At Electric Love Boutique Edition in Austria, I sat down with the guys of Primeshock, Bart & Thijs. We talked about how it feels to be back on stage, brand new music, their future plans, if they would rather never DJ again or never produce again, and much more. Keep on reading!
How are you guys doing these days?
Bart: Pretty good! The last 2 months, if everything until the end of the week goes well, we had like 9 bookings in total! We’re kinda lucky.
Thijs: Yeah I mean that gives us a lot of energy!
Bart: We’re pretty pumped!
How does it feel to be back on stage?
Bart: It’s sick, we’ve been in the studio for a long time, like everybody else, making a lot of new music, but it’s weird because you can play it on a live stream, but it’s not the same. Right now, we get to play tracks that are one year old but have never been played in front of an audience.
Thijs: It’s unreal, but it’s very satisfying to finally see a crowd’s reaction to all our new tracks!
Bart: It’s like an extra energy booster being back after so long, to make up for it!
You guys are always so upbeat, where do you get that energy from? Everybody has been struggling, but you guys always seem so positive!
Bart: I think that that’s because we have so much fun together, we’re giving each other an energy boost, and we love what we do, so doing that is an adrenaline boost itself!
Thijs: I think it’s the result of being a duo and being really good friends at the same time. As soon as the first restrictions came in, we were bummed for a little bit but at the same time, we were pumping each other up like let’s do more live streams, more podcasts, and other stuff that still is possible.
Bart: When we watched the press conference where they said everything is canceled we were bummed for 2 minutes and then we already started texting each other like we can do this, we can do that, like how can we turn this into something positive?
Thijs: But we were bummed out, of course, until now that everything was canceled but at the same time we were looking for a new way to put our energy into the music we love!
There’s always somehow a solution for everything, right?
Thijs: Yes! And we help each other. Sometimes Bart is feeling down, sometimes I am feeling down, and then we’re just like: don’t worry, we’ll get through it, and now we’re here again!
“Actually, the first Primeshock track we made is from kind of a meme video, so there is that. We have the same humor really!“
That’s the great thing about being a duo, then you’re not by yourself! How did you guys even meet? How did Primeshock start?
Bart: Ooff, that’s quite a long story but let’s go for the quick version, haha! We were actually solo artists before, and we were at the same label and we just liked each other’s music. But because we were on the same label, we often got to play after each other, so we were like: why don’t you just put us together on the line-up so we can play each other’s music.
Thijs: Yeah, we couldn’t play each other’s music!
Bart: After a little while the label we were both signed to, kinda slowed down and came to an end. So we were like: let’s just pick it up as a duo just for fun on the side next to the solo projects but after a few months we were convinced that the duo project was, well firstly, more successful and secondly, a lot more fun! We both had no focus on our solo projects anymore because doing duo stuff was even more fun, and we’re still having fun!
Your latest track Fitness Move together with Villain is a huge success! How did the idea originate?
Bart: Well actually, we got a message from Q-dance asking us to do this track. They were like: okay, we want to make it an original soundtrack for the Warrior Workout, and we want you to do that together with Villain because, well…
Thijs: He’s got the Fitness Moves haha!
Bart: And we think you can do a really cool track with that theme. We were immediately like: let’s do this, and we started calling with Michael a few minutes after that, and we already started exchanging ideas. I think the track was there in no time!
Thijs: It was funny because Q-dance didn’t want to call it an anthem, but an original soundtrack, so it was like: we want fitness, we want work out, we want fun, we want this weird ’80s, almost like pornographic weird, stupid, look. And they were thinking of us immediately and when we heard the idea we were like: let’s fucking do this, call up Villain like: heeey Michael, how are you? Oh good, ok let’s do this, and a few days later, we already had a first concept standing, so it was fun!
You guys obviously make amazing Hardstyle, super euphoric, upbeat, good vibes. How would you describe your own sound?
Bart: Energetic, fun, upbeat, danceable, especially the last one, very danceable. Very dance floor orientated, and I think just energy. Energy is like the keyword.
Thijs: Fun, energy, dance floor those are like the three main words.
Bart: And even if we don’t want to produce like that, it happens.
You can’t undo it, haha. Nice! And where do you get your inspiration from? Do you listen to other genres, how do you do that?
Bart: We do! Not necessarily always energetic, but most of the times it is energetic.
Thijs: We both listen to Drum n Bass.
Bart: That’s really energetic!
Thijs: Dubstep stuff, common EDM, …
Bart: A lot of Hardstyle obviously.
Thijs: I mean obviously a lot of people compare us to Da Tweekaz. We listen to a lot of Hardstyle and we really love what they are doing. We don’t want to remake what they are doing but at the same time…
Bart: I mean we just make Hardstyle that we love, and we incorporate sounds from other artists like Da Tweekaz, D-Block & S-te-Fan, just to name the two biggest I think, we are fans of. But outside of all the energetic stuff we’re listening to, I also listen to a lot of classic rock, for example, that’s something I really like to listen to when working on something different.
