W&W

W&W is a Dutch DJ and record producer duo composed of Willem van Hanegem and Wardt van der Harst. They mainly represent the genres of trance and electro house.^[2] They celebrated their first big success in the area of trance music with their debut single "Mustang".^[3] After producing in the trance genre for five years, W&W founded their own record label, called Mainstage Music,^[4] and then started being active in the genres Big room house and Progressive house. This was followed by the release of their commercial breakthrough "Bigfoot" in 2014. Their songs "Waves" and "Arcade", produced with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, also reached big success.^[5] In 2017, they returned to their original trance style with the NWYR (pronounced "new year") project.^[6]

History

Until 2012: Establishment and beginnings in the area of the trance

Both members of the duo began to build an interest for the trance genre at a young age. After their first successes as solo producers, the two DJs met for the first time at the Trance Energy Festival in the Netherlands. After building up a friendship, they started working on songs together. Then the track "Mustang", which appeared the same year, became a surprising success. On the basis of van der Harst's existing contract, Armada Music released the song as a single. Within a short time, the track reached high popularity on several forums and music platforms. After Sander van Doorn played the song in 2008 at the Trance Energy Festival, the duo began to make a name for themselves in the trance scene. In 2011, they made their first appearance on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs List when they reached the 36th place.^[7]

During the next few years, W&W had numerous single releases and appearances at trance festivals. In addition, they founded their own record label, named Mainstage Music, as a sub-label of Armada Music in April of 2012.^[4] Alongside W&W's own publications, the label publishes singles produced by numerous other artists such as Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin, and Sick Individuals. The duo also hosts a weekly radio show under the same name as their record label.^[8]

2013: From trance to big-room

W&W at TomorrowWorld Festival 2013

On 3 December 2012, the duo surprised their fans by releasing the single "Lift Off", since the track wasn’t produced in their typical style, but showed elements corresponding more to the currently very popular big-room genre. Shortly thereafter, they officially announced their move to the big-room and electro-house scene. "Lift Off" was then able to reach the 82nd position on the Dutch Top 100 Singles list within a very short time. This song attracted the attention of Dutch DJ Hardwell to the duo. As a result, he took them to his record label, Revealed Recordings, to release their upcoming singles "Trigger" and "The Code", the latter of which was produced in collaboration with Ummet Ozcan. "The Code" had already been supported by Hardwell before its release, and shortly thereafter it became ranked first on many Beatport charts. Both for W&W and for Ummet Ozcan, the song became their first number-one in this download portal.

"The Code" was then followed by a song produced as a crossover between W&W's old trance style and their new big-room style. Titled "D# Fat", the collaboration with Armin van Buuren became another club success and received praise from many of the duo's fans, most notably fans of their trance productions. At the same time, they worked together with van Buuren to remix his very successful single "This Is What It Feels Like", which was released shortly afterwards as a single track. The duo's next production, "Thunder", which embodied much the same sound as their remix, brought the duo once again to second place on the Beatport charts. On 27 July 2013, they performed for the first time at the mainstage of the Tomorrowland Festival in Belgium and were then able to advance into the top 20 of the DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ's list.

On 5 August 2013, W&W's long-awaited collaboration with the Dutch DJ Hardwell was unveiled under the title "Jumper". The track was premiered at the 2013 Ultra Music Festival in Miami, both by Hardwell and by W&W. The song uses the vocal sample "1, 2, 3, Jump", which has developed into one of the most used vocal samples in the big-room scene.

2014: Commercial breakthrough with "Bigfoot"

In the spring of 2014 first previews of their track Bigfoot appeared. The song featured another big room drop, but the build-up did not match the one of their previous singles. Already during the time before the release was done, the duo received very positive criticism for the song and also the success didn’t need a long time in coming. "Bigfoot" developed into their most successful single and W&W managed to achieve success far beyond the borders of their home country, including chart placements in Germany, Switzerland and France.^[9][10] On 28 April 2014 Hardwell's single "Everybody Is in the Place", which was co-produced by the duo. The track formed their first placement in the United Kingdom.

