Open Mic with Afrojack!

DjWhtDaHek:
Hey guys. What’s up? It is DjWhtDaHek here for another edition of Open Mic and today my guest is Nick de Wall, but better known as Afrojack. Thanks for coming on the show, man.

Afrojack:
No, my pleasure. Nice to meet you.

DjWhtDaHek:
So Afrojack’s having some wifi problems, which is just how it is in a hotel room, in Miami is it, right now?

Afrojack:
Miami. Yeah, it’s Miami on the water.

DjWhtDaHek:
On the water straight chilling, sounds like a good time.

Afrojack:
It is a good time. I’m very lucky. Actually, I’m even more lucky that they’re hosting your virtual music festival again next year finally, or next months finally.

DjWhtDaHek:
Are you going to be there the into month then?

Afrojack:
No, no, I have EDC Mexico this Friday and then next Friday, Ultra Melbourne, Australia. So, I’m going from here to Mexico then and from Mexico to Milan, to be home for three days. Then from Milan to Australia and then from Australia, I go to Dubai for 10 days and I have a show in [Disraeli 00:01:29], Bahrain, and Tomorrowland Winter in France. And then I’m back for [Ultraland 00:01:33]. So I got a busy month.

DjWhtDaHek:
That is a very busy month. My goodness. How are you going to keep sanity with all that travel going on?

Afrojack:
I’m used to it, also I fly first class. You’ve got some jets here and there.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right.

Afrojack:
So, it’s not that it’s not that bad.

DjWhtDaHek:
Not that bad. Well, you were originally from the Netherlands, Rotterdam, correct?

Afrojack:
Yes.

DjWhtDaHek:
So I assume you were a Sparta Rotterdam fan.

Afrojack:
No, we actually have Feyenoord. She’s like fond, [crosstalk 00:02:07] but I’m not into soccer.

DjWhtDaHek:
You’re not into soccer.

Afrojack:
When you were born there, you’re automatically indicted into Feyenoord. You’re cannot be from Rotterdam and be an [IRX 00:02:18] fan. It doesn’t work well on the streets.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right, soccer’s a religion there.

Afrojack:
Yeah. They go hard.

DjWhtDaHek:
Hopefully, because Feyenoord, I think they’re sitting third in the table right now. So Ajax and PSV, maybe they’ll get it. We’ll see. We’ll pull for them.

Afrojack:
Hmm.

DjWhtDaHek:
So I’ve actually never been to the Netherlands. What would be something you would recommend would be a must do to go see for someone that would be first time visiting?

Afrojack:
Well, Amsterdam in its whole itself is like an experience. You’ll see things you never see anywhere in the world. And it Rotterdam, street life is amazing. There’s so many different cultures. It’s all almost like a grand desire of all the cultures that live in Holland. So Indonesian, Turkish, Moroccan, Middle Eastern, Dutch, of course, there’s also a very big Dutch part, and so many different foods. So Suriname, and myself am Surinamese.
So there’s all these different influences, all these different foods. We have a festival in the summer called Summer Carnival, I think. We have all these cultures coming together, they have food and dance, parties, it’s crazy. It’s definitely a big one for Rotterdam.

DjWhtDaHek:
That sounds like a very good time. I’ll have to check that out. If I can get to the Netherlands one day, it’ll be on the bucket list to go check it out. So that’s cool.
Is there any other hobbies you enjoy? You mentioned you’re going to have three days of at home. Is it going to be relaxation, like hardcore relaxation? [crosstalk 00:03:57]

Afrojack:
No, we’re moving. We’re moving.

DjWhtDaHek:
You’re moving?

Afrojack:
I lived in Dubai for a while, and I had a lot of stuff there and it just didn’t ship. So when we arrive, we’re moving from an apartment to a house. So we have to take all our stuff, put it in there, finish some painting and stuff, finish up the house, essentially. And then after that, I’m back on tour again. So I want to make sure now my wife’s going to be there already. She’s leaving tomorrow already. Just going to make sure she feels at home.

DjWhtDaHek:
My goodness, that is an immensely busy schedule. That’s ridiculous.

