Behind The Scenes With W&W

During ADE we sat down with two of the biggest DJ users of 1001tracklists, W&W! We had the unique opportunity to talk to them and their manager, Sander, to get an exclusive behind the scenes look at W&W’s workflow, recent productions, and process leading up to a release. The guys, excited about their future, highlighted some artists on their Mainstage label to watch out for and discussed their upcoming collaboration with Hardwell. They also shed some interesting insight into their just released track, “ Caribbean Rave .”

The hype around "Caribbean Rave" continues to build. What was it like working with Eva on that track?

Willem : It's not with Eva, that's the thing.

Ward : Even though it says that everywhere.

Willem : At first it said W&W vs. Rihanna and now it says Eva everywhere, but really it's not. It's the same singer as "How Many"!

How did you guys get connected with her?

Willem : Well Sander got us connected and we always have ideas for what we want with the vocal, and she nails it every time!

Ward : Like first take, they sent it back to us, and we were like, "Yes this is so good!"

Willem : So many people were asking for that song, but we really felt it needed a vocal or something. It's coming though!

You guys have been using it as your intro track a lot recently, right?

Ward : Yeah, it's been great, but now that it's about to get released we are going to switch it.

Willem : I feel like people see one of our live sets and then they want that intro because they've seen it and then they want to experience the same!

You've told us before about how fast you guys are at making bootlegs and remixes. How did your Martin Garrix - "In The Name Of Love" remix come to be?

Willem : We were just on the road somewhere and worked on it. We've liked the track from the beginning, but felt anyone could just play the original song so we made our bootleg!

How about your "Hymn For The Weekend" Remix?

Willem : That's basically the same as the Martin Garrix remix, we loved the original song.

Ward : But that one was made in the studio.

Willem : The original is not playable in our set so we just made a bootleg.

Ward : It helps to keep our sets interesting.

Willem : Plus when you are at a festival, a lot of people play the same kind of records, but we felt like not many people have heard "Hymn For The Weekend" so our bootleg is a good way to keep things interesting.

What can you tell us about the edit of "Dominator" that you guys like to play?

Willem : Well actually, that's Armin's edit of "Dominator." We were lucky that he shared it with us. It's only Armin and us who have it.

Yesterday you guys played in a tram, right? What was that like?

Ward : Yup, we played in the tram before Julian Jordan. It was crazy because it was so shaky.

Willem : We totally forgot that when the tram is driving you go all directions [sways left to right]. And the CDJs were swaying. We had to hold one while the other was playing. When the crowd was going crazy, you felt the whole tram going up and down.

Ward : It felt like the tram was going to go off its tracks! Overall it was really cool and quite a production - they even had confetti cannons and CO2 and the sound was pretty good!

What's the experience like playing at AMF each year?

Ward: It's probably one of the biggest arenas there is.

Willem: Our music is designed for the biggest stage and biggest arenas so for us it's perfect! Can't wait!

What Mainstage artists do you think we should be on the lookout for?

Willem : Maurice West. He's been killing it lately. Every few weeks he's got a new song and they're always good. TWIIG too. I think they are going to keep growing and they have a few big records coming up.

Ward : The thing with them is they are really quick and really motivated. They work and they make music. They send really cool tracks every couple of weeks, same as Maurice.

Willem : And we love to be involved with those guys suggesting things they could do and tweaks they could make.

What can you say about your own new music on the horizon?

Willem : We have a new collab with Hardwell coming out in November probably. And then in December, our song "What You Need" is coming.

I was going to ask you about that track!

Willem : The funny thing is, what we play right now is all that we have. We love the part we play so much, but we can't release that. We need to make it a full song.

How'd it come to be?

Willem : We wanted to try something a little different and loved that set up we created, but didn't know what to do with it. Right now it's two breaks so it's getting there. People are going crazy over it so we need it out in December. It's tough because with our solo singles, we want everything to be perfect. The worst feeling is when you put a track out and then the week after you feel like, "Oh I should've changed that." I can't live with that feeling.

Ward : When a song does well, you think like, "Okay it doesn't matter." But when a song doesn't do that well and you don't have that feeling like you gave 100%, it's bad.

Willem : Sander sometimes goes crazy when he tells us he needs the final master right now.

Ward : Honestly, Sander, how long before the final deadline for "Caribbean Rave" did we send the final master?

Sander : No more than 12 minutes. [laughs]

Ward : They have to have it at Thursday at noon, we send it at 11:48.

Willem : The funny part is at that point we've been working on it for two weeks and it's just the smallest of changes most people won't even notice.

Basically you're trying to give Sander a heart attack.

Willem : Yeah, every time that there's a release coming up, he knows what to expect.

Sander : It's good to have deadlines, because without them, nothing would ever be fully finished.

Willem : But you can be sure we are going to release so much new music! We have so much lined up.

If you want to hear more from W&W, be sure to check out their weekly Mainstage Podcast [all episodes and tracklists can be found here ].