Parallel to the success of "Bigfoot" they received the residence at the Hakkasan Nightclub in Las Vegas, where DJs such as Tiësto and Dzeko & Torres perform as well. In addition, performances at the big festival followed. They have performed on the mainstages of the EDC in Las Vegas, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, and the Tomorrowland in Belgium. Their single "Rocket", which was recorded together with Blasterjaxx, provided both positive and negative criticism. Hardwell produced a mash-up of the track with his own song "Spaceman", which he played as a "final track" at numerous appearances. The official anthem for the Tomorrowland came from W&W as well. It is their track "Waves", which developed in collaboration with the Belgian DJ-duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. This was able to advance to the top-10 of the Belgian single charts. As a thank you for the advancement at position 18 of the DJ-Mag-Charts, the second collaboration-single with Hardwell was released. Titled as "The Dancefloor Is Yours" the track came out as a free download in the end of 2014.

Further collaborations appeared in collaboration with the hardstyle DJ Headhunterz. Those are presented by the tracks "Shocker", which appeared on 8 September 2014, and “We Control the Sound”, whose release took place just one month later. Both tracks celebrated premiere at the EDC in Las Vegas. The combination of the big-room style by W&W and Headhunterz’ Hardstyle caused the tracks to get positive criticism. In December 2014, the duo, together with Hardwell, released the long-awaited song “Don’t Stop the Madness” as a single. They had been playing it in their sets for months, but the song, according to Hardwell, lacked the final fine, which was awarded by the American rapper Fatman Scoop.

2015: Fixed part of the big room scene

Spring 2015: "Rave After Rave" and "The One"

W&W at Nature One

In January 2015, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike played W&W's instrumental production "Rave After Rave", which was called as an "ID" at the time of their world tour "Bringing the World Madness" , so neither artists nor titles were announced. Once again, Hardwell played it at the Ziggo Dome as well as Tiësto at Ultra Buenos Aires. The track attracted more and more rumors. Due to the similarity of the built-up to “Thunder”, W&W concealed it early, but the drop was very similar to the song “No Heroes” by the producers KSHMR and Firebeatz, which was decisive for letting fans believe in a collab of W&W with one of those artists. In the end, “Rave after Rave” came out as a solo-track in March 2015.

In their set at the Ultra Music Festival 2015, the duo played numerous new songs, including collaborations with MOTi and Hardwell as well as a remix of the 2000 hit "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" of the Italian trio Eiffel 65. On 24 December 2015, the German producer duo Jaxx & Vega released a remake of the remix, which was very close to the original and attracted a lot of attention. A second Blasterjaxx-Collab also made its debut at this festival. It is titled "Bowser" and has been played for the first time in May 2015 in Tiësto’s "Club Life" podcast as well as in Hardwell's "Hardwell on Air 218". The song received strong positive criticism. The release found place on June, 1 2015 on "Revealed Recordings". The only criticism was the fact that the studio-version in contrast to the live version had significantly less power. On 12 June 2015, W&W posted a teaser of their next single on Facebook. This includes a pitched sample of the song How Will I Know by the singer Whitney Houston. In contrast to their other singles they used a progressive house drop for the first time, for which they received strong positive feedback. On 29 June 2015, the song was released on "Armada Music". At the same time, they also uploaded the official music video of the song, which an animated love story between two young travellers.

Autumn 2015: Big-room with MOTi and trance with Armin van Buuren

Just a few days later, a one-minute teaser of the MOTi collaboration appeared on Facebook . However, songtitel and release date were not announced yet. After a longer period of time it turned out that the song will bear the title of "Spack Jarrow" and will be released on 24 August 2015. The name is based on the character Jack Sparrow of the film series Pirates of the Caribbean. The reason for this is the melodious similarity to the official Pirates of the Caribbean film music, "He's a Pirate", which was already used for the lead sound of "Rave After Rave". Because of MOTi’s contract with Tiesto's Musical Freedom, the track found a release on that label. On 31 August 2015, W&W released their official remix on the song "Sun Is Shining" by the Swedish DJ duo Axwell Λ Ingrosso. The remix was produced in contrast to the original progressive house track in big room style and quickly moved into the official Beatport Top 100. In addition, on their Facebook profile, a teaser of her long-awaited remix to Nico & Vinz' "Am I Wrong" was to be found, but a release still did not happen. In contrast, however, the reinterpretation of Hardwell and Mr. Probz' track "Birds Fly" got published as a part of the remix album of Hardwell's United We Are album.