Afrojack:
And then, on the side, I’m also doing, if you’re talking about my hobbies, I love gaming. I started something called Team Wall last year, which is essentially, the same thing I do with artist development for Wall, trying to find new talents and to help them get introduced to the music industry. We now started doing the same thing for gamers and streamers. So it’s a lot of fun. So we’re on Twitch all the time as Team Wall. We do events, we do tournaments. I do love gaming.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right. What’s your favorite game?

Afrojack:
Final Fantasy, personally. It’s a very niche market, but I love, I’ve been a Final Fantasy fan since I’m a kid. Since Final Fantasy seven. And after that, I think my biggest past time was Call of Duty.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right. Right.

Afrojack:
I like GTA I play GTA a lot too, but Call of Duty is just, I don’t know. If you play it, when you know, you know.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right.

Afrojack:
I don’t play FIFA, I play Call of Duty.

DjWhtDaHek:
Call of Duty instead of FIFA. I’m the FIFA guy. So I guess, all right, we’re good. I can get down to Call of Duty too, but…

Afrojack:
I have some friends, actually, my manager is, what do you call it, Division One in FIFA?

DjWhtDaHek:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Wow.

Afrojack:
He has the highest rec. Yeah. He loves it. He loved it for years, but he never had time to play, because he’s always on tour on me. And now’s been playing a little bit more.

DjWhtDaHek:
Oh boy. Now I’m going to go do Call of Duty after this. That’s good. Always interesting to hear the artists where they got the name from, and yours, I came to the conclusion potentially, with Afrojack saying, okay, Afro potentially, with hair. The jack side of it, I’ve been stumped. Where did it come from?

Afrojack:
So there’s this thing in dance music. There was this vocal saying, in the beginning there was Jack, Jack had a roof and this was on the record of Mr. Fingers, like classic house track, the abstract, from the roots. And basically, jacking in dance music is like dancing to house music. You jack your body, it means you’re dancing to house music. They even had, at one point, had jacking music. It was a little bit Chicago house.
It’s a term in dance music. And then I add the Afro side, I just said, Afrojack. People say, “Wow, that’s a dope name.” I was like, “Cool, whatever.” I don’t care about names. I don’t really believe a name will change anything, but it did. It did. And for me it changed a lot.

DjWhtDaHek:
Oh yeah. [inaudible 00:07:14] Yeah. It was a very successful name.

Afrojack:
Yeah. People said, “Well, it’s a catchy name.” Yeah, well it’s my name.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah. Own it.
My hair’s getting a little bit long, so I don’t know if I could do the Afro look, but maybe it might start a good musical career, in the DJ scene maybe.

Afrojack:
You can always do the… What do they call your hair? Wavy?

DjWhtDaHek:
Wavy, I guess.

Afrojack:
Wavyjack. Yeah.

DjWhtDaHek:
Wavyjack coming on the scene next. All right. I’ll stick with it. Oh boy.
Well, let’s get into some tracks. So I think that’s going to be an important thing to discuss, some tracks here from Afrojack. First and foremost on the list, is one of the great flashbacks here on our station is, it’s our go-to song for any special occasion. It has to be played. Can’t Stop Me with Shermanology.

Speaker 8:
If this was the last dance of the night, will you join me ’til the morning light? Dance the night away ’cause it feels right. You can’t stop me, no. You can’t stop me, no. You can’t stop me, no.

DjWhtDaHek:
Just tell me a little bit about that track and maybe…

Afrojack:
Funniest shit ever. I was just in the car, driving around in Miami, and was in the car and I heard the Tiësto remix being played on [Big EDM 00:08:35]. And I have not heard the track on the radio in years. And now you’re asking me about it. So that’s crazy coincidence.

DjWhtDaHek:
24/7, 365 a year, And we know the end is near. You can’t stop me, no.

Afrojack:
Now that record with Shermanology, artists that I’ve never signed to, well at that time. I’ve been independent for what? Six years already, seven years. I don’t know, and few good records. Basically, the same feeling we wanted to have again with Hero with David, a song we did two years ago. Just positivity, happiness, colorful, very colorful.