Thijs: Sometimes the inspiration is just looking for a new theme of a track, because like a new song structure, a new kick design, a new melody or whatever, sure you can get that from anywhere. Finding a new concept to workaround that can be from anywhere, sometimes you get it from music, but sometimes you get it from memes. It comes from the weirdest stuff. Sometimes we find a meme and send it to each other and the other half will be like ‘oh I saw that too, let’s make something about it.’
Bart: Actually, the first Primeshock track we made is from kind of a meme video, so there is that. We have the same humor really!
Haha, that’s really important when working together! Do you have any cool releases coming up that we should be aware of, is there anything in the making?
Thijs: We do, fuck yeah! We have a collaboration with Diandra Faye called Addicted To The Night and we played it here today and a few weeks ago for the first time at Shutdown, also in Austria! And the reactions are a lot better than we expected! We were like: okay this is a cool track, we are very happy about it and Diandra was very happy about it but when we posted something online it went pretty mental!
Bart: Yeah it kinda blew up!
Thijs: The release is on the 10th of September, I guess we can say it by now! So in a few weeks!
Bart: That’s a little scoop!
PRE-SAVE ADDICTED TO THE NIGHT BY PRIMESHOCK FT. DIANDRA FAYE HERE!
Woohoo nice! Coming back to Austria, how did you guys experience the Austrian crowd? What do you think of the Hardstyle scene in Austria, compared to the Netherlands or other countries?
Thijs: Well, I expected, because there was quite some rain today, like well are they gonna be there or are they gonna pussy out and not stand in the rain.
Bart: They were definitely not pussying out, it was packed, kudos to that!
Thijs: We were standing dry, but we were sweating a lot, so I guess we were almost as wet as them.
Bart: Well, your shoes are soaked, so not completely dry, haha!
Thijs: The Austrian crowd is great, we saw it earlier this month, and right now just confirms it. They really like the new kinda sound Hardstyle brings, and we can’t wait to play again tomorrow!
Bart: When we played our new track Addicted To The Night, and it went off the hook! It’s a brand new track, so they can’t possibly know the track by heart yet. But the crowd danced their ass off to it! So, they like partying, they are addicted to the night!
They are, I can confirm that! Maybe that’s why they like the track so much, haha! Are there any festivals you didn’t play yet that are still on your bucket list?
Thijs: Well, of course, a ton of them! Even though we played a lot of festivals already, I mean bless us, really lucky with that, and we can’t wait to play them again! But, there’s one which was announced last year and got postponed again.
Bart: It actually got announced two years ago!
Thijs: That was Mysteryland at the Q-dance stage, and it’s getting postponed again. That’s one that was really high on the bucket list, it’s also really close to where I live personally. It’s like a 20-minute drive, so let’s go, but nope not again.
Bart: You’ve been so close yet so far. But let’s go for 2022!
Thijs: But at the same time I’d love to go back to Tomorrowland, and Defqon obviously. But a new one for us that would be dope is Parookaville!
Bart: We were supposed to play at Defqon Red in 2020, but that got postponed to 2021 and that got postponed again to 2022 sooo… But at the same time, we can dream – Qlimax maybe?
Thijs: But is that even called a festival?
It’s an experience!
Thijs: This is a Q-dance experience, haha!
Nice! Definitely some nice festivals there. Where do you see Primeshock in the future? Where do you wanna be?
Thijs: Qlimax – haha!
Bart: Just making this a full-time job! That would be the dream come true and even play at bigger stages. Playing even more shows, playing even better spots, and visiting even more parts of the world!
Thijs: But in a few years, where do we see us? The past few years, we made big steps! Even despite the pandemic, we were really focusing on doing online stuff, staying close to our fans, and the fanbase grew a lot which we are really thankful for. So if we can keep this stuff up, maybe we can do Defqon Red even at better times, maybe we can become bigger, go make it a full-time job. In the coming years, we are staying at Dirty Workz for sure, because we love releasing there, we love those guys, probably collaborating with Da Tweekaz anytime soon, stuff like that, it’s gonna be exciting!
Bart: Those are goals!
We can’t wait to hear that! And a little dilemma to wrap it up: would you rather never DJ again or never produce again?
Thijs: We had a discussion about that. It’s really difficult! Bart is more like the DJ guy, and I’m more of the producer guy. That doesn’t mean that that’s what we both do more often, but it’s which side has our preference. But, we were like: there is a loophole! What if we rent a ghost producer and just tell our ideas and then we can keep on playing, then we have the best of both worlds!
Bart: I mean, last year we already had the no DJing, It’s just the confirmation that your music works so I’d say that’s what I prefer doing because the crowd gives you a lot of positive energy back! It’s just the confirmation that your music works and you can get that online and on Discord and Instagram and whatever,…
Bart: It’s just different than actually feeling the energy! You feel it, you see it, you hear it, you almost taste it!
Nice, I can imagine! Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time!
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