DFTD, Toolroom and Snatch producers ANOTR (originating from the idyllic city of Amsterdam) have taken the reigns of our Select Cuts series by storm. This episode is inked with a revolution of heavy kicks and striking vocals, gracefully keeping the pace through out. The duo have made an impressive imprint on the scene to date, most notably with their sounds from their latest release on DFTD. They’re gaining some huge support from top artists globally and it’s easy to see why!
Hey guys! How are you? What have you been getting up to lately?
Hi guys, thanks for having us. We’re fine, thanks! We’re glad we got a great summer ahead of us with nice gigs and festivals in Europe and in the meantime we’re spending a lot of time making music and having fun in our studio.
On a scale of 1/10 how good do you feel your dance moves are?
Behind the deck we find it very comfortable dancing because no one can see our feet moving haha. But on the dancefloor we don’t really do a lot of crazy dance moves. We’d probably score a lousy 6. Luckily DJing is all about making others people dance so we don’t really mind J
Coming from such a strong musically influenced city, do you feel it has held a part of your inspiration & desire to make music?
Yes of course. As young kids we came in contact with dance music pretty early. Watching those big Dutch djs doing their thing in front of huge crowds did spark a love for dance music. However, the love for house and techno music came later on when we started visiting festivals that hosted House & Techno Djs from all over the world. At the age of 17 we started visiting those events more and more throughout the whole year. That’s what inspired us to start making & playing House/Techno.
You’ve confirmed a residency in Ibiza with ‘Tribal Sessions’ at Sankeys. Are you excited to be a part of such a thriving brand?
Naturally we’re really excited.. Last year we went to Ibiza for the first time to play a boat party. We knew straightaway we wanted to come back here very soon and so during our stay on Ibiza we set ourselves a goal to have a residency or at least a few gigs on Ibiza this year. At the time it almost sounded impossible because we had no releases and gigs whatsoever but as the year proceeded we were making lot of progress and were really motivated. Before we had our name changed to ANOTR, we had been making a lot of music in the studio without releasing any of it. After a couple of good releases and hard work, the first few international gigs started getting in. When we got the news from our agents and managers we had a residency at Tribal Sessions – Sankeys and some other cool events all over Europe, we were truly happy that we achieved one of our many goals for this year…
Your latest releases have all taken off, especially the ‘Mighty Kingdom’ EP. Kerri Chandler & Route 94 were both playing tracks from the EP at Groovefest this year! Were these surreal moments for you?
When we came to the festival we had no idea both Kerri Chandler and Route 94 were supporting our tracks. When they played it we were just having a good time on the dance floor. Suddenly looked at each other and both said, “hey is that our tune?” We ran to the dance floor to go crazy and experience it the way one should.
Speaking of releases you guys have a new one upcoming on the well-established ‘Avotre’. This is a huge footprint in the ANOTR name. How did the EP come about?
We made the tracks more or less in the same period. We were in contact with Santé since ADE when he played our track STROBE and he wanted to sign an EP of us. Of course we were more than happy to do so because AVOTRE has always been a great source of inspiration to us. We decided we wanted to make something a bit more warehouse sounding and when we send these to Santé he was really enthusiastic!
Quick question for all the tech nerds out there. When it comes to producing what is your favourite vst/hardware that you always rely on?
Some of the VST’s we use a lot are CLA76 for individual drum compression – CLA2 for vocal & synth compression – DMG Audio Compassion for parallel drum compression, Fabfilter Pro Q2 for EQ.
For our last question gentlemen, what’s the big next step for ANOTR?
Our summer agenda is looking really decent with gigs all over Europe so I guess the next big step is to play somewhere far far away. Southern America is a big goal for us!