Noisia require no introduction. If you’ve never seen them perform in the flesh then you need to reevaluate your life choices. One of the most intriguing, hypnotic and downright epic performances you’re likely to see. If you happen to be in Birmingham this weekend then you’re in for a proper treat as Noisia are joining the likes of High Contrast, Logistics, Etherwood and more for Hospitality at Rainbow Venues.
We caught up with Thijs of Noisia ahead of the show to see what they’ve got up their sleeve for this weekend, Noisia Invites at ADE, upcoming releases and more…
Ez Thijs, thanks for taking the time to chat! Where in the world have we caught you today?
In the studio!
Should have known! 🙂 First things first – You’re in Birmingham this Saturday as part of yet another massive Hospitality line-up. You’ve played at Hospitality events a few times before, what do you look forward to most at these events?
Usually we’re the hardest act on a Hospitality night. Across the year we play a lot of DJ shows with our “neuro peers”, which is great because they’re all homies, but you do end up all playing more or less the same sound. It’s better for a crowd to get a healthy dose of everything I think 🙂 We try to offer that diversity on our Noisia Invites lineups as well.
How do you approach your sets these days – do you have a plan in mind or just go with what you’re feeling at the time?
I still get a little stressed the first few minutes when I just get on the decks, so I’ve learnt to prepare an intro that just works so I don’t have to worry about fucking up the mix in the beginning. Usually the prepared intro is about 5 tunes, (in key of course) and by the time I’ve played through them the adrenaline has totally killed the nerves and it’s just vibes from there. We have a couple of tunes that we like to end with too, so the outro is pretty much another prepared sequence of tunes.
Got any surprises in store for Saturday?
YES, some very fresh stuff coming from our studios is definitely going to be played (hint: check my instagram)
Who else are you looking forward to catching on the line-up?
Everyone really!
Difficult not to with a line-up like that! While we’re on the topic of events – you’re back at ADE this year with Noisia Invites. What can people expect this year?
Well, we’re really excited about this new sound of beats that kind of evolved out of the trap movement – it’s at 170 bpm so it mixes perfectly with D&B, it takes D&B sound design and mixes that with trap / hiphop. Alix Perez has been pioneering this stuff, so we booked him B2B with Eprom for a set, and then we’ve got the mighty Gaslamp Killer as well.. Gonna be crazy for sure. Of course we’re not forgetting D&B either, we’ve got Critical Sound System (Kasra, Mefjus, Enei) on the lineup as well as Gridlok, Current Value, Prolix, and Posij…
HUGE. You’re travelling a lot these days – do you find it difficult to produce when you’re on the road, or has it become standard procedure now?
Yes, it’s difficult because we don’t want to be hauling around big production laptops and Audeze headphones on these short trips. We have put ideas down (both Stampout and Friendly Intentions were started on laptops) but they usually need a lot of fixing in the studio afterwards..
What’s your studio set up looking like these days?
We’ve got three identical production studios, running Cubase on Windows PC’s. Nik’s got a Moog Sub-37 and I’ve been building a modular synth which is still steadily growing…
Oooft, sounds like a beast 🙂 You’ve just come off a huge tour in Australia and NZ as well – highlights from the tour?
I wasn’t on the tour, but I’ve asked Nik and he said:
Highlights for me were a personal sweating record at the Wellington gig, making silly swimming videos in Perth and watching Jeremy (Upbeats) stagedive off a speaker stack in Christchurch.
Haha sounds like a blast! What do you do in your down time to recover from the events and all the travel?
I like to go for walks on the beach (in winter as well, it’s a lot better when it’s quiet). I love seeing my sister and brother’s football matches if i’m around on the weekends – it’s so funny how simple the world is when your family is competing in a sports match. For a moment it’s completely clear who the good guys and the bad guys are! I love a day where I can read a complete weekend newspaper front to back, but easy days like those are pretty rare…
On to music – the Dead Limit EP with The Upbeats was next-level. The entire concept behind it – the trailer, the artwork, your aliases – simply brilliant. We caught up with Jeremy recently and he took us behind the EP and how you guys pieced it together. He mentioned that some of the tracks were started by you guys years ago – Did you always know you wanted to work with The Upbeats on this project?
I’m pretty sure that only Omnivore was started without those guys, the rest of the tunes were all started with them in the studio. But no, when we started Omnivore it wasn’t specifically meant as a collab. But when they heard it they were all over it, and then when we decided we’d do this EP project together it was an easy choice to tackle that one as a collab…
Is it easier to work with those guys since you’ve worked together before?
Yep 🙂
Do you have a personal favourite off the EP?
Honestly, I personally think Dead Limit came out really well. Might be a bit obvious because it’s the biggest tune, but creatively everything about it seems just like it’s supposed to be… And it was definitely a lot of effort to make it come across so natural and effortless 🙂
It really is a masterpiece… We asked Jeremy this question and it seems fitting to ask you guys as well – if you could have written the soundtrack for any film, which one would it be?
Tough question, because when I like a movie it’s also because of the sound. But when I like the sound, why should I want to replace it?
And that’s how I’m dodging this question… #meta
Haha, well played! Any more monster collabs in the works that we should know about?
Yep, we’ve got 2 collabs with Xtrah on an EP he’s doing for Invisible. We’ve also just started some things with the Ivy Lab boys.
Can’t wait for that! Let’s chat Noisia Radio – loving the eclectic selection. What inspired you guys to start the show?
Honestly? It was the EDM guys like Oliver Van Helden and Don Diablo, they all have a weekly radio show and it really works for them. So we thought why the hell not? We had a lot of tunes that probably no one even knew we liked, we thought this would be a great oppportunity to push some music that we can’t usually play in DJ shows. We did think it would prove difficult to find 20 tunes every week, which it has indeed. But we’ve managed so far!
You’re smashing it so far that’s for sure! What’s coming up next for you on the release front?
The two tunes with Xtrah on his EP are coming out november 27! We’ll be playing them on Noisia Radio of course 🙂
And what’s forthcoming on Vision that you’re excited about?
We’re in the process of getting a new solo release from The Upbeats ready, but it’s still in production stage so nothing concrete at the moment.
Final shout outs / words of wisdom?
Don’t do drums. Drums are bad, hmkay?
Catch Noisia at Hospitality Birmingham this Saturday. Final remaining tickets available here.
Heading to ADE in Amsterdam? Don’t miss Noisia Invites. Tickets available here.
Dead Limit is out now. Get it from the Noisia store, iTunes, Beatport and Spotify.
