Last year, East & Young made their debut at Mysteryland on the main stage with Rondé and this year they’re back for more! They were hosting their own stage called ‘Circus Of Life’ on Saturday, and on Sunday they played the mainstage. You may know them from the 2 remixes they did for Galantis, or from the remix for Benny Benassi. It’s clear that this duo from the east-side of The Netherlands are here to stay. In addition to that, they did a collab with Galantis which became the title song of the Netflix movie XOXO. At the Saturday of Mysteryland we had the honor of catching up with Marc and Ivo, check out the interview below!
Hi guys, it’s a pleasure to meet you! What’s it like to be back at Mysteryland?
Marc: It’s awesome! Mysteryland is definitely a special festival for us. The programming is so broad. Often you see styles mixed on a stage, but here it’s truly separate.
We agree that Mysteryland has got a special vibe. You’re hosting the ‘Circus of Life’ stage today, so can you please explain in a couple of sentences what the concept is based on?
Ivo: Sure! ‘Circus of Life’ is all about returning to the roots of house music. As you can see from the decoration it’s less about the props like CO2 or LED-screens.
Marc: That’s right! It’s about delivering an experience, slowly building up from tech-house to deep-house. It has already been quite busy in the tent, so you can see that people appreciate the concept.
All right, thanks! We’ve already seen and personally felt the atmosphere and it’s a cool concept. Within a couple of hours, it’s going to be your turn to perform. How did you prepare for this set?
Marc: We’ve been preparing for this show for months. Of course it’s extra special because we’re hosting the stage.
Ivo: Yeah, we’ve made a lot of edits of our tracks and of course we always adapt to the crowd. We’ll be playing tech-house, deep-house and a little bit of hip-hop within one set.
It must be exciting to host your own area at Mysteryland, so we totally understand that the preparation took months! We read that you both had a classical music education specialized on keys. Does that reflect how you approach starting a new track?
Ivo: That’s a very difficult question, it would be easier to ask that to our fans I guess. But it’s true that the foundation of our tracks is usually a melody we played on our piano and then we build the rest of the track around that melody.
Okay, so you got to do a collab with Galantis which became the title track of the Netflix-movie ‘XOXO’, how did that come about?
Marc: Galantis became good friends of ours. We opened for them at Melkweg in Amsterdam during their album tour. Of course, we were involved in their Pharmacy album, but we never actually sat together in the studio since we both have busy schedules. Pete Tong who curated the music for ‘XOXO’ happened to hear a snippet of our collaboration and he loved it.
Wow, that must have been special to get the approval of Pete Tong! Let’s continue talking music for a bit. Can you guys reveal what is coming up in terms of releases/collaborations?
Ivo: We did a remix for Louis The Child and Icona Pop’s ‘Weekend’, and this one has a pretty cool video-clip. We will also be releasing a solo track on Armada soon!
Cool! Well, we can imagine that your life is pretty busy switching from studio to travelling and performing. How do you make sure you keep your pace and find time to relax every now and then?
Ivo: I really enjoy playing football and going for a walk to relax.
Marc: Mountain biking is what I love to do to relax.
Great, even though it’s not October yet, we’re sure you already got some ADE gigs confirmed. Could you guys reveal a few?
Marc: Yeah we’re playing at Mr. Belt & Wezol’s event, the Mixmash Recordings night and of course at the AMF presents Slam FM event. We’re really looking forward to that!
Brilliant, so it’s very likely we’ll see you around in October. We wish you the best of luck and a lot of fun with your gigs and further career. Thanks for this interview!
Marc & Ivo: No problem, thank you!
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© Festivalling.com
Interviewer: Alexander Bouten