Interview
(by Stephen the Northern Monkey)

Stephen - Danjo & Styles are Danjo Raijer and Robbert Vroegindeweij (not to be confused with the hardcore duo, Styles & Breeze). How did you guys meet?

Danjo –I have been making music since 1997 and DJ-ing since 1994. After experimenting with trackers and such, I first did some tracks for compilation cd's together with the guys from Dance Nation (“Sunshine”, “Dance”) at the studio’s of Noculan Music. In the summer of 1998 I first met Rob at a party and we soon found out that we shared the same musical interests. We decided to team up in the studio. In the year 2000 this resulted in a contract with BPM Dance and from there it all unfolded

Rob - Yes, that’s pretty much our story in a nutshell. When we first met, I had the same level of experience regarding simple MS DOS and Amiga mod tracker programs. Nevertheless I already had been releasing a few vinyls, using guises as “Kynthos”, “Robbert V” and “Upstream”. After we teamed up, those projects got dropped because this Danjo & Styles and Primer thing seemed to be working excellent!

Stephen - When was your initial contact with electronic music 'euro-dance' and was there a specific influence(s), if so, who were they?

Danjo - I remember going to the record library with my dad to lend records and cd’s and I really liked Synthesizer Greatest cd’s and mix-cd’s like Jack Mix ’88. I was nine years old then. After that came the first House cd’s with tracks like “House of God”, etc. I got hooked on trance after Carlos’
Silmarillia (for which I was asked to do a remix a few years later!).

Rob - My first experience with electronic music was also with the early synthesizer sounds, like Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, etc. After that came Culture Beat, 2 unlimited, etc. who really rocked my world and got me hooked on EDM in general.

Stephen - Your early material included 'Witness', a tech-trancer which is still popular now, how do you feel your sound has evolved since then?

Both – We still play it, because it still fits in our sets! We were among the first ones who made tech trance with Reason. After that our sound got more sophisticated and more delicate, but our main aim has never changed; rock the dance floor!!

Stephen - When and under what circumstances did you both sit back and think, "We've made it to the big time!"?

Both - When Tiësto asked us to remix Adagio and when we started to receive quite a lot booking requests from various countries like UK, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, etc.

Stephen - Your release on Progrez, 'Everlast' (under the Primer alias) is the track most people first think of when you're mentioned. How did it feel when Tiesto included this in his 2004 concert (Duende was also played)?

Both - He played Witness on his first concert, so that was an even bigger surprise, but we were very happy of course; he gets to choose from all the tracks in the world and he picks two tracks of ours…

Stephen - What do you prefer to do, original material or remix work?

Both - Well lately we have been doing a lot of remixes, which is great fun, but own original material we prefer a bit more, because you get more recognition for it, although you basically do the same thing. We usually don’t use a lot of ‘ingredients’ of the original track when we do a remix to give it the real Danjo & Styles sound.

Stephen - What projects and releases can our members look forward to in the coming months?

Both – Epos - Vivagio (Danjo & Styles remix), Fire & Ice - Let There Be Light (Danjo & Styles vs Primer remix), PG2 - The Forum Of Love (Danjo & Styles remix), Danjo & Styles present Primer – Skywalker / Morgana and beginning of 2006: Jones & Stephenson - The First Rebirth (Danjo & Styles vs Primer remix)

Stephen - Onto your DJ work, you recently played in the UK for the first time, how did it go?

Both - We played in Leeds and Doncaster and the venues and crowds were really nice!

Stephen - Looking forward to coming back?

Both – Definitely! There are plans for an early 2006 return

Stephen – What's been your favourite gig to date?

Both - Hmmm difficult one, but I guess “Illusion at The Beach 2005”; a huge old ship dock, packed with an enormous and enthusiastic crowd! Wicked!

Stephen - Have you ever had something strange or extremely embarrassing happen during a gig?

Both – Well not really actually, as long as you don’t consider “titty signing” as something embarrassing, hehehe

Stephen - Tell us a little bit about your radio show, 'Playground' on ETN.fm?

Both – We are doing it for almost two years now and it’s growing every month. We get a lot of enthusiastic feedback on it! Every first week of the month it is broadcast on various stations:
ETN.fm: Every first Tuesday of the month from 19:00h till 21:00h
Mysteria @ Radioseven: Every first Wednesday of the month from 22:00 till 00:00h
Drizzly Radio: Every first Thursday of the month from 22:00h till 00:00h
True Radio: Every first Friday of the month from 11:00h till 13:00h

Stephen – What are your targets for the future, both individually and as a two-some?

Both - To conquer the world, meet a lot of people and travel a lot and bring our sound to as many music lovers as possible!

Stephen – And finally.... Tell us a little-known (or even embarrassing) fact about you both!

Danjo- Rob is not a natural blond

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