Isla Del Sol Fest duo Showtek have been in the dance music industry for quite some time but over the past year, the boys have undoubtedly experienced a meteoric rise. Though they were once a hardstyle act, the two have now evolved into a powerhouse team, creating some of the biggest dance floor hits in hard dance, progressive, electro house and everything in between.
The Dutch duo, consisting of two brothers, Sjoerd and Wouter Janssen, have been producing music since 2001. Their early productions were of techno persuasion, but they later grew into the harder dance act that they are best-known for. The brothers describe their early sounds in an interview, “The ‘TEK’ in Showtek comes from techno! We started with this no-melody, groovy loop kind of techno. But when Mauro Picotto came with ‘Komodo,’ that was so new and cool! In 2001 we released Save the Day, which was a major hit in the clubs and dance charts for weeks. If we look back to that time, we even played tracks from Marco V because our style was pretty close to his. If you listen to Showtek, our sound is pretty accessible. We still try to put all different kind of elements in our music to sound as diverse as possible. But the “tekno” we made back then, that’s history.”
Sjoerd and Wouter didn’t really plan on choosing DJing as their go-to careers though. Both explain how they got started, “We never had the dream of becoming DJs, it really just happened, but not out of the blue of course. We started producing music as a hobby. We both loved music when we were young — Wouter played piano and Sjoerd worked on beats on his computer. When our parents got divorced we needed a way to express ourselves. We hooked up as a team and locked ourselves up in our little room and just made music, straight from the heart. We had no background in music, no schooling, no one who taught us how to work music programs, we just discovered everything by ourselves.”
Their first release in 2001 “Save the Day” was licensed to over twenty compilations CDs, immediately establishing their name in the Dutch dance scene. Their follow up release “Controller” has been called “one of everyone’s favorite hardstyle tracks” and the two have been championed by many of the industry’s heavy-hitters ever since. “We were asked to play in a club in our hometown as residents DJs, and from there on we started to really DJ.”
This past year has seen the brothers at an all-time career high. Not only have they co-produced tracks with talents like Tiësto and Hardwell, but they have also co-produced songs for Chris Brown. Playing at some of dance music’s most popular events, the duo is known for their dynamite sets brimming with crazy energy. Get ready to get loose when Showtek takes the stage at Isla Del Sol Fest. Buy your tickets today!
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