Back in the business – Interview with Project Exile

After quite some time, Project Exile is finally back in the business! He’s in the scene for years, but took a few month off due to personal circumstances. Now, he’s ready to rock again, starting with brand new E.P, containing the tracks Prisoners and Observer! We really couldn’t resist to ask for his participation in this Theracords week! Read all about the story of his latest E.P, his personal life and one of the most toughest times in his life, his time at Theracords and future goals – this is our interview with Project Exile!

Hey Project Exile, nice to have you here today! How was your performance at Q-Base? What are your thoughts on this year’s edition of Q-Base?
Hey! First of all, thanks for the interview! My performance at Q-Base was f*ckin’ awesome! Definitely one of the biggest highlights of my carreer as Project Exile. I can’t really say much about the rest of the event because I’ve spend most of my time in the Theracords bunker, but for what I’ve seen, I think it was and always will be one of the best hardstyle events out there.

Credits @Joris Raaijman – https://www.facebook.com/jorisraaijmann/

Finally your back in the scene, in the studio and on stage! We do not want to go deeper into what happened, but we are curious of how did you handle the last months?
Well, I never made it a secret; for those who didn’t knew yet; I had a relationship for 6 years. During the last 2 years, my girlfriend suffered from a very rare form of hodgkin’s disease. This whole process started around the same time that I announced my Project Exile alias. It became a really tough period for me and it was hard to combine everything. It just wasn’t the best time to create music. Eventually the day before Q-Base 2015 she passed away … So, to get back on your question;

I’ve learned (and am still learning) to enjoy the little things in life, right NOW, while I still can! Live the moment! I try not to worry too much about everything, it so easy to forget to just live! That also counts for me in the studio and on stage. I simply make the music that I feel like creating at that specific momentand we’ll see what happens.

With your latest E.P., containing Prisoners and Observer your back in the business. How was the reaction of your fans, when you posted the previews? Are you satisfied with the result of both tracks?
The reactions where very positive. During the week before the release of the official previews, I posted some studio peeks accompanied by my annoying fist pumping in front of the screen… Still not entirely sure if people actually liked the tracks or just the annoying fist, but it worked out fine haha!

Can you describe the creation process of both tracks?
Observer: 3 weeks before I was playing at Defqon.1 2015, I started a new track and wanted to finish that for Defqon.1… After working on it for 2 weeks, my feeling said “this is shit” so I dropped the idea… 3 days before the event, I got a lot of new idea’s in my head and started a new project. I worked my ass of to make a playable version for Defqon.1. After a while, Pieter told me he didn’t like it that much but I already got used to all the sounds so I kept it in my “unfinished tracks” folder and never looked at it again for like 8 months or so… Again, I started a new project with the same vocals and the arrangement was already there, I only had to come up with something different for the sounds. I was still used to the old version and it was kind of a big puzzle to solve, but in the end I’m very happy with the result and I thank Pieter for telling me that the 1st version was crap!

Prisoners: This all started by watching the movie ‘Prisoners’. I’m a huge fan of the movie’s soundtracks and after listening the one from Prisoners over and over again, the idea began to grow. I decided to take a part of that and transform it into hardstyle. I really felt in love with that dark atmosphere and because it wasn’t the most obvious melody so it was a bit of a challenge as well. For the climax part I tried several things that didn’t work for me so I dove into my unfinished projects to get new inspiration and found something I made 3 years ago, which would fit perfectly, so I remade it and so, everything felt on the right place.

Which aspects of hardstyle music do you think are most important? What does define the hardstyle scene?
Well, I like all kinds of aspects in hardstyle. I can enjoy euphoric with a powerful melody, I can enjoy agressive kicks and screaming screeches… I think every part of a hardstyle track is important. I can really drown myself in making big cinematic atmospheres for the breaks. In a break, people have to stand still anyway, so why not take them on a musical journey instead of just a clap, snare and a standard melody buildup…

Some people really hate breaks, but without a break, you won’t be taken on a journey, you won’t get that feeling of ‘it’s coming’… I think a break is neccesary in hardstyle, otherwise you don’t have a reason to go wild when the climax kicks in. I simply love it when the kick finally starts bangin’ like a musical explosion and see the crowd finally go mad on hard kicks and agressive sounds and i think that is the most important aspect of hardstyle. After a week of hard work, issues and stress, you want to forget all that and just go crazy and I think hardstyle is the best music for that ☺

Credits @Joris Raaijman – https://www.facebook.com/jorisraaijmann/

When going back in time, how did everything started for you? How did you come in touch with Thera and Theracords? When did you discovered the first hardstyle sounds and when did you decide to produce music on your own?
I started DJ-ing back in 1999-2000 with hardcore, after a while I started visiting clubs in Belgium, where they played all kinds of club and hardhouse stuff together (think of the belgian Atmoz and Club System cd’s), and nobody cared for logical build-ups in style. So, I started playing that music as well. Back in those days, hardstyle wasn’t even born yet, but some labels of that time where growing smoothly into a harder style of music, and eventually Hardstyle was born and I never stopped loving it eversince. Hardstyle is in my blood from the very beginning!

