This promising duo has already developed a notorious reputation all over Belgium. Joyhauser holds up an impressive arsenal of hard-hitting beats accompanied by captivating and melancholic strings. Raw techno mixed with epic harmonies are the main ingredients of their signature sound. They took some time off to answer few of the question we prepared for them!
Interview
1) First of all, how are you guys feeling?
All
good here Thank you! We had some busy weeks in October with a 10 day
tour in America, 4 big gigs at Amsterdam Dance Event and a lot of other
gigs in other countries. But it won’t be getting more relaxed in the
next months. We can’t believe how many bookings are planned already and
how many new countries we’re going to visit in the next months
2) What does this career mean to you?
It means everything to us! We recently quit our full time jobs to focus 100% on our music and you can’t believe how happy we are right now. It’s a dream come true. Of course family is our number one and you have to balance this in your life but we both have girlfriends who are respecting of our night time jobs and give us a lot of support. That means a lot to us because they both have a busy job as well. You can’t just take that for granted.
3) Did you always know you wanted to be a DJ/producer? How did you get into it?
Joyhauser
was born out of a common passion for electronic music culture – and the
culmination of a friendship that goes back to 2004 during High-School.
Starting out as party promoters back in the day, we organised events in
our hometown. Techno music was always our biggest passion but in the
very beginning Joris was playing soccer at a high level. Stijn was
playing solo as a deejay. So the dreams were a bit different at that
moment. Shit was getting real when Joris had a very bad knee injury and
he had to quit soccer. It was by this accident that Joyhauser was born.
Luckily!
4) How does your DJ-ing and production dynamic look like? Is it hard to work as duo and what are the pros and cons?
Being
a duo has a lot of advantages, you literally have more hands to work
with. We are lucky the two of us are very complementary. Stijn is more
the musically creative brain and engineer in the studio. He mostly
starts with an idea and when we both agree to go further with it we both
dive in the studio to finish the arrangement. Joris is inspired by
listening exclusively to techno music. Stijn is more eclectic and
searches for creativity in other styles. Joris is generally more the PR
guy who is the mediator and go-to for artists, promotors and label
owners. On the pure DJ part we are both on the same level. We both know
what to expect from each other and it works perfectly.
5) What motivates you the most in your career? Is it the money, women, fame, or is it all about the music?
The
music has always been our motivation. If you start dj-ing with the
thoughts you gonna earn a lot of money at the beginning you are not at
the right address here. We saw a lot of deejays coming and go but you
have to make a lot of sacrifices and that isn’t easy. At the start of
our career we played a lot of gigs for little money. When we played at a
gig with not a lot of people for example we tried to build a good
connection with the promotor and decreased even our fee. It was
important for us to show our loyalty and to show respect to the
promotors who believed in us. We know how difficult it sometimes can be
to throw parties. During the years you need to stay patient, have a
plan and always keep believing in yourself. And that is what we did.
The long way wasn’t easy. But hard work pays off. Can you imagine we
both had a full time job untill june 2019? Don’t forget from a
financial view we are a duo and the fee isn’t automatically the double
of a single dj. For quite a long time, we tried to combine both sides
of our lives but at a certain point you just need to take a leap of
faith. The weekly workload was getting really heavy and this was
beginning to take its toll. In the past, the only moment we could really
work in the studio was on Sunday evening, usually after a weekend full
of gigs. We would arrive at work the next morning with barely any
sleep. This had a negative impact on our creativity and energy. Hard
times.
6) What are you most proud about in your career so far?
Playing
at Pukkelpop and Awakenings festival. For us the number 1 gig must
have been Pukkelpop in 2018, just because Pukkelpop is so emotionally
significant for us. We’ve been visiting Pukkelpop since we were 15 years
old and it still contributes to our taste in music until today. Other
bucket list material must have been Awakenings Festival this year.
Having the chance to play at the biggest techno festival is just
amazing. We opened one of the stages there and it was packed in just 15
minutes. The atmosphere was amazing from the start until the end and
we’ll never forget that moment, really emotional. Musically being part
of so many good labels like Terminal M, Kraftek and second state.
7) What
is more important nowdays in music industry… is it the music or the
branding? How much do you pay attention to branding and marketing?
Both
are important nowadays. But for instance: being a good producer
doesn’t automatically result in becoming a big artist. It’s more than
that. All the factors have to be right. You may be a great DJ, but you
need to be great producer too if you want to break through
internationally. Similarly, great producers aren’t always the best DJ’s,
even though that’s what people expect when they come to see you play.
Besides this, social media and online marketing are a big factor.
People want to know who is behind the artist. That’s the reality
nowadays. You can choose to neglect social media and do it the old
school way but it’s hard to stand out like this. Last but not least:
surrounding yourself with good people! We’re really happy with some
particular people we’ve met along the way. Ugur Akkus, Amelie Lens,
Marco Starke, Monika Kruse,… We learned a lot from them and they really
helped us to develop our career into what it is right now. Good
contacts are important but good guidance is at least as important.
8) How do you see music scene right now?
Techno
has become a denominator for a wide range of styles and techno, as a
name, has maybe become a bit more “mainstream” and commercialised than
it was back in the days. However, this is just a wave. There will always
be an underground counterpart in techno. The underground sets the
trends, trends get picked up and they evolve into something completely
new and different. This is just how music in global works, everything
comes and goes eventually.
9) What do you like to do in your free time?
We
try to do some sports by going to the gym and swimming. But our
favourite hobby is hanging around in our local pub in our hometown. Best
beers from tap in the whole world. We get the chance to catch up with
friends and get to enjoy our time off to the fullest.
10) Where do you see yourselfs in 5 years?
We can’t believe how much progression we’ve made in the last few years. You can’t predict the future in this business of course. Our goal is to aim higher and higher and work as hard as we can to get there, everyday. We don’t want to focus too much on other artists. We respect everybody’s choices and music and just try to follow our own path. In the end, we’re doing what we love most and that’s what makes you happy in the longterm.
Big thanks to the Joyhauser, hope you guys enjoyed our interview!
