About Energyzed, melodies and Ultra

A few years ago, Xander and Jordy met and decided to join forces. With stunning tracks like ‘Together We Are’ and ‘Your Love’ they did hit the charts. After a while they wanted to go separate ways again. Jordy will start over, creating rougher tracks. In the meantime Xander will continue his career as  a solo act, still named Energyzed.

Starting his solo career only a few weeks ago, Energyzed had his main stage debut when playing his collaborative projects with Atmozfears. Energyzed recently released ‘Save My Soul’ which make you fall in love with the beautiful melodies. We followed him for a few years now and want to know more about Xander’s love for the scene. Let’s have a chat with this talent from Scantraxx records.

First, let me ask you, how did it feel to play on the Q-Base main stage during the set with Atmozfears?
It was amazing, I have no words for it. I couldn’t believe I played on the main stage until it was over (even though it only lasted 20 minutes). It took a while to sink in, haha! After moments like these you know this is what you want to do for the rest of your life! I hope more bookings like this will appear on my musical path.

For our new readers, can you give us a little introduction, who is Energyzed?
I’m just a regular dude, who loves making music. I’ve been born and raised in Zoetermeer, which is in the West of Holland (next to Den Haag). You can say I am a bit of a nerd because I used to program websites and games as a hobby and I still play a lot of games whenever I’m not in the studio. I also love watching movies – I think I watch at least one movie every day. I used to play football (soccer) for 9 years, but I quit because making music was much more fun, haha!

How did you become familiar with the hardstyle music?
I accidentally downloaded a track on LimeWire in 2006 which was a track from the Donkey Rollers called ‘followers’ I fell in love with the big sound and the energy instantly. I’ve been listening to hardstyle ever since!

Besides hardstyle music, do you listen to other types of music? And what are your favorites in these?
I also love glitch hop, nu disco, and drum & bass!

As a producer, where do you get your inspiration from?
That could be anything like, the weather, a game or a movie (soundtrack) and sometimes the idea’s just pop up in my head without any apparent reason. Inspiration is a weird thing.

Looking back on your own tracks, do you have any favorites?
‘Save My Soul’ and ‘Timeless Worlds’ are my favorites because they pack a lot of emotion and they are a bit different than usual.

If you had to describe your own style now, how would you do it? What makes you distinctive from others?
I think how I approach making melodies makes me different than most producers, I try to be different because a lot of producers sound alike so I try to bring some diversity to the scene.

In which aspects can people hear that in your tracks?
In the main climax part in my tracks.

We believe that you are one of the biggest talents in the scene. Do you have any tips for other talented producers?
Keep making music, even when the world tells you to ‘quit’. All the big producers out there who made their career out of their hobby were the ones that kept going when times are tough.

Talking about motivation, who did motivate you? Even though people told you to quit. Or didn’t you have to deal with that?
My girlfriend always had faith in me and my music so I want to thank her for always believing in me!

We know Atmozfears is like a brother-from-another-mother to you. How did you meet him? And how is your relationship with him?
I met him through Skype at first, and a few years later Jordy and I started working together and Jordy told me he knew Tim. We’ve been talking, making music and gaming ever since. Especially lately we’ve been addicted to a game called ‘Rocket League’.

Can we expect more collabs with Atmozfears?
Tim and I are always playing around in the studio together, so you can expect more collabs in the future haha!

Do you have anyone else on your list you would like to collaborate with?
Before I die, I’d like to collab with 2 of my all-time heroes: Noisecontrollers and Code Black.

What makes them your heroes?
Because they kept introducing groundbreaking techniques to hardstyle which made the sound of hardstyle as it is today. Without, them we wouldn’t have the music we listen to today.

Are you still nervous before a gig?
I’m still nervous before a gig, but that’s a good thing it reminds me that I’m still not tired of playing at events.

How do you prepare yourself before a gig? How do you get in the right mood?
I always drink a beer and talk to my friends before I have to perform on stage, it makes me less nervous to play in front of a crowd.

Anywhere you would like to play sometime?
ULTRA would be a cool party to play at! Those events are huge and the show around it is amazing!

This year, many DJ Duo’s did split up, just like you and Jordy. We noticed that the influence of rawstyle and the rougher sound are used alot as one of the reasons to go separate ways. How do you think about all those split ups, do you think a change of styles, like the upcoming raw scene, is one of the main reasons for this, or otherwise?
Sometimes there’s more to a split up than duo’s show on the outside. I don’t think the raw ‘hype’ is a major reason for the most split-ups these days. There’s more to it than meets the normal eye!

Where can your fans see you other than at smaller events like Purge and Chain Reaction this year?
I’ll be playing at Members of Hardstyle on the 10th of October and another booking near the end of 2015.

Do you have big things coming up, releases or collabs?
My remix from DJ Stephanie’s classic called ‘Groovin’ to the beat’, haha, I think it’s a big thing to make a remix for one the big respected Italian artists. And there are a lot of new solo tracks being worked on as we speak!

Final question; Do you want to say anything to your fans?
I want to tell my fans that I’m grateful that you are still supporting me after Jordy and I split up! So I want to say THANK YOU to all my dedicated fans out there <3 !!!