On 21 December 2015, W&W released the single "If It ain’t Dutch", which was produced in collaboration with Armin van Buuren. While their previous collab "D#Fat" was released on "Armada", this one came out on "Mainstage Music". The track consists of a fusion of trance and big-room and contains two different drops. While the first is rather based on W&W's style, the second is more held in van Buuren’s and recalls its predecessor's single "Off the Hook" with Hardwell. Already at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami they premiered the track, which found its way into the Internet under the title "Your House Is Mine" due to the vocal shout. The song could quickly celebrate success and moved to the top within a short time.

2016: Success with "Arcade" and "Live the Night"

Willem van Hanegem shows the W&W-W, where the crowd always goes among.

Already at the Tomorrowland 2015 Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike played an unpublished song, with which they attracted a lot of attention. This came through the mysterious atmosphere and the intro which reminded on Armin van Buuren's Ping Pong, which was a part of the fans' minds. In the Tomorrowland Aftermovie, the song was heard once again, where for the first time officially announced that a collaboration between Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and W&W hides behind the "ID". Up to the end of the year, numerous remakes were released on YouTube and SoundCloud, titled as "Fight". In mid-February 2016, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike finally announced that the song would be released on 29 February 2016 with the title of "Arcade". In parallel, they launched a PR action on their website, where a selection of classic, well-known "arcade games" such as Mortal Kombat , Pac-Man or Donkey Kong could be played on a game machine. Also the official music video which came out on 1 March 2016, one day after release, shows the four producers in comic style as they are drawn into an arcade machine and play certain roles in various arcade games. The song became a big success and was quickly placed in the top 10 of the Beatport charts as well as on number one of the Belgian iTunes charts. On the same day, the song "Run Wild" by Hardwell and singer Jake Reese was released. W&W appeared as co-producers and authors on that song.

At the end of March 2016 the duo played a remix of the 2016 world-success "Faded" by Alan Walker live, spreading the rumours that they would be behind the remix, since they produce remixes of a large number of current chart successes. The track, however, turned out to be a rework of producer Dash Berlin. In addition, their remix for "Don't Let Me Down" of The Chainsmokers and Daya appeared. Together with the two Americans, they premiered the reinterpretation at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. This version is not produced in their typical electro house style, but was rather described as a mix of happy hardcore and trap. In addition, the publication of the vocal track "How Many" took place. After the premiere at the Creamfields Festival in Peru, an earlier version of the song came into the net and spread as a supposed collaboration with Showtek and Vassy since they were pitched in the same way as on "Bad". Actually the singer-songwriter Sophia Ayana is behind the vocals.

On 11 July 2016, the song "Live the Night" appeared. Behind that track there is a collaboration with Hardwell, which has been played by both Hardwell and W&W since 2013. The track was long awaited by fans, but the trio have not been satisfied with either an instrumental version or a version recorded with Harisson’s vocals. For the release version the US crunk rapper Lil Jon came to their studio. The final version of the track was premiered at the Revealed Festival at Nikki Beach in Miami by Hardwell and W&W. Critics said that the song would be well-produced, but due to the constant restraint, it actually came too late now.^[11]

W&W live at Airbeat One 2016 in Germany

Already in the previous year the track "Meet Her at Tomorrowland" was to be found on the compilation album The Secret Kingdom of Melodia, which appeared in the course of the Tomorrowland festival. The song is a cover version of the song "Meet Her at the Love Parade" by Da Hool from the year 2000 and was produced together with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. As a separate free track, the title was released on 8 August 2016, but it was only published under Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike's name. Reasons for the disappearance from the single cover were not mentioned.

