Written By Gene Convery

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Dutch duo, Sick Individuals (Jim & Ray), have been responsible for some of the biggest tracks in electronic music, having worked with big names such as Axwell, Dannic and Hardwell to name a few. They are regulars on Hardwell’s Revealed Radio, as well as Revealed line ups all over the world. The Sick Individuals could be one of the most consistent duos when it comes to Big Room and Electro House on the scene right now. I got to chat with the boys before they took the stage at Sydney’s iconic Marquee Nightclub for their first show in Australia in 5 years! 

 

Welcome back to Australia! How does it feel to finally be back? 

Jim- It feels great, the jetlag is heavy this time; we did not wake up until 3pm and we had a nice walk around. It feels so odd to be on the other side of the world, but it still feels a little like home. It’s odd coming this far, often we stop halfway like KL or India and it’s such a big culture shock. Then we go even further and it feels like home. Haha, like I said, it's odd.

Ray - There are a lot of similarities between here (Australia) and Holland, which is great for us. 

 

Your latest track “I’ll Be Here For You” is yet another release on Revealed Recordings. What keeps you going back to Revealed? 

Jim - Yeah it's very special, it’s the relationship we have built with Hardwell; we have worked with him a lot over the years and we know how each other work. We know what he likes, for example, the track we are working on now, we sent him a voice clip on whatsapp and he came back to us straight away that he loved it and gave us a few notes. 

Ray - Robert (Hardwell) also goes above and beyond for us. In the beginning, he was doing some mastering for us as he has such a high standard. Then he invited us into the studio to show us what he does and now we do a lot of it. More than that, he gets his whole team to help out. 

BTD - It seems like he has fostered an amazing culture at Revealed. 

Jim - Absolutely! He also lets us have all the control when it comes to the creative side of things with videos, animations etc...

BTD - That's something you don't get a lot of in this industry, it also seems like Rob is as busy as ever. 

Jim- Haha he has taken a step back, but he is still busy. He always has time for us, he was just texting us saying congrats on the new track!

 

If you could eternally be stuck in one year's music scene, which year would it be? 

Ray - Progressive, so what's that? Like 2015.

Jim - We went through an amazing year then with “I Am” and “Lost & Found”. The feel of those tracks was amazing and that year was so good to us. We want to make more progressive records but each time we do, we think it sounds so 2015. However, now we are tweaking them a little to bring them forward into 2019. 

Ray - So many artists seem to follow the latest trends, we try to stay away from doing that and instead chose to just add, say 10% or 20%, of the latest trends to our music and I think that’s why we are still going strong. 

What is one track that never gets old for you, no matter how many times you hear it? 

Jim - Gangster Paradise, for me that track never gets old. I love my hip-hop and RnB I could listen to it all day. I have such good memories to that song.

BTD - WOW, I was not expecting that! What about you Ray? 

Ray -  Oh man, I am not sure, 

BTD - What's something you could listen to 100 times a day? 

Jim - Like the Fugees “Ready or Not” hahaha.

Ray - It would not be EDM or Pop, it would be a classical song, “Ava Maria”. 

BTD- Wow, great choice!

Jim- Yeah he would be sitting there crying all day.

Ray - Haha not even, it just touches me every time I listen to it. 

 

What's on your personal Spotify playlist at the moment? 

Jim & Ray - Hahahaha...

(Both pull out their phones, open up Spotify and start scrolling)

Jim- I work out a lot and this is my biggest playlist. I have so many tracks from RnB, EDM and lots of classical music.

Ray - I just added the new Ariana Grande track haha! Some hardstyle from Wildstylez, Headhunterz and some EDX. I have a playlist called “Hot Flames” where I add all the hottest music and as I get over it I move it all to my “Cold Flames” playlist. 

BTD - You both have such a diverse taste in music!

 

You produce such a wide range of music, what can we expect from you in the future? 

Jim - We are working on a track right now that is very chill, it’s a follow up to “Misses”. We like writing a range of music; sometimes after touring, we don't want to do any more bangers, we want to chill a little bit. Not every track needs to be a banger and after doing a few Big House hits, we like to do something different. We like to express ourselves differently, and that’s exactly what this new track is coming out shortly. Over the last year or so we have covered off a lot of Spotify music and radio tracks. In the past, we have done music for TV commercials and for other DJs as a ghost production. Now we are doing a lot more writing sessions and we are not going to start a session starting with a kick or a bass drum drop. You start with a cool vocal, guitar or piano and go from there and who knows what you will come out with. That is the exciting part for us, we love to see where the track takes us. Some of the more pop-music one's kind of just happen. 

BTD - I love the fact that you are not afraid to step in and out of genres and not worrying about what seems to be “on trend” 

Ray - That's it, we don’t get caught up in what’s “Hot” right now. For example, there seems to be a lot of Psytrance and hardstyle coming into everyone's sets. That is just not us, it’s not our sound.   

 

If you could tailor the lineup for a festival, whom would you book?

Jim - Fray Festival line up and location hahaha, Daft Punk for sure

Ray - Pharrell Williams

Jim - Swedish House Mafia... but they have to play a new set.

Ray - They (SHM) can only come if they play all new music!

Jim - I love Coldplay, so I would love to see them come along. 

Ray - For the after-party, I would like Frank Sinatra to come along.

BTD - That is such a diverse range of artists! This just clearly speaks volumes about your musical taste. 

 

What is the craziest thing you have seen from behind the decks?

Ray - We were playing Tomorrowland Brazil and we were closing the stage, when everyone before us all got really drunk. So someone said “let's do a Back 2 Back 2 Back with Hardwell, Dannic, Kill The Buzz, Dyro” basically the whole Revealed crew. As all the Djs were dutch they started playing Dutch children songs/nursery rhymes and we started thinking “What is going on here...???”

Jim- It went WAY too far!! 

Ray - Someone started playing songs from Bert and Ernie hahaha

Jim - The crowd were really taken aback not knowing what was going on. We completely lost the crowd and they started to leave, it was a complete disaster!  

 

Ray - Let me tell you one more funny story! Once we went to South America and we were with Dimmi, Mike (Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike) and Hardwell. We were leaving the airport and after we grabbed our bags we had to go through those big glass, sliding doors to go to our pick up. 

Jim - When the doors opened we saw like 250-300 people all standing there quiet. All of a sudden, all the girls started screaming and they started running at us. They were actually there for Hardwell, but he was on the flight after us. However, most Hardwell fans know us so they rushed towards us. 

Ray - It was a real Justin Bibber moment, something we had never been through before!

Jim- They started grabbing at our clothes, I had my sunnies stolen, my hat ripped off my head, my clothes ripped. It was absolute chaos!! 

Ray - I had to hold onto my phone in my pocket and my bag, then security came and took us back inside. Then we got taken around another way. Like Jim said, total chaos!!!

 

The Sick Individuals are truly a unique act. They produce a hugely diverse range of music, so when you go to one of their shows, be prepared to be blown away!! They play with an unmatched level of energy and love for their crowd. I was fortunate enough to stick around after the interview to watch their new show, as I had not seen them since 2016.

Following this interview, I will be doing a full review of their set, the venue and the crowd, so watch our socials for that!!

 

Be sure to follow the Sick Individuals on their socials below.