As you know we visited Southpark Festival in Middelburg on the 20th June. We got the opportunity to catch up with local heroes & fast rising stars Pep & Rash backstage! They had a Beatport no. 1 with ‘Rumors’ already and received loads of support from big artists so we were curious what their future plans were. Check it out!
Hi guys, thanks for giving us the opportunity to interview you!
That’s cool, you’re welcome!
Considering you were both born in this province, how does it feel to play at this local festival, Southpark festival?
Pep: For me it’s really special, I was born like 200 meters away from the festival terrain, it’s our home base.
Rash: Any set we play in Zeeland is really cool because it’s our home base like Pep says.
How nice, we can imagine what that feels like! Did you know the festival and did you ever visit it yourself?
Pep: Yeah of course! I’ve visited many times because it’s so close to my home.
Rash: I had definitely heard about the festival before but this is my first time visiting it, not just visiting it but playing at the festival. That’s cool.
Alright, since you guys signed at Spinnin’ Records things have been going really fast but of course there’s a background. When & how did Pep & Rash start?
Actually that was a coincidence. We’ve both been busy creating music for a long time. Pep had piano lessons & Rash was mainly producing music on his computer. Pep & Rash started like 4-5 years ago because we met at a party of a common friend, the singer Troy de Nari. We got along really well & starting working together from that moment.
Cool, so about your artist-names, Rashid = rash which makes sense but Pep’s real name is Jesse. Why did you pick Pep?
Pep: People have been calling me pep since the 6th grade in primary school, the reason for that is a funny story. In that year the drink Dr. Pepper got on the Dutch market & I liked it so I brought it to school all the time. In that period we were coming up with nicknames for everybody in school so they started calling me ‘Pepper/D pep’ and eventually that became just Pep.
Wow we didn’t expect that! Alright, so obviously it’s not for no reason that you guys decided to become a DJ/Producer. Which artists actually inspired you to start making music?
Rash: Of course guys that have been in the business for a long time now, for me Tiësto & Chocolate Puma were my inspiration.
Pep: Same for me guys that have been around for a long time but especially in the techno scene like Jeff Mills & Dave Clark.
Interesting, now let’s go back to the moment when you released Rumors & it became a Beatport No.1 really quickly and you guys received so much support. Could you describe what that was like?
It was really unreal, I mean it went so fast and you kind of get in a rush. We think you can only realize later what actually happened & how extremely special that was.
We can imagine that! So after Rumors became a huge hit you released Red Roses, which is also doing very well on the dancefloors. You got to tour quite a lot of countries already, could you name some highlights?
Well like 2 weeks ago we have been able to play at a really cool party in Milan, which was a nice experience. Obviously playing at the opening party of Privilege Ibiza was a huge highlight for us. That’s one of the biggest clubs there & it was absolutely an honor to play there. Lastly playing in Zeeland is basically always a highlight for us. We have played at the Arsenaal Theater in Vlissingen for students & the crowd was amazing!
Alright! So you’ve got Rumors & Red Roses, both solo tracks, so we assume you’ve been thinking about collabs. We know you’ve been at the writers camp of Spinnin’ Records recently. Who did you sit together with and were you able to finish a collab already?
That’s true! It was actually our second writers camp. At the first one we’ve sat together with Martin Solveig, Curbi, Sander van Doorn & Shermanology and at the second writers camp with Mightyfools, French producer Mercer, Lucas & Steve and again with Curbi. Some productions of the writers camp are almost finished but we can’t tell more about that. One thing we can say is that we have a finished collab with Sander van Doorn but the release of that hasn’t been planned yet.
Nice! So we can expect awesome collabs coming up! You’ve already said who inspired you to become a DJ/Producer but to look at the artists there are right now. With who would you love to make a collab?
There are so many great DJ’s & producers out there, but a collab with Hardwell would be cool because he’s the number 1 DJ in the world. Next to that David Guetta would also be awesome to make a track with. One of our dreams would be working together with the masterminds behind Tsunami: DVBBS!
Yes, we can imagine that would make interesting tracks. To take a little step into the future, at the 6th July voting opens for the DJ MAG top 100 again. Who do you think will be number 1 this year & how about your own chances?
Martin Garrix will be number 1! Well we think so because he’s doing really well. We don’t expect to be in the top 100 ourselves this year, but we are working really hard so who know what will happen next year.
We’ll see what will happen in October. To finish with something less far in the future, where will people be able to watch you play this summer? Which gigs are you most looking forward to?
Dancevalley! We will be opening the main stage, which is something we really look forward to! Abroad we will be playing at Parookaville, which is a huge festival. Next to that we have a festival in Helsinki, Finland which is also at a nice festival, we can’t wait for that either.
Alright guys! Thank you very much for this interview & good luck with your set today and everything you’re working on right now!
You’re welcome! Thanks!
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Reporter: Alexander Bouten