Page 26 - Zone Magazine Issue 011

26 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE
feature interview [netherlands]
Sam Feldt.. A name fairly dominant in the recent dance music boom! But, where did he come from? How has such a young lad come up through the ranks so quick? Zone Magazine’s Brett Kydd investigates.
Whilst still a young pup at 23, Holland born Sam Feldt burst onto the dance music scene in 2015 with ‘Show Me Love’, which proved to be his definitive claim to fame. The track is a unique take on the eponymous 90s dance classic, completely restructured with the vocals used in a completely new way. It receives massive DJ support, scoring millions of SoundCloud plays, marking Sam Feldt’s definite arrival as headlining artist.
It started long before the aforementioned single which catapulted his career - Sam Feldt worked behind the scenes as a producer for quite some time, perfecting his musical talents. The end of summer 2013 was when he made gained ground and released his early work. Within a year of this Sam was snapped up by none other than Spinnin’ Records and, from there, released his first track under the label.
It didn’t take long for the young producer to gain the attention of international dance media as he proved to be already at the top of a new exciting wave of melodic deep house. Besides releasing his first original tracks with De Hofnar, the widely popular ‘Bloesem’ and a sophisticated edit of the Fleetwood Mac anthem ‘Big Love’, he also presents catching remixes for popular folk band Mumford And Sons, Naxxos, I Am Oak and Jose Gonzalez.
By the end of 2014 the instant classic summer tune ‘Hot Skin’ came out, made with fellow producer Kav Verhouzer and building up to over 800.000 YouTube views after its release. At this point, Feldt is already a reputable name delivering loveable vibes on a regular basis.
Racking up the stats with almost two million plays on SoundCloud as well as a
#1 Hypem spot for his remix of the Sander van Doorn & Firebeatz release ‘Guitar Track’, you could say Sam has placed his feet firmly under the table.
Sam has played all around the world, sharing the stage with the biggest names in the industry like Kygo, Robin Schulz, Thomas Jack, and Kölsch. His sound is characterised by beautifully built melodies, lots of atmosphere and emotion packed in a tantalising but often chilled out groove.
Meanwhile, the Dutchman explores the wide world of this fetching new deep house sound with his mix tapes and radio shows presented to his SoundCloud fans regularly, making him more than a household name in the recent house scene. A new flame has come, and it’s getting brighter by the day.
I had a chat with the extremely busy DJ & producer to ask him about his latest tracks, life on the road, and new geeky technology.. In brief, this feature covers the important parts of our conversation..
You're the man behind the most recent remix of one of the most iconic dance songs of the 90's. Your version is a lot more down tempo compared to previous releases. What was your inspiration behind this 'Show Me Love'?
I found an amazing cover of it by Kimberly Anne on YouTube. When I heard her voice singing the track in such a different and emotional way I knew I had to do something with it.
DJ & Producer EDX added to the pack with his remix of 'Show Me Love' - So, what do you look for when giving the thumbs up for someone to remix your track?
It has to serve a specific purpose. Looking at the Show Me Love track, the original is really chilled and not really something for the clubs. For the remixes we decided to look for a good club mix and I think EDX nailed it.
It's not all about that one track though, as you were first picked up by Spinnin' Records who signed your debut track with De Hofnar - 'Bloesem'. With the deviating work
you've came out of the studio with, how would you describe your sound?
I'm not a big fan of genres and would describe my music simply as Sam Feldt music. The key ingredients are emotions and melodies. The rest is not really relevant: I release tracks ranging from 100 bpm to 128 bpm and from pop to progressive house.
I'm excited to see that you've got a new track out, tell me about it!
I've just released Summer On You, a collab with Lucas & Steve and Dutch singer Wulf. It's getting picked up really well and all over the Dutch radio at the moment. We just crossed 10 million streams on Spotify too so I'm really happy to see it's going so well!
Is there any exclusive collaborations on the way you can tell me about?
Definitely, there's a new single coming up with Deepend (you know, the guys from Matt Simons - Catch And Release Remix) called Runaways and a new one with Alex Schulz and the singer of Cheat Codes.
Just on that topic, who would be your all-time favourite artist to collaborate with?
It has to be Paul McCartney!
Who is your breakthrough artist for this year, who is really doing it for you at the moment?
Oooh, there's too many to mention, to be honest. Although, when I’m putting my Heartfeldt radio show together I always include a lot of tracks from the guys I feel are doing great things.
Connect:
http://www.soundcloud.com/
samfeldt
Words By Brett Kydd
Pics By Fanny Van Poppel
" I'm not a big fan of genres and would
describe my music simply as Sam Feldt music. The key ingredients are emotions and
melodies. "