DjWhtDaHek:
It’s one of our favorite tracks here and it’s probably… There’s too many tracks to talk about. If we were doing a proper interview of Afrojack tracks, it would be, instead of a four to six hour live set, it’d be a four to six hours just Afrojack long talks. It’s a great track. We love it here on the station. And another great track was No Beef, with Steve Aoki, which was just celebrating an 11th anniversary here. What’d you guys do to celebrate?

Afrojack:
Well, we wanted to celebrate a 10 year anniversary, but COVID shut that down. I told him they should still have called it the 10 year anniversary, even though it’s the 11 years, but better marketing or whatever.
We got a lot of remixes done, which was fun, because we didn’t have the parts, because the parts were on an old laptop. I produced a song with Steve in LA and I don’t have the laptop anymore. So everyone I had to work with only the acapella. We got some great remixes. W.
E got a lot of support, and for me, the funnest part about that was to see how little has changed in the 11 years. Me and Steve, still buddies, still doing these shows, just 10 years older. But we did not change our lifestyle and our behavior like we’re 10 years old. That’s the interesting thing, we started so young, I’m 34 now and I’m still partying. I’m still doing music gigs and not just playing for the people, but also partying with the people.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right.

Afrojack:
It’s amazing to see that this music is so strong. It’s still alive, and alive in such a big way.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right.
Doing the Aoki jump with him, I assume. Getting that on the Instagram.

Afrojack:
That’s his thing.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah.

Afrojack:
Yeah. We’ve been doing that for a long time.

DjWhtDaHek:
Another great artist you’ve work with is David Guetta.

Hero vocals:
Tonight, when you need a way out, someone to lean on, some kind of hero. He’s there when you look in the mirror, staring back at you there’s a hero in you.

DjWhtDaHek:
Your track Hero was nominated for Best Dance Recording in your Grammy for 2022.

Afrojack:
Yeah. It’s crazy.

DjWhtDaHek:
You mentioned making it like, Can’t Stop Me, good vibes. What was it like putting this track together and working with David?

Afrojack:
Well, it was a bit weird because the whole hype of dance music was, everyone wanted to be underground and cool and weird. Especially there when COVID hit, I blew [inaudible 00:12:04], the business. No disrespect to the record, but it was a certain wage. And we were working on this record and were so positive and we wanted to launch it at Ultra to really give that energy boost, but then COVID came and canceled everything.
So we had to wait with releasing the record for about a year, and then we still released it too early, because we thought everything was coming back and it didn’t, but we were just like, “Well, fuck it, we need this positivity right now.”
So we released it, and the record did very well. Not necessarily in pop radio or pop charts very well, but it did very well in dance. Everyone loved the record. All our fans loved the record, and it got nominated for Grammy. Then you see the competition, a record, the business, or the artist, just the soul. These guys have so much hype, they have so much success. So overall, of course, David is gigantic too. But for me, as Afrojack, to stick my head in there and say, “We’re still here.” It’s pretty cool.

DjWhtDaHek:
All this success, at the time, when you’re recording these… Obviously when we see the headline oh, Afrojack and David Guetta, Afrojack and Steve Aoki, Afrojack and going back to Pitbull and Chris Brown, all those. We think, oh, this is going to be a big song, or this is going to be a good song. When you were making these tracks, did you think, “Okay, yes, this is going to be a great song. It’s going to be big”? And did you have an idea that it would be as successful as it was?

Afrojack:
No. Never.

DjWhtDaHek:
Never.

