INTERVIEW WITH FISHERMAN & HAWKINS

Fisherman & Hawkins (Isaac Vissers and Rob Koopmans) have already been in the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene for a number of years.

They received affirmation in the form of Markus Schulz immediately signing “Nightshift” to his imprint ‘Coldharbour Recordings’. The buzz surrounding this release was immense after Markus had aired it several times his radio show ‘Global DJ Broadcast’.

The demand for a follow-up was instant, as dust begun to settle from the previous release, this dynamic Dutch duo delivered their biggest track to date ‘Apache’. We speak with the Apache warriors and found out that not everything is smooth sailing in a DJs career and how they overcame them.

Trance Republic: Hi Guys, Thanks for taking time to do this interview for us. First of all, to those who aren’t familiar with your music, how would you describe ‘Fisherman & Hawkins’ and the music you make?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We are two guys from The Netherlands who love to set dancefloors on fire. Our sound can be described as pounding, big room and sometimes a little bit aggressive, but always with a catchy hook.

Trance Republic: You guys enjoyed a lot of success as a duo. But what did each of you do prior to that? And what made you two join forces to form ‘Fisherman & Hawkins’?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We both have DJ-ed for about 15 years already and are friends almost as long as that. After an unexpected super fun back to back set in the summer of 2011, we decided later that year to combine forces and to continue as a duo with DJing and also productions.

Trance Republic: Who were your individual musical inspirations, and what made you fall in love with Trance?

Isaac: I’ve always been a big fan of Trance since the late 90’s. But after I visited Qlimax in 2001 I was hooked for years on Hardstyle and later even Hardcore. It was Markus Schulz who brought me back to Trance in 2005 with his amazing laid back Miami sound. I still get goosebumps and sometimes even a tear when I hear tracks from that era.

Rob: I also started with playing Hardstyle, like almost everyone else in Holland back then haha. After that period my mind went all Techno but when I heard one of the Universal Religion albums by Armin van Buuren I was sold.

Trance Republic: You enjoyed a phenomenal amount of success with ‘Apache’, how difficult was it to follow up on that success? Do you feel you managed to achieve that?

Fisherman & Hawkins: After the success of Apache, which was kinda unexpected, it was super hard to come up with a worthy followup. We did a few other tracks, even in a slightly different sound, but obviously it was not really what the fans wanted and what we wanted either. It took us a while but we kinda fell back on track when we released Underworld. When we wrote the melody we knew we had found our flow back. And after that track we continued working on tracks in that same genre and we noticed the fans like it just as much as we do.

Trance Republic: You guys are both DJ’s and Producers. Which one do you enjoy doing more & which one is more challenging?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We are both true entertainers and love to go nuts on stage. So DJing for sure. Producing is something we like to do too, especially making catchy melodies or in other words sing a long without vocals 

Trance Republic: As DJs, you get to play in a variety of settings these days. From large festivals with tens of thousands of people, to large commercial clubs, which are famous all over the world as well as smaller underground clubs hidden away in various cities across the globe. Do you craft your sets according to the setting at which you’re playing? If so, how do you do that? And which setting do you prefer to play at?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We love a good club setting as in our opinion the connection with the crowd is way better there then at festivals. Our sets are not really that different if you compare festival sets to club sets. We always play that typical Fisherman & Hawkins sound, so pumping and aggressive. Another thing we really like to do are open-to-close sets, we just love the fact that we can build-up and tell a story and even throw in a pounding techno track for example. It also gives you more freedom to play a few tracks more of a specific sound if the crowd goes bananas at some point and you want to keep that good vibe.

Trance Republic: We see a whole flood of new trance music releases each week, and as a result we often hear the criticism that many of these releases have begun to sound very ‘generic’ in nature & even sound very similar to each other. How do you make sure your productions stand out? What advise would you give to new producers to avoid this pitfall?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We think it’s good to have your own sound. It’s something the fans can notice immediately when it’s being dropped somewhere. We always try to make the melody the most important part of the track as in the end people need to remember that when they go home and have it for hours in their mind 

Trance Republic: When working on productions, do both of you work on all parts of the track together or do either of you have a certain part of the track (Bassline, Percussion, Melody…etc) that you prefer to work on? How does the creative process flow between the two of you?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We always work out the melodies and all the right elements for the tracks. After that we sit down with a good friend of us who helps us building the complete arrangement. This is the moment where all the magic comes together and during this process we try out tons of things until it sounds perfect.

Trance Republic: Lets talk about the sound of ‘Fisherman & Hawkins’ now. You guys have been part of the ‘Coldharbour’ family for a while now. What does the ‘Coldharbour’ sound mean to you?

Fisherman & Hawkins: It’s the right sound for us. It’s powerful, in your face, dark, groovy, floating, catchy and always recognizable.

Trance Republic: In your opinion, what is the current direction of the ‘Coldharbour’ sound?

Fisherman & Hawkins: Obviously the Coldharbour sound as it is right now is different from the sound it had for let’s say 10 years ago. Back in the day, tracks like Ava Mea – In The End and Probspot – Blueberry were true pieces of art but they weren’t really tracks that rocked dancefloors. Maybe that wasn’t the label’s first intention but we can imagine as the complete dance scene changed it’s way to more rocking music so did Coldharbour. As a label you want people to dance on your music and have a good time. We love it’s current direction, it’s trance at its finest. And to be honest, Markus Schulz’ latest hit Destiny even took us back to 2005 again.

Trance Republic: Has label boss Markus Schulz had any influence on your sound?

Fisherman & Hawkins: He had. We always loved his mysterious and moody kinda vibes and we wanted to create things like that as well, so yeah 

Trance Republic: Finally, what does ‘Fisherman & Hawkins’ have in store for us in the future?

Fisherman & Hawkins: We just finished our new single which will be out in the open anytime soon now. We also did a new remix of a track that will make people go crazy when hearing it haha. And we’re also working on a vocal track which is starting to sound amazing already as well as a few monster collabs  And of course there are a lot of cool shows lined-up to be announced soon too so stay tuned guys and gals 

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