Sick Individuals are two young heavy hitters that have recently been dominating the scene. They hail from Holland but were in Miami to play Ultra Music Festival and a couple other Winter Music Conference parties. I had the pleasure of sitting down with them.
We have Sick Individuals here with us today, what are your names?
My name is Jim.
My name is Ray.
How did you guys meet?
We met in art school, we both studied music for 4 years. We played each other’s music in front of the class. We were the only ones that like each others’ music so we became friends like right away, we walked out of class shook hands and said “this is it!”.
What kind of music was it?
It was like really weird art music. (noises with mouths lol)
And then our music wasn’t EDM or electronic music, we played some piano music, I played him some beats. But it was the only music that you can rely on and have some feeling in it. So we liked that.
So you guys play real instruments?
Yeah, I’ve played the piano a long time and he plays the guitar and sings as well.
It’s not your first time in Miami, ya’ll have been here quite a bit. Where is your favorite place to party in Miami?
That’s hard man. ultra, it’s not a venue but if it’s here once a year that’s our favorite way to go. And this year were playing so we’re really excited.
You guys are playing tomorrow, how excited are you? Does it feel surreal?
It’s definitely a milestone.
How long have you been producing together?
4 years? Four years. I think even more, before we were Sick Individuals we started making music for TV commercials. We were in a company that did that before for like 4 or 5 years.
What do you use to produce?
Logic is our main program, we use Ableton for edits, and we use synths. You want some nerd talk?
Hell yeah, give it to me!
Well our favorite synth is Tal U N O and Massive, Kontact samples, not only Vengeance banks but Battery banks from Native Instruments. Sylenth is always in our projects. Nexus is good for the layers underneath, to make it warm and fill it up. The presets are so overused but its nice for the background; to make it complete. Now were using a lot more audio, before we used to use a lot of software synths. Now we use a lot more audio: we chop it up, like he made some synths like four years ago and we still use them. Sometimes in the background, they just have a great feel to them.
You also said you’re updating a blog back home?
No no, its only now during WMC. were updating the people at home about whats up in Miami.
Cool, like online or on the radio?
It’s live, like he just did a phone interview for the radio!
How did that come about?
Well we have a good relationship with the guy at Slam FM. We’re doing our monthly radio show, so what they do is call Dutch DJs. The program called, “DJ on the phone” and they talk about whats going on in Miami.
Yeah today they were asking about all the guys that ended up in the hospital saying “what are you guys doing?! come back!!”
You guys have a release coming out soon right?
Yeah, it’s called “Rock n Rave”. It’s going to be coming out on Ultra at the end of April. It’s pretty soon, so were playing it for sure at Ultra and then building a whole tour around it. We’re doing Australia for the first time. It’s called “The Rock n Rave Australia Tour.” For us that’s a new achievement. It’s a milestone to tour Australia.
Absolutely, that’s a whole new world.
I’m excited, have you ever been there?
Not yet, soon enough though!
Whats the difference between partying at home and partying here?
At home, if you mean Amsterdam or Holland, it’s really different. Even if you compare Amsterdam to Europe its really different. Holland is like a pretty close culture, music wise, especially in the EDM scene, because i think 50% o the EDM guys are from Holland. We’re pretty spoiled there so we have to try a bit harder if you’re playing there. You have like amazing line ups in small clubs.
If you get the crowd like, putting some hands in the air-
You’re doing a good job!
You’re doing a really good job. If they don’t leave the room you’ve done a really good job.
And here for us is new too, we’re doing our 3rd tour here, so were still excited about it. For you guys it’s a bit new too, the industry and the music. A lot of energy in the US. We like that!
Are you guys playing anywhere else besides Ultra while you’re here?
Yeah, tonight we’re playing Space. Never been there, I’ve heard some crazy stories.
Oh, you’re talking about energy then that’s the place to be.
And we just played Nikki Beach today with Tommy Trash and Bingo Players. Playing Mogwai tomorrow night, and a bunch of after parties. we’ll always be carrying our USBs around haha.
It’s pretty crazy that that’s what DJing has become, you come with a USB key and a pair of headphones and you’re good. What is the biggest difference in production and DJing and the process by which you’re able to do these things from now back to when y’all first started?
Well we first started with cd’s, so it’s that. It was quite a lot of work to get your stuff onto CDs every time if you had a new track.
“Oh i have a new track!” OK burn it on to one cd. Then you have one CD with the one track. Then of course you get scratches on it. Then we were used to playing with CDs and he came with a USB key, he was like one of the first I saw. I was like, “uhhhh maybe, it’s kind of weird to only have a USB. It feels uncomfortable but now I love it. It’s so easy. We don’t link anymore though! It’s better to have a USB in each slot.
So you can get as much memory out of them as you can?
Well that, but sometimes something goes wrong with the link or something like that and you don’t want it to mess up the whole thing.
You heard it straight from Sick Individuals’ mouths, don’t link your CDJS! They were great guys and a pleasure to speak to, I know I’ll be on the look out for Rock n Rave in the coming month!
Connect with Sick Individuals
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Original article: *Artist Interview* Sick Individuals
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