Afrojack:
No. Never, never. Never. We do and sometimes we make successes. When I say we, I mean me and the team, like the managers that bought the label, the promoters, also for very important.
I’m not an A and R, so I cannot tell you, oh, that’s a hit or that’s not a hit. I just know what I think is dope, but I did learn to listen to the A and Rs, and based on them, I can usually get an idea of how successful a record will be. But to have a success like Hero, or success, like… Even Anywhere With You was doing way better than predicted. It’s a full on progressive record. It’s a full on DubVision as progressive dance record, and that shit hasn’t been on the radio, or it hasn’t been big in 10, 12 years. Well 10 years, approximately.
So to see that it does so well is really off response heartwarming, but it’s also interesting to see the potential right now of dance music today. Because everyone thinks they have to do in a craze. It’s like, oh, we have to do house crossover. We have to go Chris Lake Fisher, but it’s not necessary. You could if you want to get some quick hype, but it’s not a necessity. Music gets respected as music itself.
So that gives a lot of opportunity to not just upcoming artists, but also artists like DubVision, artists like Lucas & Steve. And for me, especially with Anywhere With you, it was just fun to be part of the journey for them. Because for Lucas & Steve and DubVision, it’s one of their biggest records ever. And for me to be able to show their talent to the people that didn’t know yet, a lot of people already know about their talent, but people, to millions, it’s nice extra.

Speaker 9:
Wherever you go, you know I’d follow you, because I’d go anywhere, anywhere, anywhere with you. Just say, “Let’s go”, I’d run away with you. Yeah, I’d go anywhere, anywhere, anywhere.

DjWhtDaHek:
So you were with Lucas & Steve and DubVision on Anywhere With You. How did you guys come together and say, “okay, let’s do this”?

Afrojack:
First of all, I got the song from Tommy Trash, which is very interesting. Even though he wasn’t involved with the final production, he sent me the song and I go, “We will work on this.” And then later I got sent the same song from the original writer, which is very weird, said like, “Hey, you want to work on this?” I was like, “Wait, I just got this also…” So that was a little bit awkward situation. This happens in music, but Tommy was very cool about it. And I started doing the record with DubVision and Lucas & Steve, because to me, initially, it sounded like, that’s a DubVision hit. And then I made a version with DubVision, but it was so aggressive and powerful, like full on EDM festival mix. I said, well, it’s amazing, but we need some, I say softer.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right, right, right.

Afrojack:
Just a little bit perfect son-in-law addition. And that’s when Spinning mentioned Lucas & Steve, and I said, “Oh, that’s a great idea.” So then we send it to them and then they added their touch. They added actually a lot of touches. They added so many touches, I told them like, “Yo guys, there’s too many touches.” Literally, they sent back stems. They added 150 stems. I’m like, quiet down.
So then eventually the record came about, but a lot of the records that we do, especially producers, we don’t write ourselves. The song is written by songwriters and then we produce it to whatever we feel like it needs to be. Some guys write their own stuff, but most… [crosstalk 00:17:46]

DjWhtDaHek:
I guess it’s interesting, just toning it down in a way. When you’re sitting down to make a track, potentially produce a track, is there that idea in your head that, okay, this is going to be club heater, rager versus, something that is more toned down. Is there a selection process into that or is it just flow and what it is how it comes out?

Afrojack:
It’s flow. It is what it is. When it comes out, and that’s where these days I do most work. I try to work with a lot of young and upcoming artists to give them a shot, but usually where my work excels at, or where I do the most work is all the way at the end, when it’s like, okay, it’s almost ready. Then you need to decide direction. What’s the BPM? What’s the vibe? Are we going to use 80 synths? Or are we going to use 2012 synths, or trap hats or 909 hats? There’s so many different directions to choose from. That’s usually where, now I start my production at the end of a project.
And the same thing, I’m doing a new record with David Guetta Missy Elliot, it’s coming out soon. It was the same thing, David already had the song, but he couldn’t figure out the beat. So he sent it to me and then I flipped the beat to what I think it’s supposed to be. Then he’s excited and then he finishes it and puts it out. And that’s what I try to put my main focus in now, instead of doing all the pre-work.

DjWhtDaHek:
It’s always interesting to hear the collaboration styles between the artists and everything like that. And so you work with David Guetta a lot it seems over the years.

Afrojack:
Well, he’s like family to me. It’s a family thing.

DjWhtDaHek:
Let’s move on to your record label Wall Recordings, and I’m getting the feeling of when you first founded this, was the idea to give a platform for other artists to come on and give them a stage to make their music. Is that what you founded it for?

