Doing the Sound Of Amsterdam series, 90watts welcomes new well talented artists to the label, such as these to youngsters. This Saturday, February 12th, these guys are featured in our weekly radio show "World Wide 90watts" on Ibiza Global Radio. Their tracks Deviation and Body Language (Pieter Steijger solo) will be released on The Sound Of Amsterdam volume 3, in March. Let’s meet Sander Young and Pieter Steijger in 10 questions.
 

How did it al begin?

Pieter: My dad introduced me to electronic music. He used to play music of Vangelis, Kraftwerk and Klaus Schulze. As I grew older  I got more and more intrigued by dance music and I started learning about the roots from Chicago and Detroit. My interest in making music only became bigger and I started attending drum lessons. Later I also played keyboards.
On my 13th birthday I got turntables on which I started playing vinyl. Not much later I started producing my own tracks.

Sander: For me it started with soul. My first musical experience was browsing through my dad’s old soul records. The groove present in the live recordings from James Brown at the Apollo, for instance, made me a grooving toddler. In some present time house records you can still feel this groove. At the age of 15 my cousin introduced me to DJing. Thanks to him I started assembling my own humble DJ set. Later on I also started producing.

Who inspired you to start making music?

Pieter: A lot of artists did inspire me to start making music. But I think Marco V was the one who showed me how to do that. This DJ lives in my hometown in the South of the Netherlands. I visited his studio sometimes to see how the ‘master’ was producing his music.  

Sander: It just happened. Music is a way to express yourself and since I can’t sing, I started to make my own beats. Practise and practise.

What brought you guys together?

Pieter: That’s a funny story. I am currently studying at the School of Arts in Utrecht. There I came in touch with Sander’s sister, who’s now my girlfriend. Since the moment I met her she told me that her brother was a DJ as well. So the link was there.

Sander: We started out with finalizing some of my tracks in Pieter’s studio because of the better acoustics. But after a few sessions we started making music together in one project: Sander Young & Pieter Steijger.
 

What can  you tell about each others? Sander, what are Pieter's strong (and weak) points?

Pieter has a lot of production experience and is also very creative. This does not only translate into music but also in designing artwork for instance. He is truly a perfectionist and thinks about every detail, however he sometimes gets carried away and forgets the bigger picture.

And Pieter, how about Sander?

Sander is a very creative person with a realistic point of view. He knows a lot about music, but he can’t read any music notations, so that’s sometimes an issue, but most of time it works out fine. Further he knows how to rock a crowd with an uplifting and trendy sound.

Which typical issues in the electronic music scene catch your attention at this moment?

Pieter: I think the main issue at the moment is the immense supply of tracks and dj's. Today on Beatport you are overwhelmed by the immense bulk of new music. It is unfortunate that most of the time people don’t check out this supply but just go for the headliners. Due to this, headliners have a position that sometimes is wrongly obtained. And in this manner hardly any real talent is discovered.

How do you deal with it?

Pieter: I thinkyou can not escape from it, however I try to provide assistance to talented DJs who have potential with my own music management agency Frameworx Music.

And Sander, what issue catches you at most?

Sander: Without doubt the implementation of improving technology. Whether you like it or not, technology is changing the DJ, the music and the way people perceive the music. So, in order to your next question how to deal with it, we try to embrace the technology and keep innovating our self in stead of trying to work against it.

What inspires you to produce tracks?

Sander: Music itself.

Pieter: Sometimes you hear a riff or a part and you think WOW! You then translate that to your own tracks. I also get inspiration from visiting clubs and festivals. It is interesting to see what triggers the crowd.

What do you do besides making (and playing) music?

Pieter: As I said before I’m studying at the School of Arts in Utrecht. My specialization is Music Management. At the moment I make a living by managing other artists and doing a lot of (online) marketing related activities.

Sander: My life is all about music actually but my other passion is football. I have been playing football for as long as I can remember.

What brought you to 90watts?

Sander: That’s actually a funny story. At the 2010 ADE we met Dennis Ruyer and Pieter handed him a promo with ‘Body Language’. Not much later Dennis played this track on Dance Department and he also handed this promo to the guys of 90Watts (for which we are Dennis very grateful).

Pieter: We also send 90Watts a promo of our combined productions, this promo contained ‘Deviation’. Some time later the guys of 90Watts contacted us about ‘Body Language’ and ‘Deviation’. We decided to sign these tracks with 90Watts because we really like their sound and they also have an amazing artist roster with for instance Dennis Ruyer and our 2010 favourite El Mundo & Satori.