 03/10/2007 How did you two guys first meet?
Roog: (laughter) That’s a legendary question! 31 years ago we were both just chilling in the crib…
So how old are you both now?
R: I’m 35, and Greg is 31. We’re both getting old! But we still look 25.
Were you big on the club scene when you were younger? Who were the kind of people that you looked up to at the time?
Greg: Yeah we used to go out when were like 18, 19 years old, something like that.
R: We had these two clubs in Amsterdam: The Roxy and The It, and in The Roxy especially they would have these international DJs playing there from the beginning of the 90s. We saw people like Tony Humphries, and people like that. Already in the beginning of the 90s our tastes were more towards the soulful house stuff.
 You’re up there now as the most widely celebrated Dutch house acts. You’ve won numerous awards, been voted no. 1 DJ etc. Do you think that Holland has now shaken its association with trance music?
R: Well it’s taken us 15 years. I mean, everyone knows that Holland is the trance capital of the world. Tiesto is from Holland. Ferry Corsten is from Holland. When we first went to the Miami Music Conference they saw on our badge that we were from Holland and they were like “no no no, we don’t do trance. We don’t wanna hear your music.” And we were like “no! We do soulful house music”, and they were like “yeah whatever, we don’t wanna hear your music”. So it took us a very, very long time.
But in the last few years house and electronic house has got really big in Holland. It’s now even bigger than trance, or any other kind of dance music. It’s the biggest thing now, and I think the world is ready for the second wave of Dutch artists, such as Fedde le Grand.
So you two guys are classically trained pianists. Just how good are you?
G: Not any more! You have to keep practising to stay really good. But did like seven-to-ten years of training.
In terms of producing, how much does it matter to have some kind of musical training such as yours?
G: Well that depends on what kind of music you wanna make. If you want to make something really musical, it obviously pretty handy to have that kind of background.
R: We have to admit that when we do the musical stuff, we bring in people that are far better musicians than us. It’s easier too, as when you’re playing yourself you get too stuck up in your own ideas. It’s better as a producer, I think, working with other musicians.
I’ve seen many photos of the both of you wearing Hardsoul t-shirts. That must be part of your strategy in getting people recognising you?
R: Nowadays, with the internet and all the download sites, people get so much information and so much new music every week, so people need something like Defected or Subliminal to give it the credibility stamp. People are like ‘these guys know music, so I will listen to their new release’. This is what we are trying to achieve.
So let’s talk about the compilation. Can you pick out two or three of the tracks that really do it for you on there?
G: To start with, we have Dennis Ferrer’s ‘Touched the Sky’ on there.
R: It’s already out but we love it so much that we had to put it on.
 Are there any exclusives on there?
R: I want to give props to Copyright, as they gave us some new tracks which aren’t really finished yet. But there’s one track that’s totally brand new, called ‘Deeper’, and we’re starting the CD off with that track. It’s amazing. It’s nice, sort of like beginning of the night material but I love it.
We also did a special version of our track Hardsoul presents Quasimodo ‘Give In’.
G: And of course we have to plug another new track, Hardsoul feat. Fierce Ruling Diva ‘Believe in Me’, which is the track Kenny ripped out of Roog’s hand that time.
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