Afrojack:
Yeah, that was the basic idea. So we found talent and brought it to the light, to the people. It went very well, but it was not managed by me. It was managed by my back then manager, and we did not have the backend to take care of artists in this way.
So we would bring them to light. They would become successful, and they were fucked, because there was nothing to handle the success. So now I really started, especially during COVID, I really emphasized my focus on creating the backend for these artists.
So we recently signed [Cesco 00:20:33], who’s an amazing artist. We signed Sidney Samson, we signed a bunch of younger producers and we are trying to, how do you say? Well, right now they’re in preparation mode, but by the time we come out, I really want people to see the fans of the existing artists, like Cesco and Sydney. I want them to see like, “Wow, Wall really helped them.”
We do that now, not just by me giving direction or me doing a call or making one phone call. It’s really, we’re looking at their product, at their music, at their presentation. How is your set? How are you going to present your set? How is your visuals? Anything we can help with creatively. And then there’s a whole team to actually execute upon that.
So now, for example, talking with Cesco, because he’s such a special artist with special, and I think amazing music, but I think it should also be presented in that way. Not just some guy doing a DJ set. So we’re talking about how can we present you as what you really are? You’re not just a DJ you’re an artist. You’re an act. When you do a show, you’re out in the DJ booth, you’re hanging from the ceiling, you doing all this shit. That’s what you got to put in your DJ set. That’s what you got to put in your presentation.
Then we also execute that presentation. So we have a team that handles setting up film, setting up camera, setting up the director, doing all that stuff. So it is really fun. I really, now, I have the ability to leverage my network and my experience to these younger artists that not necessarily are going to have the same experience or network.

DjWhtDaHek:
A little while back, it seemed like when you would go do a DJ show, be okay, it’s someone with a DJ booth, and that was it. But it really is a show when you go on stage.

Afrojack:
Yeah. Well, that’s what it is now, and that’s not what it was like 15 years ago, but it is what it is now. We’re competing with, not just DJs, with entertainment, so we better be dope. You better have the fucking time of your life when you go to see us. We’re lucky we have people like [Eric Ritz 00:22:55] and [Tale of Us 00:22:56]. They get our set doing all these elaborate production because it keeps us, as DJs, interesting. How would you feel if every show you went to is just a guy playing records with three rights? You’ll be bored very quickly. Does not take you to another world.
So, I think it’s our job, being on the forefront of this industry, to really try to take it to the next level always.
That’s what I love personally the most about playing at Ultra Miami every year. You see all these top artists bringing their A game, and it’s usually very impressive.
I think all of us like Top 10 DJs, we are all watching all the shows every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. We put on Ultra on YouTube, and we see like, what are the visuals? What are you doing? What is the lighting doing? What’s happening? Oh, wow. He brought that artist down. Oh, wow. Steve threw a cake and whatever. And then they’re like, “Were watching.”
Even though you can critique, of course you can critique, Steve Aoki is just a guy throwing cakes. He’s entertaining the whole show. He’s doing the stage dive and he’s singing along. He’s doing this thing where he plays, lose yourself. And he gets someone from the crowd to rapid life. It’s entertainment. It’s fun. I wouldn’t necessarily do it, but it’s fun. That’s why thousands of people buy a ticket.
So we are lucky to have someone that shows the entertainment possibilities of DJing, and then it’s up to us to artistically interpret that in our own way, of course.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right. Steve Aoki throwing a cake. What do you think would be the craziest thing you’ve seen at one of your shows?

Afrojack:
Oops.

DjWhtDaHek:
Thumbs up.

Afrojack:
Yeah. Well, it’s always fun. Surprise, like hello.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah.

Afrojack:
I think the most fun, the most craziest things I did was actually with Steve, when, I think it was my birthday or his birthday, we caked each other. It was EDC 2012 or 2014. Of course, we missed two years, but I’m ready for some crazy shit to happen again.
Actually, it’s interesting to see, they always know there’s this new kid on the block. Who’s going to be the next Steve Aoki?. Who’s going to take the entertainment to the next level? Who’s going to ride a donkey into the crowd? I don’t know.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah.