I started producing in 2004-2005 with FL Studio 3.4 and released some tracks on italian labels Kattiva Records and DJ’s United. After a while I got in touch with Tim and we started making tracks together. He already had contact with Thera and before I knew it, he sent our first complete track (The Sexual Thrill) to him and Pieter offered us a recorddeal. That was the beginning of Catatonic Overload!

Which role does Theracords play in your life?
I was with Theracords from 2010 until the end of 2012 and got back with them in 2014, so in the past 6 years we shared a lot of great moments together. The’ve never let me down, not even when I was in the difficult time when my girlfriend got sick, so I think it’s safe to say that Theracords has a huge role in my life!  

Do you prefer DJing or producing?
I wouldn’t know the answer to that… I like both way too much. Ofcourse making your own music is really great, but it’s also great to share it with the crowd when playing it live.

Is there a specific goal you absolutely want to achieve with Project Exile? I there a specific event or maybe a country you would love to play or maybe a collab you would love to do?
In the past I had a lot of goals which I didn’t make and that can be very frustrating sometimes. But giving up is not in my dictionary when it comes to this work. As I said before; I try not to worry too much and see what happens… great things already came on my path since I’m living this way. I guess the most important goal of everything is that you’ll have to keep fun in whatever you’re doing! I’m having most fun in making music so that would be my goal; to live fulltime from this. And collabs: a collab with B-Front, Crypsis or High Voltage would be awesome. Actually, there are lots of hardstyle artists that would be nice to collab with!

If you are about to collab with a completely different producer from the hard dance scene – who would it be?
Keeping it within the hard dance scene I would definately say: Promo! And if he’s not available a collab with Hans Zimmer would be nice…

More and more artists swapping into the rougher sounds of hardstyle. Boundaries are broken, artists are starting to collaborate with different artists from other sub genres, such as Warface x Mark With A K. How do you feel about this evolution? Do you think hardstyle is losing its DNA or is it good for the scene?
I don’t have a problem with it. Times change, music changes. If you don’t like the way how it evolves, you can simply stop listening to it. But, to be honest, everytime when 2 artists from complete different genres combine forces, I am way more curious about the result than a ‘normal’ collab. Even if it turns out that it isn’t to my personal taste, then that’s my problem; at least they tried to bring us something new and you’ll never know if it’s any good for the scene if you don’t try at all.

How would you scale the importance of letting new names play at big stages? Furthermore, I’d like to ask you, can you give talented producers a few tips of what NOT to do in the business?
One new name can change the whole scene so I think it’s very important. There was a time before Headhunterz, and a time after Headhunterz… I mean, I remember sitting in the bus listening to their (!!! when they where still a duo) liveset at X-Qlusive The Prophet…  It completely blew my mind! This was really something new and refreshing, and lots of producers followed his style from that moment on… I can’t even imagine how hardstyle would have evolved without him.

What NOT to do in the business… It’s simply; don’t act like a cunt! (…unless your name is Caine hahaha)

What is the craziest thing you witnessed during one of your sets?
I don’t think I ever witnessed something really crazy during my sets yet… The most ridiculous thing I can think of right now was waaaay back in the beginning: I was playing that belgian Atmoz stuff when a coked up gypsy came towards me… He was looking at me like an owl for like 10 minutes… and finally asked me if I can play some Frans Bauer tracks…

What are your hobbies besides hardstyle, rocking stages and producing music? How does a normal day of Project Exile looks like?
Quite boring actually: I get up, go to work (yes, I also have a normal job), after work I go to the gym, I get home, eat, take a dump, and then I can finally spend the last few hours and the weekends on making music. Next to that I’m addicted to movies but nowadays I can be happy if I can watch 1 movie within a month! As you can imagine, I don’t get out much, so sometimes I really have to go out of my door to have a little break and clear my mind…

If you could choose to live in one fictional world, which one would it be and why?
The world of The Lord of the Rings, especially in Rivendell, nothing but piece and beautiful places! Not sure if they’re gonna be happy with a hardstyle producer as a neighbor, but fuck it: They are immortal, so what you gonna do about it?!