During their recent gig in Switzerland, we had the pleasure to do a short backstage interview with Thomas and Nigel, better known as Sub Zero Project. Get ready for some interesting insights into their way of producing, food preferences, and unbelievable stories from their tours!
Dragan / Equalizerz
Dragan: Hello, we’re now in Switzerland at Kugl club, tonight with Sub Zero Project!
Thomas: Hello!
Dragan: We are really happy that you are here. I have some questions for Hardstyle Mag for you. The first one will be like: You had a stellar career during the past years. This year you’ll even be playing on the main stage of Tomorrowland. Is there actually still room for more?
Thomas: Yeah, of course! The Tomorrowland main stage is something you don’t even dare to dream of. I think everything is possible! And we always want to do more and better – the sky’s the limit, I think!
Dragan: That’s true, of course! The other thing is, you spend a lot of time together in the studio and on tour, and we’ve seen a lot of duos in the scene part ways sooner or later. What is your secret to not quarrel with each other?
Nigel: I think, when we make music, for example, we both have our own “priorities”. For example, I already like to do a lot of sound design and basically work on different stuff than he’s (pointing in Thomas’ direction) working on. So, we then also work separately and when we come together, we just do everything together and we finish it together and then the track is there. We really complement each other!
Dragan: Yeah, everyone has a little bit of space for himself. I think every “relationship” is like the same – if you always sit on each other, then some days you could kill the other one…
Nigel: Yeah, yeah, exactly!
Dragan: …but now that everyone has banished within and then… “Hey, I need my time, we’re gonna split, leave me alone” and that’s super!
Nigel: Yeah, it’s like a relationship!
Dragan: Yeah, I think it’s like that! The other thing is now, a crazy thing – preference of a meal. What’s your preference for a meal? What’s your “I would die for that”?
Nigel: (laughing)
Thomas: When we were in Japan, I had the best food ever. We did a Wagyu experience with all kinds of Wagyu meat and stuff.
Dragan: Ooooh!
Nigel: Like the real Japanese!
Dragan: Okay!
Thomas: That was the best meal I ever had in my life!
Nigel and Dragan: (laughing)
Thomas: If I can cook it myself, no, of course not, but that was the best thing I ever had!
Nigel: Crazy experience!
Dragan: Yeah, they go to massage the cows… (all laughing) That’s crazy, I saw some movie of that, of the guys who massage the cows…
Nigel: …it’s being beared…
Thomas: …it works, it works!
Dragan: Woooow, it works, it works! Now our last special is like – craziest gig you ever had? Like, something really stupid happened or you had some emergency or something. Do you remind something like “Oh my… What the hell are we doing here?”
Thomas: Yeah, yeah! We remember one thing. We were doing a China tour and we had a show in… Mongolia.
Dragan: Mongolia? Oh, man!
Nigel: Yes!
Thomas: And we had to play at a festival there and we played around 10, 11 in the evening. But the day before we had a show in China so we had to fly there. The plane diverted to an other airport because of a thunderstorm or something. So we were at a random airport for 6, 7 hours…
Nigel: Yeah, like an immersed shooter room and all…
Dragan: …okay?
Nigel: …like a real turmoil!
Thomas: So, we missed our show! But we still went there and we could play on like an afterparty there… So, yeah, after all this chaos we finally arrived in Mongolia and we still had a two hour drive to the festival. It was an outdoor festival… like –10° C… (all laughing, Thomas throwing his hand up in front of his face) It was like a fever dream, you know. We had such a long day and we were in the middle of nowhere. It was such a weird experience!
Nigel: And when we got in the hotel, we couldn’t even check in ‘cause it was expired already! Bad luck! (laughing) And after the booking we went home right away, it was crazy!
Dragan: I can imagine you were like “what the fuck are we doing here?” (all laughing)
Thomas: You know, after so much years, it’s a really fun, fun experience. But at the moment, it was really dumb…
Nigel: …yeah, yeah!
Dragan: Okay, so, guys, we can’t wait to see you down there on the stage. Always full power! It was really cool with you. ‘Till next time, see you!