Afrojack:
I’m not that creative, but it’s interesting. It’s interesting to see what the future’s going to bring.

DjWhtDaHek:
I think, again, you’re trying to give that platform to that next generation of artists that are come and do this. You had the Global Remix Battle one, how I buy PMC speakers, and you selected these artists, that remix, your Press Play EP, and the best ones, you put them out into their own EP and released it.

Afrojack:
Yeah. I got to tell you honestly, though, that was fun, and it did bring some talent to light, but it was not nowhere near I wanted to be. It was a little thing. We had a thousand remixes, but there was not enough, how you say? It was not sexy enough for more serious producers and artists, and we didn’t do that much promotion and marketing.
What we’re working on now is, when we do Remix Battle or when we do any type of producer contest, we want serious people to get involved too. So if you have a grand prize of 10K, 50K or anything like that, then you’re going to see some talent pop up. And when I say talent, I don’t mean people that make music for a few years. I mean people that been making music for years and years, or that maybe already have some success, but we just don’t know about them yet.
That’s one thing that’s difficult when you do these type of things. In the Remix Battle, I think 80% of the stuff we got sent, was people that just produced for six months. They downloaded some samples and felt like, “Oh, I’m a producer.” You’re not the producer, you’re practicing, and we want you to keep practicing, but you have a lot to learn.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right. Right. It’s interesting that you also mentioned a little bit earlier, how you and Steve Aoki haven’t really changed much over the years. You’re still partying hard at all these parties. What do you think has been the biggest change in the EDM music scene in your years of doing this?

Afrojack:
The biggest change? House. House and tech house finally came back. I love it, personally. I started with it back in Holland in 2007, 2008. A very solid roof, switch inspired, which is like a mix of tech house and eclectic influences, very urban influences. Yeah, that’s dope.
I think, actually, Skrillex with the J Balvin record, In The Ghetto, that really hit the hammer on the nail, like of where everything’s about to go right now. So I’m very, very excited about that.
That’s one thing that did not exist 10 years ago. 10 years ago, everything was Afrojack, Avicii, David, Black Eyed Peas. That was 10 years ago, that was it. There was nothing else. Now, there’s all these interesting things popping up. [Rüfüs Du Sol 00:28:40], Chris Lake, Fisher, Black Coffee, Eric Ritz finally getting the recognition he deserved for many, many, many years.
It’s actually interesting. I have to imagine. I don’t think a lot of people know this, Chris Lake is not a hype. Chris Lake was the hype in 2005 already when I just started producing. He was already making dope records, but no one cared. Now, it’s so cool to see people finally care, because this guy, he’s been waiting a long time for his respect.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah. The artists that seem like they’ve been doing it a long time is now, you, obviously David Guetta, Steve Aoki has been around, Tiësto has been around. And another was like, Paul Oakenfold, the guys that have been just doing it for years and years and years now. It’s awesome to see they’re continuing to make these tracks. How do you think you’ve reinvented yourself over the years to continue doing what you’re doing?

Afrojack:
I’ve not really reinvented myself, I shifted my focus. My focus is now young artists and artist development and using what I built to, basically leveraging everything I’ve built into new artists. What happens if Cesco has my phone list? If he has the people to call that I have to call. It changes the game. That to me is way more exciting than another Afrojack records.
I still do Afrojack records, but I’m not planning to reinvent myself and go DJ in a helicopter and say, “Look at me. I’m DJing in a helicopter.” I don’t give a fuck. It’s stupid, but in order to introduce new talent, that’s way more interesting to me.
I love Cesco to DJ from a helicopter, because he has a whole new sound to showcase. People know me. When I play, I have to play Take Over Control and 10 Feet Tall and Give Me Everything and On The Floor and No Beef. 30 minutes of my set list is already set for defense, and then I have 30 minutes more to evolve myself, which I do, which I have fun with, but it’s not my main focus.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right. It’s interesting. We spoke with Armin van Buuren a few years back, and he was in the similar space of, okay, it’s now my time to give back. I have had what I done, and now it’s time to get this next generation in and give them a platform to do it as well. So that’s very interesting to hear you say that.

