

Playing in countries I’ve never been before. Making some new solo tracks and allot of new collaborations.

To name a few upcoming tracks:

• DRS ft. Mc Komplex - DRS Warriors
• DRS vs Partyraiser - Have A Good Time
• DRS vs F.Noize - Devil's Pray
• DRS vs The Vizitor - Hell Yeah
• DRS vs Estasia - DOPE
• DRS vs Dissoactive - Genius
• DRS vs Angernoizer - TBA 
• DRS vs Chaotic Hostility - TBA
• DRS vs Vandalism - TBA
• DRS vs NSD - TBA 
• DRS vs MBK - TBA

What could I say more.. Expect the unexpected.

11. Any advise for DJ’s/producers starting out?

Always do what you like to do no matter what others say.

Work so hard for it that people can’t ignore you anymore.

AND MOST IMPORTANT —> „NEVER SURRENDER!” 

Ohyeaah one more thing! 

If you would like to release a solo / collaboration track at @Triple Six Records, send your demo(’s) to the email address below:

triplesixrecords-demos@hotmail.com  

It doesn’t matter if you’re still an upcoming or experienced producer.

If we like the track, we’ll release it ! 

#DRS #ARMY #WORLDWIDE #BKJN

Thank you very much for the interview!

Grtz,

Junot DRS