The track "Caribbean Rave" was used as an intro of their sets between spring and autumn 2016 spread within a short time as a collaboration with the Canadian DJ duo DVBBS on the Internet. After these rejected, the rumour of a collab with the German duo Jaxx & Vega found arised. However, it was only a remake, which was so close to the original that W&W told them not to release it. The official release date was 31 October 2016. The song was called to be convincing especially for the way the lead sound comes on, basing on tropical sounds. The video also attracted attention, in which a capsized man dressed in a pirate look is swept to a Caribbean island and builds a mixing console after his search for food. Behind this he imitates mimics of typical poses which are associated with selected DJs. Among them there were the head banging of DVBBS, the "Hey-Hoe" by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike , the "Cakeface" by Steve Aoki as well as the empty facial expression of David Guetta due to his Tomorrowland appearance in 2013.

On 18 November 2016, they released their fifth official collaboration with Hardwell. The track is titled "Get Down" and has enjoyed popularity since its premiere at the Ultra Music Festival. Unlike its predecessors, this track is based on Jungle terror elements in combinations with their typical big-room style. The track, unlike the predecessor "Live the Night", was released on "Revealed" and not on "Mainstage" and was able reached # 13 of the Beatport Top 100.^[12]

2017: "Whatcha Need" and "Put Em Up"

W&W live at Breda Dance Music Festival 2017

On 6 January 2017, the release of the song "Whatcha Need" was announced for 23 January. The track had already been shared on the Internet under the title "What You Need" since spring 2016. It stands out from their other releases as it was shaped with trance influences and rhythmic changes.^[13] Spontaneously the release of the song was postponed by a few days, to 27 January 2017, which is atypical for "Mainstage Music", as they usually release on Mondays. On 10 April 2017 the release of the song "Put Em Up" took place. It was previously released on a compilation on 31 March 2017 by Kontor Records. "Put Em Up" had been traded for a time as a collaboration with Ummet Ozcan. The track is based on W&W's classic big-room style combined with "Lean On"- like dancehall elements.^[14] A Hardwell-produced mash-up with "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee also achieved popularity.

On Koningsdag, the radio station SLAM! hosted their annual festival. W&W were announced as headliners and premiered new music and a new festival bootleg of "Habiba" by Dutch rapper, Boef.

Regarding the opening of the DJ Mag votes, they announced the release of an unreleased track. The track is a cover song of the 2001 released techno/trance single "Supa Dupa Fly" by the German DJ duo 666.

Trance side project "NWYR"

On 10 February 2017, the Ultra Music Festival announced the line-up of its 19th edition, including an unknown name playing the trance stage called "NWYR". Fans questioned whether W&W would be playing as they had become a fixed part of the festival line-up. It was later revealed that NWYR was a side project of W&W, and that they would return to the festival with new trance music.^[15]

On 13 March 2017, they released a remix of the track "Castle on the Hill" by Ed Sheeran, their first under the pseudonym. Their time in the big-room area nevertheless had an influence on their new productions.

On 26 March 2017, they performed with their new project at the Ultra Music Festival. NWYR are behind a remix of British producer Gareth Emery's track with Standerwick and Hailene called "Saving Light". The NWYR style consists of the first drops being experimental, and the second drop being harder and more melodic.

On 12 June 2017, they released the first single of their new project, "Voltage".^[16]

Members

• Willem van Hanegem [Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɪ.ləm vɑn ˈɦaː.nə.ˌɣɛm]] (* 25 June 1987^[17] in Breda, Netherlands) said that his enthusiasm for trancemusic arose at the age of 11 and was due to the hearing of different compilations. At the age of 14, he started to DJ and only two years later to produce his own songs.
• Wardt van der Harst [Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɑrt fɑn dɛr ˈɦɑrst]] (* 26 December 1988^[18] in Dongen, Netherlands) also started at the age of 14. He produced his own tracks with cheap equipment and got his first recording contracts at the age of 17, including Armin Van Buuren's label Armada Music.

Discography

• Impact (2011)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• W&W Official Website
• W&W on Discogs