Afrojack:
I do got to say, I don’t see it as giving it back. It’s like there’s a business model behind it, of course. If one of the artists we help blows up, the company will make money too. I the most important thing to see about it is that I profit too from the success. Not financially, but just in general, because if I promote Cesco and I promote the new song, in my set, people still hold me accountable or responsible.

DjWhtDaHek:
Right. Right.

Afrojack:
It’s like what you see with Alesso and Swedish House Mafia. Alesso is not part of Swedish House Mafia, but he carries the Swedish flag and it’s like… So Swedish House Mafia is successful, so Alesso is successful. Alesso is successful, Swedish House Mafia is more successful. I don’t know how to define, but that’s what happens.

DjWhtDaHek:
Interesting the inter workings of all the behind the scenes stuff as well. That’s awesome to hear. Let’s…

Afrojack:
That’s my business now.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah. Yeah.

Jacked Radio Announcer:
Welcome to JACKED Radio with Afrojack.

Speaker 15:
Turn up the bass.

DjWhtDaHek:
Let’s shift into JACKED Radio. Love it, and for all the listeners that maybe don’t know what it is, what is it, and where can people go to listen to it?

Afrojack:
It’s a worldwide syndicated radio show. And you can definitely listen on my Facebook or YouTube. Outside of that, I don’t know where it’s in. I think it’s played by 130 stations around the world and we use it as a platform to bring new music, to just do entertainment. It’s a weekly radio mix for episode 530 or something. Somewhere around there. I don’t know.

DjWhtDaHek:
It’s a lot of episodes.

Afrojack:
It’s a lot of episodes. It’s never been my main focus, but it has so much exposure, and it’s so nice to be able to showcase new music to people just through radio. Really cool.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah. And we can add our station, Wolfbytes Radio, to that list, every Saturday night now at midnight. So we’re jamming out. We’ll be jamming out to [crosstalk 00:33:26].

Afrojack:
Wow, Saturday night at midnight. Thank you. That’s a respectful spot.

Speaker 16:
Oh, I’m ten feet tall.

DjWhtDaHek:
You mentioned 10 Feet Tall earlier. It’s another one of my favorites, and just quickly to mention it, one of my first trips to Washington DC, I was walking down the street and this car drove by absolutely blasting 10 Feet Tall. And it was right when it first came out too. And I said, “Oh my God, I want to hang with this guy.” So now every time I go to Washington DC or drive by around DC, 10 Feet Tall is something I’m listening to and it sets you back right to that spot. So it’s another great track that I remember too. So that’s awesome.

Afrojack:
It’s amazing.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yeah. It’s great. Well, we’re going to be jamming out to JACKED Radio midnights here on Wolfbytes Radio. And just to close here, for all the fans worldwide of Afrojack, what can they expect next from you? What’s in the works?

Afrojack:
Big shit.

DjWhtDaHek:
A lot of travel.

Afrojack:
Well, no. Yeah. So travel definitely, but I’ve really been basically, investing all my time into building recording studios, building the office, building the team, building an independent team, so I’m no longer dependent. Even though we work in partnerships with major labels and big companies, we’re not dependent of them. So I can choose what to do for music videos. I can choose what to do for live production and I can choose where we invest and what artists we sign.
I’m going full on, you’ll see in the years, I don’t know how to explain it, but we’ve been investing fully over the last two years since COVID started. And now, finally, the shit’s about to come out. So I hope you all like it.

DjWhtDaHek:
We’re going to be excited for it. I’m sure everyone is going to be very excited for it. Maybe we’re not going to be seeing you jumping out of a helicopter or anything like that, but we’re going to be stoked to see whatever it is.

Afrojack:
I might do it because it’s necessary promo, but I won’t enjoy it.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yes. Oh, I love it. Well, Afrojack this has been awesome, and I just want to thank you for taking some time out to come on the show, man.

Afrojack:
My pleasure. Thank you so much.

DjWhtDaHek:
Yes. All right, guys, that was the latest edition of Open Mic. It’s DjWhtDaHek with Afrojack and I will see you on the next one. See you later.